Twila Lukowiak

Biography

Formerly from Texas, Dr. Lukowiak’s passions include her family, teaching, and researching. Her professional journey began as a reading teacher in a middle school. She then became a certified special education teacher and educational diagnostician. She taught students with emotional and behavioral disorders for ten years in an elementary school. She loved teaching in the P-12 setting, but decided to make the transition to teaching at Bradley University so she could work with the best and brightest teacher candidates in the nation!

Teaching

One of Dr. Lukowiak’s continuing goals at Bradley University is to provide her students with the knowledge, skills, foundation, and mentorship they need to become exceptional professional educators. She also strives to teach them that learning is a life-long process which does not end once they graduate.

 

To improve her own teaching, she utilizes her students’ feedback each semester so she may continuously grow as a professor. Dr. Lukowiak continually develops her own knowledge and expertise in the field of special education, as well as other facets of education. She also works tirelessly to enhance and improve all of her classes. Dr. Lukowiak thinks that having the responsibility of teaching the educators of tomorrow is a meaningful and momentous responsibility. She whole-heartedly believes that working as a professor at Bradley University in the Department of Education, Counseling, and Leadership is a significant honor and she feels extremely blessed to have the opportunity to serve her students each day.

Scholarship

Dr. Lukowiak’s scholarship interests include the following:

• behavioral and academic strategies designed to more effectively teach students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD)
• methods of assisting parents / caregivers of students with EBD in providing positive behavioral interventions and appropriate consequences to their children in the home setting
• reasons special education behavioral teachers leave the profession or seek other teaching assignments
• supports that special education / general education teachers need in order to more effectively teach students with EBD
• long-term emotional repercussions of suffering bullying in the P-12 setting
• effective academic and behavioral / social strategies to assist students with learning disabilities in the P-12 setting
• common characteristics of individuals who have participated in school violence

Service

Dr. Lukowiak enjoys providing service to Bradley University, community, and profession. Her passion includes working with Bradley students to design and perform multimedia presentations to P-12 students concerning the harms of bullying and the benefits of acts of kindness. She also enjoys providing service to the Innocence Project which is an organization that exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices.   

Licensures and Certifications

Elementary Reading (Grades 1-8) Certification, Texas Tech University

January 1997 - Present

With an elementary reading (grades 1-8) certification, Dr. Lukowiak is able to teach reading classes to grades 1-8 in a general education classroom.

 

Elementary Self-Contained (Grades 1-8) Certification, Texas Tech University

January 1997 - Present

With an elementary self-contained (grades 1-8) certification, Dr. Lukowiak may teach grades 1-8 in a general education classroom.

 

Educational Diagnostician Certification (Grades EC - 12), Texas Tech University

September 2007 - Present

With an educational diagnostician certification, Dr. Lukowiak is able to perform the following duties:

1. a) evaluate students utilizing formal assessments
2. b) score and evaluate formal assessments to determine if students qualify for special education services
3. c) facilitate individual education plan (IEP) meetings to review if students qualify for services and which services are appropriate

 

 

 

Special Education Certification (Grades PK - 12), Texas Tech University

June 2000 - Present

With a special education (grades PK-12) certification, Dr. Lukowiak is able to teach students who qualify for services under any special education category (grades PK-12).