About Us | Educating with Evidence | SIU

Meet our dedicated staff who go the extra mile to ensure success in providing ...

Grant Miller, Project Director
gmiller@siu.edu

Grant Miller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and began directing the Educating with Evidence project in 2015. He received his Ph.D. from Boston College and holds a B.S.E. in Elementary and Middle School Education from Missouri Southern State University and an M.A. in history from Missouri State University. His teaching and research interests include media literacy, historical thinking, place-based education, assessment systems, and increasing curricula’s accessibility through Universal Design for Learning.

David Ardrey, Project Manager
dardrey@siu.edu

David Ardrey has served as the Director of School Partnerships and Outreach at Southern Illinois University and is currently the Executive Director of the Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools (AIRRS). He started his career as a special education teacher before he pursued his other passion for professional diving and aquatics. Over the years, he has coached diving at the collegiate and Olympic levels, including the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA. Since then, he has returned to education and most recently served as the Director of School Partnerships and Outreach for Southern Illinois University.

Scott Boatright, Webmaster and Research Assistant
scott.boatright@siu.edu

Scott Boatright is a cognitive psychologist and instructional designer. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in Learning Systems Design & Technology at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He has a B.S. in Psychology from Florida State University and a M.A. in Applied Experimental Psychology from the University of West Florida. Scott's research interests include high-speed decision making, deliberate practice, expertise, instructional design, interactive learning technologies, and virtual reality. Scott is currently the webmaster for Educating with Evidence and serves as an instructional developer for the Interactive Modules portion of the site. 

Jie Shi Liew, Project Team Member
jessicaliewjieshi@siu.edu

Jie-Shi Liew is a Ph.D. student in Curriculum and Instruction (Mathematics Education) at Southern Illinois University. She has a Master’s degree in Geographic Information Systems and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Southern Illinois University. Her research interests include mathematics teacher educator, open-ended instructional approach, conceptual and procedural understanding of mathematics, and student learning behaviors. She has served as curriculum developer for the primary source assessments portion of the Educating with Evidence website. As a research assistant, she uses open educational resources such as H5P to re-imagine historical storytelling through interactive content in digital lessons. 

Samaneh Jafari, Project Team Member Alumni
sjafari@siu.edu

Samaneh Jafari holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction (Language, Literacy and Culture) from Southern Illinois University. She has a Master's degree in English teaching from Tabriz University and a Bachelor's degree in English translation from Zanjan University. Her research interests include media literacy, curriculum studies, educational technology, language learning strategies and English as a second language. Samaneh has served as curriculum developer for the primary source assessments portion of the Educating with Evidence website and as a research assistant for a project to examine history teachers' uses of assessment systems to inform their instruction.

Salvador O. Gonzalez, Webmaster and Research Assistant Alumni
salvador24@siu.edu

Salvador O. Gonzalez holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction (Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment) from Southern Illinois University. He has a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and a Bachelor's degree in TESOL from Martin Lutero University. His research interests include, curriculum studies, educational technology, language learning strategies and English as a second language. He has served as the webmaster for the Educating with Evidence site, curriculum developer for the primary source assessments project, and research assistant to examine assessment systems in history classrooms.

Jean Kaya, Project Team Member Alumni
jeankaya@siu.edu

Jean Kaya holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Jean received an MA in Modern Foreign Languages and Civilization of the Anglophone world from Marien Ngouabi University in Congo and an MA in TESOL from Southern Illinois University. His research interests include teacher education, assessment, and teachers’ implementation of educational innovations. Jean taught English as Foreign language for six years. He has served as curriculum developer for the Educating with Evidence primary source assessments project and as a research assistant examining teachers' implementation of literacy assessments in their classrooms.

Kayeleigh Sharp, Project Team Member
sharpka@siu.edu

Dr. Kayeleigh Sharp is an Instructional Development Specialist in the Center for Teaching Excellence and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University.  She received her Ph.D. from SIU, Carbondale. She is the director of the PIAZ archaeology project in the mid-Zaña Valley, Peru. Her research interests include prehistoric, historic and public archaeology in Peru and the Midwestern US. She has served as a curriculum developer for Educating with Evidence place-based education modules and developed online GIS and 3D-scanned artifact components that facilitate exploration, inquiry and engagement with archaeological topics

In the spring of 2019, students in Dr. Jennifer Smith’s bilingual class, SPAN307B, created the inaugural set of primary source assessments in Spanish for our website. Examples can be found at our Educating with Evidence en Español page.