Accolades – below are news and notes from our alumni, faculty, staff, and students. We are proud of all the amazing accomplishments by our Neag family. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you! Please send any news items (and story ideas) to shawn.kornegay@uconn.edu.

News items regarding Neag alums:

• Superintendent Dr. Edward A. Bouquillon of Minuteman Career & Technical High School in Lexington is the recipient of the Martin Meehan Educational Leadership Award, which he recently accepted at the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office Awards Ceremony at Woburn High School. Bouquillon received a B.S. in Agricultural Education in 1978.
• Dr. Robert D. Cronin has been selected by the North Haven School Board to serve as the Superintendent for the Region 14 School District.  Dr. Cronin completed his Ph.D. in Educational Administration in 1994.
• Stephen Dlott was appointed interim principal of the Groton-Dunstable Regional High School in Groton, MA following the sudden resignation of the former principal.  Dlott completed a Ph.D. in educational administration in May of 1976.
• Betsy Fuller, BS Physical Therapy, was recently promoted to VP of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at Becker College where she been a faculty member since 1996.
• Sherryl Hauser, Jeff Corbishley (both secondary math) and Catherine Little wrote an article that appeared in Math Teaching in the Middle School in 2009 entitled “Constructing Complexity for Differentiated Learning.” The article was recently awarded the Linking Research and Practice Outstanding Publication Award.
• Colorado State University has named Jeffrey A. McCubbin, Oregon State University executive associate dean and distinguished professor, as dean of the College of Applied Human Sciences. McCubbin will begin his new position on July 1.  He received his masters from the Neag School of Education in physical education in May 1978.
• Susan Muirhead, assistant principal of Mabelle B. Avery (MBA) Middle School in Somers, is the 2011 CAS Middle School Assistant Principal of the Year.  Though an assistant principal at MBA for only three and a half years, her efforts and influence have dramatically shaped the culture and climate of the school and community.  Muirhead earned her sixth-year certificate in Educational Administration in 2004.
• John Sullivan has been named interim superintendent for Haddam and Killingworth. Sullivan has been a high school principal in Nantucket, MA and in the Wilton School System, as well as a superintendent of Wesbrook schools and the Unified School District II in Meriden. Sullivan completed a sixth-year diploma in 1981.
• Christine Syriac has been named the new Superintendent of Schools in Seymour, CT.  Syriac completed the Executive Leadership Program certification in 2009.
• The Enfield Board of Education has selected Timothy Van Tasel to be the new principal of John F. Kennedy Middle School. Van Tasel is currently the principal of Eli Whitney Elementary School and will start on July 1^st, following the retirement of Timothy Neville. Van Tasel completed a sixth-year certificate in educational administration in 2005.
• Margaret Williamson, Principal/Chief Administrator of Northwest Catholic High School, was one of six people nationwide to be recognized as an outstanding high school educator by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). Williamson completed her sixth-year certificate in Educational Administration in 1990.

News items regarding Neag faculty members:

• Dr. Larry Armstrong delivered the closing keynote address at the British Dietetic Association annual conference in London, England.
• Dr. Melissa Bray and Dr. Thomas Kehle were participants at the recent 2011 SPRCC Distinguished Breakfast Panel. Their topic was “Advice from Highly Productive Scholars in School Psychology.”
• Dr. Jenifer Lease Butts contributed to a book Advancing Undergraduate Research: Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising that recently came out. In the book, Jennifer shares how she works with donors to ensure their contributions in undergraduate research are appreciated.
• Dr. Tutita Casa’s session at the NCTM Annual Conference in Indianapolis has been selected as one of six sessions that was audio taped and offered to NCTM members as a downloadable podcast. Her session was selected because she is a Teaching Children Mathematics author. The podcast was available as a companion piece to the online version of her article, “Connecting Class Talk with Individual Student Writing” as a means to help readers connect with her on-going work.
• Dean Thomas DeFranco and Dr. Janet Fink have been elected to the University Senate for three-year terms beginning July 1, 2011 and ending June 30, 2014.
• Dr. Wendy Glenn participated with the 2011 English Festival sponsored by Youngtown State University (Ohio).  She served as this year’s James A. Houck Lecturer, a well-known honor in the field of Young Adult Literature.  In this capacity, she talked with 3,000 middle and high school students from around Ohio and Pennsylvania; their teachers, parents, and librarians; and scholars in the academic community.
• Dr. Jason Irizarry arranged for the Neag School to serve as a viewing site for the Latino Education and Advocacy Day’s (LEAD) 2^nd Annual Summit, which took place in March. Worcester Mayor John O’Brien has formed a task force to work at decreasing the achievement gap between Latino students and their counterparts in the Worcester public school system.  Dr. Irizarry will be assisting the 29-member commission as they meet over the next several months.
• Dr. Don Leu spoke at the annual Benjamin Cluff Jr. Lecture hosted by the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University.  Dr. Leu spoke on “The Future of Reading and Reading Instruction.”  He was also interviewed by a report from CNN regarding his study on students’ ability to critically evaluate the information they find on the Internet.  Following this interview, several articles appeared on such websites as Yahoo!News, DailyMailOnline, newKerala, International Business Times.  Dr. Leu was then interviewed by IEEE Spectrum for their “This Week in Technology” feature.
• Dr. Alan Marcus received the 2011 AAUP Excellence Award for Teaching Innovation, which was presented to him at the State Capitol.
• Dr. Rachelle Perusse has been asked to give the keynote address at Utah State Office of Education’s Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance Program Summer Conference.  This conference typically has 750 to 800 participants.  Rachelle was selected for this honor due in part to the NOSCA National Advocacy Award for Leadership she received last year, as well her broad knowledge, experience, and advocacy in school counseling.
• The Phi Delta Kappan journal is doing a Kappan Classics series and they selected a 1978 article by Dr. Joe Renzulli, “What Makes Giftedness” and a new introduction for their May issue.
• Dr. Eliana Rojas was invited to join U.S. leaders on the launch of U.N. women “Honoring the Past – Envisioning the Future for Women and Girls” at the United Nations Headquarters.
• Dr. George Sugai was invited to the White House to be one of four professional asked to answer questions on a panel of bullying experts. This panel of experts was part of the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, the President and First lady’s national campaign to help end bullying in schools and communities nationwide.
• Dr. Jeff Volek was quoted in several articles regarding his work with the Atkins diet.  This included articles in the Los Angeles Times, PR Newswire, and NutraIngredients.com.
• Anjale Welton was selected for AERA’s Committee on Scholars of Color in Education Mentoring Program. She was recognized at AERA’s annual meeting in April.
• Mary Yakimowski is a lifetime Diplomate for the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute’s (ACFEI) American Board of Psychological Specialties and has been awarded a certificate as “Fellow.”  The Fellow designation is the highest honor ACFEI can bestow upon a member. This designation is reserved for members with outstanding achievements and excellence, as well as participating actively in ACFEI programs.

News items regarding Neag students:

• Sheena Boyle was recognized as a Alma Exley Scholar for 2011. She was honored at a reception in May. Boyle graduated near the top of her class at Wilby High School and graduated from the IB/M program in May. She was a double major in English literature and English secondary education.
• Alex Clark, 1^st semester grad secondary social studies education major, along with other Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) brothers, took it upon themselves to clean up the football fields at E.O. Smith High School.  The fraternity plays intramural softball at the E.O. Smith, noticed the trash on and around the fields and decided to clean it up as a way to help others.
• TaShauna Goldsby was recently accepted into the 2011-2012 ACSM Leadership and Diversity Training Program (LDTP). This year the LDTP received a record number of highly competitive applicants.
• Two of our current IB/M Honors juniors, Sarah Harris and Julianna MacSwan, were admitted to the prestigious University Scholars program. Julianna will do a project related to work she has already started with Kathy Gavin’s Project M2.  Sarah will be working on a project related to education of homeless children and youth, which she has already laid some important groundwork on in Windham with the help of Becky Eckert and personnel in the district.
• Karen Rambo, a doctoral student in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Assessment program, was appointed to serve as Division D Senior Representativefor the Graduate Student Council (GSC) of the American Educational Research Association in 2010-2011.