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Diana Hiatt-Michael Faculty Profile

Diana Hiatt-Michael

Emeritus Professor of Education
Education Division, Graduate School of Education and Psychology
WLA

Biography

Dr. Hiatt-Michael has been a member of the GSEP faculty nearly 35 years, beginning her Pepperdine teaching on the original Vermont Avenue campus. She is a tenured professor, researcher, and author in the areas of curriculum, instruction, adult learning, and family-school-community partnerships. She has taught in both masters and doctoral degree programs. Dr. Hiatt-Michael has chaired nearly 100 completed doctoral dissertations for the Doctor of Education degree.

Dr. Hiatt-Michael is active in the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and has served across academic disciplines and special interest groups (SIGs). Association Highlights include founding member of the Division of Higher Education, co-founding a SIG on Religion and Education, Chair of Family-School-Community Partnership SIG, elected to Executive Committee for SIGs and serving as its first Chair and member of AERA governing council. During 2005-2006, she participated in the AERA Presidential Task Force on SIGs.

In addition, Dr. Hiatt-Michael has held leadership positions in California, especially in early childhood education and parent education groups. She is the editor of the Family-School-Community Partnership Monograph Series, published by Information Age. The first three monographs, entitled Promising Practices in Family Involvement in Schools, Promising Practices to Connect Schools with the Community, and Promising Practices Connecting Schools to Families of Children with Special Needs were recognized by AERA, and earned Hiatt-Michael the 2004 Outstanding Contributions Relating Research to Practice Award in the interpretive scholarship category. The 2005 monograph Promising Practices for Family Involvement Across the Continents provides global insights to families and schools; the 2007 monograph Promising Practices for Teachers to Engage Families of English Language Learners describes ways to connect teachers with non- English speaking to limited English speaking families.

Hiatt-Michael also recently published Teaching, Curriculum, and Community Involvement (Information Age Publishing, 2008), which delves into satisfaction in teaching, curricular-decision-making, schools as learning communities, and parent involvement in American public schools. The book is dedicated to her dissertation students.

Dr. Hiatt-Michael encourages all persons who are interested in practice and research in family involvement in school-all levels-to connect with her.

 

Education

  • EdD, University of California, Los Angeles
  • MS, University of Connecticut
  • BS, University of Wisconsin