Dr. Dana Karraker

Dana completed her doctorate in Education in 2018. Her experiences include teaching at the university level, mentoring pre-service and in-service teachers, serving on curriculum committees, and participating in course redesign projects. In addition to her work at the center, she teaches literacy methods courses for elementary education majors in the School of Teaching and Learning. During her spare time, Dana enjoys road biking with her husband, Kyle, and her friends. She also enjoys reading historical fiction, traveling, and cooking.

As the Assistant Director for Educational Development Programs, Dana leads the Center’s programming efforts. One of her primary responsibilities is to plan and facilitate New Faculty Orientation and mentor early career faculty. She also leads the centers civic and community engagement work. In collaboration with the Center for Civic Engagement, she develops and facilitates the Redesign your Course for Civic Engagement workshop series and leads Professional Learning Communities focused on integrating civic learning into teaching. Dana is a Deliberative Dialogue facilitator and supports faculty on integrating them into their courses. Each year, she works with center staff to plan and host the University-Wide Teaching and Learning Symposium which brings faculty, staff, and graduate students from across campus together to share and discuss innovative teaching practices. She regularly consults with course instructors, conducts Midterm Chats (Small Group Instructional Diagnoses) and Classroom Observations. She partners with academic units to provide workshops by request and implement peer feedback on teaching. Her scholarly work includes research on integrating student voice in faculty development programming, new teacher development, and effective classroom practices.

2024 Illinois State University
College of Education Hall of Fame
Inductee

2022
Civil Service Staff Civic Engagement Award

2021
STAR Award
Recognizing Promotion of Diversity on a Team (CRCC), Division of Student Affairs

Leadership Illinois
Class of 2021

2016-2017
Illinois State University’s Leadership Initiative Fellow

2005
National Writing Project Fellow

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education

Literacy Research Association 

International Literacy Association 

International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Publications

Cuenca-Carlino, Y., Friberg, J. C., Giovagnoli, D. J., Meyers, D. J. H., Catanzaro, S., & Karraker, D. (2023). Creating the Framework for inclusive teaching evidence. International Journal for Academic Development, 6(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2022.2158834 

Karraker, D. (2018). Exploring teacher candidates’ civic efficacy through civic engagement and critical literacy in a literacy methods course. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Illinois State University.

Handsfield, L. J., Karraker, D., MacPhee, D. & Wedwick, L. (2012). Leveling, text complexity, and matching students with text: Where is the child? Illinois Reading Council Journal. 41(1), 3-5.

Select Presentations

Friberg, J.; Karraker, D., Nakamura, M. & Giovagnoli, D. (2023, November 10). The development and integration of the Learn-Apply-Study Framework for educational development [Poster]. Annual Conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Karraker, D. (2022, November 16-20). Redesign your course for civic engagement. [Conference presentation]. PDO Network Annual Conference, Seattle, WA. 

Cuenca-Carlino, Y., Friberg, J., Karraker, D., Giovagnoli, D. (2022, February 14). Using data to plan, implement, and evaluate equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts. [Conference presentation]. EDI Leaders Circle Symposium, Normal, IL.

Steinbach, H., Gilbert, J., & Karraker, D. (2021, June 3). Institutionalizing Deliberative Dialogues. [Virtual Conference Presentation] Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Conference.

Karraker, D. (2019, December 4). Exploring teacher candidates’ civic efficacy in a content area literacy course. In C. Hunt (Chairperson) Disrupting deficit ideologies and whiteness in teacher education. Conference conducted at the meeting of the Literacy Research Association, Tampa, FL.

Karraker, D. (2019, December 4). Exploring teacher candidates’ civic efficacy in a content area literacy course. In C. Hunt (Chairperson) Disrupting deficit ideologies and whiteness in teacher education. Conference conducted at the meeting of the Literacy Research Association, Tampa, FL.

Vitae