School of Education Welcomes 3 New Faculty

The School of Education (SOE) welcomes three new faculty hires who will strengthen its educational offerings and its research and publishing portfolio in cornerstone programs. Joining Syracuse from the University of Alabama, professors Eric Baltrinic and Heather Fye become part of SOE’s Department of Counseling and Human Services (CHS), while Xiaoxia “Silvie” Huang, most recently at Western Kentucky University, will teach and research in the Department of Instructional Design, Development, and Evaluation (IDDE).

“CHS and IDDE are two of our fastest-growing departments, so we are delighted to have these accomplished new colleagues join us to make immediate contributions,” says Interim Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott. “We are particularly excited by the potential connections between their research interests and our newly launched Center on Experiential Pedagogy and Practice.”

Eric Baltrinic

Joining as an associate professor, Baltrinic is a relational and social justice-minded counselor educator with more than 20 years of counseling, research, supervision, teaching, professional development and consulting experience. He holds a Ph.D. from Kent State University (2014) and is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with Supervision (Ohio).

An applied and qualitative researcher and Q methodologist, Baltrinic’s scholarship is published in Critical Incidents in School Counseling (American Counseling Association Press, 2019) and in Counselor Education and Supervision, Journal of Counseling and Development, Operant Subjectivity: The International Journal of Q Methodology, The Professional Counselor, and Teaching and Supervision in Counseling.

Among Baltrinic’s grant-funded projects, he is currently Co-PI and Qualitative Evaluator for Veterans Recovery Resources, funded by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. His awards include the Outstanding Article Award from Chi Sigma Iota’s Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy (2020).

One of the founding members of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision’s (ACES) Teaching Interest Network, Baltrinic was a principal author and reviewer of the Teaching Task Force’s Best Practices in Teaching in Counselor Education report. He continues to serve as an ACES Teaching Task Force committee member, and he has been instrumentally involved in developing ACES’ Teaching Practice Briefs, a forthcoming online peer-reviewed publication.

Heather Fye

Joining as a visiting assistant professor, Fye held previous faculty appointments at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Winona State University and the University of Alabama. With a Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from Kent State University (2016), Fye is a National Certified Counselor and Licensed Professional Counselor (Ohio).

Fye’s scholarly work primarily focuses on school and clinical mental health counselor professional issues, including wellness, stress, coping, burnout, implementation of the ASCA National Model and trauma-informed practices.

Fye is co-editor of Critical Incidents in School Counseling (American Counseling Association, 2019), for which she provided two chapters. Her scholarship also is published or forthcoming in Counselor Education and Supervision, Journal of Counseling and Development, Journal of Employment Counseling, Journal of School Counseling, The Professional Counselor, and Professional School Counseling.

In addition, Fye serves on the editorial boards and as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Counseling and Development, Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, and Professional School Counseling.

“My department is excited to welcome these two new faculty members. Dr. Eric Baltrinic brings a wealth of research knowledge, with specific expertise in Q methodology and a mindset for interdisciplinary collaboration. Dr. Heather Fye has expertise in school counseling and youth—both important areas, especially as K-12 students navigate mental health challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” says professor Derek Xavier Seward, CHS Department Chair. “Both professors are outstanding, nationally recognized scholars whose expertise in research methodology and school counseling, respectively, create opportunities for new teaching and research collaboration.”

Xiaoxia “Silvie” Huang

Huang, who most recently was an associate professor of instructional design in Western Kentucky University’s School of Teacher Education, has her research focus on designing and evaluating technology-enhanced learning environments and research-based learning strategies that support cognitive, affective and motivational learning processes.

Huang’s work is published or forthcoming in the British Journal of Educational Technology, Computers in Human Behavior, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Interactive Learning Environments, Journal of Educational Computing Research, Journal of Educators Online, Open Learning, and elsewhere. Her book chapters appear in Real-life Distance Education: Case Studies in Practice (Information Age Publishing, 2014) and Mastering Computer Skills Through Experiential Learning (Kendall Hunt, 2012)

Among her awards, in 2015 Huang received both the First Place Journal Article Award (Quantitative-Based Research) from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology’s Division of Distance Learning and the Outstanding Reviewer Award from Educational Technology Research and Development, a journal which she serves as a consulting editor. She also has served as a reviewer for Computers in Human Behavior, Computers and Education, and The Internet and Higher Education. Huang is currently Lead Program Evaluator for the U.S. Army’s Master Educator Course, assessing the effectiveness of this web-enhanced training program.

Huang completed her undergraduate degree in English language and culture at Nanchang University, China (1996). After teaching English as a second language at her alma mater, she took a master’s degree in English studies (applied linguistics) at the National University of Singapore (2001). She then moved to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in instructional systems from Florida State University (2007).

“We are very excited to welcome Dr. Silvie Huang to the IDDE faculty. Dr. Huang brings a wealth of experiences in the field of instructional design and strong expertise in virtual reality research,” says professor Jing Lei, IDDE Department Chair. “She will help us expand our educational opportunities, enrich learning experiences, and further strengthen our research portfolio, directly contributing to the University’s collaborative and cutting-edge research on virtual and immersive interactions.”