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QuERI Director
Elizabethe Payne, Ph.D., is founder and director of the Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI). QuERI is dedicated to bridging gaps between research, policy, and practice in support of gender and sexual minority students in K-12 schools. Dr. Payne is a sociologist of education with research exploring LGBTQ-inclusive education policy, educator experiences working with gender and sexual minority students, and the school experiences of LGBTQ+ young people. In 2022, funded by the Spencer Foundation, she will conclude a 10-year evaluation study of the implementation of New York’s enumerated anti-bullying law. Her applied work addresses state-level sex education and HIV education policy, anti-bullying policy, policies related to teacher education, school climate, and Title IX. She serves on the New York State Dignity for All Students Act Task Force and works with the New York State Education Department and members of the state legislature toward more effective research-based policy for LGBTQ students and families. She served on the 2020 Biden LGBTQ Public Policy Committee and she has worked with the US Department of Justice on the application of Title IX to LGBTQ student harassment cases. She is a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization working group on school bullying. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Gender and Education Association. With co-author Melissa Smith, her forthcoming edited volume, Queer Kids, School Violence, and the Limits of “Bullying”, brings together leading international scholars to challenge the current limits of anti-bullying efforts in support of gender and sexual minority students. She holds the 2022-2023 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Congressional Fellowship in Washington DC, part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science program bringing researchers to Capitol Hill to work in federal policy making.
Assistant Director of Research
2012-2013 QuERI Dissertation Fellow
Research Focus: Teacher Professional Development; Teacher Ally Identities
Melissa J. Smith has been with QuERI since 2008. She has served as co-researcher with Dr. Payne on several qualitative studies, including an evaluation study of the Reduction of Stigma in Schools program, and was the first research fellow for QuERI. Melissa delivered RSIS training throughout Central New York from 2008 -2012 as an intern and then as the RSIS Coordinator. Melissa completed her Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations of Education department at Syracuse University in Summer 2014, and her dissertation work addresses the classroom/school experiences of straight-identified teacher allies. Prior to her doctoral work, she was a high school English teacher in Omaha, Nebraska, Public Schools. She holds a M.A. in English from the University of Nebraska. As of Fall 2013, she is Assistant Professor and Director of English Education at University of Central Arkansas.
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Graduate Intern
Chris is a dual doctoral student at the Graduate Center at City University of New York where he studies environmental psychology and critical social and personality psychology. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Wadham College Visiting Student Program, Chris studies ways to work with communities, to empower communities to produce their own research, and to use their research to influence policy. Chris is a former Fulbright grantee.
Graduate Intern
Austin is a doctoral student in Social Welfare at the City University of New York. He earned his BSc in Therapeutic Recreation at Dalhousie University, MA in Applied Health Sciences at Brock University, and Graduate Certificate in Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies at the University of Georgia. Austin’s research interests focus on promoting social justice among LGBT people. While working as a clinician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Austin was actively involved in creating a more inclusive environment for LGBT patients, their families, and staff. He was a member of the LGBTQ Task Force and lead several hospital trainings on culturally competent health care. Austin has also been involved in research projects that explored the distinct needs of LGBT people and he has disseminated his work though publications, presentations, and community lectures.
Graduate Intern
Diane Yoong is a first year doctoral student in the Critical Social/Personality Psychology program at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Their interest in Asian (American) LGBT/queers was guided by the lack of visible representations in popular media when they were growing up. They became invested in understanding the ways Asian American LGBT/queers negotiate (or not) the coming out framework. As coming out is often perceived as a process of liberation and a way to legitimize one’s sexuality, it is difficult to consider sexuality/sexual orientation without utilizing this framework. In addition, what it means to be Asian American LGBT/queer is further troubled by notions of belonging, legitimizing, and authentication; hence, they believe that the rigidity and specificity of coming out actually restricts and contributes to the erasure of their visibility. In future exploration of their work, they will include understanding and identifying different ways of articulating one’s sexuality/sexual orientation.
Graduate Student Research Assistant
El Schneider is currently a Master’s of Social Work Candidate at Stony Brook University’s School of Social Welfare. They have a BA in psychology from Hunter College, CUNY, where they graduated in 2015 as Valedictorian. While at Hunter, El interned for New York State Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell where they researched the Dignity for All Students Act and met with educators and leading sociologists on the issue of bullying. El began interning at QuERI in 2014 and worked on QuERI research projects addressing the Dignity for All Students Act implementation in New York as an undergraduate. Their graduate research position continues work on Dignity implementation. Additionally, they are an academic coach at New Frontiers in Learning where they are helping students with learning differences succeed both academically and socially.
Research Fellow
Marisa Ragonese is a PhD candidate in the field of social welfare at the CUNY Graduate Center and the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work. Her in-progress dissertation explores the reproduction of gender inequity at the intersection of bullying and sexual harassment. A longtime feminist activist and advocate with and on behalf of LGBTQ youth and girls, she has 15 years of experience designing and implementing innovative, youth-led and adult-supported programming for teens to promote civic engagement and social justice. In 2004, she opened and ran the first and only drop-in center for LGBTQ youth in her native Queens, NYC. Since then she has won several awards for her work with youth, including, most recently, the United Settlement House award for achievement in civic engagement, and the United Way of Westchester and Putnam County’s Ruth Taylor Award for public service. Currently, she serves as the new director of the Westchester County Youth Councils.
QuERI Intern
Ariel Yardeni is a senior at Hunter College, CUNY with a major in Chinese. She is a Macaulay Honors College Scholar and in the Roosevelt House Public Policy Program. She is an active participant in Peer Health Exchange at Hunter College, an organization that coordinates training of college students to volunteer as health educators in high schools across NYC. Ariel was the recipient of a Fulbright Hays award to study the Chinese educational system in rural China. Her time in China was spent in rural areas teaching health education classes. Most recently, she founded a non-profit organization that brings no-cost health and English education to students in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Ariel is also a QuERI undergraduate research assistant 2015-2016 for on-going research on heteronormativity in New York State sex education curricula. Ariel plans on pursuing a graduate degree in international education policy, with a specific focus on health education and hopes to use her studies to promote progressive and inclusive health education around the world.
Research Fellow
Research Focus: Social Justice-Centered Arts Curriculum
Kristin Goble interned with the QuERI Arts-in-Action program from 2009-2012 and is a research fellow with the Institute. Kristin delivered LGBTQ focused arts workshops in high schools throughout Central New York and developed curriculum guides to support teachers in using the student artwork to begin classroom conversations on the LGBTQ student experience. Kristin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Teaching and Curriculum Department at Syracuse University. Her research interests include adolescent art education, visual culture, gender and social justice within high school visual art curriculum, and LGBTQ student voice through art. Kristin’s dissertation research explores democratic access to art education through the use of visual culture. Prior to her doctoral work, she was a high school and middle school art teacher in New York City. She holds a M.A. in Art and Art Education from Columbia University, Teachers College and a B.F.A. in Photography from the University of Michigan. In Fall 2012, she began a new position in the College of Education at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Kristin is expected to defend her dissertation in the summer of 2013.
QuERI Research Associate
Research Interest: queer masculinities in education spaces, LGBT college student development, LGBT educators, and LGBT issues in teacher preparation programs
Lauren Hannahs (also known as LB) began work with QuERI after participating in the Queer Kids/Straight Schools course in her senior undergraduate year. She is now a research associate with the Institute. Her autoethnographic research grew out of her student teaching experience in her senior year and explores her own queer masculinity as a student teacher placed with a hyper masculine host teacher, in the space of a high school band room. LB holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education, with a minor in LGBT Studies and a Master’s Degree in Higher Education Administration, both from Syracuse University. She is now the Director of LGBT Affairs at the University of Florida and is responsible for support and advocacy for all students, faculty, and staff of marginalized genders and sexualities. Additionally, LGBT Affairs offers educational opportunities related to issues of sexuality, gender, and social justice throughout the broader campus community. LB also serves as the Outreach and Advocacy Chair of the National Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals and on the executive board of the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida.
Syracuse University Engagement Fellow
Trevor Raushi is interning with QuERI for the 2013/14 year as a Syracuse University Engagement Fellow. Trevor is a 2013 graduate from Syracuse University and received a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in LGBT Studies. As an undergraduate, he took two QuERI courses: “Queer Kids/Straight Schools©” and “Goodgirls, Sluts and Dykes©” and became interested in QuERI research and applied work. Trevor will be compiling and analyzing documents related to the implementation process of the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) in New York State, examining settlement documents in a LGBTQ student harassment case, and bringing leadership projects into the schools to engage young people in actively participating in DASA implementation. He will also be taking graduate course work in Qualitative Research Methods. Trevor plans to go on to law school after his year with QuERI, and hopes to work in LGBT Rights after law school.
QuERI GSA Coordinator 2012-2013
Catherine is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Higher Education Administration at Syracuse University’s School of Education. Catherine received her B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y. As an undergraduate, Catherine was involved in student activixfties and student government, as well as was a member of the Equestrian Team. Catherine hopes to work as a college administrator in student development after obtaining her Master’s Degree.
QuERI GSA Coordinator 2011-2012
Kimberly is a Spring 2012 graduate of the Syracuse University School of Education with a dual M.S. in Secondary English education and Inclusive Special Education. Kimberly received her B.A. in English Literature from James Madison University, with a focus on alternative genres and modern literature. Before returning to school to work on her M.A., Kimberly spent a year in schools working in special education classrooms in Hawaii. In Fall 2012, Kimberly will begin her teaching career as a special education teacher in South Carolina.
QuERI Research Fellow 2009-2011
Research Focus: School Policy
Rebecca Johnson is a PhD candidate at Syracuse University in the Cultural Foundations of Education Department with a focus on education policy.
Johnson has been an educational advisor and teacher since 1997. She has taught in public and private schools in the United States and abroad and is a New York State Certified Teacher. In her consulting and professional development work in New York State Schools, she has conducted workshops on inclusive teaching and reducing bias in the school environment. Most recently, she worked at the Center on Education Policy in Washington D.C., researching and current federal education policy.
Johnson holds a B.S. in Economics and Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a M.S. in Applied Economics from Cornell University. Starting in Fall 2012, she will be an Assistant Professor of Education at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, New York.
QuERI Research Associate 2010-2011
Research Focus: Arts Educators’ Experiences in Supporting LGBTQ Youth
Syracuse University Engagement Fellow
Kristin Kelly was the Syracuse University 2010-2011 Engagement Fellow in the arts, dedicating a year to QuERI Arts-in-Action projects in performance and visual arts. She also took qualitative research methods coursework during her engagement year and participated in data collection on using arts to facilitate LGBTQ inclusion in school spaces. Kelly graduated in 2010 from Syracuse University with a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre. While an undergraduate, she co-founded Community Arts Practice and developed socially and politically aware pieces of theatre, including a musical about the issues of gay marriage. Kristin is currently working for Creative Arts Team in New York City in a program that uses theatre to develop students’ literacy skills for sixth grade students. She has also assistant directed theatre with Spark Summit, and worked as summer Music Director of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House’s Real Arts Camp. As a performer, Kristin is proud to be singing regularly at LezCab, a monthly musical theater cabaret for and by queer womyn.
Reduction of Stigma in Schools Trainer 2010-2011
Research Focus: School Leadership
Marcia A. Ranieri is a doctoral student at Syracuse University in the Teaching and Leadership Program. Prior to coming to the University, Ranieri was a high school Spanish Teacher and school building leader in a suburban NY district for 8 years. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Spanish education from Geneseo, her Masters in Bilingual Education from the University at Buffalo, and her C.A.S. in Educational Leadership from Syracuse University. Her research interests include social justice leadership, gender, and inclusion. Ranieri is a member of the Reduction of Stigma in Schools Program that is a partnership between Syracuse University and the School of Education, that works with district leaders and classroom teachers to facilitate discussion and create awareness around the issues that LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) students face each day in our schools. In addition, Marcia is the bilingual parent outreach coordinator for the Syracuse University Parent Advocacy Center at Syracuse University. She works to assist bilingual parents in gaining more equitable access for their students with disabilities. Ranieri has received recognition in the field for her work with diversity efforts as well as excellence in teaching. Her current position is an Instructional Administrator in the Guilderland (NY) Central School District.
Reduction of Stigma in Schools Intern 2006-2007
Deanna Adams is currently working on her doctorate in Special Education and Disability Studies at Syracuse University. Her interests are in the critical study of special education and inclusion through a disability studies lens. She is currently doing research on school-wide positive behavior supports as a behavior intervention technique. Deanna has been a teacher in special education at the secondary level and worked as an instructor in the teacher preparation program in inclusive education at Syracuse University. Deanna was the first Reduction of Stigma in Schools graduate student intern in 2006-2007.