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Monarch Center Staff: Short Bios
Norma A. Lopez-Reyna, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and Project Director, is
responsible for overall project administration, supervision, and fiscal management.
Dr. Lopez-Reyna is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the UIC. Her research and
expertise are in the following areas: assessment, particularly as it relates to informing literacy
instruction; the interaction between language disorders and second language learning; parental roles
in understanding and teaching their children with disabilities; and teachers' decision making through
the use of authentic assessment information. She has considerable practice in grant administration,
both research and personnel preparation. Additionally, she has extensive experience serving on
advisory councils and committees on campus, in the community and with the Illinois State Board of
Education. The latter have included serving on the Bilingual Advisory committee, Advisory Council
for Individuals with Disabilities, and a panel of experts convened to develop the teaching standards
to meet the State's new certification requirements. In the college of education, Dr. Lopez-Reyna
provided expertise in the design of assessments for teacher candidates, has mentored colleagues in
research grant writing, is Director of the Educational Assessment Clinic, and mentors doctoral and
master's degree students.
1990, Ph.D. in Special Education - University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
1981, M.Ed. in Counseling and School Psychology - University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
1977, B.A. in Sociology - University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
nlr@uic.edu
Mary Bay, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator and Coordinator of Program Development and
Enhancement, is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Illinois.
Her scholarly interests focus on prospective and beginning teacher learning, teacher preparation,
mentoring, and educational policy as it relates to the development of a quality teaching force.
She was awarded the College of Education's Excellence in Teaching Award in 1998. She has been the
co-principal investigator on three OSERS-funded personnel preparation grants to prepare master's
level teachers to work with urban youth with disabilities. In addition, since 1998, she has been
awarded over $1,175,000 in grant funds to improve teacher education at UIC. She has served as the
College of Education's Associate Dean for Clinical Experiences and Student Affairs and as the
Executive Director of the UIC Council on Teacher Education where she oversaw 20 teacher,
administrator, and school personnel licensure programs.
1986, Ph.D. in Special Education - University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
1977, M.Ed. in Reading and Special Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL
1973, B.A. in Elementary and Special Education, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
marybay@uic.edu
Barbara Guillory, CCC-SLP, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator and Coordinator of
Grant-Writing, is actively involved in working with mentors and trainers providing Technical
Assistance and grant proposal writing workshops. Dr. Guillory identifies articulation agreements
between 2 and 4-year institutions, and devotes her efforts to identifying community colleges that
either have or show promise for capacity building in pre-special education or related services.
As a speech and language pathologist, Dr. Guillory provided direct services in two public school
settings early in her career.
Dr. Guillory's university experience began as an instructor at Southern University in New Orleans
and continued at Howard University in Washington, D. C. during the late 60's and early 70's.
Subsequently. she served as the Assistant Director for the 18 million dollar Chapter I (Title I)
program in the New Orleans public schools for 17 years. As such, she developed and implemented an
early childhood language stimulation program for more than 2000 preschool children and was
responsible for all reading and mathematics compensatory programs in 50 schools. For the
previous 9 1/2 years, Dr. Guillory served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Speech
Pathology and Audiology at Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She acquired two
significant research projects and two personnel preparation grants for Speech Language
Pathologists through grant funding. The first research grant,
Validation of an Alternative Language Screening Procedure for African American Children,
was in collaboration with Michigan State University; the second was to study the language
characteristics and the visual and auditory perceptual skills of African American males,
who have been diagnosed with behavior disorders.
1979, Ph.D. in Special Education: Learning Disabilities - American University, Washington D.C.
1969, M.A. in Speech Pathology - University of Arizona at Tucson, AZ
1964, B.A. in Speech Pathology and Audiology - Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA
bguillory1@uic.edu
Michael Maiorano, Client Services Coordinator, is currently a doctoral student
in special education. He has extensive experience and expertise in client-focused operations,
overseeing implementation of project plans, identifying opportunities for improving service to
clients, and insuring the integrity and accuracy of these functions.
2005, M.Ed. in Special Education –University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
1987, B.A. in Political Science - Loyola University at Chicago, IL
mmaior1@uic.edu
Peggy Snowden, Resource Dissemination Manager. Ms. Snowden is currently a doctoral student in special education.
She has excellent organizational, research, word processing, and interpersonal skills that are an asset to this project. Her responsibilities include: formatting, reproducing, packaging, archiving, and distributing all products; designing and producing brochures, flyers and other promotional and reporting items; performing extensive information searches for the Monarch Center; and organizing data from the needs assessments and surveys. Ms. Snowden is a Chicago native and has spent the last eight years teaching in a private Chicago high school servicing the needs of low achieving students. Prior to this, she gained extensive experience serving at-risk students, aged 5-19, in one of Chicago's most economically deprived inner-city neighborhoods. Her years of working with disadvantaged and underrepresented youth helped her develop a strong commitment for servicing this often overlooked population.
2003, M.Ed. in Special Education - University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
1986, B.A. in Early Childhood Education - Northeastern Illinois University, IL
psnowd1@uic.edu
Ravi Samitamana, Data Analysis Specialist, is currently working toward his doctorate in
Economics. He is highly proficient in statistical analysis and cost-benefit analysis; knowledgeable
in setting up and maintaining web sites on Windows NT servers that provide materials and information
to users; and has extensive knowledge in computer networks and hardware.
2000, M.B.A. in Business Administration - University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
2000, M.S. in Economics - University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
1996, B.S. in Economics - Chula Long Korn University, Bangkok, Thailand
rsamit2@uic.edu
Nicole Stuart, Program Associate, is a doctoral student and Adjunct Faculty in the special
education department at UIC. At the Monarch Center, she consolidates program data and information
into quarterly and annual reports, contributes to the development of new products, and creates
technical and promotional materials. Her area of interest is parental involvement in special
education with attention to the experiences of families from diverse cultural and linguistic
backgrounds.
1993, B.A. English Literature, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL
Nicole Stuart
Travis Commons, Program Associate, is a doctoral student and Adjunct Faculty in the special
education special education department at UIC. He has also recently co-coordinated a Master’s degree
program to prepare special education teachers in Chicago Public Schools, acting as field supervisor
and Adjunct Faculty. He has taught in both public and private school settings as a teacher of
children with emotional and psychological disorders. Travis helps to plan program development
seminars, and he works with faculty participants in follow-along technical assistance as they
complete their yearlong Actions Plans, specifically coordinating services that the Monarch Center
may provide to facilitate success in their program enhancement efforts.
2000, B.S. in Special Education and Elementary Education, Ball State University, Muncie, IN
tcommo1@uic.edu
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