Dr. Ortegon has taught courses in Education at the college and university level for nearly 15 years.

Dr. Ortegon is an Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Concordia University Chicago (CUC). She is Program Leader of the CUC doctoral program in Curriculum and Instruction and master's programs in Curriculum and Instruction, Curriculum and Instruction with a Concentration in Trauma and Resilience, and Differentiated Instruction. Dr. Ortegon formerly taught fifth through eighth grade Reading, English, Social Studies, Science and Religion at St. Paul Lutheran Church and School in Chicago's Austin neighborhood. She also has experience in instructional coaching, study abroad and education outreach.

Degrees

  • PhD, Cultural and Educational Policy Studies - Loyola University Chicago; Chicago IL
  • EdM, Technology in Education - Harvard Graduate School of Education; Cambridge, MA
  • BA, Liberal Arts and Sciences - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Champaign, IL

Academic and Professional Highlights

Awards/Honors

  • Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Fellowship

Primary Areas of Research

  • Relational Pedagogy and Leadership
  • Emotions and Education
  • Health, Wellness, and Education
  • Wellbeing and Education
  • Holistic Education

Publications:

  • Ortegon, N. D. (2024). Supporting teachers in differentiating instruction: A professor's reflections. ILASCD Quarterly Journal, 70(4), 13-18.

  • Zaharis, M. C., & Ortegon, N. D. (2024). Overcoming the challenge of social disconnection: Embracing an ecological approach to educating the whole learner. ILASCD Quarterly Journal, 70(1), 7-17.

  • Ortegon, N.D. (2023). A whole-educator approach to instructional coaching. ILASCD Quarterly Journal, 21-29. 

  • Ortegon, N. D. (2022). Say yes to less (and get more): Reflections on minimalism in education. ILASCD Quarterly Journal, 13-20. 

  • Ortegon, N. D. (2017). Toward the "better than well" cultural ideal: Understanding changing conceptualizations of illness and wellness and North American parenting, pedagogy, and education policy (19th-21st C.) (Doctoral dissertation, Loyola University Chicago).

  • Sobe, N. W. & Ortegon, N. D. (2009). Scopic systems, pipes, models and transfers in the global circulation of educational knowledge and practices. In T. Popkewitz & F. Rizvi (Eds.), Globalization and the Study of Education. Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education Yearbook, 108(2), 49-66.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (2012). [Review of the book Raising Citizens in the Century of the Child: the United States and German Central Europe in Comparative Perspective]. European Education, 44(2), 93-96.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (2009). [Review of the book Common Interests, Uncommon Goals: Histories of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies and its Members]. European Education, 41(2), 99-101.

Presentations:

  • Ortegon, N. D., & Zaharis, M. C. (November 2023). From the emotionally intelligent classroom to the emotionally intelligent school: A pathway toward social and academic excellence. [Presentation]. The Associated Colleges of the Chicago Area (ACCA) Scholarship of Pedagogy Symposium, Elgin, IL.

  • Ortegon, N. D. & Zaharis, M. C. (October 2023). Toward cultivating a culture of connection. [Presentation]. The Association of Lutheran College Faculties (ALCF) 88th Annual Conference: Retelling our story: The value of teaching vocational exploration in the liberal arts context, Des Moines, IA.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (October 2021). An historical framework for understanding conceptualizations of illness and wellness in relation to parenting, pedagogy, and education policy in the context of COVID-19. [Presentation]. The Association of Lutheran College Faculties (ALCF) 85th Annual Conference: Confronting the Brave, New World: Science, Politics, Culture & Society in 2021, Austin, TX.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (November 2018). Learning to see what's already there: Possibilities for inter-epistemological understanding. [Presentation]. Concordia University Chicago's Fall 2018 Brown Bag Series: Hidden Figures: Analyzing Gender in Symbolic and Material Spaces, Chicago, IL.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (August 2016). From mental to emotional hygiene: The influence of emotional intelligence on somatic and psychogenic dimensions of parenting and schooling in the late twentieth to early twenty-first century United States. [Paper presentation]. The International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) 38: Education and the Body, Chicago, IL.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (April 2015). Diversifying study abroad. [Presentation]. Loyola University Chicago's School of Education Seventeenth Annual Research Symposium: Community of Scholars, Chicago, Illinois.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (March 2015). Oh the places you'll go! Cultivating new pathways to study abroad for a diverse student body. [Presentation]. 2015 NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education International Symposium, New Orleans, Louisiana.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (April 2013). Now I know my EQCs: An empathetic-based approach to parenting. [Paper presentation]. Loyola University Chicago's School of Education Fifteenth Annual Research Symposium: Community of Scholars, Chicago, Illinois.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (June 2011). Toward the "better than well" individual and society: Changing measures of "illness" and "wellness" and their influence on children and childhood. [Paper presentation] The Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY) Biennial SHCY Conference, New York, New York.

  • Ortegon, N. D. (March 2010). Conceptualizations of mental illness: The mental hygiene movement, family, and schooling in late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century United States and Canada. [Paper presentation]. The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) National Conference, Chicago, Illinois.