School of Education Associate Professor Named STaR Fellow
Colorado Christian University Associate Professor of Education, Dr. Renee Lizcano, has been named a 2020 STaR Fellow by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE). The STaR Program — which stands for service, teaching, and research — is a national program that supports early career mathematics educators at institutions of higher education.
As a STaR Fellow, Dr. Lizcano will participate in a five-day summer institute in Park City, Utah, and will receive mentoring through an online network with other mathematics educators. In addition, Dr. Lizcano will attend the AMTE annual conference in Orlando, Florida, in February 2021.
Dr. Lizcano joined Colorado Christian University in the fall of 2018. She completed her undergraduate degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned her doctoral degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Education. At CCU, Dr. Lizcano has taught Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Teaching Mathematics in the Elementary Classroom 1 and 2. She is a faculty mentor for Unidos, a student group on campus, and is involved in research on the learning preferences of CCU Gen Z students.
Dr. Debora Scheffel, dean of the School of Education, wrote a letter of support for Dr. Lizcano's application to the STaR Program. Dr. Scheffel noted that, "Dr. Lizcano is the most recently hired faculty member in the School of Education and she is helping us continue to build our team to ensure excellence in our programs and implement innovative teaching practices."
The School of Education in the College of Undergraduate Studies is authorized by the Colorado Department of Higher Education and the Colorado Department of Education to offer Teacher Licensure Programs in the areas of: K-6 Elementary and Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education, K-12 Special Education, K-12 Music Education, and Secondary Education: 7-12 English Language Arts, Mathematics Science, or Social Studies. The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has ranked both the elementary and secondary education programs in CCU's School of Education as the top education programs in the State of Colorado, and in the 98th percentile of all education programs, nationwide.