News Archive

Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient:
School of Education’s Dr. Margaret Jablonski, M. Ed. 1984

The annual Distinguished Alumni Awards were presented April 16 at a luncheon in the Massachusetts State House in Boston. University of Massachusetts President Jack Wilson and UMass Amherst Chancellor Robert C. Holub were scheduled to speak prior to the awards presentation.

Four alumni, a professor emeritus and an honorary alumnus received the awards, the highest honor bestowed by the Alumni Association.

School of Education alumna Dr. Margaret A. (Peggy) Jablonski, M.Ed. 1984, currently vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is one of the Distinguished Alumni Award recipients this year.

Dr. Jablonski has served higher education for 28 years, including in student affairs and as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Recognized as a leader in the field of student affairs, Jablonski also served as a dean in the student life areas at Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Connecticut.

In each of these roles, her focus has been on fostering student learning and development while enhancing a strong sense of community for all students.

Read more at: http://www.umassalumni.com/awards_grants/profiles/2009/margaret_jablonski.html

Alumna Dr. Dolly Lambdin wins top award

School of Education alumna and physical education expert Dr. Dolly Lambdin ( Ed.D 1992) received the Physical Education Teacher Education Honor Award from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), the national authority in physical education and leader in setting the standard for practice in sport and physical activity.

Dr. Lambdin is a clinical professor at The University of Texas at Austin in the College of Education's Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. Her experience in physical education includes 16 years as a teacher in public and private schools, kindergarten through eighth grade, and over three decades in teacher preparation at the university level. For many years, she taught at Austin public schools as well as at the university, splitting her days into mornings with public school children and afternoons with her college students. She has supervised more than 100 student teachers and overseen their work in thousands of public school classes.

Dr. Lambdin has been president of the NASPE and was on the writing teams for the Texas Physical Education Essential Knowledge and Skills in Physical Education, the National and Texas State Physical Education Beginning Teacher Standards and National Physical Education Appropriate Practices Guidelines. She has written "Fitness for Life: Middle School" and co-authored "Putting Research to Work in Elementary Physical Education."

Learning in the Virtual World

Researchers are beginning to wonder whether video games might actually be a solution to what ails today's students rather than a problem. Read School of Education alumni Dr. Chris Dede's (Ed.D. 1972) thoughts about virtual worlds and video games in this article from the January 2009 issue of Science.

Doctoral student Lee wins Equity Scholars Award

Hyunju Lee, doctoral student in the School of Education's Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, was named by the Equity and Ethics Committee of National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) as a recipient of one of the 2009 NARST Equity Scholars Awards. The scholarships support early career science educators (advanced doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty) from under-represented groups within the U.S. to attend the 2009 NARST annual conference and to contribute to science education research, scholarship, and leadership.

Lee is a research assistant in Professor Allan Feldman's NSF- funded project, "Teacher Learning of Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment." She will present a paper at the NARST conference titled "Teachers' Implementation of a Classroom Response System to Perform Formative Assessment in Secondary Science/Math Class.

SOE alum Desmond (Ed.D. 1992) named chairman of Board of Higher Education

Former UMass Boston administrator Charles Desmond was recently appointed as the new chairman of the Board of Higher Education by Gov. Deval L. Patrick. Desmond is replacing Frederick W. Clark, Jr. More ...

SOE alumni Dr. Robert A. Gordon receives Canadian “Minister’s Lifetime Achievement Award”

Dr. Robert A. Gordon (M.Ed 1969, Ed.D 1971) has been awarded the fourth annual Minister's Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to Ontario, Canada’s college system. His academic background includes an Honours BA in History and a Master's Degree in Modern British History from Bishop's University, a Master's Degree and Doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of Massachusetts’ School of Education, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. More ...

Doctoral student Runnell-Hall wins Future Leader Award

Marcella Runell-Hall, a doctoral student in the School of Education, is one of 10 graduate students in the nation to be recognized with the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). More ...

UMass Amherst studies dovetail with Edison Santana's life
Published in The Republican, Springfield, Mass.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Edison Santana (M.Ed. 1988) is a UMass-Amherst graduate all the way, having obtained a bachelor's in psychology in 1982, a master's in education in 1988 and doctorate in philosophy in 1994. He chose UMass-Amherst because of the counseling psychology program in the School of Education at the time he enrolled. More ...

Dr. Mary F. Lenox Honored

UMass Amherst School of Education alumna Dr. Mary F. Lenox (Ed.D. 1975) was recently honored as a recipient of the Chicago Teachers College / Chicago State University Alumni Association’s 2008 Golden Alumna Award. The award is bestowed upon an alumna or alumnus who is 70 years of age or older, in honor of their consistent service, commitment and dedication to the advancement of Chicago State University. More ...

Dr. Carey Honored

Dr. John C. Carey, professor in the department of Student Development and Pupil Personnel Services and director of the School of Education's Center for School Counseling Outcome Research (CSCOR), recently received the Chancellor's "In the Field" Recognition Award in a public ceremony at the Mullins Center preceding the UMass Amherst-Holy Cross basketball game.

Dr. John C. Carey approved for Fulbright award

The Council for International Exchange of Scholars has recently approved Dr. John Carey, professor in the department of Student Development and Pupil Personnel Services, for a Fulbright award starting January 2010. More ...

Dr. Toran E. Isom Named Arkansas Teacher of the Year

Dr. Toran E. Isom, (Ed.D 1989) an instructor in University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Department of Rhetoric and Writing, has been named Arkansas English Higher Education Teacher of the Year by the Arkansas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (ACTELA.) More ...

Dr. Addison Reid new director of diversity at Lesley

Barbara J. Addison Reid (Ed.D. 1992) was recently named to the position of director of diversity and affirmative action at Lesley University, Cambridge, Mass. She previously served as the Executive Director of Human Resources at Bentley College, where she also taught graduate courses in Human Resource Management. At Bentley, she and colleagues developed a recruitment protocol to increase fairness in hiring, particularly for women and people of color, and presented a paper on a 13-year assessment of Bentley’s Diversity initiative at the International Conference on Diversity in Beijing, China.

Before joining Bentley in 1994, Dr. Reid served in personnel and human resource management positions at Automatic Data Processing Inc. for the New England Region in Waltham, at Tufts University in Medford and Harvard University in Cambridge. She received a Master of Education degree in 1985 and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 1974, both from Northeastern. She lives in Burlington, Mass.

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School of Education Professor Dr. Willett to Receive University President’s Public Service Award

Dr. Jerri Willett, chair of the School of Education’s Department of Teacher Preparation and Curriculum Studies Department, has been named a recipient of the President’s Public Service Award for 2008, according to the Office of the President of the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Willett will receive the award along with other outstanding faculty at a ceremony and luncheon on Nov. 19 in the Great Hall of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. More ...

Dr. Vijay Kumar, CIE member, co-edits “Opening Up Education”

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and The MIT Press have published Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge, edited by Toru Iyoshi and M.S. Vijay Kumar (Ed.D. 1986.) The book is available for free download from The MIT Press website under a Creative Commons use license and also for sale in hard copy. More...

Dr. Howard J. Eberwein III Receives Educational Law Award

Howard J. Eberwein, III, (Ed.D. 2008) Superintendent of Pittsfield, Mass., Schools, received the Education Law Association’s Joseph C. Beckham Dissertation of the Year Award at the organization’s 54th Annual Conference held in San Antonio, Tx.
The award recognizes exemplary dissertations by doctoral students in the field of education law. More...

Ulysses Byas Visits Namesake School

School of Education alumnus Ulysses Byas (Ed.D 1977) recently travelled from his home in Macon, Georgia, to Long Island, New York, to celebrate a $31-million reconstruction of an elementary school that bears his name, as reported in a recent issues of Newsday.

The new Ulysses Byas Elementary School, renamed shortly before Byas retired from the school district in 1977, sports not only new classrooms and technology, but a portrait of its namesake, a recent gift from Byas himself.

In 1970, Byas was named county school superintendent in Tuskegee, Alabama. Seven years later, he moved to New York and took his place at the former Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School where he helped rebuild the financial structure of the school that then faced bankruptcy and that now offers advanced services including Chinese lessons and a chess coaching and sees its students continue to score well on state English and math tests.

Dr. Roy Jones, 1972 SOE Alumnus, Named for Pacesetter Award

The American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE) has named Clemson University professor Roy Jones (B.A. 1972) the winner of the 2009 AABHE Pacesetters Award for his commitment to leadership in black higher education. More ...

Scholarship Recipients and Donors Meet

Some of the scholarship recipients and donors who attended a recent Reception include (l to r) Heidi Bohler, Marsha Bryant, Mrs. Alma Keilty, Catherine Lynch, Mrs. Grace Carney, Mary Beth Carney and Kathryn Stead. More photos ...

Recipients of six scholarships and some of the donors who made them possible met on Oct. 2 at a School of Education reception held at the University Club. It was an evening characterized by laughter and deeply-felt exchanges of appreciation.

“It means so much to me to meet the students who received the scholarships,” said donor Alma Keilty, who created the Joseph W. Keilty Scholarship in memory of her husband. “I’ve read their letters of thanks and it is wonderful to put a face to the name.”

Keilty Scholarship recipients Heidi Bohler, Marsha Bryant, and Catherine Lynch attended the reception. Lynch, a doctoral candidate, spoke about how the Keilty scholarship impacted her life.

“I saw a bumper sticker the other day when driving home on Route 2 that read, ‘Too bad the people who know how to run the government are too busy teaching school.’ My first thought was, ‘Where can I get that sticker?’ That statement speaks to the work I am doing in my doctoral program in educational policy and leadership,” Lynch said. “I'm interested in the ways education is political, and how we can and should educate students, particularly in higher education, how to be engaged, responsible, and active citizens, as opposed to just active participants in the workforce.”

“I had no idea that being a full-time graduate student was possible,” she continued. “I recently graduated from the Master's program in higher education here at UMass and realized that I don't want to stop. When I was considering the doctoral program, though, I thought, ‘I don't have any money,’ so I applied for the Keilty Scholarship. Then I forgot about it, really, and when I saw the letter from the Dean of the School of Education, I thought, ‘Uh-oh. What's happened?’ I had to read the letter several times before it sunk in.”

“I would like to thank Alma Keilty, and I'm so glad to have this opportunity to meet her in person and be here tonight,” Lynch said. “Mrs. Keilty has come here all the way from San Diego which I think is wonderful. So thank you, thank you for this
opportunity to make a difference.”

Kathryn Stead, a first year student in the Secondary Teacher Education Graduate Program and a recipient of the Grace Norton Carney Scholarship also spoke to the group. Stead said that while she was “thrilled” to have been accepted in the School of Education, “the financial reality of paying for Graduate School set in and I was uncertain how I could afford the cost of living while paying for more school at the same time.”

“When I opened the letter that told me I had been awarded the Grace Norton Carney Scholarship, I was shocked and had to read it five times to be sure this amazing gift was really for me! It gave me hope,” she continued. “I wish that someday I will be in the position to bring hope to future UMass Amherst School of Education students as the donors have brought to me. I am eternally grateful to them.”

Other scholarship recipients who attended the reception were Rachel Boit and Laurice Ann Guillory, Early Childhood Education Scholarship recipients; and Michelle Lee, recipient of the Meline Kasparian Scholarship.

Also attending the reception were Dean Christine B. McCormick, Associate Dean Linda Griffin, School of Education Department Chairs Rich Lapan and Jerri Willett, members of the Dean’s Leadership Council, representatives from the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Massachusetts Society of Professors, and other guests.

See more photos

Fitzpatrick Receives Best School Superintendent Award

Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Executive Director Thomas Scott and Director of Professional Development and Government Services Paul Andrews have announced that Michael F. Fitzpatrick (Ed.D. 1981), Superintendent-Director of the Blackstone Valley Vocational Regional School District, was named the Dr. Christos Daoulas Award recipient for 2008.  The award is presented each year to one superintendent who personifies the best qualities of dedicated school leadership and has contributed significantly to the association. More ...

Assistant Director of SOE's Center for Education Policy Named to State Committee
From the Hampshire Gazette

Amherst - Amherst School Committee Chairman Andrew Churchill has been recognized by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees for his service on the local board and statewide. More ...

School of Education Alumnus Receives Literacy Leadership Award

John Comings, former Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a University of Massachusetts School of Education alumni (Ed.D. 1979) is one of the recipients of the National Coalition for Literacy’s 2008 Literacy Leadership Awards presented at a reception at the Library of Congress on Sept. 10, 2008. More ...

Ann Courtney, Ed.D. '87, Awarded Fulbright Scholar Grant

Ann Courtney (Ed.D. 1987), an Associate Professor of Reading and Language Arts, and the Coordinator of Elementary Education at the University of Hartford (Conn.), has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and research at Mary Immaculate College-University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland during the 2008-2009 academic year. More ...

Summer Olympics 1956! Read about SOE alum Dr. Charles Jenkins' run for the gold...

Dr. Charles L. Jenkins, 1978 School of Education alumni, participated in the 1956 Summer Olympics. (The following article recently appeared in The Washington Post.)

Click here for further information

Heriberto Flores named chairman of Holyoke Community College trustees

Heriberto Flores, Ed D 73, has been named the chairman of the Board of Trustees at Holyoke Community College. Flores, a former UMass Amherst trustee, has been a trustee at HCC since 2002. He is the executive director of the New England Farm Workers' Council.

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Films by UMass Amherst Professor Chosen for Preservation by New York Women in Film & Television

June, 2008 - Two early films by Liane Brandon, professor emeritus of education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, have been selected for restoration and preservation by the New York Women in Film & Television's Women's Film Preservation Fund.

Click here for further information

Meet our new Faculty 2008

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