Melissa Landa, Ph.D.
Melissa’s pedagogical knowledge, wealth of teaching experience, and passion for helping her students develop into skilled, thoughtful, well-informed practitioners make her a tremendous asset to those that work with and learn from her.
Jennifer Letcher Gray, Ph.D.
Marymount University
Dr. Landa is an outstanding and innovative teacher. She is also a collaborative and supportive colleague. Dr. Landa's value to the College of Education is unquestionable as is her integrity and commitment excellence.
Ayanna Baccus, Ph.D.
University of Maryland
Melissa transmits her passion for culturally responsive teaching to her students. Our preservice teachers who have had Dr. Landa in EDCI443 (Children's Literature) seek her out as their instructor for EDCI342 (Language Arts)...She volunteers to speak at internship seminars so that all interns can join in the dialogue about cross-cultural competence, and she has conducted demonstration lessons in our Professional Development School sites.
Leslie Gettier
University of Maryland
As college students, there are times when we are uncertain about who we want to become. I was one of those college students who was not sure if teaching was my career path. Ever since I encountered Dr. Landa, she became my role model, who listens, cares, loves, and encourages her students to reach their full potential.
Semi Kim
Dr. Landa challenged us by making sure that we understood the historical and cultural contexts surrounding both the literature and the society we live in. We found that this is critical to learn in order to understand where our students come from, and the challenges they face both in outside of the classroom every day. Dr. Landa leads by example, and has always shown that she values student opinions and input. When she sees that her students struggle with something, she makes it her mission to help them overcome it. Her teaching style encourages thought-provoking class discussions where we shared our interpretations of the material and applied it to how we could approach discussing these issues with children.
Clara Allsup
Melissa is a pioneer in her field, constantly creating new classes and lesson plans to guide students through the topics no one wants to talk about. Racial tensions in this country are real and present. I don't think anyone would deny that. Having someone like Melissa on the front lines with our youth, imparting years of knowledge and experience... is absolutely invaluable in attacking one of our nations biggest issues from the ground up. She completely changed my perspective on where I fell in society and how I could open up a dialogue with someone of a different race or socioeconomic background. I have found her teaching to be paramount in my starting conversations and finding common ground with those from different cultures.
Jesse Williams