March 2026 News

An AI Leader in Education

Professor Jennifer L. Steele is an artificial intelligence thought leader on a mission to help people make better decisions through data. She was interviewed about data, decision making, and the future of work. "Educators can’t solely be purveyors of knowledge; we must mentor in a deeper way," she said.

Creating Community Across Generations

Triple eagle Pamela Higgins Harris, BA ’72, MEd ’73, EdD ’25, was interviewed in The Eagle about how she creates community across the generations. She said, “The most impactful gift that we can give to others is to engage in self-transformation from the inside out."

New Administrative Leadership Certificate Offering

At SOE, you can now add a Certificate in Administrative Leadership to your MEd in Education Policy and Leadership. It certifies you to effect change at school, local, state, and federal levels as a principal, district-level supervisor, or program director, all within the 30 credits of the MEd.

🎤 Listen to Big Ideas That Matter podcast episode 3 "Learning Lives Here — Stories of Humanizing Education in Incarcerated Spaces" with Dr. Annice E. Fisher.

Liston on: YouTube, Spotify, or Amazon Music.

Upcoming Events

SOE in the News

Director of Faculty Affairs and Professor Brian L. McGowan was a featured panelist in the Association for the Study of Higher Education Presidential Podcast Series The Bend in the Arc episode “Curriculum as Contested Terrain.” Listen on Spotify.

Today at Elon (University) covered Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss’s Lauren Dunne Astley Memorial Lecture where she urged listeners to not treat misogyny as a “side issue,” but warned that it is a major driver for extremism and violence. The lecture was named in memory of a woman murdered in 2011 by an ex-boyfriend weeks before she was to enroll at Elon.

SOE in the Community

Dr. Terence Ngwa presented at the National Education Association's Higher Education Conference in Phoenix in March, leading two workshop sessions of “Building Power Through Collaborative Partnerships.”

Director, Institute for Innovation in Education Dr. Danielle Sodani has joined the Translating Research into Action (TRAC) team as the Seed Translational Research Project (STRP) and Faculty Engagement Liaison. She will manage the STRP grant portfolio and provide grantees with mentoring and guidance.

A team from SOE's education policy and leadership doctoral program assisted at the KIPP DC 4th annual Black Male Educator Convening in Anacostia. Themed “Leading, Teaching, and Thriving: Sustaining Black Male Excellence in Education,” the event centered the leadership and impact of Black men in classrooms and across our community.

Professorial Lecturers Dr. Jisun Jeong and Dr. Deepa Srikantaiah will present at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference from Mar. 28-Apr. 1. Jeong will present her refugee research project in South Korea, titled "Educational Experiences, Aspirations, and Career Pathways of Students with Refugee Backgrounds in South Korea." Srikantaiah will present a paper and take part in two panels including "Theory to Praxis: Designing Education Alternatives within Farsi-speaking Communities experiencing Conflict and Political Instability."

SOE co-sponsored the 2026 Washington Consortium for Comparative and International Education and Training conference themed "Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World" that featured AU graduate students presenting and engaging in dialogue and making connections across institutions. Professors Dr. Elizabeth Worden and Dr. Jisun Jeong and Professorial Lecturer Dr. Deepa Srikantaiah served on the organizing faculty group.

SOE Scholars-in-Residence Dr. Kevin Tan (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Dr. Meagan Call-Cummings (Johns Hopkins University) joined Mrs. Shelley Pohzehland (Principal, Bennett Elementary School) and Dr. Jisun Jeong to present the session "Supporting and Nurturing Student Identity, Agency, and Belonging in the Current Moment." The group also participated in a professional development session for Arlington Public Schools including Call-Cummings' Youth Research Council who presented their findings on school safety and mental health for students of color.

SOE will be hosting the Maryland Association of Teacher Educators (MATE), Distinguished Teacher Candidate Awards Brunch on Saturday, April 25 at 11am.

Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Gayle Warmbrodt was nominated to the Council for Exceptional Children’s Accreditation Commission and will serve on the Accreditation Commission for two years.

SOE Writings & Publications

Nikki LeVee, BA '25, wrote the article "College should Be a Creative Engine — Not a Conveyor Belt" for the education magazine Learning Well. "It’s not that Gen Z can’t handle college; it’s that college isn’t exactly handling Gen Z," she wrote. 

Professor Dr. Amaarah DeCuir published an article in The Conversation titled, "When US Fights in the Middle East, American Muslim Students Often Face Discrimination," including what teachers can do to help create safe spaces in classrooms. Her research shows that global conflicts in the Middle East tend to provoke Islamophobia, meaning hatred and fear of Muslim people, in the US.

Celia Graham, BA '25, and Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Carolyn Parker co-authored the paper “Inheritance and Inclusion: Teaching Genetics for All Students” about students who live with caregivers who are not genetically related to them (adoptees, foster kids, children conceived through surrogacy). The paper was presented at the Pedigrees to Practice: An Inclusive, Culturally Relevant Approach to Teaching Genetics for Elementary Preservice Teacher Candidates session at the Association of Science Teacher Educators conference in Chicago.

Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Sherita Flake published Creating Inclusive STEM Classrooms: Claiming Place and Making Space in Grades K-5 that reimagines STEM as inclusive and identity-driven. Flake was also a guest on the National Council Supervisors of Mathematics podcast.

Rev. Loris Nadene Adams, EdD '27, wrote a foreword to the book Ishara: Notes from The Edge of Humanity. 

Dr. Julie Corbett, EdD ’25, published “Missing Voices: Increasingly Disproportionate Racial Representation on School Boards,” in the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership.

SOE on Social Media

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