ITLA Mission Circle

Circles: Leadership, Stewards

Aliki Nicolaides is Associate Professor of Adult Learning and Leadership at the University of Georgia. Dr. Nicolaides seeks to optimize vital developmental conditions for the evolution of self and society. Her research has led to the development of Generative Knowing: Ways of being and becoming. Specifically, her work suggests that under certain conditions and with intentional scaffolding, encounters with ambiguity and complexity can evoke deep learning and reveal hidden potential that generates response-ability.  Dr. Nicolaides is a founding steward and current Director of the International Transformative Learning Association.

Circles: Mission

Chad Hoggan is Professor of Adult and Lifelong Education at North Carolina State University. He serves as Co-editor of the Journal of Transformative Education, Co-editor of The Good Society: A Journal of Civic Studies, and Co-director of the Institute for Civic Studies and Learning for Democracy. Dr. Hoggan’s scholarship addresses learning and change during major life and societal transitions, as well as the civic learning necessary to support democracy. Recipient of the Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education, he has published four books and over 50 articles and book chapters.

https://ced.ncsu.edu/people/cdhoggan/

Circles: Stewards

Circles: Stewards

Circles: Mission

Dr. Eunice Nyamupangedengu aka Prof Nyamupa is an Associate Professor in Science Education at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. Her research focuses on practitioner research using the methodology of self-study. She advocates for the self-study methodology as a tool for reflective practice. Prof. Nyamupa believes that no one except us as teachers and as lecturers, are responsible and accountable for what happens in our classrooms and self-study as a research methodology has the potential to enable us to do what we can to achieve quality education in our classrooms. Prof. Nyamupa has received the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award and the Jack Mezirow Living Theory of Transformative Learning Award. She is currently the Director of the Marang Group for Research in Mathematics and Science Education and is involved in projects promoting teacher educators’ scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Additionally, she is a member of the ITLA Leadership Circle and The UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education for Diversity and Development.

https://www.wits.ac.za/marang

https://www.wits.ac.za/education/research-centres/unesco-chair-in-teacher-education-for-diversity--development/

Circles: Stewards, Mission

John Dirkx is Professor and Mildred B. Erickson Distinguished Chair (Emeritus) in Higher and Adult Education at Michigan State University. He received his doctorate from UW – Madison in 1987 with a focus on transformative learning. He is a former editor of the Journal of Transformative Education, and author of A Guide to Planning and Implementing Instruction for Adults, and numerous book chapters and journal articles on adult learning.

Circles: Stewards

Elizabeth J. Tisdell, EdD is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education (retired, June 2024) at Penn State University–Harrisburg.  She was the Professor-in-Charge of the Lifelong Learning and Adult Education program, the co-founding director of the Joint MD/M.Ed program, and developed the medical and health professions option in the M.Ed. program in Lifelong Learning and Adult Education. Her teaching responsibilities included graduate courses in Adult Learning (including transformative learning)  and its connection to medical and health professions education), spirituality and culture in health and education, and qualitative research methods. She also supervised graduate student research, including as chair of more than 50 doctoral dissertations, and several master’s projects.  She also worked as a part-time Chaplain at the Milton S, Hershey Medical Center since 2020, and continues to do so.

Circles: Stewards

Linden West is Professor at Canterbury Christ Church University.  His books include Distress in the city; Beyond Fragments; and, with Laura Formenti, Transforming Perspectives in Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, which won the Houle prize for outstanding literature. Linden was recently inducted into the Adult Education Hall of Fame.

Circles: Mission

Circles: Leadership

Renee´ Owen is Assistant Professor of Education at Southern Oregon University in Educational Leadership and Adult Education. Renee became fascinated with transformative learning while in the AEGIS program at Teachers College, Columbia University, and she is now Facilitator for the ITLA Leadership Circle. She co-edits of the Holistic Educational Review open access journal.

Circles: Stewards

Steve Schapiro is Professor Emeritus in Human and Organizational Development at Fielding Graduate University, where he helped to develop and lead a doctoral concentration on Transformative Learning for Social Justice. He currrently works with The Solfire Relational Institute on issues of racial and gender justice, intercultural awareness and “fierce dialogue across difference.” He lives in the mountains of New Mexico with his partner Placida Gallegos, and spends as much time as he can with his three grandchildren who live on the East coast.

https://www.solfirerelationalinstitute.org/steven.html

Circles: Stewards, Conference

Victoria J. Marsick is Professor of Adult Learning & Leadership at Columbia University, Teachers College. She holds a Ph.D. in Adult Education from the University of California, Berkeley. Victoria’s publications have reported on informal and incidental learning, team learning, and organizational learning (system dynamics, learning organization, and learning cultures).