- When eighteen-year-old Pamela Cheryl Higgins, BA '72, MEd '73, EdD '25, first stepped onto American University's campus in 1968, she couldn't have imagined that her relationship with the institution would span more than five decades and culminate in a doctoral hood being placed over her shoulders at the age of 75. [May 22, 2025]
- SOE students Delaney Denton, Rachel Hou, and Victoria Allen were interviewed by The Eagle about recent steps to dismantle the Department of Education. “It’s kind of a big deal teaching the next generation of people and citizens in the world,” Allen said. “That’s one of my favorite things about education is you just truly get to see the young minds of society grow and change." [May 22, 2025]
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Patrick Doyle, BA '25, exemplifies the passion, dedication, and community-minded spirit that American University strives to foster in its graduates. A double major in secondary education and history, prior to graduation Doyle secured a position as a 6th-grade history teacher at Brookland Middle School in Washington, DC. [May 22, 2025]
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Ricardo Garcia, MEd '25, presented his capstone project to the District of Columbia State Board of Education. Garcia developed a research agenda for DC's school board team to support local impact. [May 22, 2025]
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SOE students were honored at the Student Achievement Awards Ceremony celebrating the exceptional contributions of graduating students, highlighting the university’s highest honors. Darla Davenport-Powell, EdD '25, received the Outstanding Scholarship at the Graduate Level Award. Nikki LeVee, BA '25, a secondary education major, received the Evelyn Swarthout Hayes Award. [May 22, 2025]
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Nikki LeVee, BA '25, also participated in an Aspen Institute research symposium co-hosted by Aspen’s Center for Rising Generations and Georgetown University titled “Promise, Possibility, and Power of Adolescence.” [May 22, 2025]
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When Dr. Rachel Cason, EdD '25, first set foot on AU's campus attending a youth leadership camp, she didn't know that years later she would return to earn her doctorate. AU has been a recurring touchpoint throughout her life's journey—from volleyball camp in high school to a college internship with AU's Community and Social Change program, and finally, to the culmination of her educational path. [May 22, 2025]
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Robin Wrobleski, MAT '25, knew that attending American University would be a significant achievement for a first-generation college student. This May, he graduatedwith his Master of Arts in Teaching: Secondary Education, while already putting his education to work as a social studies teacher at Woodbridge High School in Virginia. [May 22, 2025]
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SOE’s Prakriti Nepal, ITEP ’25, presented “The Transnational Education of DC’s Books and Beats” at the AU Career Center’s Experiential Learning Showcase. “It feels like a transnational educational leap to a powerhouse coming from Nepal,” she said. She spoke about student diplomacy, food epistemology, and her experiences at conferences. [May 22, 2025]
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Elizabeth Graff, '27, a secondary education and history double-major, was selected by the AU Honors Program and the Office of Undergraduate Education to participate in the 2025 AU Summer Scholars and Artists Program. This prestigious opportunity is being offered to only 10 students out of a record number of applicants this year. [May 22, 2025]
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Casey A. Crews, Mary M. Oewel, and Kyuna Sims, all MEd '24 alumni, co-authored “Urban District Superintendents: Characteristics, Tenure, and Salaries,” to uncover superintendent pay, tenure, and turnover in system leadership. [May 22, 2025]
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SOE had significant representation from students, alumni, faculty, and staff at the American Educational Research Association's 2025 Annual Meeting. [May 22, 2025]
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Lorelei Bangit, a sophomore majoring in early childhood education, was awarded the School of Education’s 2025 student athlete award. [April 16, 2025]
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The School of Education is proud to nominate two teacher candidates: Nicole 'Nikki' LeVee, a secondary education in social studies major; and Victoria Schroeder, an elementary education major, for the Maryland Association of Teacher Education 2024-25 Distinguished Teacher Candidate Award. [April 16, 2025]
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“The Influence of Culturally Responsive Literacy Practices on Students’ Literacy Motivation” is an investigative study on the influence of a high intensity reading tutoring intervention program combining culturally responsive literacy and science-of-reading practices on students’ motivation to read. The authors includes Madelyn Dawn Smith (BA ’22, MEd ’24), among others, and it was published in Sage Open. [April 16, 2025]
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EdD candidate Tiffany Green was featured in Forbes' The Women Who Redefined Tech For Good In 2024 for founding Uprooted Academy, which uses technology to ease the college-to-career journey for low-income and first-generation students of color. [February 17, 2025]
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EdD candidate Melanie Latson published an opinion in New York Amsterdam News after an encounter with blackface memorabilia. She explores how this peculiar home decor continues to perpetuate generational racism and what this culture means for children. [February 17, 2025]
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2025 EdD candidate Joytrese George won the 2025 Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) Conference Three Minute Thesis People's Choice Award where she condensed her dissertation “For the Culture, Beyond Microorganisms; Uplifting Joy Among Black Women Science Teachers in NYC.” [February 17, 2025]
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EdD candidate Derek Flake has been accepted into the inaugural Howard Community College’s President's Leadership Academy. [February 17, 2025]
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Dr. Keisha Woods (EdD ’24) will present Effective Co-teaching Strategies for Students with Disabilities in Inclusion Classrooms at the Council of Exceptional Children Conference. She will also be presenting Every Learner Counts:Transforming Reading Instruction for Diverse Learners at the International Educators' Summit in Ghana in July. [February 17, 2025]
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Dr. Jenni Torres, EdD ’22, was named Executive Director of WIDA, an educational services organization housed in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Education. [December 5, 2024]
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Dr. Jasmine Rogers (EdD '23 and SOE adjunct faculty) was a guest on the Leading Literacy Podcast where she spoke about her time in AU's Doctorate in Education program. [October 15, 2024]
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Julie Corbett (EdD '25) was also quoted in the Chicago Tribune about a the resignation of the entire Chicago Public School Board of Education. [October 15, 2024]
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Julie Corbett (EdD '25) presented at the 2024 Cradle to Career Network Convening in Salt Lake City, UT, discussing Norwalk ACTS' Civic Influencer Program (the foundation of her doctoral dissertation). [October 15, 2024]
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Dr. Nara Nayar, EdD '27, published “What Accurate Identification Means for Indigenous Students, and the Challenges of Doing So” in the American Institutes for Research, examining data about the education of Indigenous people. [October 15, 2024]
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MEd student Carlos Gamez’s paper, “Student Growth on a Statewide Progress-Monitoring Assessment System by District,” was accepted by the Florida Journal of Educational Research. [October 15, 2024]
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Education studies minor Felicity Chapman, SOC/BA ’26, won the prestigious 2024–26 Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholarship and up to $50,000 in financial aid. [September 16, 2024]
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Carl Felton, III, MEd '23, policy analyst at EdTrust, wrote a blog post promoting tutoring, extending learning time, and teachers building relationships with students. [September 16, 2024]
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Teaching Fellows Tatiana Ellis, BA '26, and Luis Paredes Alvizurez, BA '27, taught DCPS Generation Teach (GT) STEAM Academy participants math and engineering as part of their GT Summer Teaching Fellowship, promoting teaching in diverse communities. [September 16, 2024]
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The Black Code, a documentary by EdD program alum Dr. Sharice Lane, '24, is a Student Film category finalist for the 2024 Lane Doc Fest. The film analyzes the cultural responsiveness of English language arts (ELA) instruction. [September 16, 2024]
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Pamela Harris, CAS/MEd '73 and SOE/EdD '25, with husband Tyrone, SOC/BA '72 and WCL/JD '75, won the 2024 Volunteer Impact Award at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Ebony Eagles of Excellence celebration, for their dedication to advancing the global Black community. [September 16, 2024]
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EdD alum Dr. Dia L. Jones, '22, will facilitate a workshop at STEMNoire 2024: Black Women Leading the STEM Renaissance Conference which will provide attendees with tools to build their belongingness capacity in STEM spaces. She will also present research to support increased participation of Black girls and women in STEM at this summer's Black Gaze Symposium. [May 28, 2024]
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EdD student Julie Corbett, '25, was one of the subjects of a The Hour article, "Chalk Talk: A Diverse Group of Norwalkers Are Being Trained to Be Civic Influencers," which detailed a program she designed enabling diverse citizens of Norwalk, CT, to participate in a civics lesson on local government. [May 28, 2024]
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EdD alum Dr. Iris Bond Gill, '24, has been named a New America Fellow. The program invests in thinkers who generate big, bold ideas that have an impact and spark new conversations about the most pressing issues of our day. [May 28, 2024]
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EdD student Darla Davenport-Powell, ’24, plays the role of the family matriarch Lucy Bell in the slavery-centered live-animation documentary The Bell Affair, which explores freedom lawsuits of US slaves and recently began streaming on Amazon Prime. [April 24, 2024]
- Education Policy and Leadership (EPL) MEd students Lauren Gustafson, Meanha Kim, and Kwand Lang, Jr. of Dr. Phelton Moss’s proseminar course are partnering with Opportunity Consulting to develop a series of toolkits for school leaders with strategies to bolster school improvement efforts. EPL MEd students Jarren Newby, Kissiah Valle, and Angeliki Papari-Kosiori accompanied Moss to a Capitol Hill roundtable discussion he organized and facilitated for Black and Latino school superintendents from across the country and the education policy advisors of President Biden and Vice President Harris. [April 24, 2024]