Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry

Theodorea Regina Berry, Ed.D.

Vice Provost and Dean
College of Undergraduate Studies
Dr. Berry’s Faculty Profile

Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry serves as the University of Central Florida’s Vice Provost and Dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies with a tenured faculty appointment as Professor of Curriculum Studies, Department of Learning Sciences and Research, College of Community Innovation and Education. She spearheads UCF’s academic policy initiatives and praxis for all undergraduate students and leads university-wide curriculum efforts while supporting university-wide initiatives to advance undergraduate education. Additionally, Dr. Berry provides leadership to college faculty teaching courses in majors and minors offered in the college, including four degree-granting programs, among them the innovative Bachelor of Integrative General Studies. 

Dr. Berry joined UCF after serving as Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Social Sciences at San Jose State University. Before this appointment, Dr. Berry held numerous leadership positions, including Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Director, Graduate Recruitment and Engagement in The Graduate School at The University of Texas at San Antonio; Director of the African American Studies Program; and the Graduate Advisor of Record for the Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching program.  

After earning her doctorate, Dr. Berry completed a three-year postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago, awarded by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Dr. Berry’s scholarship focuses on curriculum studies/curriculum theory, critical race feminism, and qualitative research methodology (auto-ethnography, ethnography, historical/archival, and narrative). Her research appears in journals such as the Review of Educational Research, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Race, Ethnicity, and Education, Journal of Educational Foundations, and Urban Review.  

Dr. Berry has published books and numerous book chapters; she is the lead editor of Latinx Curriculum Theorizing (Lexington Books, 2019) and lead editor and contributing author of From Oppression to Grace: Women of Color and Their Dilemmas Within the Academy (Stylus Publishing, 2006) as well as the author of States of Grace: Counterstories of a Black Woman in the Academy (Peter Lang, 2018). She is also a co-editor of The Evolving Significance of Race in Education:Living, Learning, and Teaching (with Sherick Hughes, Peter Lang, 2012). 

Additionally, Theodorea Regina Berry completed a Scholar-in-Residence appointment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from June 1 – August 1, 2016. The appointment’s primary assignment was in the School of Education, with a secondary assignment in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies. During this residency, Dr. Berry’s work focused on qualitative research methodology for physics education evaluation and racial myths. 

Dr. Berry is the 2021 recipient of the William H. Watkins Award from the Society of Professors of Education for her work in theoretical scholar-activism in education. She also received the 2014 Critics Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association for her work as co-editor and contributing author of The Evolving Significance of Race: Living, Learning, and Teaching (2012, Peter Lang, with Sherick Hughes). Dr. Berry was inducted into the Professors of Curriculum Honorary Society in April 2016. In June 2016, Dr. Berry received the Derrick Bell Legacy Award from the Critical Race Studies in Education Association as a leading scholar in the field of critical race theory. 

Dr. Berry has served as Factotum, Professor of Curriculum Honorary Society (2018-2020), and Secretary of Division B (Curriculum) (2018-2020) for AERA. She is also the founding senior co-editor of the International Journal of Curriculum and Social Justice. She is the incoming (2023-2026) Vice President for Division B (Curriculum) of the American Educational Research Association. 

As an active member of the community, Dr. Berry serves on the Florida Diversity Council, is a Diamond Life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., She a delegate for the Metro-Orlando Chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC). She is also a cantor in her home parish, St. Andrews Catholic Community in Orlando, Florida.