Bridging the Divide Boot Camp

Meredith King (she/her) has spent her professional career studying the intersections of community, technology, and education. She has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA from Bowling Green State University in Popular Culture. She is currently the assistant director of the Center for Teaching Innovation at the University of New Orleans. On the side, she teaches online classes in Cultural Studies for the English Department at Nicholls State University. 

Dr. Jeremy Bell has been working in public education for 20 years. He received his Bachelor of Social Studies and Masters of Curriculum & Instruction with a cognate in Special Education from Louisiana Tech University. He worked for 16 years as a Special Education teacher and Educational Diagnostician in Webster Parish Schools. He then completed his Doctor of Education degree from Louisiana State University, Shreveport in 2020. He has taught in all grade levels and has worked in leadership capacities in multiple schools. He is now an Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction and Special Education Program Coordinator at the University of Louisiana Monroe. He has interests in all things special education including educational diagnosis, learning disabilities, educational technology, assistive technology, and gifted education. 

Dr. Taniecea A. Mallery serves as the Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In this role, she is responsible for fostering diversity, equity and inclusion among students, faculty and staff, as well as ensuring that underrepresented groups have equal access to educational opportunities and resources. She is a member of the graduate faculty, teaching doctoral-level courses in the College of Education.

Prior to joining UL Lafayette, Dr. Mallery worked as a senior diversity research specialist at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, D.C., and she completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the U.S. Census Bureau. Her recent publications include national policy reports on diversity in the U.S. physician workforce, studies on the influence of medical school curriculum on where physicians choose to practice, and research on the impact of social influence on faculty advancement, promotion and tenure.

Dr. Mallery earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Loyola University New Orleans, as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in applied and computational mathematics from Princeton University. In 2016-2017, she completed the Chief Diversity Officer Fellows Program sponsored by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. She is a member of the 2018 class of the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

In the local community, Dr. Mallery serves as Incoming Chair of the Board of Directors for Leadership Institute of Acadiana and Vice President of Fund Development on the Board of Directors for Lafayette Education Foundation. She also serves on the Boards of Directors for the United Way of Acadiana, the Louisiana Budget Project, and the Ernest J. Gaines Center at UL Lafayette.

Melissa Warr is an Assistant Professor of Educational and Instructional Technology at University of Louisiana Monroe. Her research blends teacher education, design, creativity, and technology. She is currently exploring design perspectives in teaching and teacher education, including how teachers develop multimodal literacies through digital technologies. She also explores creative design approaches to helping teachers address problems of practice, including applying creative tools to support teachers in making sense of their practice. She is a violinist and regularly performs with religious and community groups. Her scholarship is available at http://melissa-warr.com. 

Will Rogers completed his Ph.D. in English at Cornell University in 2014 and is the Tommy and Mary Barham Endowed Professor of English at University of Louisiana Monroe. Rogers is the author of Writing Old Age and Impairments in Late Medieval England, published in 2021 by Arc Humanities Press and is currently working on the intersections between trauma and narrative in the Canterbury Tales, a project supported by the Louisiana Board of Regents. He currently teaches both medieval and early modern literatures, but offers courses in trauma theory and LGBTQ+ literature. His teaching at ULM has focused on the use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and how Universal Design can address issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the undergraduate and graduate classroom. 

Dr. Elizabeth Robertson Hornsby is an Assistant Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. She teaches classes in communication studies and media studies with a focus on cultural competency, digital literacy, strategic communication and media management and has over a decade of experience in online learning. Her research interests include exploring intersections of communication, culture, media and technology from a critical perspective. Elizabeth has presented nationally at the National Communication Association Annual Convention, The Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, the National Popular Culture Association Conference and the Broadcast Education Association’s Annual Conference, regionally at the Popular Culture Association of the South Conference and Southern States Communication Association Conference, and locally at the University of Louisiana System’s Conference. Elizabeth has authored a chapter in Celebrity Media Effects: The Persuasive Power of the Stars as well as the first chapter in the edited collection Fandom, Now in Color: A Collection of Voices. She has also published in journals including Communication, Culture, and Critique, The Journal of Audio and Radio Media, and Communication Booknotes Quarterly. Elizabeth served for two years as the Quality Matters coordinator for The Office of Online Learning at Southeastern where she helped develop course certification criteria and processes for ensuring quality online course design. She also serves as Southeastern’s General Education Coordinator as well as chairs the inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council. Elizabeth serves on the University of Louisiana System’s Digital Equity and Inclusion Taskforce and chaired the Digital and Technological Literacy Subgroup.