Ken Hoyte Ph.D.

Experienced and results-driven education professional, leader, and change agent with strengths in the areas of communication, collaboration, accreditation, grant funding, and student support and success. Passionate about driving educational excellence and fostering a positive learning environment for students, faculty, and staff. Significant experience in the areas of special education, autism, language development, and intellectual disability. Adept at managing concurrent objectives to promote efficiency and influence positive outcomes. Over $3,000,000 in federal and state grant funds secured for Medgar Evers College over the last 10 years.

• 2007-2010 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Columbia University / NYS Psychiatric Institute: Language Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
• 2006-2007 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Michigan State University College of Human Medicine: Role of Emotion and Health on Cognitive Ability

2010-2012 Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY - Neuroscience and Education Program

Graduate courses taught - Cognitive Neuroscience and Education; Social and Emotional Neuroscience and Education

2010-2011 Alfred University, Center for Integrated Teacher Education (CITE), Brooklyn, NY - Downstate Counseling Program

Graduate course taught - Human Development for School Counselors

2010-2011 Iona College, New Rochelle, NY- Psychology Department

Graduate course taught - Learning and Cognition

2010 College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY - School of New Resources

Undergraduate course taught - Crisis Intervention

2004-2005 Brandeis University, Waltham, MA - Neuroscience Program

Graduate courses taught - Neurophysiology; Human Neuropsychology and Cognition; Introduction to Neurobiology

2014 - present - Academics in Motion, Brooklyn Collegiate High School (Brooklyn, NY): Basketball Coach and Mentor

2012-2013 - Harlem RBI (New York, NY): High School Writing Instructor

2008-2010 - Academics in Motion, John F. Kennedy High School (Bronx, NY): Regents Prep Instructor and Tutor

2008-2009 - Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School (Brooklyn, NY): Enrichment Teacher (Grades 5-8)

2007 - Capital Area Academy (Lansing, MI): Special Education Teacher (Grades 3-8)

1999-2002 - Princeton Review (New York, NY): SAT Prep Instructor (math and verbal)

Agency: U.S Department of Education – Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence

Role: Principal Investigator

Amount: $1,500,000 (direct + indirect)

Duration: 2023 - 2027 (4 years)

Title: Global Agents in Teacher Education (GATE)
Overview and expected outcomes: The four-year grant, Global Change Agents in Teacher Education (GATE), is designed to partner with 25 high-need elementary schools in eight community school districts in Central Brooklyn in order to:

- increase the supply of certified teachers of color with career paths in high needs schools in Central Brooklyn;
- Increase the supply of bilingual teachers of color to serve dual language students; and,
- Increase teacher effectiveness in research based interdisciplinary instruction and culturally responsive pedagogy and practice

Agency: New York State Education Department

Role: Principal Investigator

Amount: $325,000 (direct + indirect)

Duration: 2021 - 2026 (5 years)

Title: My Brother’s Keeper Teacher Opportunity Corps II (MBK TOC) Scholarship
Overview and expected outcomes: The purpose of TOC is to increase the participation rate of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals in teaching careers. TOC program will recruit and prepare 50 teachers in one of the three nationally accredited specialty degree programs to work in focus schools in Brooklyn and Buffalo. It would include instructional strategies designed to meet the learning needs of students placed at risk. Incorporate the use of mentors and other high quality support systems for pre-service and new teachers that are designed to ensure a lasting and positive effect on classroom performance. Reflect current research on teaching and learning; culturally and linguistically relevant teaching; youth development; restorative practices; and STEM concentrations at the elementary, middle & high school levels. Integrate a clinically rich pre-service model with a 10 month internship experience and includes partnerships with high- needs schools to help them address the recurrent teacher shortage areas, and foster retention in teaching of highly qualified individuals who value diversity and equity.

Agency: U.S Department of Education – Office of Special Education Programs

Role: Co-Principal Investigator

Amount: $1,250,000 (direct + indirect)

Duration: 2013 - 2018 (5 years)

Title: Change Agents in Special Education (CASE)

Overview and expected outcomes: The main objective of this project is to recruit, prepare, and graduate up to 100 dual-certified special education teachers from minority underrepresented groups with either an Early Childhood Special Education or Childhood Special Education Bachelor’s Degree within a five-year period. This project focuses on equipping candidates with evidence-based early intervention and instructional knowledge, skills and dispositions to provide high-quality instruction to infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities in high need and diverse urban settings. In addition, candidates will receive have an opportunity to concentrate on improving the learning and developmental outcomes of children diagnosed with low-incidence disabilities.

Agency: Language Learning Grant

Role: Principal Investigator

Amount: $10,000 (Direct)
Duration: 2009 – 2011 (2 years)
Title: Examining Outcomes of a Literacy Intervention in Nonverbal Children with Autism.
The overall goal of this project was to examine the effectiveness of a literacy intervention to determine whether reading and writing, rather than spoken language, may be a viable alternative mode of communication for nonverbal children with Autism. The data obtained from this pilot study

will help guide the design and implementation of literacy teaching and interventions for children with Autism.

1. Hoyte, K.J. (2024). A place for cognitive neuroscience in an education curriculum: An argument for increased neuroscience training for teachers. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, accepted

2. Hoyte, K.J. (2020). Examining the impact of iPad Instruction on Academic Engagement and Adaptive Behaviors in Urban Elementary School Children with Autism. Educational Perspectives, 51(2), 45-53.
3. Johnson, T., and Hoyte, K.J. (2014) Preparing Urban Teachers: Examining the Challenges and Successes of Teacher Candidates on their Quest to becoming Urban School Teachers. SE E-Journal of Education. E-ISSN 2289-6889, 13-17
4. Hoyte, K.J. (2013). Understanding prosody-related language impairments in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Brain and Language, 124(2), 184-193.
5. Goh, S., Whitaker, A., Feldman, J., Cull, M.B., Hoyte, K.J., Algermissen, M., McSwiggan-Hardin, M., Kugelmass, D., and Peterson, B.S. (2013). Teaching nonverbal children with autistic disorder to read and write: A pilot study. International Journal for Developmental Disabilities, 59(2), 95-107.
6. Hoyte, K.J., Brownell, H., and Wingfield, A. (2009). Components of speech prosody and their use in detection of syntactic structure by older adults. Experimental Aging Research, 35, 129-151.
7. Hoyte, K.J., Brownell, H., Vesely, L., and Wingfield, A. (2006). Decomposing prosody: Use of prosodic features for detection of syntactic structure and speech affect by patients with right hemisphere lesions. Brain and Language, 99, 43-46.
8. Wingfield, A., Brownell, H., and Hoyte, K.J. (2006). Variable solutions to the same problem: Aberrant practice effects in object naming by three aphasic patients. Brain and Language, 97, 351-356.
9. Wingfield, A., Hoyte, K.J., Kim, A., and Brownell, H. (2004). Differential impact on aphasic naming induced by repeated naming versus word-onset gating. Brain and Language, 91, 142-143.
10. Hoyte, K.J., Kim, A., Brownell, H., and Wingfield, A. (2004). Effects of right hemisphere brain injury on the use of components of prosody for syntactic comprehension. Brain and Language, 91, 168-169.

Brownell, H., Hoyte, K.J., Piquado, T., and Wingfield, A. “Analytic methods for single subject and small sample aphasia research.” Handbook of the Neuropsychology of Language, Vol. 2: Language processing in the brain. Ed. Faust, M.. Blakwell-Wiley, 2010

1. Hoyte, K.J. (2023). Understanding Prosodic Language Impairments in Urban Elementary School Children. National Autism Conference, Penn State University, July, 2023.

2. Hoyte, K.J. (2022). Role of iPad, Games, and Gaming on classroom learning. International Conference on Educational Entertainment, Games and Gamification, San Francisco, CA, September 2022.

3. Hoyte, K.J. (2020). Special Education Concerns in Urban Communities. Third Annual Equity In Education Conference, Columbia, SC, January 2020.

4. Hoyte, K.J. (2016). A Place for Cognitive Neuroscience in an Education Curriculum, Hawaii International Conference on Education, Waikiki, January 2016
5. Johnson, T., and Hoyte, K.J. (2014) Preparing Urban Teachers: Examining the Challenges and Successes of Teacher Candidates on their Quest to becoming Urban School Teachers. GSE 2014 Global Summit on Education, Malaysia.
6. Hoyte, K.J. (2014). Urban (General and Special Education) Elementary School Educators’ Views on the Relationship between Cognitive Neuroscience and Classroom Practice: A Pilot Study, Hawaii International Conference on Education, Waikiki, January 2014
7. Cull, M.B., Whitker, A., Feldman, J.F., Hoyte, K.J., Algermissen, M., McSwiggan-Hardin, M.. Goh, S., and Peterson, B. (2011). Computer-Assisted Literacy Training for Nonverbal Children with Autism: A Pilot Study. International Meeting for Autism Research, San Diego, CA.
8. Hoyte, K.J., Goh, S., and Peterson, B.S. (2009). Structural neuroimaging and an array of assessments provide insights into the prosody-related language deficits in Autism Spectrum disorder. Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, IL.
9. Piquado, T., Hoyte, K.J., Brownell, H., Wingfield, A. (2007). Right hemisphere brain damage and the use of speech prosody to aid in sentence comprehension. Society for Neuroscience San Diego, CA.
10. Hoyte, K.J., Vesely, L., Brownell, H., and Wingfield, A. (2006). Individual prosodic components appear to be individually lateralized during syntactic and emotion comprehension: Evidence from brain-injured patients and functional imaging. Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA
11. Hoyte, K.J., Brownell, H., and Wingfield, A. (2005). Variability in confrontation naming in aphasic patients without apparent naming deficits. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC.
12. Hoyte, K.J., Kim, A., Brownell, H., and Wingfield, A. (2005). The effects of aging and right hemisphere brain injury on the use of prosody for syntactic comprehension. Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, NY.
13. Hoyte, K.J., Kim, A., Brownell, H., and Wingfield, A. (2004). Speech prosody as an aid to language comprehension: the effects of aging and right hemisphere brain injury. Psychonomics Society, Minneapolis, MN.
14. Hoyte, K.J., Kim, A., Brownell, H., and Wingfield, A. (2004). Right hemisphere brain injury and the use of prosody for syntactic comprehension. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA.
15. Hoyte, K.J., Kim, A., Brownell, H., and Wingfield, A. (2004). Effects of practice on speed and accuracy of object naming in healthy adults (young and older) and older adults with aphasia. Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA.
16. Kraly, F.S., Verbalis, A., and Hoyte, K.J. (2002) Cholecystokinin inhibits water intake elicited by intragastric hypertonic NaCl in rats. International Conference on the Physiology of Food & Fluid Intake, Port Douglas, Australia.

1. Understanding Intervention Outcomes - Intellectual Disability. Invited by the Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disabilities to present to a group of 50+ parents of children participating in an intervention - 2024

2. Teacher Training Workshop for Jamaican Special Education Teachers - Invited by the Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disabilities to present to a group of 15+ teachers of children participating in an intervention - 2023

 “Importance of Maintaining Good Mental Health for Today’s Students”. Invited by Susan Rambhajan (Parent Coordinator/Community Coordinator, Brooklyn Collegiate Preparatory High School) to present to a group of 15 parents - 2017
3. “Helping your Student Study and be Successful”. Invited by Susan Rambhajan (Parent Coordinator/Community Coordinator, Brooklyn Collegiate Preparatory High School) to present to a group of 15 parents - 2016
4. “Cognitive Neuroscience for Music Instructors”. Invited by Hilary Aylesworth (Project Director, CUNY-State Education Department Faculty Professional Development The City University of New York Office of Academic Affairs) to collaborate with Paula Nemerson (Director of Teacher Training and Support for the Harmony Program) to present to a group of 20 music educators - 2013
5. “Child and Adolescent Cognitive Development: An Overview”, Menachem Education Foundation, Brooklyn, NY - 2011
6. “Cognitive-based Classroom Management”, Menachem Education Foundation, Brooklyn, NY - 2011
7. “Language Learning in Autism Spectrum Disorders”, Empowering Long Island’s Journey through Autism (ELIJA), Hicksville, LI – 2009
8. “Understanding Autism and the Importance of Autism Research”, Queens Special Education Parent Center (QSEPC), Queens, NY – 2008

A Better Chance – Alumnus and Member
American Association for the Advancement of Science - Member
American Educational Research Association – Member
American Psychological Association – Member
Apostolic Temple of Jesus Christ – Chair, Scholarship Fund and Education Ministry Cognitive Neuroscience Society – Member
Community Parents Inc. – Board of Directors
Council for Exceptional Children – Member
International Society for Autism Research – Member
Learning and the Brain Society – Member
The National Council of Urban Education Associations – Member
National Education Association – Member
Society for Neuroscience – Member