Education

  • Ed.D. 2007 – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Curriculum & Instruction
  • M.A.T. 1997 – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Secondary Social Studies
  • B.A. 1994 – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Geography

Areas of Expertise

  • Teacher education
  • Teacher performance assessment
  • Program assessment

Background

Dr. Lys leads educator preparation, program assessment and accreditation efforts in the School. Prior to joining UNC, she was a faculty member at East Carolina University, serving for 5 years as the Director of Assessment and Accreditation in the College of Education. As Director, Dr. Lys played a pivotal role in implementing edTPA (formally TPA) at East Carolina. Dr. Lys continues to be a key partner in research linking teacher candidate performance data to graduate outcomes in the field, including student achievement scores and principal evaluations. Research from this work is a focus of her scholarship; her work has been published in the Journal of Teacher Education, Teaching and Teacher Education and and multiple book chapters. Dr. Lys began her career in education as middle school teacher in rural North Carolina working with migrant youth and linguistically diverse students. After 8 years in the field she joined the faculty in the College of Education at East Carolina University as a field experience coordinator. She credits these experiences with grounding her approach to working with faculty and P-12 partners to continuously improve teacher preparation.