Vanessa N. Louis
Contact
Location
1360 D
610 E. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1259
Vanessa Louis teaches graduate and undergraduate students in the science methods course in the Secondary Teacher Education Program. She also teaches a multicultural education and a field instructor course in the Elementary Teacher Education Program. Dr. Vanessa Louis’s research interests include abolitionist teaching, anti-racist pedagogies, research-practice partnerships, community cultural wealth, teacher residencies and fellowships, and culturally relevant science education.
Louis earned her Ph.D. at Georgia State University (GSU), focusing on Teaching and Learning with a concentration in Science Education. She received the Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award from Georgia State University and was named a Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education Fellow by the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Louis served for six years as a middle and high school science teacher and two years as an administrator and instructional coach. During her doctoral journey, she utilized abolitionist teaching and emancipatory pedagogies to assist early career science teachers in developing cultural competence as part of the NSF-funded project Developing STEM Professionals as Educators and Teacher Leaders (DSPETL). As a graduate research assistant, Louis engaged in a research-practice partnership to address problems of practice surrounding STEM literacy in Black and Brown communities. She also collaborated with the CREATE Teacher Residency Program to examine the experiences of Black teacher fellows as they navigate a social justice-oriented program.