TCASN proudly welcomes Vanessa Lazón, Marcy Singer-Gabella, and Eric Stokes to its board.
Vanessa Lazón works for the Office of English Learners (EL) at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) as the EL Family & Community Specialist. In this role, she works directly with EL families and schools to solidify the pivotal partnership needed for students to be successful. Vanessa spent a big part of her first year with MNPS helping families overcome the challenges that come with virtual learning due to the pandemic but has since been working to plan and implement initiatives and community partnerships to support EL students and their families.
Vanessa moved to Nashville from Lima, Perú in the late nineties and got to finish high school locally. Her immigration experience along with her college years and the experiences at the beginning of her professional career in non-profit helped her understand that having the appropriate resources and supports is vital for New Americans/English Learners to successfully face challenges and start their journey towards a thriving and engaged life in their new home. Her vast experiences working with diverse populations helped her become an advocate and in turn fueled her passion to help immigrants and refugees by connecting their needs with appropriate resources, as well as supporting them as they learn how to navigate existing systems, and begin to offer their talents, knowledge, and wisdom to their new community.
Vanessa is a graduate of Lipscomb University and a “MyCity Academy” program graduate. She is part of the inaugural cohort of the Mosaic Fellowship, served as co-chair for the Mayor’s New Americans Advisory Council, led the Mayor’s Office of New Americans for four years, and is a board member for The Nashville Food Project.
Marcy Singer-Gabella is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt, and faculty director of the Nashville Partnership for Educational Equity Research (PEER), a research-practice partnership between Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and Vanderbilt University. Over the past 30 years, she has collaborated with school, district and university educators to address barriers to equitable educational opportunity and post-secondary success for students, and to build professional learning cultures for teachers. She has served on the provost’s staff to foster partnerships with K-12 and higher education institutions in Tennessee, and led degree programs in curriculum and teacher education. In 2018-19 she served as Chief of Staff of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools while on leave from the university.
Her scholarship centers on designing inclusive contexts that bring together stakeholders -- from families to non-profits to government agencies -- to investigate and address pressing problems of inequity. Singer-Gabella teaches courses in the Learning, Diversity and Urban Studies program (M.Ed.), Learning, Teaching and Diversity program (Ph.D.), and undergraduate teacher education programs. She also directs “Tutor Nashville”, a partnership between Vanderbilt and MNPS’ Accelerating Scholars program.
Dr. Eric Stokes is the Assistant Vice Provost for Strategic Enrollment Services and Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Orientation at the University of Memphis. He proudly joined the Tiger family in the summer of 2017. In his 18-year college admissions career he has traveled nationally to inspire students. A few career highlights include directed a summer institute for at-risk college freshmen, coordinated overnight campus visit programs, and mentored students to become college graduates, leaders, and young professionals. Currently, he leads a team of 40 people to recruit and enroll new Tigers. Eric is an enthusiastic educator with a passion to serve his community.
Eric is a native of Knoxville, TN. He is an alumnus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (2002) and The University of Tennessee Knoxville (2004, 2017). His dissertation title was: The impact of non-cognitive factors on first-year GPA for university eligible students from low-performing high schools. Eric was a 2021-2022 Maxine Smith Fellow, a 2017-2019 board member of SACAC (Southern Association of College Admissions Counselors), as well as the 2015-2018 co-chair for NACAC’s (National Association of College Admissions Counselors) African American Special Interest Group.
Eric has a beautiful and phenomenal wife, Dr. Jamia Stokes, who is the Senior Director of Postsecondary Pathways for TN SCORE. They have been married for sixteen years and have three children. Kendalyn is a sophomore at the University of Memphis, Evan is an energetic 8-year-old and granddaughter, Kylinn, is 3 years old and full of personality. Eric is the son of Douglas and Beverly Stokes, long-time educators in Knoxville, and has an older brother and younger sister, both college graduates as well. In his spare time, Eric enjoys interacting with family and friends, traveling, watching TV and movies, trying to be something-like-a pit master on the grill, playing PlayStation, and coaching sports. He is a second-generation brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Eric is a most proud to be a Christian and a member of Rogers Memorial Baptist Church (Knoxville, TN).