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Meet our new School of Education faculty

At the CU Â鶹ӰԺ School of Education, we are excited to welcome and announce new faculty members who bring a variety of experiences and enhance our community of educators and learners. Meet them below, and please join us in welcoming them to our school and community.

Bethy Leonardi
Bethy Leonardi is an assistant professor in educational foundations, policy and practice. Since receiving her doctorate from CU Â鶹ӰԺ, she has been an assistant research professor in the School of Education and co-director of , an initiative that supports educators making gender, family and sexual diversity part of their schools. She works to meet students where they are and to create communities that are safe to navigate learning in both tender and rigorous ways.

What do you love about the CU Â鶹ӰԺ School of Education?

  • Building community is probably the most important aspect of who I am. It's what I crave both inside and outside of work. There's a spirit of community here and a stamina to do better—even when it's difficult or painful. There's heartfelt recognition that this work is as much about our humanity as it is about scholarship. That's the kind of community I want to be in.

What do you like to do on a day off?

  • A perfect day off for me looks like getting up early, heading out for a hike with my family, fiddling around in the yard, grilling something delicious, and ending the day with friends and a home-cooked meal.

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • Hm... I have some pretty incredible dance moves?

Rebecca Linares
Rebecca Linares joins us as an assistant professor in equity, bilingualism and biliteracy after earning her doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests have taken her from intercultural classrooms in Peru, where she worked with Quechua-speaking students learning Spanish as a second language, to urban classrooms in Kentucky where she worked with Indigenous Guatemalan students learning English as a third language. Linares examines the realities and challenges of second- and third-language learning, particularly across cultural, linguistic, socio-economic and national borders.

Why did you choose the CU Â鶹ӰԺ School of Education?

  • I chose CU Â鶹ӰԺ because I was interested in being part of a school of education that foregrounds social justice and equity as essential components of the educational mission. I am excited to work with faculty, staff, and students with an expressed commitment to thinking about language and literacy through a lens of equity, accessibility, and inclusivity for all students. Being part of a community that values and prioritizes community partnerships is also exciting to me, because I am someone whose research and teaching has always been grounded in addressing needs expressed by my community.

What do you like to do on a day off?

  • When the weather is nice—which I hear is often in Â鶹ӰԺ—I really love being outside. I especially enjoy swimming, biking, hiking, and kayaking. I’m also an amateur crafter so you can often find me working on a knitting, embroidery, or rug-hooking project.

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • I’m a lifetime member of Girl Scouts USA; I earned my Gold Award, which is the highest award a Girl Scout can earn.

Sara Staley
Sara Staley is an assistant professor in teacher learning, research and practice. Since receiving her doctorate from CU Â鶹ӰԺ, she has been an assistant research professor in the School of Education. She is also co-director of , which partners with districts and school communities across Colorado to improve the physical safety, social-emotional health, and life and learning opportunities of LGBTQ+ students, families and staff. Her research explores how teachers learn and enact anti-oppressive and queer-inclusive practices.

What do you love about the CU Â鶹ӰԺ School of Education?

  • Hands down because of the people I get to call my colleagues. There are some amazing hearts and minds in this community, and I have so much respect for the individual and collective work that faculty and staff are doing toward justice.

What do you like to do on a day off?

  • Getting outside, spending time with Bethy and Meaux (my partner and our 18-month old), literally watching our garden grow, and eating delicious food with friends.

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • I love music and have always had a knack for putting together pretty decent playlists. If you met me in my twenties, I probably made you a mix cd (remember those?) that would still hold up today. In another life, I might have been a music writer.

Tiera Chantè Tanksley
Tiera Chantè Tanksleynow joins us as an assistant professor of educational foundations, policy and practice. We announced Tanksley's hire last year, and we are incredibly pleased she is officially joining us this semester after completing a postdoctoral appointment at the University of California, Irvine. Her research examines the intersectional effects of race, gender, class and age on the experiences of black girls in media, technology and education.

Why did you choose the CU Â鶹ӰԺ School of Education?

  • Navigating academia as a woman of color from a working-class background is no easy feat. I have become accustomed to existing within a complicated matrix of silence, oppression and hyper-(in)visibility. [When I visited], I felt warmly welcomed and humanized by nearly every person I encountered. . . . I felt as if I had entered a critical counterspace.

What do you like to do on a day off? 

  • I am an avid thrift shopper. I visit community-oriented thrift shops almost every weekend and make a habit of donating goods to these non-profit organizations every-time I go. I am also a lover of antiques, and enjoy decorating my house with vintage furniture and trinkets whenever I can. 

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • I am a profound lover of animals! In addition to having 2 cats and a dachshund, I recently saved a baby hummingbird that fell out of its nest. The baby bird recovered from the fall in time, and eventually learned to fly. Since the day it flew away, it has made several stops by the house to say a quick hello. I still can’t believe it comes back to visit.

Stephanie Toliver
Stephanie Renee Toliver joins us as an assistant professor in literacy studies after earning her doctorate at the University of Georgia. She is in the 2020–22 cohort of the National Council for Teachers of English Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color program. Her research centralizes representations of and responses to people of color in speculative fiction texts. She discusses the implications of erasing Black youth from futuristic and imaginative contexts, and engages teachers in conversations that center Black joy and Black dreams. 

Why did you choose the CU Â鶹ӰԺ School of Education?

  • During my job search, I was looking for a place that was doing good work and willing to continue that work in an effort to disrupt oppression-based schooling practices and uplift anti-racist stances toward teacher education. After talking to the faculty and students at CU Â鶹ӰԺ, I knew this was that place. I knew there were folx in the school of education who were committed to growth and change.

What do you like to do on a day off?

  • I love anime and speculative fiction, so on my days off, I binge anime shows, read YA speculative fiction books, or watch science fiction or fantasy movies.

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • I love to sing! I also keep a list of speculative fiction texts featuring Black women and girl protagonists on . I’ve been keeping it for about 3 years now, and it’s a passion project of mine. 

Meet the faculty, staff, students and friends who make the School of Education what it is today at colorado.edu/education/people.