Dionne Cross Francis

Dionne Cross Francis is a Professor in the Culture, Curriculum, and Teacher Education Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on understanding the contextual, cultural, and teacher-specific factors that motivate teacher actions as they plan and instruct lessons in mathematics. Dr. Cross Francis has been awarded the national K-12 Promotion of Education award for promoting STEM education from the 2014 Women of Color STEM Conference, the Oak Ridge Associated Universities’ Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, the American Psychological Association Division 15 Early Career Award and the University of Georgia’s Young Alumni Award. The Indiana University School of Education also awarded her the Students’ Choice for Excellence in Teaching award, the Graduate Student Mentoring award, and the Trustee’s Teaching Award for her work with pre-service teachers and graduate students. She is a co-editor and co-author of two books, Research on Teacher Identity: Mapping Challenges and Innovations (2018) and Teachers’ Goals, Beliefs, Emotions, and Identity Development: Investigating Complexities in the Profession (2020), and the author of articles in top-tier journals.