Throughout the academic year, the Neag School is proud to share the latest achievements of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
Explore their most recent promotions, awards, retirements, publications, and more:
- Dean’s Office
- Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Office of Teacher Education
- Department of Educational Leadership
- Department of Educational Psychology
- Faculty/Staff
- Students
- Alumni
Dean’s Office

Ellie Campbell, of CREC Academy of International Studies, has been named the Neag School of Education’s 2026 Rogers Educational Innovation Fund award winner. The director of bands and theater will receive $5,000 to support her innovative project titled, “Amplifying Equity: Professional Music Production for Title 1 Students,” which will create a professional-grade recording studio where students can develop their creative expression and transferable STEM/technical skills. Read more about Ellie and her project on UConn Today.
Researchers, including doctoral student Tobey Duble Moore, with the Neag School’s Center for Education Policy Analysis, Research, and Evaluation, prepared a research brief regarding special education outplacement in Connecticut. Read more in the UConn Today article.
Jennie Weiner co-authored “Evaluation of Professional Learning Masterclass on Science of Reading Final Report for the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration” (CCERC). Morgaen Donaldson co-leads CCERC with the Connecticut State Department of Education.
The Neag School’s Alumni Board hosted a virtual mock interview event in February. The event drew 40 students and 23 alumni. The event began with remarks by Alumni Board President Shay Lewis ’20 6th Year and Dean Jason G. Irizarry, followed by a presentation from Kaitlyn Anderson ’09 (ED), ’10 MA, of the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills on career resources for both students and alumni. Participants were then assigned to breakout rooms for mock interviews and networking.
Department of Curriculum Instruction (EDCI) and Office of Teacher Education

Kathleen Lynch and John Settlage, along with others, co-authored “The Effects of Early Childhood Science Educational Interventions on Children’s Science Achievement” for the January issue of The Elementary School Journal.
The Morris and Judy Sarna Breaking Bias & Creating Community Program held two events in West Hartford in early March to fight hatred and build community. Designed in collaboration with teachers at the town’s two high schools, the interactive educational program seeks to help students understand other people’s perspectives, strengthen their community, and explore connections between past events and today’s society. Alan Marcus has led the yearlong collaboration with the school district, which hosted the events so community members could experience all aspects of the program and its cutting-edge technology. View photos from the event.
Over winter break, Lauren Midgette, co-hosted a Winter Break Book Club with Neag School’s Leadership in Diversity (LID) student group at UConn Storrs. Students, alumni, and faculty discussed “We Want to Do More Than Survive” and engaged with guest speaker Satoria Ray on abolitionist teaching. View photos from the event.

The Neag School’s Leadership in Diversity (LID) student group provided professional development for faculty at The Independent Day School in Middlefield, Connecticut, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Led by Dominique Battle-Lawson, the workshop addressed microaggressions, anti-bias education, and equitable practices, equipping educators with strategies to foster inclusive, culturally responsive learning environments. View photos from the event.
UConn’s Neag School, Department of English, and Connecticut Writing Project, co-sponsors of the 33rd annual Letters About Literature contest, recognized Connecticut’s winners for the 2025-26 academic year. Read about the contest and this year’s winners on UConn Today.
Department of Educational Leadership (EDLR)

The Sport Management program participated in Connecticut Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz’s press conference in Canton, Connecticut, last month to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of National Girls & Women in Sports Day. The event honored the athletes, leaders, and advocates breaking barriers and building a stronger future. View a photo from the event.
Paige Bjerke, a student in the sport management program, and Danielle DeRosa were invited speakers at the Ethel Walker School in honor of celebrating National Girls & Women in Sports Day in February. View photos from the event.
Faculty members in the Higher Education Student Affairs (HESA) program, including H. Kenny Nienhusser, Milagros Castillo-Montoya, Jillian Ives, Adam McCready, Saran Stewart, and Frank Tuitt, are recipients of a William T. Grant Foundation Rapid Response Research Grant. They will collaborate with the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration to identify institutional policies and practices to mitigate disruptions in the educational pathways of undocumented and international students.
Sport Management program alumni, including Ajhanai “AJ” Keaton ’21 Ph.D., Kaitlyn Chen ’25 MS, and Carli Cutler ’20 (ED) were profiled in recognition of National Girls & Women in Sports Day.
Preston Green and Elizabeth Zagata, a doctoral student in educational leadership, co-authored “Students With Disabilities and School Vouchers: The Need for New IDEAs” for a special issue of Journal of Special Education Leadership.
Kelly Lyman and Paul Freeman ’07 ELP, ’09 Ed.D., an instructor with the Executive Leadership Program, presented at a NEASC–sponsored Learning Summit in Dubai in February. Both were invited by NEASC to share their expertise with public and private school professionals as part of the UAE Education Strategy 2033 initiative.
Jillian Ives and Milagros Castillo-Montoya, along with another colleague, co-authored “You Should Think About Teaching. You’re Really Good at It: Instructors’ Starting Points for Teaching Minoritized Students” for the 2026 issue of Journal of Diversity and Equity in Educational Development.
Patti Bellamy-Mathis and Veronica Jacobs will serve as co-project directors for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant – Rapid Response: Reinvesting in Racial and Indigenous Health Equity Research. The project will focus on community-based participatory action research with five Hartford Public Schools, focused on school wellness structures and policies.
Department of Educational Psychology (EPSY)
In December, experts from around the nation gathered at UConn Storrs to take the first steps toward changing special education policy and re-establishing civil rights protections for Students of Color. Led by Neag School faculty Nicholas Bell and Zachary Collier, as well as Verónica Vélez from Western Washington University, the event outlined a vision for a new QuantCrit policy center that will prioritize innovative research methods and analysis, along with community collaborations, to advance racial and disability justice. Read the UConn Today article.
All School Psychology faculty attended and presented at the annual National Association of School Psychologists convention in February in Chicago, Illinois. There were 13 presentations from UConn faculty and current students.
Faculty/Staff
Kylie Anglin was appointed co-chair of the Methods Section for the 2026 Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) and chair-elect for the SREE Open Science Affinity Group.
Nicholas Bell was asked to be on the leadership council of CAKI (Coalition Advancing Knowledge and Impact) and was asked by Johns Hopkins to be an ICQCM Fellow (Institute in Critical Quantitative, Computational, & Mixed Methodologies). The Institute Fellows Program brings together the nation’s first transdisciplinary network of methodologists of color devoted to the advancement of critical quantitative and computational methodologies, as well as their integration into mixed methodologies.
Cara Bernard, along with current and former students, performed with Pentatonix as part of a surprise chorus of 75 singers in their New York holiday show.
Melissa Bray presented “Mind Body Health Strategies” at the Council for the Directors of School Psychological Programs in January in Puerto Rico. Bray was also appointed to a three-year at-large board member position for the American Psychology Association.
Todd Campbell was quoted in a UConn Today article about UConn’s Environment Corps (E-Corps). Campbell is a principal investigator. He, along with alumna Hannah Cooke ’25 Ph.D. and others with the UConn Indoor Air Quality Initiative, also published a lesson plan on the National Science Teaching Association website titled, “How can we clean our classroom’s air?”

Tutita Casa recently received the Robert Rosenbaum award from the Associated Teachers of Mathematics in Connecticut (ATOMIC). The award honors someone who exhibits outstanding commitment and successful service to the entire mathematics community in Connecticut.

Sandra Chafouleas authored “Solving the Youth Loneliness Epidemic” for a February issue of Psychology Today. As co-founder of Feel Your Best Self, Chafouleas attended the 2026 Kidscreen Awards in San Diego, California, in February, where the FYBS team was a finalist for the second time.
Morgaen Donaldson has been chosen for an “Anonymous Reviewer of the Year” award from Education Finance and Policy. Awardees are selected for both providing high-quality feedback to submitted articles and for being willing to consistently review.
Nicholas Gelbar was profiled by the Collaboratory on School and Child Health.
Wendy Glenn authored “Complicating the Country: Rural Identities and Environmental Values in Youth Fiction” in the February issue of International Research in Children’s Literature.
Preston Green participated in a virtual lecture, “School Finance, Race, and School Choice,” for the Georgetown Law Race Equity and Education Law Clinic in February.
James Kaufman co-authored chapters “Generative AI’s Impact on Creativity and Equity: Another Great Equalizer or the Rich Get Richer” and “Creative Chicken Coming Home to Roost: Generative AI, Long Imagined, is Finally Here” for the book “Generative Artificial Intelligence and Creativity” (Academic Press, 2025), which he co-authored.
Jessica Koslouski, Jacqueline Caemmerer, and Sandra Chafouleas, along with colleagues from Northeastern University, co-authored “Influence of Student and Teacher Characteristics on Teacher Ratings of Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Functioning: A Scoping Review” in Psychology in the Schools. The same three faculty, along with alumna Amy Briesch, also recently published “Consequential-validity centered measure development: An illustration using the ESSY Whole Child Screener” in the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment.
Alexandra Lamb and Jennie Weiner co-authored “Logics of Educational Technology Reform” in the March 2026 issue of the American Journal of Education.
Kathleen Lynch co-authored “Beyond the Shutdown: Tracking Language Growth in Early Head Start Children Before, During, and After COVID-19” for the February issue of Child Development. She and John Settlage also co-authored, along with other colleagues, “The Effects of Early Childhood Science Educational Interventions on Children’s Science Achievement” in the March 2026 issue of The Elementary School Journal.
Adam McCready co-authored “Using Cross-Sectional Multilevel Modeling to Examine the Relationships Between Macro Masculinities and Men’s Outcomes” for the January issue of American Psychological Association. He also published an advice column titled “Stand Up to Bullying: What Campuses Can Do About an Overlooked Crisis” for the Winter 2026 issue of Liberal Education.
Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead was appointed co-editor-in-chief for “New Directions for Evaluation.”
Jennie Weiner published “Care Work: How It Impacts Women Leaders” for National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
Students

The Neag School’s sport management program hosted its 10th annual Sport Business Conference on Feb. 15 in McHugh Hall at UConn Storrs. More than 130 students connected with industry professionals through keynotes, panels, and networking. The student-run event was organized by the Sport Business Association. Read more in UConn Today.
Music education students, led by Cara Bernard, performed in front of an audience of 19,000 at the Pentatonic Holiday Show in New York City, New York, in December. View a recording here.
Marcus Harris, a Ph.D. student in the research methods, measurement, and evaluation program, was awarded an IBACS Graduate Summer Fellowship from UConn. He will work with Dr. Arielle Keller in her ACORN Lab in UConn’s Psychological Sciences department, with a focus on developing and testing AI-assisted tools that can be integrated into peer-based “ReproducibiliBuddy” workflows. Harris also recently won first place in the 2026 Holmes Scholars AACTE Preconference Dissertation Funding Competition for his dissertation titled “Inclusive Reproducibility: Building Usable Rubric for Social Scientists.”
Lexi Hastings ’25 (ED), who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs, was recently featured in UConn Today for being recruited to play for Boston in the new Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) this summer.
Katherine Mack, a doctoral student in curriculum and instruction, and Todd Campbell, along with others, co-authored “Community Science Data Talks” for the August issue of Science and Children.
Alumni
Benjamin Briskin ’17 (ED), ’19 MS was promoted to assistant director of accommodations at UConn’s Center for Students with Disabilities.
Kolin Ebron ’21 Ph.D. accepted a position at Manchester Community College as director of opportunity programs. He previously held a similar position at Eastern Connecticut State University.
Fany DeJesús Hannon ’08 MA was profiled by UConn University Communications about her role as dean of students.
Desi Nesmith ’01 (ED), ’02 MA, ’09 6th Year was appointed executive director of the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC). Nesmith joined CREC as assistant executive director in 2024. Prior to joining CREC, he served as assistant superintendent of Bloomfield Public Schools and as deputy commissioner at the Connecticut State Department of Education.
Lisa M. Romano ’24 ELP was appointed assistant superintendent for the Naugatuck Board of Education. Prior to that, she was an elementary school principal for the same school district.
Stephen Slota ’07 (ED), ’08 MA, ’14 Ph.D. co-authored a book, “The Worldbuilding Workshop: Teaching Critical Thinking and Empathy Through World Modeling, Simulation, and Play” (MIT Press Direct, 2025).
Paul Singleton II ’17 MA, ’24 Ph.D. has been named a 2026 Northern Virginia 40 Under 40 honoree.
Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you! Please email neag-communications@uconn.edu with any news items.









