Faculty Additions

In the last two years, two faculty members came to the Warner School with rich and eclectic backgrounds. Their subject expertise will be invaluable to students in the teaching and curriculum and counseling and human development programs. We are pleased to welcome Kathryn Douthit and April Luehmann!

Kathryn Douthit, assistant professor, counseling and human development
Douthit joined the Warner School faculty in 2001 after devoting more than a dozen years to undergraduate and graduate studies in biology and immunology, and earning bachelor’s (’75 M.A. biology, magna cum laude, Adelphi University) and master’s (’77, M.A., microbiology and immunology, University at Buffalo, State University of New York) degrees in those fields. She taught both subjects at the college level for nine years, including a stint teaching microbiology to medical students. Douthit was also the recipient of three graduate-level scholarships, and taught mathematics at a community college. Her career move to counseling, though, isn’t as large a leap as it may first appear.

Research and experience have convinced her of the inextricable link between what happens in the brain and how individuals behave. The connection is two-way, a fact that means effective counseling techniques that result in long-term behavioral changes can ultimately effect positive physical changes in the brain. “I feel very strongly that counselors need to critically understand what is happening in neuroscience. They need to know how neuroscience can improve their practice, and conversely, they need to be able to recognize when science is being used as a vehicle to eclipse deeply rooted issues of social inequity,” says Douthit.

At the Warner School, she added a master’s degree in counseling to her credentials in 1991, and in 2001, a Ph.D. in human development in educational contexts, where she integrated the physical and behavioral sciences in her dissertation “The Psychiatric Construction of Attention Deficient/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Critical Evaluation of Its Theoretical Precepts.”

Her current research interest is in bringing together the literatures of science and counseling to form a coherent statement about their relationship that both disciplines can digest and accept.

She teaches graduate courses in the theories of human development, problem identification and intervention in counseling, and multicultural counseling and the counselor as systems consultant. Douthit won’t teach the former in its traditional didactic form, though. “I’m trying to be true to myself by acknowledging that as a science, human development reflects powerful philosophical, political, sociological, and cultural interests,” she explains.
April Luehmann, assistant professor, teaching and curriculum

April Luehmann loves science. And she’s passionate about education. Her credentials demonstrate it: a bachelor’s degree in secondary education with a mathematics major and a biology minor. From the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, she has earned two master’s degrees—one in science education and the other in industrial and operations engineering. Luehmann earned a doctorate in both fields, also at Ann Arbor, and taught secondary science and math for seven years. When asked why she seemingly made a detour into engineering from science education, she explains that even her engineering work in ergonomics linked science and math with the needs of human beings. “I really like the way engineers think. They take an analytical perspective on continuous improvement,” she explains, “which has real potential in the world of education.” Why not stay in engineering? Luehmann concludes, “ . . . in the end, I was designing chairs or software. There’s just no comparison between that and teaching eighth graders.”

Luehmann’s research interests include the professional development of inquiry-based teaching and how it affects teachers’ classroom practices and the overall culture of the classroom, and the study of how and what students learn through focused scientific investigations.

She enhances her own knowledge and experiences through collaboration. Currently she is working with the biology and chemistry departments at the University of Rochester to understand the workshop teaching model, and supporting the development of a new look and better functionality for the Web site of the Life Sciences Learning Center (LSLC).
She believes that students construct knowledge through their own experiences, and she works hard to provide opportunities for them to expand their store of experiences. To date, they have participated in a local science educator’s conference and in professional development activities offered at the Life Sciences Learning Center. Through Hobart and William Smith Colleges’ “Science on Seneca,” students have studied geology and marine chemistry on board the “Scandling,” and in the future will work collaboratively with students at St. John Fisher College.

In addition to her science teaching and research skills, Luehmann brings a rich background in instructional technology, a subject about which she is enthusiastic yet cautious. She does not favor technology for its own sake, but views it as a powerful tool with potential for increasing students’ understanding of science.
Luehmann demonstrates her enthusiasm for science when she describes her plans at the Warner School. She wants to offer future teachers opportunities to critically consider science education—what it should look like, what role they should play in it, and how technology may or may not enhance it. She wants to empower teachers and students to use the tools of science and technology to learn throughout their lives. Her classes, for example, heard a lecture by Joseph Novak, professor emeritus at Cornell University, who is world famous for his invention of concept mapping. She hopes to convince her students that scientific knowledge is tentative and always open for questioning, and that scientific literacy ought to be a goal for all students, not just those few who choose science as their major.