Associate Professor, Disability and Psychoeducational Studies | Member of the Graduate Faculty
Adai Tefera is an assistant professor in the Disability and Psychoeducational Studies Department in the University of Arizona College of Education. She received her Ph.D. in education with an emphasis in urban schooling and public policy from UCLA, and was a postdoctoral scholar at Arizona State University. Her scholarshifocuses on how educational policies aimed at improving equity among students at the intersections of race, disability, language, and other sociocultural differences are enacted and experienced by educators, leaders, and students. She is particularly interested in strengthening research-policy-practice partnerships through knowledge mobilization to improve opportunities of historically marginalized learners. Her work has been included in journals such as Teachers College Record, Urban Education, and Theory Into Practice. She has worked in schools, both in after-school and summer programs, and served as a fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Her commitment to educational equity and justice is rooted in her experiences as the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, her upbringing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and her experiences learning from and with students with disabilities, especially her sister, who remains one of her most important teachers.