Alex Romeo Lin has built his career on developing and training teachers to become effective practitioners in an ever evolving and diverse school context. He completed his Bachelor's Degree at UC, Riverside with an emphasis in Political Science and Theatre in 2003 and earned his Ph.D. in Education from UC, Irvine with a specialization in Educational Policy and Social Context (EPSC). His dissertation examined how students’ opportunities to engage in classroom debate on social issues has an impact on their civic engagement.
Dr. Lin's interest in the profound importance of education emerged from his work at Equal Access, an international relief program. The experience inspired him to understand how education can profoundly improve the welfare of peoples’ lives. The organization's main focus was developing literacy programs to help marginalized people in a number of third-world countries. Although the center mainly operated in downtown San Francisco, it specialized in sending public radio broadcast of educational programming to rural and remote areas of Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Laos, and Cambodia. As a liaison to Nepal, Alex was exposed to the unstable political climate stemming from various factions clashing for control of the government, which resulted in widespread violence and displacement of civilians from their home. Because of the government's tight control of the media, broadcast of these educational programs were vital to informing women about birth control and civic virtues. The highlight of his stint at Equal Access was completion of a $50,000 grant to community centers in Nepal to provide support for radio programming and staff for 12 million people across Nepal.
Capitalizing on his desire to travel, Alex spent a year teaching English in Japan. While he had the opportunity to serve at several elementary and middle schools, the highlight of his career was the opportunity to help craft the curriculum at the YMCA in Tokyo. In dealing with an archaic and ineffective English program, he worked with several key teachers in creating a curriculum that would be engaging and relevant to learning English for students. The impetus for reform involved combining peripheral subjects like Art, Science, and Drama with English. Vast improvements were shown as students became more engaged in the program, while they even attempted to teach English to their parents. Returning to the States, Alex went on to complete his teaching credentials in Social Science and elementary education at UC Irvine. He gained experience as a public school teacher in various elementary and middle schools all across California. The experience was invaluable as he was able to apply the research and strategies gained in the courses and into the classroom.
After he earned his Ph.D. at UC, Irvine., he served as a postdoctoral researcher at the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. There, his study focused on Latino adolescents’ organized after-school activities and the role of culture and ethnicity, family processes, and motivation in their participation. He then served as a Postdoctoral Researcher in UC Irvine's School of Education, collaborating with Associate Professor Sandra Simpkins. In his most recent position at Vanguard University, he joined the Liberal Studies Department in the Fall of 2016.
He currently lives in Rancho Santa Margarita with his wife Kristen and daughter Olivia.