Tilisa Thibodeaux, Ed.D.

Research Foci: Significant Learning Environments, Leading Organizational Change, Learning ePortfolios, Digital Learning, Student-Centered Learning, COVA+CSLE

Dr. Thibodeaux was born in Crown Point, Indiana, an hour outside of Chicago, Illinois. She was raised in Hobart, Indiana and attended Hobart High School where she participated in Track and Field, Gymnastics, and Spanish Club. From 1999 to 2003, Dr. Thibodeaux attended the prestigious private school Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education along with a Reading and Special Education Endorsement. During her time at VU, she served as the lead reading instructor for secondary education students as part of the 21st Century Scholar Program – AmeriCorps at the Roberto Clemente Center in East Chicago, Indiana. She also served in the University Chorale Program and was the Coordinator for the Office of Alcohol and Drug Education (OADE) for the University. As OADE Coordinator, she organized and facilitated presentations for local middle schools to educate teenagers on making positive choices when selecting leisurely activities.

From 2004 to 2009, Dr. Thibodeaux moved to Fort Myers, Florida and pursued her Master’s Degree in Special Education at Florida Gulf Coast University. During this time, she became a Kindergarten teacher for Collier County Public Schools out of Naples, Florida. Then, she was offered a job as a Kindergarten teacher at Sunshine Elementary in Lehigh Acres, Florida with the Lee County School District. During this time, Dr. Thibodeaux was honored as a Golden Apple Award Winner – Teacher, Chamber of Commerce Teacher-of-the-Year, and the sole teacher recipient of the Florida Educational Data Systems Award. She was also a nominee for the State of Florida Teacher of the Year Award. Dr. Thibodeaux was also inducted into the Academy of Teacher Leaders and was acknowledged in the top 100 teachers group in a district of over 5,000 teachers, also recognized by the Foundation of Lee County Schools. The Golden Apple Award is the most prestigious award in all of South Florida and just over 100 teachers have been awarded since the 1980’s.

21st century scholars

fgcu Additionally, she was campus Coordinator of the Southwest Florida Fair (3rd place award) and led United Way Campaigns and participated in the Harry Chapin Food Bank drive. In 2009, Dr. Thibodeaux was offered a grant funded position as a District Interventionist/Coach where she trained the administrators at 22 schools in the East Zone of Lee County Schools on the No Child Left Behind Act Response to Intervention process. She worked on the problem solving team in conjunction with district, elementary, middle, and high schools administrators. She attended numerous leadership academies and earned her Autism Endorsement from the state of Florida.

From 2009 to 2010, Dr. Thibodeaux pursued a degree in Educational Leadership at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She was offered a position as a Campus Academic Coach at Villas Elementary School in Fort Myers, Florida. During this time, Dr. Thibodeaux provided professional development on a district and campus level in Data Analytics, Dashboards, New Teacher Orientation, Blackboard LMS, and was invited to write district Academic plans. As a Campus Academic Coach, she assisted with the development of the campus improvement plan, transportation coordinator, coached classroom teachers to help with strategies for effective instruction, and developed higher level power standards from the Sunshine State Standards.

From 2010 to 2011, Dr. Thibodeaux began her journey as a doctoral student at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Her concentration was Instructional Technology and Distance Education. As a student, she became the elected Senator for the College of Education as part of the Student Government Association – online. In this role, she boosted observability of student activities and involvement on the Fort Myers campus to increase student engagement. She also volunteered in the Take Stock in Children program with the Foundation for Lee County Public Schools, assisted with the Families Building Better Readers project, and the Harry Chapin Food Bank.

From 2012 to 2015, Dr. Thibodeaux moved to Bridge City, Texas and finished her doctoral degree from Nova Southeastern University. She was offered a position as an English/Language Arts instructor for Bridge City Intermediate in Bridge City, TX. Shortly thereafter, she was also offered one of three Digital Design Coach/Instructional Technologists for the entire district. She became the Talent Show Director and was part of the District Technology Team. She presented school in-service technology and curriculum trainings at Cardinal Conference, regional conferences, and international conferences, including Region V’s Mobile Mania and the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) in Beaumont, TX. lcsd

From 2015 – 2020, Dr. Thibodeaux served as an Assistant Professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, TX. She was the lead faculty member/Coordinator of the Digital Learning and Leading (DLL) Master’s Program and assists with the Educational Technology Leadership (ETL) Master’s Program. She develops and teaches multiple courses in the program and serves on curriculum and accreditation committees, writes grant proposals, conducts original research, and presents her research at regional, state, and national conferences such as TCEA, ISTE, AAEEBL, OLC, TxDLA, CoSN, and LU’s Digital Ticket. Dr. Thibodeaux also leads and serves on several university, college, and department committees. In 2017, she was asked to join the Reaud Honors College where she became the Director for Digital Literacy working with all incoming freshman Honors students at Lamar University. Further, Dr. Thibodeaux built the inaugural Honors Leadership Community (HLC), established ePortfolio Peer Consultants, and is piloting the Capstone high impact project in the Honors College. Through her research, she has developed and co-founded the CSLE+COVA learning approach that is used in the College of Education’s M.Ed. in DLL program, the M.Ed. in ETL program, and the Reaud Honors College.

During her time as an Assistant Professor, she was awarded a Chuck and Becky Mason STEM Gift in 2018, donated to the College of Education. She used the gift to help teachers teaching STEM use current technology to create videos about ‘A Day in the Life of a STEM Learning Environment’ with a goal to attract more teachers to teach in STEM fields. Further, Dr. Thibodeaux and her esteemed colleague, Dr. Dwayne Harapnuik, held several online blended learning labs to help educators in the STEM field and other fields learn how to do blended learning online. Lastly, the Communities of Practice (CoP) leads were established from this partnership with STEM teachers across the nation, of which Dr. Thibodeaux is the founding director. More recently, Dr. Thibodeaux worked as the Professional Learning Coordinator/Director in conjunction with Apple, Inc. and Lamar University’s Center for Innovation and Digital Learning to bring computational thinking and coding opportunities to classroom teachers and students in the state of Texas, specifically Houston and Texas. She is also an invited speaker at local area school districts and participates in classrooms using technology innovation as a catalyst for change with students and teachers whenever she can.

In 2021, Dr. Thibodeaux was promoted to Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development and named the Dean of the Reaud Honors College at Lamar University. She was also named the Principal / Director of the Texas Academy, a program for high-achieving high school juniors and seniors in Texas. During her tenure in the Reaud Honors College, Dr. Thibodeaux developed the first-ever Reaud Leadership Institute and Minor in Honors Studies and hosted the inaugural Honors Scholars Day to celebrate student research and creative work within the Honors College. During her time in the Texas Academy, Dr. Thibodeaux grew enrollment by 300% between the years of 2021-2023. She was granted almost $200,000 from the Texas Workforce Commission to run summer STEM camp programs for middle school and high schoolers in the community.

From 2015-2024, Dr. Thibodeaux has held roles as Dean, Principal, Director, Coordinator, Associate and Assistant Professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Prior to 2015, Dr. Thibodeaux has held roles as Instructor, Academic Coach, Interventionist, Instructional Technologist, and Digital Design Coach in public education in Florida and Texas. As of February 2024, Dr. Thibodeaux has been awarded $1,648,831 in grant funding, and served as Principal Investigator on 9 grants and co-Principal Investigator on 5 grants. Dr. Thibodeaux has published over 16 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and white papers and over 17 creative activities, including the publication of two books on Amazon Kindle. Dr. Thibodeaux has developed and presented over 70 scholarly works including conference papers, conference presentations, workshops, and retreats. She has contributed to the development of 7 different programs (graduate and undergraduate) at Lamar University, taught 14 different graduate level courses, and 3 different courses at the undergraduate level. Dr. Thibodeaux has served on 25 graduate committees as dissertation chair or dissertation committee member. Dr. Thibodeaux is actively involved in service as a peer reviewer for several journals including the International Journal of ePortfolios, is the state scholarship chair for the Texas Distance Learning Association, hosts the state of Texas Honors’ Deans and Directors gatherings, and serves as chair or member of 7 major scholarships at Lamar University.