Kim K. Winter is Dean and Professor in the College of Education and Allied Professions at Western Carolina University. Winter earned tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor at two universities, Georgia Southern and the University of Texas at Arlington, and was promoted to full professor in the School of Teaching and Learning at WCU in 2015. Winter’s research expertise includes the induction and retention of novice teachers, preservice teacher candidate analysis and reflection on teaching, performance-based assessment in teacher education, accreditation, and middle grades teacher preparation. Winter has remained an active scholar with sixteen publications and external grant funds totaling almost 1.9 million since 2005. Winter’s teaching expertise includes middle level curriculum and instruction, language arts and literacy methods, young adolescent development, English Learner (EL) methods, and young adult literature. Winter has served on the international Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) program review boards well as the Professional Preparation Advisory Committee (PPAC) and the language arts advisory council for the Texas College and Career Readiness Standards. In 2012, she was selected as one of 115 women leaders from across the state of Texas to participate in the longest-running women’s leadership development program in the US, Leadership Texas, and in 2015, Winter was accepted into BRIDGES, a women’s leadership development group in North Carolina. She holds a baccalaureate degree in applied learning and development from The University of Texas at Austin and a master’s and doctorate in curriculum with a specialization in English from Indiana State University.
Holly Henderson Pinter is an assistant professor of elementary and middle grades mathematics education. Dr. Pinter’s teaching and research center on the implementation of standards based mathematical teaching practices, pre-service teacher education policy and practice, and developmentally responsive teaching at the middle level. Dr. Pinter teaches methods and pedagogy courses in the elementary and middle grades department as well as serving as the Math 1 teacher of record and instructional liaison at the university’s laboratory school, The Catamount School.
Myra Keener Watson is an Instructor at Western Carolina University in the Birth-Kindergarten Program. She also serves as the Associate Director of the School of Teaching and Learning, Regional Director for the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program, and chair of the edTPA Commission. Prior to her work in higher education, Watson spent several years in the P-12 system teaching pre-k and kindergarten. Watson is currently a doctoral student in an Educational Leadership program.