Denise Cummings-Clay, Ph.D., serves as a tenured Associate Professor in the Education Department, Teacher Education unit, at Hostos Community College/City University of New York, Bronx, New York, and is Coordinator of the Gerontology Unit (Aging and Health Studies Program). She has served in this role since 2016. Prior to 2016, she served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Substitute Assistant Professor at Hostos/CUNY. Dr. Cummings-Clay is passionate about effective teaching and learning and operates from the belief that each of her “teacher/scholars” will succeed if equipped.
Dr. Cummings-Clay earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Social Science Education from Indiana State University (Terre Haute, Indiana), the Master of Science in College Student Personnel Work from Indiana State University, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Adult and Higher Education from the University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma). Moreover, she has writing intensive and hybrid certifications and experience. She is also certified by the Association of College and University Educators and the American Council on Education in the Effective Online Teaching Practice Framework.
With respect to publications, she was lead author in an article entitled, “Shifting Modalities: Providing K-5 Montessori Education Online during the Pandemic,” published by Global Education Review in its Winter 2022 (Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 58-75) issue. She is author of “Impact of OER in Teacher Education”, which is an article of her research findings on the topic of Open Educational Resources (OER), published in the December 2020 issue (Vol. 12, No. 4) of Open Praxis, a peer-reviewed open access scholarly journal focusing on research and innovation in open, distance, and flexible education, published by the International Council for Open and Distance Education. She is a contributing author in an article entitled, “Are OERs by Themselves Enough to Improve Student Success?”, published in The International Journal of Open Educational Resources (OER) in its Winter 2020 (Vol. 2, No. 1) issue. In 2015, she published a customized textbook for the Field Experience in Education course at Hostos, which provided students with an added cutting-edge academic resource. She has made presentations at conferences at the international, national, regional, and local levels on diverse topics.
Professionally, her scope of work includes administrative roles at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, Indiana); California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California); California State University, Northridge (Northridge, California); and Langston University (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma). Prior to joining the Hostos faculty, she served as Director of Adult Education at the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (Bronx, New York). She is founding Chair of the Board of Trustees of Choice Charter School (formerly the New York City Montessori Charter School - Kindergarten through 5th Grade), Bronx, New York.