James M. Mitchell, PhD Faculty Profile

Dr. James M. Mitchell is Professor Emeritus of Teacher Education. Dr. Mitchell founded the first-ever single subject credential online program in the CSU in 2019 and served as Director of the Global Single Subject Credential Remote Program from 2019-22. He is now fully retired.

He has been a member of the CSUEB Teacher Education faculty since 2002, having taught Foundations of Education (one of the first CSU courses to gain Quality Matters approval) , Technology in Education, Professional Responsibilities and Special Topics (cooperative learning and conflict resoltion). His research focuses on technology in teacher education,  cooperation and conflict resolution as related to HIV/AIDS education and service learning, as well as democratic-citizenship skill development through cooperation in the classroom. 

Dr. Mitchell has been teaching online for over 25 years. He has been certified in Quality Matters (QM), a national online course certification program, and the CSU online course certification program: Quality Online Teaching (QOLT). Dr. Mitchell also has served as a trainer in the Improving Your Online Course class for Quality Matters. He has taught in the CSUEB Online Teaching and Learning program and has co-developed an online course in HIV/AIDS education that has been used by over 1000 Teacher Leaders and k-12 administrators worldwide. For the 2016-17 academic year, Dr. Mitchell served as Special Consultant / Interim Area Director - Northern Region, to the CalState TEACH program as he directed the closure of the Northern campus. From 01/08 through 12/08 Dr. Mitchell chaired the CSUEB Teacher Education Department. He also has served as Team Leader for the Single Subject Online Team, as well as the Transition-to-Teaching program team, a partnership with the Alameda County Office of Education, in which classroom paraprofessionals earned their State of California teaching credential. From 2014-19 Dr. Mitchell served as a member of the CSUEB Information Technology Advisory Committee.Other University service includes chairing the University Tenure and Promotion (UTP) committee (2018-19), serving as a member of the Academic Senate Executive Committee (2008-09, 2009-10, 20015-16, 2019-20, 2020-21), as well as other department, college and university oversight committees.

Dr. Mitchell has also been active with AERA (the American Educational Research Association), founding the Special Interest Group: Democratic Citizenship in Education in 2003 and serving as either Chair or Program Chair until 2018. He also has chaired the AERA Special Interest Group: Service Learning and Experiential Education (2002-2006). He also reviews AERA proposals.

Dr. Mitchell has served as a panel member and site coordinator for the Build a Future without AIDS project, hosted by the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. Locally, Dr. Mitchell has served on the Board of the Community Learning Center Schools of Alameda, which oversees both the Alameda Community Learning Center and the Nea Community Learning Center. Currently, Dr. Mitchell serves as a delegate to the Alameda Labor Council.

A native of Lowell, Massachusetts, Dr. Mitchell is an ardent fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. He has held season tickets to the Minnesota Vikings since his graduate school days at UMN, and he lives in the East Bay area. His daughter is a college graduate of the CSU system.