Maegan Ruiz
Phd Student

Researching team cognition, specifically shared mental models and transactive memory, within cross-functional teams operating as part of multi-team systems

Education

August 2021 - Present

Washington University in St. Louis

Doctor of Philosophy in Education

Educational Psychology

August 2020 - July 2021

Arizona State University

Masters of Science in Psychology

August 2011 - December 2013

Florida Atlantic University

Masters of Arts in Teaching

August 2007 - May 2011

University of Florida

Bachelor of Arts in English

Minor in Education

Awards & Fellowships

April 2021

Graduate Chancellor's Fellowship @ WashU

1 of 10 graduate students selected for membership into cohort to advance diversity at Washington University and in the professoriate through academic, professional, and personal support.

May 2019

Staff Core Value Award for Excellence @ StlCP

Nominated by colleagues at St. Louis College Prep

July 2017

Staff Core Value Award for Excellence @ StlCP

Nominated by colleagues at St. Louis College Prep

July 2016

Rookie of the Year @ StlCP

Nominated by colleagues at St. Louis College Prep

Teaching Experience

August 2014 - July 2016

5th - 8th grade English, Math, Science

Provided Special Education services using both inclusion and resource room models for 5-6 periods per day in classes of 20-30 students

August 2011 - May 2013

English Composition 1 & 2

Taught 2 classes of 22 students each per semester with full classroom autonomy consisting of curriculum development, grading criteria, selection of readings, lesson plan development, incorporation of new technologies, and online research

August 2011 - June 2013

K-12 Summer Reading Program

Taught 5-week-long semesters of intensive reading remediation with 2 semesters of full-time teaching per summer and lesson plan implementation

Related Experience

April 2021

Summit on Improvement in Education @ Carnegie Foundation

Participated in annual summit on the methodology and practices of improvement science

August 2020 - August 2021

Learning & Design @ Blue Engine

Designed and managed the school-based support model as part of annual Learning Agenda; designed and managed development of co-teaching guidance documents and asynchronous learning modules; facilitated virtual professional development for Louisiana Teacher Leaders Summit for groups of 75 instructional leaders across the state; collaboratively designed school-based support model and onboarding for New York City school partners; collaboratively designed and facilitated virtual co-teaching summer series for teams of teachers; completed and managed application to New York Department of Education for sponsorship as organization providing Continued Teacher and Leader Education; completed and managed application for Rivet Education’s Professional Learning Partner Guide; collaboratively designed Gates Foundation Grant

July 2019 - July 2020

Instructional Coaching @ Blue Engine

Coached 14 teachers at 4 schools in the Bronx and Queens to execute effective co-teaching models in service of dramatic impact on student outcomes in secondary mathematics through weekly observations and debriefs; creation and execution of extensive professional development through onboarding, quarterly stepbacks, and PLCs; provision of training for MAP and mock Regents testing; successful execution of site visits by funders and members of Louisiana Department of Education; codification and design of vision-setting protocol and annual review of school-based support model for school leaders

August 2018 - June 2019

Transformation Leadership Initiative @ WUSTL's Institute for School Partnership

Participated in ambitious, multi-year effort designed to improve the academic performance and the overall learning environment for students in the St. Louis region by building the capacity of educators to transform their organizations with new approaches to leadership and deeper learning experiences for all students and educators

July 2018

Art of Coaching Training @ Bright Morning Transformational Coaching

Participated in intensive coaching seminar on transformational coaching for instructional leaders

August 2016 - June 2019

Special Education Leadership @ St. Louis College Prep

Supervised school psychologist intern; created and implemented compliance structures for initial evaluations, re-evaluations, initial IEPs, annual IEPs, and 504 plans; managed all incoming and outgoing records for students in Special Education; compiled and submitted DESE tiered monitoring reports, then created and implemented corrective action plan to address certain indicators until full compliance was reached

August 2016 - July 2019

Instructional Coaching @ St. Louis College Prep

Supervised 5-7 full-time teachers through weekly meetings, observations, and feedback on plans; designed and delivered professional development related to curriculum, classroom management, Understanding By Design, and IEPs; carried out daily supervision and discipline of students in an administrative capacity; completed cyclical Federal Reporting tasks; developed and implemented district-wide Response to Intervention model

Academic Publications

December 2013

The Dilemma of the Language-Minority Student in the Composition Classroom

If we define language fluency as more than simply a way of speaking, but also a way of thinking, acting, and being, then we enter a conversation of language as ‘Discourse’ that was sparked by James Paul Gee. This conversation invokes discrete designations of Discourse as home-based, school-based, dominant, and non-dominant. These designations reveal divisions between Discourses that are believed to manifest themselves in the identity formation of ‘language-minority students:’ those whose home Discourse is non-dominant. The dominant Discourse that these students encounter in school generates two documented paths: Richard Hoggart’s scholarship boy and Herbert Kohl’s not-learner; both paths reflect the limited agency of these students within academia. In order to counteract this delimiting of student agency, this project proposes a progressive shift towards a post-modern conception of identity formation; this can be accomplished by opening the Composition classroom to student authored, non-traditional, ‘hybridized’ Discourses.

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Link to PDF

Academic Presentations

February 2013

University of Florida Writing Program Conference Presentation

“My Academic Profile: The Subaltern in Cyberspace,” a reflective piece concerning the ways in which theories of online identity presentation by minority students are altered within academia

January 2013

University of Oklahoma Student Association of Graduate English Studies Conference on Dissonant Discourses

“Rhetoric of Resistance: the Contact Zone Redefined,” a proposal for the publication of autoethnographic texts in which minority group members can redefine their group identity within the context of the contact zone, where the nascent codes of power are revealed and ultimately undermined

Organizations

October 2021

Kappa Delta Pi @ WashU
Technology Specialist

Inducted into Washington University’s chapter of this selective honor society within field of education and participated in service project, "Activating a Multilingual Family Lending Library," as part of grant from WU Women's Society with Ritenour School District

August 2021

Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity

Graduate Student Affiliate of CRE2, which brings the research force of Washington University in St. Louis to study how race and ethnicity are integral to the most complex and challenging issues of our time

July 2021

SPARK Society 

Inducted into the SPARK Society, which works to increase the numbers of Black/African Americans, Latinx, and Native Americans in cognitive psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, and cognitive neuroscience

February 2021

Psi Chi Honor Society @ ASU

Inducted into selective honor society based on excellence in scholarship and advancement of the field of psychology

December 2020

Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society @ ASU

Inducted into selective honor society based on academic performance and demonstrated leadership ability

November 2020

The PhD Project Annual Conference

Accepted through competitive process to attend the conference designed to increase presence of Black/African-American, Latinx/Hispanic-American and Native American in both the programming and faculty of PhD programs

September 2012

Golden Key International Honor Society @ FAU

Performed in top 15% of class to gain admittance to Golden Key, which is built on the pillars of academics, leadership, and service

Professional Presentations

June 22, 2021

SibMe Better Together Conference

Designed and facilitated professional learning experience on "Coaching for Scale: A Case Study" for community of educators

June 7-8, 2021

Louisiana Teacher Leader Summit

Designed and presented practitioner evidence session on "The Power of Two: Leveraging Co-Teachers to Address Unfinished Learning" for Louisiana educators at annual summit

March 8, 2021

Council for Exceptional Children 2021 Convention

Presented practitioner evidence session on “Foundations of Effective Co-Teaching: Establishing Shared Expectations and Systems During Teacher Orientation”

November 15, 2020

Fontbonne University

Invited as guest speaker for graduate course titled 'Social Work Services in Schools' in order to speak about serving student populations with special needs

June 1, 2020

Louisiana Teacher Leader Summit

Presented “The Power of Two: Four Key Principles for Setting Up a Co-Teaching Environment that works for ALL Students” with strategies, tools, and examples for setting up a co-teaching environment that fully leverages all teachers

August 2018

The Basics of Online Compliance Systems

Designed and implemented training for UMSL-associated special education administrators and school psychologists on SpedTrack, a compliance system for Special Education, with specific instruction on all steps to develop compliant IEPs, 504s, and Evaluations