David I Upegui
David I Upegui
Assistant Teaching Professor of Education
Overview
David I. Upegui, Ph.D., is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Education and the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Science Supervisor in Brown's Department of Education. His work centers culturally sustaining pedagogy and justice-oriented science teaching, with a focus on preparing teachers to serve historically marginalized students and multilingual learners. At Brown, he designs and teaches graduate coursework for secondary science teacher candidates, supervises their clinical residencies, and teaches undergraduate courses on the policies and practices that shape urban education.
Upegui's scholarship examines how science education can advance social justice. He is co-author of Integrating Racial Justice into Your High School Biology Classroom: Using Evolution to Understand Diversity (Routledge, 2024). He has also published in Science & Education and in edited volumes on culturally sustaining pedagogy and evolution education. His current projects include The CF Experiment, an oral-history study of the Central Falls School District's decades under state control, funded by Brown's Ken Wong Fund for Faculty Research. He is also studying mentorship-intensive models of science teacher preparation and the policy history of Rhode Island's science curriculum mandate.
Before joining Brown full time, Upegui spent sixteen years as a science teacher, content lead, and induction coach at Central Falls High School, his alma mater, where he founded the school's Science Olympiad team. His teaching has been recognized with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), the nation's highest honor for K–12 science teachers. Other honors include the National Association of Biology Teachers' Evolution Education Award and Outstanding Biology Teacher Award, and a 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Colombian Legacy, presented at the Rhode Island State House. He also served on the College Board's AP Biology Development Committee, helping redesign instructional materials to broaden access and engagement nationwide.
Upegui earned his Ph.D. in Education from the joint program of the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College. His dissertation, Social Justice and Evolutionary Biology: A Natural Fit, includes an autoethnography of his experiences as a student and teacher in Central Falls.
