Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Digital Learning

Tazin Daniels

Assistant Director, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan

Tazin Daniels is an educational developer, consultant, and coach with over 15 years of experience in higher education and over a decade of experience preparing instructors to teach online. Her background in Medical Anthropology gives her a unique perspective on how to create equitable and engaging online spaces in the midst of a global pandemic. She has helped graduate students, faculty, and administrators improve their curriculum across STEM, Health Sciences, Social Science, and the Humanities. Currently, she is an assistant director at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan, and runs ThePedagologist.com, a platform to connect with educators and educational developers committed to improving online education everywhere.

Blaine Smith

Associate Professor of New Literacies and Bi/Multilingual Immigrant Learners, The University of Arizona

Blaine Smith’s teaching and research focuses on the digital literacies of culturally and linguistically diverse youth across contexts. A main goal of her work is to understand the ways in which technology can foster literacy and content learning as well as an empowering means of expression for students. Her work also focuses on developing scaffolded instructional strategies for supporting teachers’ integration of technology in the classroom.

Jessica Rowland Williams

Director, Every Learner Everywhere, WCET Staff 2019 - 2023

jrwilliams@wiche.edu

LinkedIn Profile

Jessica was the director of Every Learner Everywhere, a network of organizations with a mission to help institutions use new technology to innovate teaching and learning and better serve Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students, poverty-affected students, and first-generation students. As director, she provided leadership and vision for the network and lead the operation of the network strategy.

Prior to this role, Jessica served as the completion grant initiative project director for University Innovation Alliance. She also worked as project director in Georgia State University’s Office of the Senior Vice President of Student Success. During her time at Princeton University, Jessica served four years as a diversity fellow in the Office of Academic Affairs and Diversity and was honored with the Patrice Y. Johnson *80 Memorial Service Award by the Association of Black Princeton Alumni in recognition of her high levels of performance and service to the university. Jessica has devoted her career to helping institutions better serve marginalized students.

Jessica earned her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and earned both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. She is also a mother of four children. As her spare time allows, Jessica enjoys traveling and escaping into the world of literature. Currently, her favorite literary character is Janie Crawford, from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.