Rural Education Center Affiliated Faculty & Staff
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Karen Eppley, Director –keppley@ksu.edu |
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Karen Eppley (PhD, Penn State) is the Director of the Rural Education Center and an Associate Professor of Rural Education at Kansas State University. She went to a rural K-12 school, is a first-generation college graduate, and taught fifth grade in Northern Appalachia. Her research explores the ways in which opportunity does not manifest equally across space and asks questions about teaching and learning at the intersection of identity, rural education, and policy. She is a co-author of Why Rural Matters (2023, 2025), Teaching in Rural Places: Thriving in Classrooms, Schools, and Communities and a co-editor of the Bloomsbury Handbook of Rural Education in the United States. She edits the open access publication, The Journal of Research in Rural Education. |
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Ennis A. Rios serves as the Assistant Director of the Rural Education Center in Kansas State University’s College of Education, where he helps lead initiatives that strengthen educational opportunities for rural students and educators across Kansas. He manages large-scale, grant-funded programs that support more than 280 school districts through technology access, professional development, and community partnerships designed to expand STEM opportunities and advance educational equity. With a background that spans military service, higher education, and research, Ennis brings a collaborative leadership style and a deep commitment to rural communities. |
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J. Spencer Clark – jspencerclark@ksu.edu |
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J. Spencer Clark (PhD, Indiana University) is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Kansas State University. He, along with Dr. Lori Goodson, reimagined the Rural Education Center in 2019, where he served as director until 2024. A former public school social studies and ELA teacher, his research explores curriculum theory, teacher agency, and rural education, with a focus on how context, identity, and policy shape teaching and learning. He is the author of Local Civics with National Purpose (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), co-author of Teaching Literacy & Social Studies: An Integrated Approach for a Diverse and Changing World (Cognella, 2024), and lead author of Action Research (New Prairie Press, 2020). His work has been supported by more than $13 million in external funding, including projects that expand STEM and career pathways in rural schools. |
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Kelsy Sproul – ksproul@ksu.edu |
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Kelsy Sproul is a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Kansas State University. A first-generation college graduate, member of the Cherokee Nation, and former kindergarten teacher in a remote rural district, she brings a deeply personal understanding of rural education to her work. As a rancher in southeast Kansas and a product of the rural public school system, Kelsy is passionate about place-based education and agricultural literacy as pathways to connect learning with community and strengthen rural schools. She currently serves on the school board of the same remote rural district she attended as a child, later taught in, and where her four children are now enrolled. Kelsy also serves as Secretary of the Association of Teacher Educators–Kansas (ATE-K), as a reviewer for The Advocate journal, and on the Curriculum Advisory Council for the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. Her research interests include rural education, literacy through agriculture, and the integration of place-based learning in rural classrooms. |
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Dr. Tonnie Martinez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at Kansas State University. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Council for Public School Improvement and coordinates the Office of Innovation and Collaboration. Dr. Martinez grew up in rural Kansas and began her teaching career in the small high school from where she had graduated. The diversity and work ethic of a rural lifestyle has informed her teaching and research. Her research includes teacher readiness for accommodating English learners, equity and access for all learners, and the impact of COVID on pre-service and in-service teachers. As an educational consultant, Tonnie works with state departments and school districts on Office of Civil Rights compliance and equity audits. Her professional development topics include teaching strategies for diverse learners, paraprofessional development, and evaluation of curriculum and instruction for bias and sensitivity. Her service to education includes KSDE Standards writing teams and she is a national examiner for the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation. Dr. Martinez serves as a Co-Principal Investigator on a multi-million-dollar research study for the U.S. Department of Education on place-bound students and a state funded research project for the Kansas Board of Regents to support student teachers in rural schools. |
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Dr. Ambyr Rios – ambyrrios@ksu.edu |
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Ambyr Rios is an Assistant Professor of Secondary English Education and coordinator of the secondary English, Theatre, and Journalism teacher certification programs in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Kansas State University. The product of rural and military public schools, Dr. Rios is a two-time English teacher of the year and former secondary English teacher, middle-school administrator, and high-school district director of teaching and learning. She serves as an Executive Board Member for the Kansas Association of Teachers of English, Editorial Board Member for Kansas English, and an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Teacher Education. Her main research interests include pre-service and in-service teacher preparation and training using asset-based literacy approaches. |
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Dr. Vicki Sherbert –sherbev@ksu.edu |
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Dr. Vicki Sherbert, Assistant Professor, holds three degrees from KSU College of Education (BS ’85; MS ’94, Ph.D. ’11). Before joining the College of Education faculty in 2013, she taught in rural schools for 28 years. As a product of rural education, she has a passion for supporting rural communities and celebrating their rich diversity and resources. She currently teaches and supervises preservice teachers in English Language Arts, Journalism, and Speech/Theatre education and teaches graduate courses in diversity, literacy, and learning strategies. Her research interests include teacher education, adolescent literacy, place-based writing, and rural education. |
Dr. Tonnie Martinez –
