Emily Tarconish is a Ph.D. candidate in Neag School’s educational psychology program with a concentration in special education. She is a survivor of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) she endured at the age of 15. With years of hard work and rehabilitation, Tarconish has relearned how to walk, speak, and regain basic life functions. Once she completes her Ph.D., she plans to pursue research focused in part on improving access to higher education for college students with TBIs.

Dr. Alan Addley is in his eleventh year as the Superintendent of Granby Public Schools in Granby, Connecticut. A native of Northern Ireland, Alan started his career as a professional soccer player and mathematics teacher. Alan has thirty-four years of administrative and teaching experience in private and public schools in the United States and Ireland. Addley received his Ed.D. from UConn’s Neag School of Education in 2014. Prior to this, Addley earned his Connecticut Intermediate Administrator Certification in 1997 and a Connecticut Superintendent Certificate from the Executive Leadership Program in 2007, both from the Neag School.

The Connecticut Association of Latinos in Higher Education presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Cromwell resident Walter Diaz, vice president for student affairs at Eastern Connecticut State University.

“Being randomly assigned a black teacher if you are a black student leads to a significant impact,” Hyman said during an interview about his research published last month in the peer-reviewed journal the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“It’s a great honor and privilege to be named the next head coach of the Oregon lacrosse program,” said Gamble. “I am incredibly humbled and would like to thank Rob Mullens, Lisa Peterson and all of the wonderful people at the University of Oregon for this opportunity. Growing the game of lacrosse, especially on the West Coast, is something I am extremely passionate about. There is no better conference to compete in and grow this amazing game than the Pac-12.”

“To support students’ creativity, educators must question assumptions and instill a sense of possibility,” says Ronald Beghetto, a professor of educational psychology at the Neag School.

“It’s really striking. I mean the fact that these are little kids, in first, second grade, and having these black teachers at that age, the fact that it lasts so long, it’s really quite amazing I think,” said UConn professor Joshua Hyman, who co-authored the study.

“It was very soon after I started, but it was really exciting,” Roth-Saks says. “I had such a wonderful and warm welcoming from our community and our volunteers and the board. It was so terrific to be able to start this leadership position with that type of excitement and energy.”

“All it takes is one black teacher to influence a student,” says Joshua Hyman.

“My experience in my teacher prep program included four clinic experiences, in urban and suburban placements, over 10 lesson observations completed and evaluated by teachers, principals and instructional coaches and more than 90 credits of education-focused courses,” says Olivia Singer. “From my perspective, these hands-on learning experiences with students, educators and renowned faculty at the University of Connecticut were of much more value to me than any multiple choice test I could have taken.”