Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments inside and outside the classroom. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you. Please send any news items or story ideas to neag-communications@uconn.edu.

In addition to the Dean’s Office and Department achievements, explore this edition’s list for accolades from the following: Faculty/Staff; Alumni; Students; as well as In Memoriam.

Dean’s Office and Departments

The Neag School and its Alumni Board are pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 Alumni Awards:

• Outstanding Early Career Professional — Jessica Stargardter ’16 (ED), ’17 MA
• Outstanding School Educator — Jeffrey Corbishley ’07 (ED), ’08 MA
• Outstanding School Administrator — Daniel J. Crispino ’15 6thYear
• Outstanding School Superintendent — Christine L. Carver ’91 (ED), ’97 MA, ’09 Ed.D. 
• Outstanding Professional — Robin M. Schader ’01 Ph.D.
• Outstanding Higher Education Professional — Marcia A. B. Delcourt ’80 MA, ’88 Ph.D.
• Distinguished Alumna Award — Roberta (Bert) Wachtelhausen ’81 (ED)

In addition, elementary education students Jenna Karvelis and Ajane Santora-Fyne have been named recipients of the 2020 Alumni Board Scholarship; and Milagros Castillo-Montoya has been named the 2020 Perry A. Zirkel Distinguished Teaching Award honoree.

All awardees will be recognized at a celebration in March. Read more about the 2020 honorees and RSVP to the event.

The Neag School this month welcomes Jason Irizarry as associate dean for academic affairs; Todd Campbell as head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction; clinical assistant professors of curriculum and instruction Violet Jiménez Sims and Niralee Patel-Lye; and visiting assistant professor of educational psychology Qing Wang. Read more about these and other recent appointments.

The Neag School last month recognized Joseph Madaus as its 2019 Distinguished Scholar; Hannah Dostal as its 2019 Outstanding Early Career Scholar; and Taylor A. Koriakin as its 2019 Outstanding Student Researcher.

The Neag School has issued to education leaders nationwide its 2018-19 By the Numbers Report, offering a high-level glimpse into the School’s current rankings, research expenditures, global education efforts, scholarship support, and other highlights.

Several Neag School graduate students and faculty have been named 2019-20 Initiative on Campus Dialogues Fellows. This initiative brings together UConn students, staff, and faculty, as well as nonuniversity practitioners, to focus on dialogue and implementation. Sport management

graduate students Charles Macaulay and Ajhanai Newton, with Laura Burton and Justin Evanovich, are Fellows with their project “Sports Talk: Creating Dialogical Classrooms for the Development of Future Sport Leaders;” Gerardo Blanco is a Fellow with the project “Promoting Cosmopolitanism through Global Dialogue in the Classroom”; and Patricia O’Rourke, a graduate student in curriculum and instruction, is a Fellow on the project “Continuing Project: Democratic Public Dialogue on Equity and Integration in Education.” Read more about Neag School’s ICD Fellows for 2019-20.

Department of Curriculum and Instruction (EDCI) and Teacher Education

World Language Summit, an annual event in which world language teacher candidates and in-service teachers convene from partnership districts across Connecticut, was hosted at UConn Storrs in November. This year’s event featured Joseph Parodi-Brown from Marianopolis Preparatory Academy in Thompson, Conn., and focused on LGBTQ+ inclusion in French and Spanish classrooms. Check out photos from the event.

Neag School teacher education students spent the fall semester in London teaching, conducting research, and sightseeing. Check out photos from their trip.

Teachers and practitioners from across the state’s K-12 school districts, universities, and educational organizations gathered with representatives from the Connecticut State Department of Education, UConn, and the Council of Chief State School Officers on UConn’s Storrs campus in November for the Connecticut Teacher Table to connect on teacher education recruitment and retention challenges, with a specific focus on special education and bilingual shortage areas. Alumni Christopher Todd ’16 MA and David Alexandro ’17 MA, ’18 Ph.D. co-facilitated the daylong event, and Ann Traynor, director of advising and certification, shared insights on the Neag School’s special education program. Check out the photo album from the event.

The Reading Language Arts Center last month hosted Allison Skerrett from the University of Texas at Austin, who spoke at the Russell Library in Middletown, Conn., on “Teaching Transnational Youth: Literacy: Education in a Changing World.”

The Natural Resources Conservation Academy (NRCA), for which Todd Campbell and David Moss are co-principal investigators, was recognized with the UConn Provost’s Award for Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship at a ceremony on the Storrs campus in December. The award recognizes a collaborative and mutually-beneficial creative exchange of knowledge and resources between the University and the community to create conditions for the public good, culminating in sustainable change, and the dissemination of those activities. NRCA has received funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, and Advanced Informal STEM Learning, and is supported by curriculum and instruction doctoral students Laura Rodriguez ’16 (ED), ’17 MA, Jonathan Simmons, and Byung-Yeol Park.

Department of Educational Leadership (EDLR)

The Department of Educational Leadership hosted a reception in November at the Association for the Study of Higher Education annual meeting in Portland, Ore., for about 30 students, faculty, alumni, and friends.

This past fall, students in the Neag School’s Higher Education and Student Affairs program published several op-eds in the Hartford Courant on a variety of topics related to higher education administration. Check out their articles.

The Connecticut State Department of Education Talent Office convened more than 30 representatives from higher education and K-12 organizations to discuss leadership for equity as part of the UConn Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI) project.

Department of Educational Psychology (EPSY) 

Students in Neag School’s special education program gathered in December on the UConn Storrs campus to network and share ideas. Check out the photo album from the event.

Faculty/Staff 

Michele Back has been selected as a 2020 Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Mead Leadership Fellow. This award provides support for the development of a project contributing to the foreign language teaching profession and advancing quality language instruction. Back plans to collaborate with teachers in the Northeast to develop target-language materials as open educational resources that support the recruitment of future K-12 world language educators. She also published “It Is a Village”: Translanguaging Pedagogies and Collective Responsibility in a Rural School District for the January issue of tesol Quarterly.

Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, is co-principal investigator on a new $500,000 federal research grant funded by the National Science Foundation. The project ultimately seeks to improve the inclusion and retention of students in the STEM fields.

Todd Campbell and David Moss, along with doctoral student Laura Rodriguez ’16 (ED), ’17 MA and other colleagues, co-presented “Assessing STEM Identities in Intergenerational Informal STEM Programming” at the 2020 International Conference of the Association for Science Teacher Education in San Antonio, Texas, this month.

Todd Campbell also co-presented “Engaging with 3D Interim Assessments Guided by Coherence and Attention to Equity” at the Connecticut Science Teachers Association conference in November in Southbury, Conn. In addition, Campbell co-published “Representing Scientific Activity: Affordances and Constraints of Central Design and Enactment Features of a Model-Based Inquiry Unit” for the November issue of School Sciences and Mathematics; “Equity-Focused K-12 Science Teacher Professional Development: A Review of the Literature 2001-2017” for the November issue of Journal of Science Teacher Education; and a book chapter titled “A Responsive Methodological Construct for Supporting Learners’ Developing Modeling Competence in Modeling-Based Learning Environments” in Towards a Competence-Based View on Models and Modeling in Science Education(Springer, 2019) with colleagues including TJ McKenna ’18 Ph.D. and doctoral student Laura Rodriguez ’16 (ED), ’17 MA.

Milagros Castillo-Montoya, in addition to being named the 2020 Perry A. Zirkel Distinguished Teaching awardee, co-presented “’Why the Caged Bird Sings’ in the Academy: Reimagining What Counts as Knowledge in Higher Education” with Neag School alumni Truth Hunter ’14 MA and William Corey Moore ’20 MA at the Association for the Study of Higher Education national conference in Portland, Ore., in November.

Sandra Chafouleas co-published with Emily Iovino and Taylor Koriakin, doctoral students in educational psychology, “Caregivers of Children with Developmental Disabilities: Exploring Perceptions of Health-Promoting Self-Care” for the January issue of Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities. Chafouleas also co-published“Comparing Stakeholders’ Knowledge and Beliefs About Supporting Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Health in Schools” for the December issue of School Mental Health.

Casey Cobb received the Universities and Colleges Employers Association’s (UCEA) Service Award for serving two terms on the UCEA executive committee. He was recognized at UCEA’s annual convention in New Orleans in November, where he also presented at a session focused on leadership program coordinators.

Casey Cobb and Jason Irizarry co-published a chapter titled “Private Interests and the Common Good: Conflicting Priorities in a School Choice World” in the Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education (Springer Link, 2019).

Danielle DeRosa and Milagros Castillo-Montoya received the UConn Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning’s Fifth Annual Mini-Grant Competition for their project “Intergroup Dialogue Graduate Training Practicum.”

Jennifer Freeman co-published, with Allison Lombardi, doctoral student Anthony Gambino, and alumna Laura Kern ’11 MA, ’17 Ph.D.,“Assessing the Relationship Between the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Framework and Student Outcomes in High Schools” for the November issue of The Journal of At-Risk Issues.

Elizabeth Howard is senior advisor on a new two-year study of dual-language charter schools in New Mexico.

Doug Kaufman wrote a review of Teaching Outside the Box: Beyond the Deficit Driven School Reforms (Information Age, 2018) for Teachers College Record in November.

Devin Kearns co-presented “The Science of Dyslexia and Implications for Teacher Education” at the Connecticut Dyslexia Task Force in November in Hartford, Conn. The task force was established in 2019 by the Connecticut General Assembly to analyze and make recommendations on the implementation of the laws governing dyslexia instruction and training. In addition, Kearns and Jennifer Freeman represented the Neag School this month in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2020 Higher Education Consortium for Special Education Winter Summit, where they met U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

Craig H. Kennedy co-published “Preventing Challenging Behaviors in People with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities” for the December issue of Current Developmental Disorders Reports and co-published “Functional Analysis and Intervention of Perservative Speech in Students With High-Functioning Autism and Related Neurodevelopmental Disabilities” for the December issue of Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Tamika La Salle co-published with doctoral student Jesslynn Rocha Neves and other colleagues “Racial Mismatch Among Minoritized Students and White Teachers: Implications and Recommendations for Moving Forward” for the October issue of Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation.

Allison Lombardi co-presented at the Council for Exceptional Children’s Connecticut Chapter in Cromwell, Conn., in December. She also was featured in a “Transitions Talks” video titled “Strategies to Increase College and Career Readiness for all Students Through Multi-Tiered Systems of Support” shared by the Institute for Community Inclusion Media.

Glenn Mitoma hosted “Dialogue on Race and Community” through the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. The event, co-moderated by Dominique Battle-Lawson, was held at UConn Storrs in November.

Jennie McGarry’s 2019 Earle F. Zeigler Award address was published in the January issue of the Journal of Sport Management.

Kenny Nienhusser co-presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) national conference in Portland, Ore., in November. He also co-chaired a meeting during the conference in his role as co-chair of the ASHE Presidential Commission on Undocumented Immigrants. This month, he co-published with doctoral student Jillian Ives “Examining an Urban District’s College-Going Culture: The Role of Magnet School Designation” in The Urban Review.

Joseph S. Renzulli and Sally Reis co-published “George Betts: Scholar, Leader, and Advocate for the Social and Emotional Development of Gifted and Talented Students” for the October issue of Gifted Child Quarterly. Renzulli also wrote an op-ed titled “What We’re Getting Wrong About Gifted Education” for Education Week.

Lisa Sanetti co-published with Melissa Collier Meek ’08 (CLAS), ’04 MA, ’11 6th Year, ’13 Ph.D. “Identifying Critical Components of Classroom Management Implementation” for the December issue of School Psychology Review.

Del Siegle published “There’s an App for That, and I Made it” in the January issue of Gifted Child Today.

Stephen Slota, with UConn faculty Clarissa Ceglio and Ken Thompson, presented their interdisciplinary design endeavor, Courtroom 600, at the Education Games Expo, hosted by the Institute of Education Sciences and America’s Seed Fund, this month in Washington, D.C.

Mary Truxaw co-presented “Be Beautifully Uncomfortable: Inspiring Linguistically Responsive Teaching of Mathematics” at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education at St. Louis, Mo., in October. She also co-presented “Know Your Terrain: A Cross-Case Study of Teachers’ Attempts Towards Equitable Learning” at the same conference.

Jennie Weiner co-presented on the Queen Rania Teacher Academy at the American Evaluation Association’s conference in Minneapolis, Minn., in November. She also was featured in a Twitter chat through the American Education Research Association’s Educational Change special interest group in November, and presented two sessions at the University Council for Educational Administration’s annual convention in November in New Orleans.Weiner will be a visiting associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Fall 2020, where she will teach a course and support the redesign of its master’s program.

Sarah Woulfin co-published “How School Leaders Create the Conditions for the Effective Coaching” for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s (ASCD) November issue of ASCD Express. She alsoformalized a research-practice partnership with Bristol (Conn.) Public Schools to design and improve its system of instructional coaching, in addition to presenting a paper at University Council for Educational Administration’s annual convention in November in New Orleans.

Students

Doctoral students Chelsea Connery, Shannon Holder, Britney Jones, Sam Kamin, Alexandra Lamb, Jeremy Landa, Chad Lochmiller, and Patricia Virella presented at the University Council for Educational Administration’s annual convention in November in New Orleans.

This past fall, students in the Neag School’s Higher Education and Student Affairs program published several op-eds in the Hartford Courant on a variety of topics related to higher education administration. Check out their articles.

Katherine Connolly published a Collaboratory on School and Child Health brief titled “Supporting Gender Expansive Youth: Considerations for Healthcare Providers” this month.

Tamashi Hettiarachchi, a chemistry education student, was featured on the NGS Navigators podcast discussing practices for orchestrating task-based discussion and sharing resources she finds helpful in learning how to teach Next Generation Science Standards.

Kristi Kaeppel, a doctoral student in educational leadership, published a review of Mapping the Field of Adult and Continuing Education: Adult Learners (Stylus, 2017) for the December issue of Teachers College Record.

Josué López, a doctoral candidate in curriculum and instruction, published “(Re)Imagining Education for the Immortal Child: Why Theory in Education for Social Justice” for the November issue of Equity & Excellence in Education.

Susan Meabh Kelly, doctoral student in curriculum and instruction, co-presented “Resources to Facilitate Design and Development of Classroom NGSS Assessments” at the Connecticut Science Teachers Association Conference in Southbury, Conn., in November.

Ajhanai (AJ) Channel Inez Newton, a doctoral student in sport management, received the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport’s Gary Sailes Award in November. She also co-published “Being Black in a Sea of Color: AA Phenomenological Study Exploring Black Students’ Racial Experiences at AANAPISI and Emerging HSI” for the December issue of Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity. 

Byung-Yeol Park and Laura Rodriguez ’16 (ED), ’17 MA, doctoral students in curriculum and instruction, co-published “Using Models to Teach Science” with Todd Campbell for the November issue of The Science Teacher.

Alumni

Neag School alums Jenna Stone ’18 (ED), ’19 MA; Kaylee Thurlow ’18 (ED), ’19 MA; and Lauren Kang ’18 (ED), ’19 MA; along with Danielle Filipiak, presented at the annual meeting for the National Council for the Teachers of English in Baltimore, Md., in November. In addition, Kathrine Grant, a current English education student, presented at a conference roundtable with nearly 100 preservice teachers from across the country.

Sarah Boyle ’15 MS is a remote traffic coordinator II at ESPN in Bristol, Conn., responsible for the content scheduling for SEC (Digital), Big South, Southern, America East, Atlantic Sun, Horizon, and Missouri Valley (Digital) conferences, among other special events/broadcasts, such as the College Softball World Series, First Take, and Golic & Wingo.

Amy Briesch ’05 MA, ’09 6th Year, ’09 Ph.D.; educational psychology doctoral students Dakota Cintron and Emily Auerbach ’15 MA, ’16 MA; Sandra Chafouleas; Betsy McCoach, and another colleague published “Comparing Stakeholders’ Knowledge and Beliefs About Supporting Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Health in Schools” for the December issue of School Mental Health.

Miguel Colon ’19 MS is associate director for Community Outreach Programs, Services, and Initiatives at UConn Storrs.

Thomas Hébert ’81 MA, ’90 6th Year, ’93 Ph.D. and Karen Rambo-Hernandez ’11 Ph.D. received the top two research awards at the National Association for Gifted Children’s (NAGC) annual conference in Albuquerque, N.M., in November. Hebe’rt received the NAGC Distinguished Scholar Award, and Rambo-Hernandez received the NAGC Early Scholar Award. 

Ryan Holland ’19 (ED) is director of women’s hockey operations for Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.

Jen Maitland Hyde ’05 (ED) is the program director for Back on my Feet in Boston. The national organization operates in 13 major cities across the U.S., combating homelessness through the power of running, community support, and essential employment and housing resources.

Glynn Johnson ’18 (ED) is a marketing coordinator at ESPN in Bristol, Conn.

Rhea Klein ’95 Ph.D. was appointed to the Bolton (Conn.) Board of Education. Kleinis a former public school teacher, administrator, and educational consultant.

Kellie-Marie Vallieres ’92 (BUS), ’05 MA, ’08 Ph.D., a past Neag School Alumni Award recipient, is a member of Gov. Lamont’s Workforce Council.

Stephen J. Nelson ’96 Ph.D., a professor of education and educational leadership at Bridgewater State University and senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown University, visited Storrs in November to talk about his new book, John G. Kemeny and Dartmouth College the Man, the Times, and the College Presidency (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).

Jim Penders ’94 (CLAS),’98 MA, head coach for UConn Baseball, is featured in a UConn Today video, delivering a message about gratitude and commitment to students.

Anthony “Tony” J. Pulino ’69 (ED), who competed at UConn in track and cross-country from 1965 to 1967, is to be inducted this month into the Middletown (Conn.) Sports Hall of Fame. 

Kevin Roldan ’15 6th Year was appointed deputy education commissioner for the Rhode Island Department of Education. Roldan formerly spent three terms in the Connecticut legislature as a representative from Hartford, serving as a deputy majority leader and vice chairman of the budget-writing appropriations committee. Before that, Roland spent nine years working in Hartford (Conn.) Public Schools and had served as an advisor to three superintendents of schools and two mayors.

Vonetta Romea-Rivers ’14 MA, ’14 ELP is director of teaching and learning for Regional School (Conn.) District No. 11. She was previously director of performance, evaluation, and talent management for Manchester (Conn.) Public Schools.

Amanda Slavin ’08 (ED), ’09 MA, founder of brand consulting firm CatalystCreativ, has published The Seventh Level: Transform Your Business Through Meaningful Engagement with Your Customers and Employees (Lioncrest, 2019).

Donna (Cathey) Sodipo ’96 MA was appointed chief program officer for YMCA Hartford Region in Hartford, Conn. In that role, Sodipo will develop, implement, and evaluate YWCA Hartford Regions programs, increase capacity to meet the growing needs of the Greater Hartford community, and strengthen community partnerships. Before that, she served as senior vice president of education at Connecticut Public Learning, where she spearheaded the organization’s education strategy and learning initiatives to help advance the mission.

Jessica Stargardter ’16 (ED), ’17 MA, in addition to being named the Neag School Outstanding Early Career Professional, co-presented “Picuris 27” at the National Association for Gifted Children’s annual conference in Albuquerque, N.M., in November.

Lois Greene Stone ’55 (ED) has been nominated for a prestigious Pushcart Prize in writing. Last year she was a Best of the Net nominee for a personal narrative and was the featured writer of the month in Westward Quarterly. A writer and poet, Stone has been syndicated worldwide. Collections of her items, photos, and memorabilia are in major museums, including 12 different divisions of The Smithsonian. Married since 1956 to Dr. Gerald E. Stone, she has 15 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

In Memoriam

Bonnie L. Bauler ’68
Welles T. Brandriff ’62
Phyllis V. Caputo ’87
Carol S. Carter ’68
Tami (Devine) Fagan’06
Mary M. Foye ’89
Elizabeth A. Gallichio ’59
William S. Israel ’49
Carol M. MacLenathen ’73
Kathryn C. Merriam ’84
Joseph J. Narotsky’72
Ralph A. Paparella ’68
Ronald D. Paullo ’66
Philip A. Pelosi ’72
Joseph J. Russo ’54
Benjamin W. Ruggles ’81
Anthony J. Strazzo Jr. ’56