• Professor Dr. Amaarah DeCuir published an article in The Conversation titled, "When US Fights in the Middle East, American Muslim Students Often Face Discrimination," including what teachers can do to help create safe spaces in classrooms. Her research shows that global conflicts in the Middle East tend to provoke Islamophobia, meaning hatred and fear of Muslim people, in the US.

• Celia Graham, BA '25, and Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Carolyn Parker co-authored the paper “Inheritance and Inclusion: Teaching Genetics for All Students” about students who live with caregivers who are not genetically related to them (adoptees, foster kids, children conceived through surrogacy). The paper was presented at the Pedigrees to Practice: An Inclusive, Culturally Relevant Approach to Teaching Genetics for Elementary Preservice Teacher Candidates session at the Association of Science Teacher Educators conference in Chicago.

• Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Sherita Flake published Creating Inclusive STEM Classrooms: Claiming Place and Making Space in Grades K-5 that reimagines STEM as inclusive and identity-driven. Flake was also a guest on the National Council Supervisors of Mathematics podcast.

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  Director of Faculty Affairs and Professor Brian L. McGowan was a featured panelist in the Association for the Study of Higher Education Presidential Podcast Series The Bend in the Arc episode “Curriculum as Contested Terrain.” Listen on Spotify.

• Dr. Terence Ngwa presented at the National Education Association's Higher Education Conference in Phoenix in March, leading two workshop sessions of “Building Power Through Collaborative Partnerships.”

• Director, Institute for Innovation in Education Dr. Danielle Sodani has joined the Translating Research into Action (TRAC) team as the Seed Translational Research Project (STRP) and Faculty Engagement Liaison. She will manage the STRP grant portfolio and provide grantees with mentoring and guidance.

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  Professorial Lecturers Dr. Jisun Jeong and Dr. Deepa Srikantaiah will present at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference from Mar. 28-Apr. 1. Jeong will present her refugee research project in South Korea, titled "Educational Experiences, Aspirations, and Career Pathways of Students with Refugee Backgrounds in South Korea." Srikantaiah will present a paper and take part in two panels including "Theory to Praxis: Designing Education Alternatives within Farsi-speaking Communities experiencing Conflict and Political Instability."

• SOE co-sponsored the 2026 Washington Consortium for Comparative and International Education and Training conference themed "Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World" that featured AU graduate students presenting and engaging in dialogue and making connections across institutions. Professors Dr. Elizabeth Worden and Dr. Jisun Jeong and Professorial Lecturer Dr. Deepa Srikantaiah served on the organizing faculty group.

• SOE Scholars-in-Residence Dr. Kevin Tan (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Dr. Meagan Call-Cummings (Johns Hopkins University) joined Mrs. Shelley Pohzehland (Principal, Bennett Elementary School) and Dr. Jisun Jeong to present the session "Supporting and Nurturing Student Identity, Agency, and Belonging in the Current Moment." The group also participated in a professional development session for Arlington Public Schools including Call-Cummings' Youth Research Council who presented their findings on school safety and mental health for students of color.

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  Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Gayle Warmbrodt was nominated to the Council for Exceptional Children’s Accreditation Commission and will serve on the Accreditation Commission for two years.

• Today at Elon (University) covered Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss’s Lauren Dunne Astley Memorial Lecture where she urged listeners to not treat misogyny as a “side issue,” but warned that it is a major driver for extremism and violence. The lecture was named in memory of a woman murdered in 2011 by an ex-boyfriend weeks before she was to enroll at Elon.

• Dr. Sung Ryung Lyu and Dr. Ocheze Joseph received funding from the Spencer Foundation Small Research Grants on Education Program for the research project titled “Teaching and Living in Gentrifying Immigrant Communities of Color: Learning from the Lived Experiences of Early Childhood Educators.”

• Adjunct Professorial Lecturer Dr. Jasmine Rogers, EdD ’23, co-authored the chapter “Hearing Themselves in Books: Using Authentic Children’s Literature to Support the Language of African American Students” in Language and Literacy Beyond Decoding: Evidence-Based Instruction in Grades PreK-6.

• Dr. Antonio L. Ellis authored “Literary Liberty and the Black Church: Addressing Book Bans in K-12 Classrooms in the United States” in the journal Race and Justice. He also authored Beyond Graduation: Navigating Postsecondary Success for Students with Disabilities, examining the state of transition planning, highlighting disparities in access, employment, and community integration for disabled students, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds.

• Dr. Bridget G. Trogden, Dean of Undergraduate Education and SOE Professor, co-authored “Broadening the Playing Field of the Academy: Sport Performance as an Academic Major,” in the ACAD Leader, the publication of the American Conference of Academic Deans. The initiative draws from a Knight Commission project on the academic connections of intercollegiate athletics and connects to a national convening AU hosted on the topic last year.

• Dr. Shari Watkins and Dr. Brian McGowan received a $12,500 award from the Spencer Foundation to support the project Establishing a National Data Repository on Blackness and STEM.
• SOE welcomes Jennifer Lynch as the new Director of Development. Having served as Director for Institutional Advancement for The River School, Lynch will fit into the innovative and collaborative spirit of SOE.
• Dr. Deepa Srikantaiah presented “The Calculus of Difference: A Differential Approach to Pluralism and Integrative Education in India” at the at the SIGMAA Special Session on Current Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics, part of the 2026 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC.
• Dr. Sherita Flake spoke at the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics annual meeting and exposition, which she attended with four City Teaching Alliance MAT students, in Atlanta, GA. Her session was titled “STEM Includes Me: Fostering Identity and Access in Mathematics Classrooms.”
• Dr.  Brian McGowan will be serving as Director of Faculty Affairs for the rest of the academic year.
• Dr. Lizzie Worden is now the Interim Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Faculty Co-Lead for the Encounters First-Year Program
• Dr. Tracy Spesia became President of the new DC-affiliate of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). Her role will be to facilitate a local DC chapter that uplifts the efforts of teacher education.
• Assistant Professor Liana Petruzzi co-authored “The Immigrant Paradox and Perinatal Mental Health Among Latinas in Central Texas,” published in the Journal of Primary Care and Community Health.

• Professorial Lecturer Deepa Srikantaiah will present “The Calculus of Difference: A Differential Approach to Pluralism and Integrative Education in India” at the 2026 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 9:30-10:00 a.m. at the SIGMAA Special Session on Current Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics.

• “Cool Schools” on News Channel 9 in Syracuse, NY, interviewed Professor Jennifer Steele about Artificial Intelligence in K-12 schools. What can AI do well? What is AI not so good at? And is using AI cheating? Watch the clip.

• SOE and SPA Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss discussed her new book, Man Up, on the Australian Weekend Breakfast show, sharing that misogyny is a major predictor of extremism.

• Senior Professorial Lecturer Eugene Pringle, Jr.’s new Teaching Is Legacy podcast celebrates stories from real educators and their real impact. Listen to the first episode here.

• Professor Jennifer Steele moderated a panel of DC policy leaders and educators entitled, "Exploring the Landscape of Career Development Opportunities in Washington, DC, Public Schools." The event was part of a federally funded career development project undertaken by the DC Education Research Collaborative.

• Director of the Education Policy and Leadership Program and Hurst Sr. Professorial Lecturer Reuben Jacobson testified before the District of Columbia Council about DC's community schools about DC's strong foundation from which to build a community schools initiative, and that DC needs supportive infrastructure and reliable funding to achieve results. Read his testimony or watch the recording (starting at 13:17) here.

• Dr. Elizabeth Worden was on a panel at "Solution Summit," part of AU's new Democracy Innovation Lab at the Sine Institute. Part of the daylong in-person symposium, her session "Higher Education as a Catalyst for Democracy, Diplomacy, and Social Transformation" talked about education as a form of diplomacy in times of conflict, forced migration, and political instability.

• Dr. Corbin M. Campbell is on the leadership council for the Alliance for Better College Teaching (ABCT) which launched a new website. ABCT envisions a higher education system where all students have the opportunity to thrive in their courses, and released this checklist to help students find a school with great teaching.

• Dr. Brian McGowan was appointed Chair of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Awards Committee. McGowan also participated as a panelist in the Public Lecture Series webinar hosted by the Black Men's Research Institute at Morehouse College in October. The discussion centered on research exploring Black men collegians’ voices, agency, and authenticity.

• Adjunct Professorial Lecturer Dr. Jasmine Rogers, EdD ’23, was interviewed on the Reading Teachers Lounge podcast released on October 31. She  also appeared on the READ Podcast speaking about language variations and the science of teaching reading in the episode Effective Instruction For the Reading Brain. 

• Dr. Jennifer Steele was interviewed by the public media broadcast show Marketplace about the Department of Education's potential to bar some employers from Public Service Loan Forgiveness. "This adds to an atmosphere of confusion," she said, of the erosion of public trust in the program.

• New changes to student loan forgiveness could affect millions of borrowers—especially those working in public service and nonprofits. In her article in The Conversation, Professor Jennifer L. Steele unpacks the Trump administration’s latest announcements and what they mean for students, graduates, and employers across the country.

• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have long been the foundation of the Black teacher workforce—training nearly half of all Black teachers in the US. In a new article in The EDU Ledger, Dr. Eugene Pringle, Jr., Senior Professorial Lecturer, highlights how HBCUs remain crucial to sustaining and strengthening the Black teacher pipeline—and calls for bold action through policy, funding, and collective investment.

• Dr. Antonio L. Ellis wrote the article “Stuttering, Advocacy, and Resilience in Early Childhood” inContemporary Issues In Early Childhood. This study examines stuttering, ableism, and maternal advocacy in early childhood using DisCrit Mothering, autoethnography, and critical storytelling. Focusing on the lived experiences of a mother and child who each stutter, it explores how familial advocacy disrupts deficit-based narratives and builds resilience.

• Interim Dean Rodney Hopson co-edited the book "Cases Integrating Ethnography and Evaluation: Making Transformative, Intersectional, and Comparative Connections," examining the connections between ethnography and evaluation in educational spaces, wrestling with pressing justice and equity issues in today’s societies across the world.

• Many members of the EdD community proudly presented at the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) Conference in October. Faculty, students, and alumni gathered with colleagues from across the country to share research, exchange ideas, and explore innovations in professional practice.

VIEW ADDITIONAL FACULTY AND STAFF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Celia Graham, BA '25, and Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Carolyn Parker co-authored the paper “Inheritance and Inclusion: Teaching Genetics for All Students” about students who live with caregivers who are not genetically related to them (adoptees, foster kids, children conceived through surrogacy). The paper was presented at the Pedigrees to Practice: An Inclusive, Culturally Relevant Approach to Teaching Genetics for Elementary Preservice Teacher Candidates session at the Association of Science Teacher Educators conference in Chicago.
• Dr. Jasmine Rogers, EdD ’23, co-authored the chapter “Hearing Themselves in Books: Using Authentic Children’s Literature to Support the Language of African American Students” in Language and Literacy Beyond Decoding: Evidence-Based Instruction in Grades PreK-6.

• Ann Friedman, MAT ’98, founder of Planet Word and former AU SOE Advisory Board member, is a 2025 Washingtonian of the Year.

• MaryKate "MK" Hughes, MAT '03, was elected to the Falls Church (Virginia) City School Board.
• Lizzie Graff, BA ’27, enrolled at American University thinking she’d pursue political science or journalism, but midway through her sophomore year, her experiences made her reconsider the impact she can make from a podium or newsroom.
• For Katherine Anderson, BA ’27, a Secondary Education and History double major, the best part of being in the School of Education is learning alongside fellow future educators who share her passion for change.
• Master of Education in Education Policy and Leadership student Kathleen Vacek was selected for the 2025-26 Nebraska Early Childhood Policy Leadership Academy.
• Dr. Julie Corbett, EdD ’25, hosted Connecticut’s Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas on her podcast, exploring the essential pillars of a thriving democracy, which impact school boards, candidate pipelines, and elections. Listen as she reimagines civic education and engagement programs to better inform all community members about how local government works. Listen on Apple, Spotify, and Substack under Seats of Change: The Future of School Boards here.
• College of Arts and Sciences Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Sarah Trembath, EdD ’23, has been named Interim Director of Antiracist Research and Policy Center. Watch her welcome video on Instagram.
• Adjunct Professorial Lecturer Dr. Jasmine Rogers, EdD ’23, was interviewed on the Reading Teachers Lounge podcast released on October 31. She  also appeared on the READ Podcast speaking about language variations and the science of teaching reading in the episode Effective Instruction For the Reading Brain.
• Many members of the EdD community proudly presented at the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) Conference in October. Faculty, students, and alumni including Dr. Ambereen Khan-Baker, EdD ’25, gathered with colleagues from across the country to share research, exchange ideas, and explore innovations in professional practice.

• Co-authored by Master of Education alumni Melissa Stephans ’22, Julia Wolf ’22, and Fanny Terrones ’22, and faculty members Dr. Robert Shand, Dr. kecia hayes, and Dr. Reuben Jacobson in Urban Education, “Applying a Framework for More Effective District-wide School–Community Partnerships” explores the critical role of school–community partnerships in addressing holistic student needs and enhancing instructional efficacy. 

• Dr. Darla Davenport-Powell, EdD ’25, published Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain, Volume 2, a collection of vital work centering voices, lived realities, and ways of knowing that challenge and transform higher education.

• Allison Finn Yemez, EdD ’27, authored “Invisible Hierarchies: How Co-ethnic and Generational Dynamics Affect Latinx Students in the Classroom,” a piece in the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies’ AU LA Blog about the hierarchical dynamics at play within groups of Latin American students and ways to create safe spaces.

• Brianna Nargiso-Newton, EdD '25, authored an article quoting Professorial Lecturer William N. Thomas IV in The Progressive Magazine about the potential impact of having a visible military presence in neighborhoods and around educational institutions.

• 13 faculty and alumni are presenting as part of the 2025 Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate Convening from October 22-24 in Philadelphia, PA.

• Loris Adams, EdD ’27, was named a 2025 Byron Fellow. Fellows include social and environmental entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders from diverse backgrounds and disciplines who are making a difference around the world.

• Dr. Randi Stone, EdD ’24, will co-present research and efforts around dyslexia legislation at the International Dyslexia Association's Dyslexia Conference. As dyslexia legislation evolves, schools must help families understand literacy screening results and next steps.

• Dr. Darin Simmons, Jr., EdD ’24, was named Chief Operating Officer of Gradient Learning, a nonprofit organization that brings communities, schools, and families together in pursuit of reimagining education to serve the whole student.

• Newly elected SOE Senator Demar Goodman, BA '27, is determined to bring the school's unique challenges into the campus spotlight.
• Ni’Aisha Banks, MEd '26, was living in public housing in Savannah, Georgia, as a single mother of four. Now a DC resident, she is enrolled in our Master of Education program.
• Dr. Julie Corbett, EdD '25, launched her new podcast “Seats of Change: The Future of School Boards,” exploring the crucial role of local governance through the lens of school boards. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
• Dr. Dia Jones, EdD '22, was named a REALlist connector for the Philadelphia region by "Technical.ly," meaning she is one of 20 people keeping the Philly tech community thriving.

• Jared Moran, EdD '28, is launching FlexConnect, an online program to support school-avoidant students and their families as the student slowly returns to school full time and in person.

• Dr. Sara Taylor, EdD '25, was selected to be a 2025 Camelback Fellow to drive change in early childhood, education innovation, healthcare access, justice-impacted communities, and other areas. Taylor launched Perfect Match Schools. 

• Brianna Nargiso Newton, EdD '25, presented the session titled, “Measuring Belonging and Psychological Safety in K–12 Research: Tools and Methodological Considerations” at the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness' (SREE) 2025 Research Methods Webinar Series. 

• Nikki LeVee, BA '25, choreographed and danced in AU in Motion, the university’s largest student-run dance organization. She wrote, “I am so grateful for the gift of spending my first semester to final semester with AU In Motion."

• Dr. Brandi Berry Smith, EdD '24, presented at the NYU Metropolitan Center's EQUITY NOW Conference with the session "Disability Justice and the Evolution of Inclusive Educational Leadership: Integrating the Social Model of Disability in Urban School Districts."

• Allen Baugh, Jr., EdD '26, and Dylan Ravdin, MEd '23 EdD '26, will present "Reimagining Teacher Evaluation and Development as Mutual Networks for Agency and Growth" at the University of New Mexico's 18th annual Mentoring Conference in October.

• Dr. Jacque Patterson, EdD '22, was selected for a Kean-Hunt Education Leadership Fellowship, which partners with senior-level political leaders who have the knowledge, skill, and will to be effective, equity-minded education policymakers at the state level.

• Dr. Latrina Johnson, EdD '25, and Dr. Darla Davenport-Powell, EdD '25, will present “Witnessing the Indigestible: Spirit-Led Exchange on Educational Anti-Blackness,” at the 2025 CPED Convening hosted by Drexel University on October 22.

• Dylan Ravdin, MEd '23 EdD '26 presented a poster session at the annual meeting of the Society on the Science of Motivation. The meeting focused on the topic of motivation, with contributions from fields such as social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and AI.

• Dr. Brandi Berry Smith, EdD '24, presented at the NYU Metropolitan Center's EQUITY NOW Conference with the session "Disability Justice and the Evolution of Inclusive Educational Leadership: Integrating the Social Model of Disability in Urban School Districts," It explored her findings of urban principals' perceptions of inclusive practices when making decisions about students with IEPs and how ableist ideologies influence instructional design as well as socializing educators to employ practices at odds with disability justice.

• Allen Baugh, Jr., EdD '26, and Dylan Ravdin, MEd '23 EdD '26, will present "Reimagining Teacher Evaluation and Development as Mutual Networks for Agency and Growth" at the University of New Mexico's 18th annual Mentoring Conference in October. The presentation will share practices from research and perspective from school settings look at ways that schools can reduce siloes, build networks, and center teachers in their development. 

• Dr. Latrina Johnson, EdD '25, and Dr. Darla Davenport-Powell, EdD '25, will present “Witnessing the Indigestible: Spirit-Led Exchange on Educational Anti-Blackness,” at the 2025 CPED Convening hosted by Drexel University on October 22.

• Dr. Jacque Patterson, EdD '22, was selected for a Kean-Hunt Education Leadership Fellowship, which partners with senior-level political leaders who have the knowledge, skill, and will to be effective, equity-minded education policymakers at the state level.

SUBMIT YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT HERE