Tina currently serves as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education. She also directs the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and the M.Ed. in Secondary Education at UNC Charlotte. She has over 28 years of experience as a social studies educator in K-12 schools and a social studies methodologist in higher education. Her teaching and research is focused on effective practices in social studies education with particular emphasis in online learning and disciplinary literacy as well as curriculum and policy issues in social studies, which is coupled with two decades of work documenting the national trend of the marginalization of social studies in elementary schools. 

Tina has served tirelessly in multiple NCSS roles, as Chair of the NCSS College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) from 2015-2016, and as a former Steering Committee Chair of the NCSS House of Delegates and member of the NCSS Board of Directors. She has also served in numerous leadership positions with NCSS including: serving on the NCSS Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) Specialized Professional Association (SPA) Committee which developed the National Standards for Social Studies Teachers; leading the implementation of the NCSS C3 Literacy Collaborative, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded national professional development project; and serving on the NCSS Citizenship Committee and as an officer of the Teacher Education Community. Tina is a member of the editorial boards for Social Studies and the Young Learner and the Teaching with Primary Sources Journal. In North Carolina, Tina served on the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies (NCCSS) Board of Directors and is a Past-Chair of the North Carolina Professors of Social Studies Education (NCPSSE). 

Her publications include seven co-authored books, and six edited books including titles such as Beginning Inquiry: Short Texts for Inexperienced Readers in U.S. History, Seeds of Inquiry: Using Short Texts to Enhance Students' Understanding of World History, and the Handbook of Research on Emerging Practice and Methods for K-12 Online and Blended Learning. She has published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals such as Teacher's College Record, Educational Researcher, Kappa Delta Pi, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, Teacher Education and Practice, and Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education. Her scholarship has appeared in all of the prominent social studies journals including: Theory and Research in Social Education, Journal of Social Studies Research, International Journal of Social Studies Education, Social Studies Research and Practice, The Social Studies Professional, Social Education, Social Studies and the Young Learner, Middle Level Learning, and Social Studies Journal.  

She is also the recipient of four research awards from the American Education Research Association for her contributions to the fields of social studies and online learning, and the recipient of three research awards from CUFA and the Society for Information Technology and Education, while also receiving awards in teaching, research and service at UNC Charlotte.