Guest Hosts

James Witte is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Director of the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR). Witte, who earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1991, has been a professor at Clemson University and Northwestern University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Carolina Population Center and a lecturer in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Dr. Witte has written numerous articles that have appeared in journals such as The European Sociological Review, Population and Development Review, The Russell Sage Foundation Journal, and Sociological Methods and Research.  He has also published three books, Labor Force Integration and Marital Choice, the Internet and Social Inequality andThe Normal Bar.  The Normal Bar, co-authored with Chrisanna Northrup and Pepper Schwartz, was released in 2013 and made the New York Times bestseller list. Dr. Witte came to Mason in the fall of 2009. Major projects have included the privately funded Institute for Immigration Research, the National Science Foundation funded Digital Archive Project, and the University Partnership with the University of Karachi funded by the U.S. State Department, and attitudes of and toward immigrants in seven U.S. metro areas.

Dr. Debra Lane has been an educator for over 30 years as a teacher and administrator in the U.S. and abroad. She has led several schools as principal, including one of the world's leading international schools, Shanghai American School. While teaching, she taught grades from pre-K through middle school and ESOL classes; she was a middle school literacy coach and taught in the Gifted and Talented program in Fairfax County Public Schools and the Dominican Republic. As Director of Talent Development at Alexandria City Public Schools, she led adult learning projects, brought together all directors of professional learning in the DMV (Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia) area to pull Title II funds together for professional learning opportunities, and began work with student services in DEI.

Dr. Lane holds a B.S. from Baylor University, master's degrees from Virginia Tech, and George

Mason University, and an Ed.D. from the University of Virginia. Her dissertation on bullying

prevention led her to advise government agencies, associations, and school boards on effective bullying prevention strategies locally and internationally. She has taught undergraduate and graduate classes at George Mason University and the University of Virginia. As part of her work with the National Staff Development Council (Learning Forward), she applied current research in adult learning to her work on staff development, focusing on professional learning communities. 

She presented at numerous international conferences, including the Near East South Asia Association (Greece), Tri-State Educators (Columbia, Mexico, Costa Rica), European Council of International Schools (Germany, Denmark, England, and The Hague) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (Orlando). During COVID, she worked on federal government grants focusing on transformative leadership and state accreditation for the Virginia Department of Education and was a State Accreditation Officer. In addition, she has consulted in leadership development, increasing teachers' leadership and instructional roles, and curriculum auditing across the U.S., Europe, and Central and South America. Dr. Lane has also participated in China and Hong Kong accreditation teams with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. She was nominated as Virginia Principal of the Year and won the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Educator of the Year Award in 2009. She serves as a board member with the Virginia Environmental Education Association, Fall for the Book Literacy Festival at George Mason University, George Mason University Curriculum Advisory Council, IDEA (Inclusive Development Education for Adolescences'), and the Washington Area Bicycle Association.

Dr. Lane works at the Defense Health Agency building leadership development pipelines in Workforce Development.