Peter A. Zitko

Dr. Tony Zitko is an award winning educator who serves as Dean of External Programs at Solano College and formerly taught political science courses in Northern California.  

Prior to serving as Dean of External Programs, Tony Zitko facilitated political science courses for traditional college students and  incarcerated college students in Northern California.  He has written and been featured in articles concerning justice-involved education and is a staunch advocate of education as a form of rehabilitation.  

Education research includes The Passive Majority: A Qualitative Inquiry of Adjunct Community College Faculty published in the International Journal of Dissertation Research in Education and The Adjunct Model as an Equity Crisis in Higher Education: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Lived Experience of "Part-Time" Community College Faculty in Northern California published in Educational Leadership Review of Doctoral Research. 

Tony Zitko is a passionate advocate of restorative justice and improving the lives of justice-involved persons. Barriers to Correctional Education in the Age of Digitalization: The Efficacy of 21st Century Competencies in Prison Education (Zitko, 2021) appears in Barriers for Teaching 21st-Century Competencies and the Impact of Digitalization.  A related article, Redesigning Correctional Education to Meet 21st Century Learning Modalities (Zitko, 2021), is available on Academia.edu. Enfranchising the Disenfranchised: Voting Rights for Justice-Involved Persons in the United States (Zitko, 2022), is also freely available to readers at Academia.edu.

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Dr. Zitko has served as a peer-reviewer of doctoral research for the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership (ICPEL), National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA), IGI Global, the Southwest Educational Research Association (SERA), the Cogent Education College of Reviewers, and Academia Letters. In addition he has contributed to the pre-publication review of academic works for W.W. Norton & Company, Rowman & Littlefield, McGraw Hill Education, and CQ Press and Sage Publications.

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Recent research with Dr. Katrina Schultz and Dr. Gary Owens includes A Critical Review of Empathy Research: A Deficit in Evaluating the Organic Emergence of Empathy (2022) and Empathy Empathy Wherefore Art Thou: A Multidimensional Mixed Methods Investigation (20202). Research was presented at the SERA 45th Annual Meeting, February 23-25, 2022 in New Orleans.

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Tony Zitko is a lifelong resident of Northern California. He holds a contractors license in the State of California and is an accomplished martial artist. He was a keynote speaker at the Nevada/California 2022 Phi Theta Kappa Spring Convention in San Diego and recently received the prestigious PTK Distinguished College Administrator award at Catalyst 2024.

Memberships

Kappa Delta Pi

Pi Gamma Mu

Golden Key International

Phi Theta Kappa

Southwest Educational Research Association

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Education

American College of Education, Ed.D.

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American Public University, M.A.

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Ashford University, B.A.

Now University of Arizona Global Campus

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Employment

Napa Valley College: 2014-2022

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Solano College: 2015-Present

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Contact Information

peter.zitko@solano.edu