Department of Special Education

Faculty

Brenda Townsend, Ph.D.
Professor
813-974-1385
btownsen@tempest.coedu.usf.edu

Dr. Brenda L. Townsend is a Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of South Florida and Director of the CAROUSEL Center. In 1995, she developed Project PILOT, the first of several initiatives that prepared African American men for urban special education teaching careers. As a result of that initiative, 31 African American men have graduated and are teaching children with special needs. Dr. Townsend is also the director of a federal outreach and technical assistance project that enhances the urban school research capacity of faculty and graduate students in minority institutions.

She co-authored a constructive behavior management text and has several book chapters and papers on schooling issues related to African American children. Her scholarship also centers on the disciplinary practices to which African American learners are disproportionately subjected, issues around ethics, power, and privilege, and strategies for African American students with academic gifts and talents. In sum, Dr. Townsend has delivered myriad presentations and workshops for teachers, administrators, and family members on enhancing African American students' success by affirming their individual and cultural differences and developing culturally responsive pedagogy.

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