Latest Announcements

Education Policy, Organization & Leadership assistant professor Oliver Tapaha has been named the 2026 recipient of the Bobby Wright Award for Early Career Contributions to Research in Indigenous Education by the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Tapaha was nominated for the award by alumnus Nathan Tanner, Ph.D. '25 EPOL. Tanner said he nominated Tapaha in large part due to his publications in Educational Researcher and a recent major award from the Spencer Foundation, among many other accomplishments.

Tapaha will be honored during the AERA Annual Meeting, April 8-12 in Los Angeles, CA.

Elise McCarren, Ph.D. '24 EPSY, has been recognized by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) with an AERA-NSF Research Grant for work on an upcoming project.

Her project is titled Concurrent Enrollment in Gateway STEM Courses & STEM Bachelors Degree Attainment. 

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the AERA–NSF Grants Program supports both emerging and established scholars. Research grants, ranging from $25,000 to $35,000, support one- or two-year projects led by doctoral-level scholars. These awards are designed to facilitate the implementation of rigorous studies and the development of peer-reviewed publications.

McCarren is a teaching associate professor and director of the Chemistry Merit Program in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Destiny Williams-Dobosz, Ph.D. '25 EPSY, has received the 2026 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

She was recognized for her dissertation, "Resilient Yet Vulnerable: Understanding the Psychosocial Experiences of Black Women First-Generation College Students in STEM". Williams-Dobosz is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Boston College Lynch School of Education.

Williams-Dobosz will be honored during the AERA Annual Meeting, April 8-12 in Los Angeles, CA.

Devon Hedrick-Shaw, assistant professor Curriculum & Instruction, was awarded third place for the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Bilingual Education Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Hedrick-Shaw won the award for his dissertation, "Learning to Become Language Policy Actors: A Qualitative Longitudinal Study of Bilingual Special Educators in Synchronous-Service Teacher Preparation".

He was previously honored by the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) for the same dissertation.

Hedrick-Shaw will be recognized at the AERA Annual Meeting, April 8-12, in Los Angeles, CA.

Professor Linda Herrera addressed the University of Illinois Board of Trustees on behalf of the University Senates Conference with the presentation, "The World in Illinois: Challenges and Opportunities" on March 19, 2026 in Springfield. The webcast of the Board meeting can be viewed at http://www.uis.edu/uislive.html

Shawna Cooper Whitehead, ’99 Elementary Education, has been named the next president of Regis University.

She becomes the 29th president, and the first female president in the university’s history. 

“Shawna Cooper Whitehead brings an exceptional record of student-centered leadership and a deep commitment to educational equity that aligns beautifully with our Jesuit mission,” said Derek Scarth, chair of the university’s board of trustees. “The board is proud to welcome the first female president in Regis University’s history and is confident that under her leadership, Regis will continue to grow as a beacon of Jesuit Catholic higher education in the Rocky Mountain West and beyond.”

Cooper Whitehead joins from Boston College, where she has served as Vice President for Student Affairs since 2021.

Monica González Ybarra, associate professor Curriculum & Instruction, has received the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Latina/o/x Research Issues SIG.

González Ybarra was selected on the criteria of outstanding accomplishments in the area of Latina/o/x issues in education, such as the quantity of scholarship that makes a significant contribution to the field of Latina/o/x issues in education, the quality and rigor of the scholarship, and additional professional accomplishments/contributions to Latina/o/x issues in education.

She will be honored at the upcoming AERA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, CA, April 8-12.

Weichen Ling, an Ed.D. student in EPOL, is part of a team from Stanford Medicine that has developed training for medical students on gender-affirming care.

Teaching Gender-Affirming Care: A Case-based Simulation to Improve Transgender Health Outcomes is a nationally CME-accredited, globally accessible online course that provides over three hours of immersive, case-based training with simulated transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) patients. 

Learners engage in 18 unique clinical encounters across eight simulated patients, making real-time decisions to optimize hormone therapy, counsel patients around surgical affirmation, navigate care considerations for TGD adolescents, and more. Grounded in evidence-based practices and informed by the lived experiences of TGD individuals, the course addresses a critical gap in medical education by offering accessible, free, online training in gender-affirming communication and care.

The project has been endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign and was a finalist for the 2025 Gartner Eye on Innovation Award in Higher Education.

Jiadi Zhang, Ph.D. '25 C&I, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Education and Research (AAPI-ER) SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Zhang was recognized for her dissertation, which is a three-year ethnography examining translanguaging pedagogies and literacy practices among Chinese American bilingual teachers, students, and parents in a community-based Chinese heritage school.

She is currently an assistant professor of Educator Preparation and Leadership at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Zhang will be honored at the AERA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, April 8-12.

Department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership Professor Linda Herrera’s book, Educating Egypt: Civic Values and Ideological Struggles (2022) has been released in Arabic by Dar Al Maraya Press (Cairo, 2026) by the title: Ta`alim al-Misriyeen.

Hyun-Sook Kang, associate professor in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, has published a chapter in a new book on Diversity in English Language Education in collaboration with Ph.D. students Elena Broscritto, Jasmine Carruth, Parya Jangjou Tazehkand, and Summer Xu.

The chapter is titled “Multilinguals as Legitimate Citizens in U.S. Higher Education: Collaborative Autoethnography” and has been published in the edited volume “Critical Perspectives on Diversity in English Language Education.”

The chapter adopts the notion of diversity and linguistic citizenship to examine how members of U.S. academia from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds navigate and negotiate their complex, evolving identities, highlighting the social and emotional dimensions of language use in academic life.

Alexandra Richmond, Ph.D. ’25 SPED, was the recipient of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Division for Research 2026 Student Research Award. 

Richmond’s dissertation, Exploring Trauma-Informed Care with Black Special and General Educators, was selected in the qualitative methods area. This award is one of the most prestigious international awards in special education. 

Dr. Richmond is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

With increasing threats to academic freedom, faculty members and the Campus Faculty Association are organizing an event to discuss and learn how to defend against doxxing and ongoing threats to our teaching, research, and service.

The meeting will be held on March 24 at 4 p.m. in room 22 of the Education Building.

Panelists include faculty members across campus who have been doxxed. Representatives from the ACLU will address the steps faculty can take to defend themselves against increasing challenges to academic freedom.

Find out more about this panel here.

Chezare A. Warren, ’05, Elementary Education, has been awarded the 2026 Scholars of Color in Education Mid-Career Contribution Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) as part of its 2026 awards for excellence in education research.

Presented to a scholar in mid-career who is beyond the first level of professional appointment and for whom 10 or more years have passed since receipt of the doctoral degree, this award is intended to recognize (a) scholars who have made significant contributions to the understanding of issues that disproportionately affect minority populations, and (b) minority scholars who have made a significant contribution to education research and development.

Warren is an associate professor of Education Policy at Vanderbilt University. 

“We are honored to recognize the recipients of the 2026 awards, an outstanding and inspiring group of education researchers and leaders,” said AERA Executive Director Tabbye Chavous. “Their contributions continue to advance education research and positively impact countless students, educators, and the environments in which they live, learn, and work.”

AERA will honor the recipients at the Awards Ceremony Luncheon at the 2026 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 9.

Taiylor Rayford, EPSY Ph.D. ’25, was named the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division E Outstanding Dissertation Awardee in Human Development.

The reviewers for the award nomination noted that they found her work “to be of critical importance to the field, and of great importance to our division.” 

Her dissertation was entitled Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst: A Framework for Understanding Belonging Fulfillment Among Black Graduate Students. She examined factors surrounding the attrition of Black graduate students and how a lack of a sense of belonging can explain it.

She will be honored at the AERA Annual Meeting, April 8-12, in Los Angeles, CA.

Hyun-Sook Kang, associate professor, and Allison Hinds, an Ed.D. student in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, have published a new paper, "Joint-Degree Language Programs for Future Business and Health Professionals: Student Perspective," in the journal Language Teaching Research.

Language programs face significant challenges in the U.S. and globally. Despite the growing demand for multilingual skills in today’s workplaces, language programs face declining student enrollment, a shortage of qualified teachers, and ongoing budget cuts. 

To help address this crisis, Kang and Hinds examined the motivations and experiences of undergraduate students enrolled in joint-degree language programs, such as Language + International Relations and Language + Health Sciences at a U.S. university. The findings highlight the potential of joint-degree language programs as a viable strategy for mitigating the plight affecting language programs in higher education and beyond.

Idalia Nuñez, associate professor Curriculum & Instruction, has received the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Bilingual Education Research SIG.

This award recognizes an individual in the early stages of their career—within 10 years of receiving the doctoral degree—whose research focuses on the role of bilingualism in education, including bilingual education policy, research, and practice. The Early Career Award Committee and the BER SIG Executive Committee commended the exceptional caliber and impact of Nuñez’s scholarship.

Her research is situated at the intersection of race, bi/multilingualism and bi/literacies, border crossing, education, and social justice. She examines the school experiences of bi/multilingual students from diverse backgrounds, exploring the everyday cultural and linguistic resources they bring into K–5 biliteracy classrooms.

She will receive her award at the 2026 AERA Annual Meeting, April 8-12 in Los Angeles, CA.

Leslie Ellis, program specialist for the Council on Teacher Education, and a Ph.D. student in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has received a Division A Foster-Polite Scholarship from the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

She will present her paper, Preparing 'Fierce Advocates’ for Racial Equity: Examining Educational Leadership Preparation, at the paper session titled Building Equity-Centered Leadership: Readiness, Reflection, and Systemic Support.

Ellis will be honored at the Division A business meeting at the AERA Annual Meeting, April 8-12 in Los Angeles, CA.

Devon Hedrick Shaw, assistant professor Curriculum & Instruction, was honored by the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) with a dissertation award. 

Hedrick-Shaw earned honorable mention for his dissertation, Learning to Become Language Policy Actors: A Qualitative Longitudinal Study of Bilingual Special Educators in Synchronous-Service Teacher Preparation.

The paper was judged on its research, the scholarly quality of the dissertation, and the significance of its contribution to knowledge in the field of bilingual education.

Hedrick-Shaw was recognized at the NABE conference in Chicago, February 9-13.

Dr. Lisa Jackson, LAS ’95, ENG, Elementary Education, was honored by the Illinois State Board of Education as the Special Education Teacher of the Year as part of the Teacher of the Year Cohort.

Jackson works for Woodland High School in Streator, Illinois, where she teaches high school and special education classes. She is one of just 12 teachers statewide to be selected for the cohort.

Teachers named to the Teacher of the Year Cohort must have demonstrated a commitment to equity and the success of all students. They regularly collaborate with colleagues, students, and families to create positive school cultures. They are lifelong learners who connect their schools to the community at large and who inspire other education professionals within and beyond their schools. 

Many of Jackson's students highlighted her commitment to helping students in interviews with WEEK-TV news: 

Senior Layna Wilcoxen said Jackson helped her feel like a leader through the freedom and independence she’s been given through having her as a leader in the school’s Key Club.

“She honestly has been such a figure in my life. She’s changed my life so much, I can’t even express it in words. She’s just always there and she helps us create like this sense of independence,” said Wilcoxen.

“She lets us create all our own ideas, and she helps us shape them into the best versions they can be, so when we carry them out for service projects, they’re always successful because we have her as our backbone and our support,” Wilcoxen said.

The Illinois State Board of Education will announce the 2026 Illinois Teacher of the Year later this spring. All honorees will be recognized at the annual Those Who Excel and Teacher of the Year awards banquet on April 18.