Project Team
Humana-Germany-Sherman Distinguished Professor
Program Coordinator of Social Sciences EducationAuburn University
Program Coordinator of Social Sciences EducationAuburn University
Dr. Jada Kohlmeier is a national leader in a professional development model that blends the expertise of classroom teachers with content and pedagogy researchers. She is the Director of the Persistent Issues in History Network, a professional network of hundreds of social studies teachers hosting fifty wise practice cases of inquiry-based lessons. She has co-directed an annual Lesson Study project at Auburn Junior High for eighteen years. Dr. Kohlmeier co-directed a Teaching American History Grant with Dr. John Saye from 2010-2013 working with 30 teachers, and recently piloted a two-year LS project with two US Government teachers adding the component of video-case reflection to increase responsive teaching. Her research focuses on professional development and students’ civic reasoning in history and social studies. She has authored numerous publications and made frequent presentations at national conferences related to social studies and history instruction. During her 10-year tenure as a high school history teacher, Kohlmeier was a James Madison Fellow as well as a finalist for Kansas Teacher of the Year in 2002. She was awarded a Milken Family Foundation Excellence in Teaching Award in 2001 and twice has been named an AU Outstanding Professor. In 2021, Dr. Kohlmeier was named the Humana-Germany-Sherman Distinguished Professor for the College of Education.
Professor and Morris Savage Endowed Chair in Political Science
Director, Law and Justice Major
Auburn University
Director, Law and Justice Major
Auburn University
Dr. Steven Brown is a Professor of Political Science and the Morris Savage Endowed Chair at Auburn University and director of the College of Liberal Art’s Law and Justice program. Dr. Brown will serve as the Executive Political Scientist for the C.L.E.A.R. Thinking project. He received his Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia and has taught at Auburn since 1998. Dr. Brown’s research focuses on First Amendment issues and American Legal History. In 2005, his book Trumping Religion: The New Christian Right, The Free Speech Clause, and the Courts received the National Communication Association’s Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression. His John McKinley and the Antebellum Supreme Court: Circuit Riding in the Old Southwest (2012) has been cited as a model for researching the lives of antebellum U.S. Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court Historical Society awarded him its 2017 Hughes-Gossett Senior Prize for his article on the Girard Will. In May 2023, the Supreme Court Historical Society appointed him as an inaugural member of its new U.S. Supreme Court Civics Education Committee to serve from 2023-2026. Dr. Brown was awarded the Gerald and Emily Leischuck Endowed Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2023, Auburn University’s highest teaching award.
Lesson Study Team Leaders
Cory Callahan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Secondary Social Studies Education
University of Alabama College of Education
Dr. Callahan taught secondary students for 14 years, practicing the craft of social studies instruction the way he promoted it in presentations, workshops, and scholarly writing. He earned his Ph.D. from Auburn University and became a teacher educator to advance a research program that includes educative curriculum materials, problem-based historical inquiry, aesthetic texts, and international education. Dr. Callahan has authored or co-authored more than 30 journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and books, including Teaching for Student Learning and Those Who Can Teach. He has encouraged a more dynamic relationship between research and practice through opportunities afforded him by a National Technology Leadership Initiative Fellows Award, a Jacobs Educator Award, a Gilder Lehrman Alabama History Teacher of the Year Award, and a Literati Award from Emerald Publishing. Dr. Callahan is also a Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Fellow, a Fulbright Specialist, and will soon complete a Fulbright US Scholar award with the University of Prishtina in Kosovo.
Chad Cunningham, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Secondary Social Studies Education
Auburn University
Dr. Cunningham bridges the gap between secondary and post-secondary education. Dr. Cunningham teaches social studies and mathematics at Opelika Middle School and is the lead teacher for their after-school remediation programs, summer school, mentor teacher, and department head. He has taught middle school courses for over 10 years, including Auburn Classical Academy, Loachapoka Junior High, and Opelika Middle School. Dr. Cunningham also teaches courses in Auburn’s secondary social sciences education program including classroom management, an undergraduate practicum, and graduate courses in political economy, history, and geography. He teaches a Constitutional Issues course for the political science department in the summer. Dr. Cunningham’s research in his social studies classroom has focused on how the curriculum can support students’ sense of belonging to their local communities-including community mapping and community history projects. He has also led initiatives integrating robust reading and writing activities within history courses.
Caitlin Halperin, M.Ed.
National Board Certified Teacher
Auburn High School
Ms. Halperin teaches AP US History and US History 11 at Auburn High School and has been teaching in Auburn City Schools since 2015. Ms. Halperin’s deep love for history and the inventive ways she uses to communicate that history to her students create a classroom full of discussions, debates, investigations, and real-world dilemmas. Ms. Halperin engages her students in public history through their research and preservation of the history of Baptist Hill Cemetery, a historic Black cemetery in Auburn. As a 2023 Teacher Fellow for the David Mathews Center for Civic Life, she prepares her students to become civic-minded participants in America’s twenty-first century democracy. Ms. Halperin was nominated Gilder Lehrman’s 2022 Alabama History Teacher of the Year and she is a James Madison Fellow for the state of Alabama.
Robert “Colby” Jones, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education
LaGrange College
In addition to his current teaching responsibilities, Dr. Jones supervises MEd students’ action research projects in which they work together to develop and implement novel solutions to problems in their classrooms. He also supports MAT student-teachers during internship experiences with in-person and video observations accompanied by reflections. Additionally, he teaches undergraduate and graduate students the process and skills needed to engage in authentic and research-based Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Prior to his appointment at LaGrange College, he served as a graduate assistant and lesson study team leader for the Teaching American History grant, Plowing Freedom’s Ground (PFG), at Auburn University.
Terrance Lewis, M.Ed.
Ph.D. Candidate
Auburn University
Mr. Lewis taught U.S. Government, geography, and Georgia Studies for four years at the high school and middle school levels in Columbus, GA. During his time as a classroom teacher, a few roles in which he served included student council sponsor, robotics coach, and wrestling coach. He is currently a PhD candidate at Auburn University, where he serves as a University Provost and Research Fellow. Mr. Lewis has given presentations at local, state, and national conferences regarding best practices when teaching controversy within the social studies. His research interests include the pedagogical practices of Black men teachers and teacher-coaches, teaching with documentary film, and Black History Education. Mr. Lewis led one of the Lesson Study teams in the Citizens Fighting for Civil Rights project and worked with one participant who agreed to film their implementation of their lesson and conduct responsive teaching video reflection. Mr. Lewis contributed to the research presentation at the American Educational Research Association meeting in 2023.
Nicholas Phillips, Ph.D.
International Baccalaureate Teacher
Alpharetta High School
Dr. Phillips is teaching US History, IB Global Politics, and IB Theory of Knowledge at Alpharetta High School in Alpharetta, Ga. Dr. Phillips has eight years of high school teaching experience in suburban Atlanta and completed his doctoral degree at Auburn University in social studies education. His dissertation told the story of four U.S. Civics and Government teachers teaching politics during the fall 2020 presidential election cycle. He supervised interns and taught undergraduate social studies education methods courses, additionally Dr. Phillips has presented lessons on the Gomillion v Lightfoot case and gerrymandering at the Alabama, Georgia, and National Council for the Social Studies Conferences. Dr. Phillips led one of the Lesson Study teams in the Citizens Fighting for Civil Rights project.
Madison Reese, M.Ed.
Teacher
Auburn High School
Ms. Reese teaches US History 11 and US Government at Auburn High School. Since beginning her teaching career in 2020, she has sought to engage students in civic issues and critical thinking. She recently completed her master’s in social science education at Auburn University where she focused on political and legal history as a part of the James Madison Fellowship. One initiative that she is passionate about is her approach to senior government classes. Each 9 weeks, students do a deep dive into the provisions of the Bill of Rights and landmark cases by creating podcasts that explore the balance between government power and individual liberty. Madison hopes to continue to learn strategies that will help her students grow into confident, caring participants in our government.
Matthew Summerlin, M.Ed.
Ph.D. Candidate
Auburn University
Mr. Summerlin's current responsibilities include supervision of intern teachers for Auburn University in the community schools. Formerly a 10th grade Social Studies teacher at Auburn High School, Mr. Summerlin has taught United States History and AP European History. As a classroom teacher, he was a member of a team that developed strategies to better help English Language Learners in a general education pathway. His masters research focused on Culturally Responsive Teaching for ELLs in a social studies context. He was the 2020 James Madison Fellow for the state of Alabama.
Jesús Tirado, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Social Sciences Education
Auburn University
Dr. Tirado taught high school for 9 years, including 3 years at a diverse arts high school. He is the Associate Director of the Persistent Issues in History Network, conducting professional development in numerous settings focused on civic reasoning and using local history to develop critical analysis of history narratives. Throughout his teaching tenure at Auburn, he has led the 9th Grade World History faculty at Auburn Junior High School in Lesson Study, where they have transformed the midterm assessment to authentic assessment, their lessons on World War II, and Latin American Revolutions. He also has experience with integrating constitutional issues into the history curriculum as part of the Yale New Haven Teacher’s Institute where he developed a unit on the legacy of the 14th Amendment under the direction of Professor James Foreman, Jr. Dr. Tirado’s research focuses on the relationship between curriculum and belonging in a multicultural society and how immigration status also plays a role in our classrooms and other learning spaces. His research has appeared in the Journal for Social Studies Research and many books about social studies and for teachers.
Last Updated: 02/26/2024
