Dr. Julie Alexandrin is Associate Professor of Special Education in the College’s Professional Education Department. She comes to USM from Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, CT where she was Associate Professor in Special Education and Diversity Education and the Director of the Special Education Program. Alexandrin ’s doctorate is in Educational Psychology from the University of Connecticut. Her areas of research and expertise include hidden disabilities and mental illnesses.

Dr. Lori Schnieders has joined the faculty as Assistant Professor of Counselor Education in the College’s Human Resource Development Department. She earned her doctorate in Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education from the University of Louisville’s APA accredited program in 1999. Schnieders has been a special education teacher and school counselor with all grade levels—elementary, middle, and high school—and has been on the faculties of the University of Missouri-St Louis and Vanderbilt.

Dr. Robert Whitman is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the College’s Professional Education Department. Rob has a B.A. in History and Economics from Bowdoin College (1983), M.Ed. from Harvard (1989) and completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Language, Reading, and Culture at the University of Arizona. Whitman has been a classroom teacher from kindergarten to high school, has worked in community colleges and adult literacy settings, and has more recently been involved with indigenous peoples and language revitalization. He is interested particularly in the intersection of language, literacy, and culture.