Erica Buchanan-Rivera

We are very pleased to welcome Erica Buchanan-Rivera to our Educational Leadership program in the Department of Leadership, Language, & Curriculum. Buchanan-Rivera is an experienced educator and leader who has served as a teacher, award-winning principal, director of curriculum, chief equity and inclusion officer, and educational consultant in both urban and suburban school districts. She brings her extensive K-12 leadership experience to her teaching and research, which uses quantitative methods to examine inclusivity in classrooms.

A passionate advocate for educational justice, Buchanan-Rivera focuses on creating identity-affirming environments where students can thrive as their authentic selves. Her work and research center on racial equity in schools, humanizing leadership, culturally responsive practices, and the intersection of Reggio Emilia philosophy and antiracist education. Buchanan-Rivera holds a PhD in Educational Leadership from Indiana State University, an MA in Educational Leadership and a BA in Elementary Education from Butler University, and school administration and superintendent licensure in Illinois and Indiana.

Sarah DeAngelo

We are also excited to have Sarah DeAngelo join our Special Education program working with our Lake County Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) Cohort. DeAngelo is a clinical faculty member in Special Education whose career began as a special educator supporting students with significant and multiple disabilities in early childhood and secondary settings. They earned their PhD in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago and bring both professional and lived experience to their work as a teacher educator and disabled self-advocate.

Guided by the disability rights principle, “Nothing about us without us,” DeAngelo’s teaching, service, and scholarship are grounded in critical disability studies, DisCrit (Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory), and the neurodiversity paradigm. Their work focuses on preparing future special educators to support students with disabilities, challenge systemic inequities, and promote educational practices that center students’ rights, dignity, and inclusion.

DeAngelo holds a PhD in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Master of Arts in Teaching in Special Education from Morningside University, and a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education from Iowa State University.

Kristin Whyte

We are also very pleased to welcome Kristin Whyte. Whyte is an assistant professor in the Teacher Education program whose work focuses on early childhood education, teacher preparation, and educational equity. She earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University, where she contributed to the Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education (DREME) PreK-3 Alignment (COHERE) project.

Drawing on her experience as a childcare, elementary, and prekindergarten teacher, Whyte's teaching and research examine home-school relationships, policy implementation, equitable educational practices, and early mathematics teaching and learning. She is committed to creating humanizing, joyful, and intellectually engaging learning environments for young children.

Whyte holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MS in Curriculum and Instruction with an Early Childhood emphasis from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a BS in Early Childhood Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research interests include early childhood education, teacher education, educational equity, home-school relationships, policy implementation, play, early mathematics learning, and qualitative research methods.