Cheree Causey, Ed.D. has a doctorate from The University of Alabama in Higher Education Administration. She has worked for over 23 years in higher education. Prior to joining the UA Early College program, she was Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs. She provided oversight for Parent and Family programs and assisted families in crisis situations as an On-Call Dean. She was also responsible for Student Media, Community Service, and the Blackburn Institute, a national model for leadership development. She was a major gifts fund-raising officer for Student Affairs.

Dr. Causey teaches Career Development as a distance education course through the College of Continuing Studies. She has also taught Entrepreneurship and Leadership through the Culverhouse College of Business Administration, and Volunteerism and Civic Responsibility for the College of Human Environmental Sciences.

Before her career in higher education, Dr. Causey was the founder and owner of a fitness and health exercise company in Tuscaloosa, Aerobics by Amy and Cheree. She holds a master's degree in health education and health promotion. As a National Certification Specialist, she nationally certified over 4,000 group fitness instructors in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Dr. Causey is an invited presenter on topics of leadership, motivation, and personal development.

Jennifer L. Roth-Burnette, Program Manager for Student and Parent Services, holds a PhD in Musicology from New York University. She has taught at the college level for the past 14 years, and has worked in higher education administration since 2008. Prior to joining UA Early College, Ms. Roth-Burnette was Director of Interim and Contract Learning and Assistant Adjunct Professor of Music at Birmingham-Southern College. She holds degrees in music from the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University. She maintains active research interests in 12th-13th century liturgical music, manuscript study, exegesis, and the medieval art of memory. In her free time, Ms. Roth-Burnette enjoys spending time with her spouse and young children, traveling, engaging in paper and textile arts, gardening, and reading.

Instructor of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a recent graduate of The University of Alabama with a Ph.D in Anthropology, specializing in the archaeology of prehistoric complex societies. His research interests include Mississippian archaeology, prehistoric architecture, architectural energetics, and monumental landscapes. He also possesses knowledge of cultural anthropology, specifically marriage and kinship studies, and physical anthropology, mainly hominid evolution and forensics. Dr. Lacquement teaches ANT 100: Introduction to Anthropology and ANT 102: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. He looks forward to developing Anthropology 103: Great Discoveries in Archaeology for the Early College curriculum in fall 2010.

Instructor of History in the College of Arts and Sciences, holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Alabama (2007). He specializes in the history of the modern American South and has more than twelve years teaching experience, including three years in secondary social studies education. Prior to joining UA Early College, Dr. Ratliff taught Modern European History, US History to 1865, AP US History to 1865, and Creative Writing at Tuscaloosa Academy, where he helped to implement the Academy's one-to-one laptop initiative and was a leader in the implementation of classroom technology. Dr. Ratliff has been an invited conference presenter on the use of technology in the classroom, as well as "paper-less classrooms" and consults with publishers about expanding the role of technological applications in online learning environments. In addition to his work as an Early College instructor, Dr. Ratliff serves as an adjunct graduate instructor for the University of Alabama's Gadsden Center and a neighborhood consultant on turf agriculture. He lives in Tuscaloosa County with his wife and son.

Instructor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, has taught at The University of Alabama since fall 2002, after teaching at both the secondary and post secondary levels of education. Her experience includes teaching high school English and computer science, implementing a federal grant program for at-risk students, and teaching freshman composition and both American and English literature at the college level. She is an alumna of Troy University, with a Master's degree in English Education.

Mrs. Schwartz was previously a faculty representative for the University of Alabama's SGA Election Board, and served as the faculty sponsor for the Asian-American Club and the DifferEnt Club. Her civic activities include serving as president of the Englewood Elementary PTSO Executive Board, and as president of the Hillcrest Middle School PTSO Executive Board. In addition, she has also served as a board member for the local Boy Scouts of America. Mrs. Schwartz is a member of the National Council for Teachers of English and a member of the Sloan Consortium, an organization committed to quality online education.

Originally from Dothan, Alabama, Mrs. Schwartz and her family moved to Tuscaloosa in 1998. She is married to Elliot Schwartz, an anesthetist, and they have two children, Tiffany and Ben. They are also the doting grandparents of a granddaughter, Cameron. Mrs. Schwartz's other joys in life are her pets: two Bichon Frises, two English bulldogs, and one Abyssinian. She also loves Alabama football, gardening and traveling, and most importantly, she loves teaching in the University of Alabama's Early College program.

Instructor of Art History in the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Andrea Dorminey Taylor is a 2004 graduate of The University of Alabama with a Master of Arts in Art History, focusing on Medieval and Renaissance art and writing a Master's thesis entitled, "Images of the Goddess Isis as a Precursor for Images of the Virgin Mary." While obtaining her Master's, Andrea taught Art History as a graduate teaching assistant and served as the Art History Instructor with the Alabama in Italy program from 2002-06. She taught as a full-time Instructor of Art History at UA from 2004-08. While an Instructor, she led two successful study abroad programs to Italy and developed the Alabama Art History in Italy program, which she directed in 2007. After returning to her hometown in south Georgia in 2008, Andrea continues to teach online courses for the UA Department of Art & Art History and the Early College program.

Dr. Angela C. Morrow Baker, Instructor of Biology in the college of Arts and Sciences, holds a B.S., M.S., and Ph. D. in Biology. She has also earned a M.S. in educational administration. Dr. Baker has taught at several large universities through the years, worked in research, and published papers, but found herself in a new field and temporary position at the U of Northern Colorado eight years ago. Her plans had been to return to the southeast, but, as she says, "then there was this cowboy..." and she is still there in Colorado, while recently becoming part of the UA Early College team.

Dr. Baker's cowboy, Mr. George, is a real cowboy with belt buckles to prove it, but is in the insurance business because everyone needs a pay check. They both enjoy being at Dr. Baker's sister-in-law's ranch in WY or at her family's farm in AL. Camping, fishing, bicycle rides, and golf are their hobbies ,and Dr. Baker still rides her horse when she gets the chance. She works at a brick and mortar college, but is slowly investing more and more of her work time in long distance learning and writing. Dr. Baker's three proudest accomplishments are her three grown children, none of which is a scientist, but all of whom have an appreciation for her work and the field of science.

Enrollment Advisor / Student and Parent Services
Ms. Lee Carter is a member of the Early College Student and Parent Services team, and coordinates Early College enrollment. She was born in Meridian, MS, grew up in Butler, AL, and attended the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. Ms. Carter then married and moved to New Orleans, LA in 1986, and then to Tuscaloosa, AL in 1988. On her return to Tuscaloosa, Ms. Carter completed her B.S. in Early Childhood/Elementary Education from UA (1991). She was employed at UA, in the Dean's office for Human Environmental Sciences from 2002 to 2009, and completed her M.S. in General Human Environmental Sciences in 2009. Ms. Carter's son is a UA graduate, and her daughter is a senior at UA.

Office Administrator
Alyson Lawrence, Program Assistant for Early College, is responsible for planning and organizing Early College meetings and functions as well as managing contact databases. She is also support for the Professional Staff and Instructors in Early College. She has worked for the University of Alabama for about 2 ½ years. Ms. Lawrence is a year away from completing her Bachelor’s degree in Consumer Affairs, at which time she plans on continuing toward her Master's in Consumer Economics.

Peer Coach Coordinator
Whitney Miller is a graduate assistant and Peer Coach Coordinator for Early College. She has a wide range of responsibilities, and on any given day can be asked to call students, train peer coaches, tweak a Powerpoint presentation, help manage a database, and more.

Whitney has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from the University of Alabama. After graduation, she worked for two mid-sized Birmingham-based companies before returning to Tuscaloosa to begin studying for her Master's in Education. Once her degree is complete, she will be certified to teach Secondary English Language Arts in Alabama.

Whitney is a Blackburn Fellow and a member of the UA National Alumni Association and Capstone Communication Society. She recently co-presented at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) annual convention in Philadelphia, where she and her co-presenters discussed the role of mentoring in the retention and conversion of lower-division education students.