As the Stanford Graduate School of education (GSE) continues to innovate and expand with the goal of improving lives through learning, so too does its faculty.
In the coming months, two new professors — Maisha T. Winn and Christina Krist — will be bringing their expertise to the GSE and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning in efforts to further the school’s mission.
“Maisha and Christina bring unique perspectives and experience to the GSE. Both are exceptional scholars who share a deep commitment to teachers and students,” said Dan Schwartz, the I. James Quillen Dean of the GSE. “I’m thrilled to welcome them to our community.”
Maisha Winn started at the GSE on July 1. (Photo: Christie Gimpel)
For Winn, MA ‘98, her new roles as professor of education and faculty director of the Accelerator’s initiative for equity in learning mark a return to the GSE, where she earned a master’s degree in Language, Literacy and Culture. She followed that up with a PhD in Language, Literacy & Culture from the University of California, Berkeley.
“After completing my master’s program, I was confident that I would continue my journey in the academy and that I wanted to be a researcher,” said Winn, whose scholarship focuses on restorative justice and contemporary and historical perspectives in Black education. “It was such a sacred and special time in terms of being introduced to a body of research, literature and thinking that really inspired me.”
Winn’s upcoming book, “Futuring Black Lives: Independent Black Institutions and the Literary Imagination,” will be published next year. It examines the ideas and writings of leaders in Black institution building during the Black Arts Movement (1965-1975) and puts them in contemporary perspective. Winn says these “historical signals” provide context for equity work.
Winn comes to Stanford from the University of California, Davis, School of Education, where she was the Chancellor’s Leadership Professor and co-founder and faculty director of the school’s Transformative Justice in Education Center.
In her new role with the Accelerator, she will build on existing equity-focused work across the accelerator, spearhead projects that address disparities in educational outcomes, and foster collaborations with community organizations and educational institutions.
“I think this is such an exciting time right now for Stanford and the GSE,” Winn said. “The Accelerator is a source of such innovative thinking for how we can solve really important issues that are impacting young people in the country, all over the world, and across silos and disciplines.”
Winn started on July 1.
Christina Krist will join the GSE on September 1. (Photo: Michelle Hassel)
Krist will join the GSE as an associate professor of education, with a focus on science education. Her first day is September 1.
Her research focuses on teacher education, and how to make science education more humanizing and equitable for students. She comes to Stanford after seven years as an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“I was drawn to the fact that the GSE seems like a place where there’s this strong commitment to teacher education and teacher learning,” Krist said. “There’s also this culture of theoretical development and innovation that makes me really excited to join the GSE, where I can continue to lean into that line of scholarship.”
Much of her work involves teachers in the classroom, including her recent research about creating a professional development model for high school teachers to adapt curricula to student knowledge.
Krist earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Grinnell College in Iowa, and her PhD in learning sciences from Northwestern University. She’s won several awards and fellowships, including the 2023 early career research award from NARST: A global organization for improving science education through research, and the 2020 reviewer of the year award from Journal of the Learning Sciences.
While at the GSE she expects to work with students and faculty to study, explore and build on what excellence in science education looks like.
“I look forward to building this community at the GSE where we think about science education, what we want it to look like, and how we go about making it so,” she said.
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