Chair of Human Services and
Counseling
Associate Professor
Sullivan Hall 410
Phone: (718) 990-1475
Fax (718) 990-2340
guastelf@stjohns.edu
Office Hours
Sullivan Hall Room 411
Monday - Thursday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
E. Francine Guastello is an Associate
Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Services and
Counseling and Coordinator of the Graduate Literacy Program at St.
John’s University. Dr. Guastello is also a fellow in the
Orton-Gillingham Academy of Practitioners and Educators dedicated
to working with children and adults with dyslexia. Dr. Guastello
has instituted the first courses in Multisensory Language Learning
which trains our reading specialist graduates to teach children and
adults with dyslexia.
Dr. Guastello has been an educator for over 40
years. She was an elementary/junior high teacher for 12 years, an
elementary school principal for 16 years and for the past 13 years
she has been a full-time member of the graduate literacy faculty as
St. John’s specializing in the diagnosis and remediation of
children and adults with learning disabilities.
Since 2002, she has been the co-project
director of Project TIE. Training Innovative Educators, a grant
sponsored by the legislation of No Child Left Behind. She has
conducted staff development and implemented a school wide K-8
program of reading and writing in 43 low-achieving schools in
Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens. She conducts teacher
focus groups, is a teacher mentor and provides demonstration
lessons in classrooms with teachers and their students.
Dr. Guastello is a board member of the
Presidents’ Institute for Catholic Schools. As such she directs
professional development initiatives that service the Catholic
Elementary Schools in the Archdiocese of New York, Brooklyn and
Rockville Centre Diocese. Currently, she coordinates Project TIE,
funded through the Institute, and she collaborates with the
Diocesan Curriculum personnel as well as the St. John’s faculty
training curriculum leadership teams for the Catholic Schools.
Dr. Guastello also volunteers her services as
a literacy diagnostician to the School Sisters of Notre Dame’s
Educational Center for Women in Woodhaven, New York. There she
provides diagnostic services to determine the literacy potential of
disenfranchised women who are preparing to take their GED exams.
She also conducts literacy workshops for the staff at the
center.
In 2012 Dr. Guastello was awarded St. John’s
Medal for Outstanding Achievement; in 2011 Kappa Delta Pi,
Professor of the Year; 2010 The University Vincentian Mission; and
2007 Recipient of the St. John’s Teaching Excellence and
Scholarship Award. In 2006 Dr. Guastello was initiated into the
Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society.
Dr. Guastello is a member of the St. John’s
Chapter of the Ladies of Charity servicing the needs of the local
community. She is also a Seton Associate of the Sisters of Charity
of Convent Station, New Jersey and one of our Senior Vincentian
Research Fellows.
As Chair of her department, Dr. Guastello has
written nine new programs for our students to provide them with
various career choices in Literacy, TESOL and Special
Education.
Her research focuses on developing effective teaching strategies
especially for struggling readers and writers. Her latest
co-authored book is
The Guided Reading Kidstation Model: Making
Instruction Meaningful for the Whole Class. She has written
numerous articles on family literacy and developing oral language
skills. Currently she serves on several dissertation committees for
the Literacy Ph.D program.