We are thrilled to welcome three new faculty members to the College of Education this Fall. Dean Spagna and Associate Dean Beverly Cabello took them out for a welcome breakfast at the beginning of the semester, and they were also honored at the Chapters’ Luncheon on September 24th.
We are also glad to welcome Vanessa Villavicencio, our new Graduate Student Recruitment Coordinator.
Jessica ChenFeng
Educational Psychology & Counseling
Jessica is a native of Los Angeles - she was born and raised in Hacienda Heights. She is a second-generation Taiwanese American and speaks Taiwanese and a little Mandarin. She went to UCLA for undergrad, majoring in Design/Media Arts, and to Fuller Theological Seminary for her master’s in MFT. This June she finished her PhD at Loma Linda University and wrote her dissertation on the intergenerational relationships of Chinese American Christian families.
Clinically, Jessica has worked mostly with minority populations - teenagers in group homes, non-public schools and non-profit counseling centers. One of her deepest passions is teaching and living out social justice as an inherent part of marriage and family therapy work. She loves conversations about diversity and difference and supporting people towards greater wholeness. Her small private practice is in South Pasadena, serving the minority families in San Gabriel Valley.
Jessica got married last year to her husband Andre who is an urban educator in Koreatown and values the justice work he does with at-risk youth and families. They have a 5-year-old miniature schnauzer named Madeline and enjoy the delicious and reasonably priced Chinese food of Monterey Park, where they live.
Cathy Gaspard
Secondary Education
Welcome to Cat Gaspard, the Secondary Education Department’s newest member! Cat specializes in mathematics education—in particular, effective mentoring practices for student teachers. Cat earned her BS in mathematics from Colorado State University and her MA and PhD in mathematics education from UC Santa Barbara. She taught middle- and high-school mathematics for 14 years and comes to us from a position at Bard College in New York. In addition to teaching credential- and masters-level mathematics-education courses for the SED, Cat is serving, with Bonnie Ericson, as Co-Liaison to Northridge Academy High School.
Daniel Gough
Deaf Studies
Dr. Daniel Gough is the newest faculty member in the Deaf Studies Department. He is a Californian who hails from a Deaf family. He is a graduate of the prestigious California School for the Deaf at Fremont and received his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education with a focus on Physical Education from Gallaudet University in 2005. His Bachelor’s degree is also supplemented by his experience as an exchange student in Sweden. For his Master’s Degree, Dr. Gough studied at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas and received his degree in Deaf Education, Deaf Studies and American Sign Language. He continued with his studies at Lamar University, culminating with a Doctor of Education degree in Deaf Studies and Deaf Education in May 2014. Dr. Gough’s dissertation centered on exploring factors that help motivate Deaf students to learn English as their second language. His dissertation is tied with his passion, which is to teach students and to help them enrich their learning experience by gaining an understanding of how to work within the Deaf community to promote successful bilingual literacy skills. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Gough.
Vanessa Villavicencio
Graduate Student Recruitment Coordinator
My name is Vanessa Villavicencio, and I just recently joined the Michael D. Eisner College of Education as the new graduate student recruitment coordinator. I’m really excited to join the college and I can’t wait to start contributing to the recruitment of students to all the programs it offers. I hope to meet many of you in person as I settle in and learn more about the Michael D. Eisner College of Education.
I come to you with close to five years of experience in higher education. My most recent experience was as the admissions field representative at Pacific Oaks College. I served as the sole recruiter and recruited incoming students for various graduate and undergraduate programs, offsite cohorts and instructional sites. In addition, I represented Pacific Oaks at state and national conferences, graduate fairs, local organizations and special events to build relationships with various individuals in the fields of Education and Mental Health. Prior to Pacific Oaks College, I worked and attended another CSU campus, Humboldt State University. At HSU I worked in human resources and as a teaching assistant in sociology and statistics.
As the new graduate recruitment coordinator, I am fully devoted to supporting the vision and mission of the Michael D. Eisner College of Education. I believe that we can change the world we live in by giving children, teens and adults the education and support to be agents of transformation. This college has the highest commitment to fostering and educating future professionals who will serve our surrounding communities. In my role, I will be dedicated to recruiting a diverse and qualified student body that will utilize the tools they learn here to actively engage and serve their neighborhoods. Furthermore, I will be working to brand this college as the premier institution for Education in California through outreach in the community. With enthusiasm, I will carry out the mission to make the Michael D. Eisner College of Education shine!
As previously mentioned, I am very excited to meet everyone at the college. I can be reached at vanessa.villavicencio@csun.edu and at extension 7448. If you would like to drop by please visit me in office 3116. My door is always open and I am always happy to assist you all.