News

Dissertation of the Year Award to Bloomgarden (Ed.D. 2009)

Dr. Alan Bloomgarden (Ed.D. 2009) has received the Dissertation of the Year Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE), an international nonprofit membership organization devoted to promoting research and discussion about service-learning and community engagement. This award is given annually to one dissertation that advances research through rigorous and innovative inquiry. Bloomgarden’s dissertation is titled “Prestige Culture and Community-Based Faculty Work."

The organization’s criteria for dissertations considered for selection for the award include addressing important questions, developing robust theoretical or conceptual frameworks, demonstrating the use of rigorous data collection and analysis, showing compelling conclusions, and expanding on the study’s results to suggest important implications for theory/research on service learning and/or community engagement.

Dr. Bloomgarden is currently the coordinator of the Community-Based Learning Program in the Weissman Center for Leadership at Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass. He resides in Florence, Mass.

Lesser visits Chilean family that saved her life

Mishy Lesser (Ed.D. 1996) tells people that she first personally experienced terrorism on September 11. She pauses, and clarifies: September 11, 1973.

Then a 20-year-old college student turned community organizer and activist working in Chile during the government of Salvador Allende, Lesser was forced to go into hiding when the September 11, 1973 military coup d’état caused the country to descend into violence and terror. She was safely hidden by a doctor and his family while thousands disappeared, were tortured or murdered. The dead would include her Chilean boyfriend and two American colleagues who were inspired by the movement for social justice that flourished during the Allende government.

Now an education consultant working in the Boston area, Lesser still possesses the flimsy means by which she escaped Chile with her life: a forged letter claiming she was a university student studying history, a U.S. Embassy document certifying the fraudulent letter, and a calling card with a reluctantly scribbled note of support from a retired police general.

Early in 2008, Lesser returned to Chile to reunite with the family she credits for her survival. The reunion was the subject of a piece on “The World,” the international radio news program presented by Public Radio International, the British Broadcasting Company, and WGBH Boston.

The trip and its media coverage supported Lesser’s process of coming to terms with her Chilean experience. The School of Education also played a role, she said.

After her escape from Chile, Lesser worked with anti-Pinochet activists in her home town of New York City. In 1980 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and travelled as close to Chile as she could get: Ecuador.

“In Ecuador I was able to use some of what I’d learned in Chile in my work with both urban underserved communities as well as indigenous populations in the highlands,” she said.

After a decade, Lesser came back to the U.S. and, searching for a doctoral program, learned about the School of Education’s Center for International Education and the Amherst-based Institute for Training and Development where she secured a consulting job. She was admitted to SOE’s doctoral program in international education and took courses in the Family Therapy program. Her research focused on people from opposing sides of the civil war in El Salvador.

“It allowed me to look at what happens to people after they’ve been exposed to political violence, and to try to answer the question of whether an educational setting can further psychological as well as social healing among people who might otherwise be more inclined to rip each other to shreds than reconcile,” she said.

Her studies at the School of Education gave her a framework in which she could look at her experience in Chile with deeper understanding.

“Someone asked me how these different events - Chile and the coup, working for the Chile solidarity movement, and then the Fulbright and Ecuador, how they all fit together,” Lesser said. “It wasn’t until I got to Amherst and was able to sink into the program at CIE that I began to examine some of my experiences from that painful period. Those of us who got out of Chile when I did…did not have the language to describe how what we were doing in the political arena affected us psychologically. So the Family Therapy program and CIE gave me a context to look critically at all of that, and to begin my own healing.”

Kim named interim VC for Student Affairs and Campus Life

SOE alumna Jean Kim, Ed.D.1981, a student affairs administrator with more than 35 years of experience, has been named interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life.

Chancellor Robert C. Holub chose Kim to the fill the vacancy created by the retirement of longtime professor and campus administrator Esther Terry, who served as interim vice chancellor since 2008. During Kim’s one-year appointment, which starts July 1, a national search will be conducted for the permanent post. Kim launched her career in student affairs on the Amherst campus. Kim said she plans to apply for the permanent position.

Kim most recently served as vice chancellor for Student Affairs at UMass Dartmouth, where she oversaw 17 departments and an annual budget of $40 million. Read more…

Graduation Celebration 2009

The Campus Center auditorium was packed with excited graduates, undergraduates, and families and friends attending our 2009 Graduation Celebration.

AERA meeting in San Diego

See photos from the School's reception at AERA meeting in San Diego

Dr. Craig N. Mills Promoted

Dr. Craig N. Mills (Ed.D. 1982) has been promoted to vice president of examinations at American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in recognition of his leadership and contributions to the profession. A prominent psychometrician and a pioneer in the computerization of testing, Dr. Mills was responsible for the transition of the CPA examination from pencil-and-paper to a computerized format.

Prior to joining AICPA, Dr. Mills directed the computerization of the GRE General Test for the Educational Testing Service, which he joined in 1986.

In 2008, Dr. Mills received an Award of Distinction from the School of Education during the Centennial celebration recognizing 100 years of preparing educators on the UMass Amherst campus.

Can SOE Alum Evan Dobelle Remake Westfield?
From The Hartford Courant
Pursuing Vision of a College Town
By Tom Condon
May 3, 2009

It's hard to get more post-industrial than Westfield, Mass. It is called the "Whip City" because of the buggy whips that were made there when horsepower was measured by the horse. That of course was a long time ago. The town has nice neighborhoods and other businesses, but the moribund downtown suggests it hasn't fully recovered from the onslaught of the newfangled automobile.

But there are handsome historic buildings in the center of town. With the right vision, the downtown could be revived and reborn. And a new guy in town has that vision.

That would be Evan S. Dobelle, who became president of Westfield State College 15 months ago. If you were in Hartford when Dobelle was developing The Learning Corridor as president of Trinity College from 1995 to 2001, it comes as no surprise that he's trying to make his school a catalyst for urban development. That's what he does, and that's what he thinks other colleges should be doing.

"Higher education is an industry. There are 270 colleges in New England that have 250,000 jobs, including 38,000 faculty, and spend $20 billion a year just in operating expenses. Why wouldn't you build on that? You can have a creative economy and bring cities back."

Under Dobelle, Westfield State's foundation privately raised $120,000 and initiated a plan that, if fully executed, will send up to 1,000 students to live downtown, and locate some of the college's programs there as well. Some of the student housing could be on upper floors in older buildings, over storefronts. In addition, downtown will become a performing arts center, with small theaters and studios.

Dobelle has brought in the highly regarded architect and planner William Rawn of Boston, designer of the lovely Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, to do the master plan and Gideon Lester of Harvard's American Repertory Theater to plan the performing arts program. Residents reviewed the draft plans at a series of workshops over the past two weeks. The plans are beginning to draw private sector interest. "The restaurant guys from Northhampton have been down," Dobelle notes.

As Dobelle sees it, the town is in too good a location not to respond to the right stimuli. It's at the foot of the Berkshires and all their arts and music, it is served by an airport, a main rail line and a highway, and is part of the Hartford-Springfield Knowledge Corridor. His school, Westfield State, is something of a hidden gem; many consider it the top regional college in the Massachusetts system. It can all come together.

"I can jump-start this," Dobelle says assertively. There, in that one sentence, is the mix of vision, audacity and confidence that makes him such a compelling character.

The lanky, well-tailored educator left Trinity to take over the troubled University of Hawaii system, where he served until 2004. He says it was "a great time but a little awkward at the end."

Well, yes. Dobelle was caught up in a huge statewide political controversy that I have neither the space nor the inclination to recount in detail. Clearly he pushed for a lot of good things and got a number of them done; he also ruffled feathers and got entwined in gubernatorial politics, something usually to be avoided. When a Republican beat the Democrat in 2002 and changed the leadership of the university's board of regents, Dobelle's days were numbered. He was fired "for cause" but went to court, reached a seven-figure settlement and had the firing rescinded.

A member of his administration at the university summed it up by saying: "We left it better than we found it." Let's leave it at that.

The tempest didn't knock Dobelle out of the game, by any stretch. In 2004 the six New England governors, three from each party, named him president of the New England Board of Higher Education, where he again pushed colleges to help their communities. In December 2007, Dobelle took the job in Westfield.

"I thought it would be fun to make a difference for kids whose parents I grew up with," he says.

It's easy to think of Dobelle as a blueblood; he was chief of protocol in the Carter White House as well as president of Trinity. That misses another side of him. Dobelle grew up in nearby Pittsfield, and served as its Republican mayor when he was 28. He also served as president of two urban two-year colleges, Middlesex Community College in Lowell, Mass., and City College of San Francisco.

So he knows the kids he's got, and likes them. "These are really smart kids, who can do amazing things." With the economy deep in the tanklet, Westfield State is getting kids who were accepted at such schools as Holy Cross and Fairfield. Never mind acceptances, deposits are up 29 percent over last year. Night classes are filling up.

I took my daughter to look at Westfield a few years ago. Architecturally, the campus had a 1950s institutional feel, sort of like Central Connecticut State University before the makeover. Dobelle has put some zip into it with new electronic signs, landscaping and other such stuff. The guy gets things done.

Dobelle stays in touch with Hartford, not least via the fantasy baseball league run by former Hartford police captain Jim Donnelly. Mention of the long-undefeated Trinity squash team, whose status he greatly enhanced, brings a smile to Dobelle's oval visage.

Dobelle is proud that three of his top people at Trinity, Jim Mullen, Sharon Herzberger and Ron Thomas, are college presidents at Allegheny College, Whittier College and University of Puget Sound, respectively. "Being a president is like being a coach, it's about spotting talent," he says. The staffer about whom he is clearly distressed is Eddie Perez, who supervised the Learning Corridor project. Dobelle said Perez looked him in the eye and told him he did nothing wrong. That will have to do for now.

Dobelle looks much the same as he did when he left Trinity, and remains a font of ideas and opinions. When kids who don't know what to study ask for advice, he tells then "computer technology and Spanish." You may watch the movie "Rudy" to see a kid fulfill his dream. Dobelle sees a role model for how to get into the college of one's choice (be relentless!). He has sent the video of the remarkable singer Susan Boyle to his faculty, lest they judge students too soon.

Perhaps Dobelle flew too close to the sun in Hawaii, but he's back in New England, further from the fiery orb, working with the kinds of kids for whom he really can make a difference. At 63, this could be his last time at bat, and I suspect it will be a good one. Keep an eye on Westfield; it could become the Whip-Smart City.

Dr. Smethurst Interim Head at Pegasus

Dr. Jacqueline Smethurst (M.Ed. 1972, Ed.D. 1984) has been appointed Interim Head of the Pegasus School, Huntington Beach, CA. After a thorough and nation-wide search, Dr. Smethurst received unanimous support from both the search committee and board of trustees. She holds both bachelors and masters degrees in English from Oxford University and a doctorate in Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Education. She began her career in education at UMass Amherst where she served as a teacher and administrator. She went on to serve as the head of school at Northfield Mount Hermon School for 10 years. In 1998, she began a successful consulting career helping more than twenty schools nationwide on matters of governance, curriculum and strategic planning. She served as the Interim Head of Sage Hill School for 18 months in 2006 following the retirement of their founding head. She has also guided several school founders to the successful establishment of innovative schools in California.

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Frederick R. Preston, former School of Education faculty member, wrote “Historic Doorways of San Antonio.” Read more about it here.

Dr. Sorcinelli is distinguished visiting professor in Egypt

Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Ed. D. 1978, School of Education associate professor, Department of Educational Policy, Research and Administration, and associate provost for Faculty Development, served as distinguished visiting professor at the American University in Cairo from March 15-22. She was the keynote speaker for a conference on “Learners in Focus: Innovative Practices Across the Disciplines” and offered classes and workshops on teaching, learning and faculty development topics. She also consulted with a range of faculty and academic leaders and met with UMass Amherst undergraduates who are studying at the Egyptian school this year.

Alumni update Rick Haggerty (M.Ed. 1994) was promoted to Senior Behavioral Health Care Manager at the Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan, a MassHealth managed care organization, where he has been employed at their Springfield, Massachusetts, branch office since February of 2005. Rick and his wife, Tabitha, sons Phil and Patrick, and dog, Brandi, reside in the Florence section of Northampton, MA.

Clark Atlanta University President Dr. Carlton E. Brown selected as first recipient of the UMass Amherst Dr. Norma Jean Anderson Award for Leadership for Diversity

	SOE Dean Christine B. McCormick with Dr. Carlton E. Brown

Carlton E. Brown, president of Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, has been named the first recipient of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Norma Jean Anderson Award for Leadership for Diversity.Brown delivered a lecture, "In Search of a Transforming Education," prior to the award ceremony on Monday, May 4, in the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center.

Brown, a Georgia native, earned his doctorate in education from UMass Amherst in 1979, with emphases on multicultural education and educational change. He was named Clark Atlanta University’s third president in August 2008 after having served there as executive vice president and provost.

Dr. Brown and family

The award recognizes leadership in promoting diversity in education through research, practice or policy. “Diversity in education is the compass that has led Carlton Brown throughout his professional life,” said Christine B. McCormick, dean of the School of Education at UMass Amherst. “His selection as the first recipient of the Norma Jean Anderson award for leadership for diversity in education recognizes his constant and steadfast belief in and action towards accomplishing access and equity in education. This award is a tangible demonstration of the School of Education’s legacy and continuing commitment to diversity, excellence and equity in education.”

Among Brown’s appointments before his move to Clark Atlanta, he served nine years as president of Savannah State University, when the campus saw a 48-percent increase in enrollment, major grant and contract increases, improved student retention and more minorities pursuing graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Brown also served as a faculty member and administrator at Old Dominion University and Hampton University, both in Virginia. He helped implement statewide education initiatives for the Georgia Board of Regents, as well.

	Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Esther Terry greets Dr. Carlton E. Brown, president Clark Atlanta University

The Norma Jean Anderson Award for Leadership for Diversity was established in 2004 when Anderson was honored with the first UMass Amherst Distinguished Achievement Award. Before her death in 2006 at age 74, she had served the School of Education for more than 30 years as a faculty member, administrator, mentor and volunteer. Anderson was known for her diligent work to eliminate barriers to education, build a more culturally, racially and educationally diverse campus community, raise awareness of institutional racism and instill social justice values among the students, colleagues and other communities she served.

The Norma Jean Anderson Lecture and Award for Leadership for Diversity was created to perpetuate UMass Amherst’s recognition of Anderson’s values and work.

Watch video of and listen to Dr. Brown's lecture "In Search of A Transforming Education."

Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi speaks at global security and human rights gathering

Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi (Ed.D. 2001), an associate professor in the Sammartino School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University, recently addressed the “racialization of religion” at an international gathering of security and human rights officials in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Joshi, whose research focuses on the experiences of Indian-American Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, was the only American scholar to make a presentation at the event, which is sponsored by the human rights unit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organization, with 56 participating nations in Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and North America, including the United States.

Dr. Joshi presented her work at the plenary session on “Racism in the OSCE Region: Old Issues, New Challenges.” The Vienna meeting was sponsored by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and was scheduled to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Dr. Joshi is the author of New roots in America's sacred ground (2007) and co-author with Dr. Warren Blumenfeld ( Ed.D. 2001) of Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States (2009). Raised in India and Atlanta, Georgia, she now resides in Wayne, New Jersey.

SOE Alum Dr. Bill Cosby to receive Mark Twain Prize

School of Education alumnus, entertainer and educator Dr. Bill Cosby (Ed.D.1976) will receive the 2009 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

More about the award from The Kennedy Center.

Lora McNeece Barrett (Ed. D. 1993) has become the newest partner in Gallery 31, 31 Main Street, Orleans, MA. The gallery is artist owned and maintained. Lora works in the mediums of oils and pastels, creating landscape paintings right on location (en plein air) or working from the still life in her studio. Lora will have a featured, solo exhibit at the Gallery August 15-28, with an opening reception on Aug 15 from 5-7. She invites SOE alumni to stop by!

Samples of her work can be seen on the Gallery 31 website at http://www.gallery31capecod.com.

Lora is retired from a 35 year teaching career in the Holyoke (Mass.) public schools, and in addition to her painting career, currently teaches Art Ed at UMASS Amherst. Her work has been shown internationally and is in numerous private and public collections, including The Federal Reserve.

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