Karyn Allee

I have been an educator for 30 years, and throughout that entire time I have striven to increase educational equity for marginalized students. I earned degrees in Elementary Education (BAE and MEd) with a concentration in Early Childhood Education from the University of Florida, Educational Leadership (EdS) from Stetson University, and a PhD in Education (Elementary) from the University of Central Florida. Throughout my career, I have taught primary grades and worked at the school and district level facilitating professional learning for teachers and administrators Title I schools in a large, urban district. I have also worked corporately to facilitate customized professional learning, support large-scale district implementations and school improvement efforts, to evaluate programs, and to develop early childhood age- and stage-appropriate curriculum at all levels of educational organizations. As an Assistant Professor of Education at Mercer University, I teach graduate students in the Tift College of Education. My teaching interests include curriculum and instruction, neuroscience-informed teaching, developmentally appropriate practice, social justice in education, elementary education methods, and authentic assessments to inform instruction. Currently, my research focuses on how poverty affects cognitive development, executive function/self-regulation as predictors of school readiness and achievement, and instructional strategies (including play and physical activity) to reduce academic achievement gaps. My audacious goal is to identify effective pedagogical approaches, informed by neuroscience, to mitigate the effects of poverty and close persistent, predictable achievement gaps so that all children can reach their full potential within a public school system empowered to support them.

January 2022