Latest Announcements

Dominic Bruno, '08 LAS Secondary Education, has been named High School Teacher of the Year by the Regional Office of Education of Kane County.

Bruno is an English teacher at Kaneland High School. He also serves as a basketball coach and a journalism advisor.

He says he wants students to "have fun in my class. So the balance I have to try and strike is that the classes I teach are rigorous. But if I can get students to walk in excited, smiling, talking to each other as they come in, that’s the environment that I always want."

Four alumnae from Education at Illinois were named Shining Stars by the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation (CUSF). These teachers, along with other educators and support staff whose dedication, innovation, and enthusiasm make a meaningful impact in the classroom, will be recognized on April 6 at the CUSF Spring Fling.

Bios and nomination information courtesy of the News-Gazette:

Lindsay Aikman, '03 Elementary Education: Not only is Centennial‘s assistant girls coach among C-U’s most passionate soccer promoters, the English and AVID teacher also goes above and beyond to empower her students at Centennial High. As nominator Meghan Siwecki put it: “She pushes students to their potential, and they feel success.” Her work as an AVID teacher has “opened doors for students through college applications, career connections, and even full scholarships.”

Anna Blacker, '10 Elementary Education: The South Side Elementary instructional coach “works tirelessly to provide our students and staff with unique, rewarding learning experiences, and is the best cheerleader every step of the way,” art teacher Amy Lozar wrote about Blacker, who’s known for forging innovative partnerships that benefit her students. Among them: hands-on learning experiences with the U. of I’s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Cheryl Morton, Ed.M. ’15 SPED: The Central High special education teacher with nearly 16 years of service “goes out of her way to make our class and our school run, taking on extra assignments and roles where she is needed, and doing so with a warm, welcoming smile that makes students feel at home and secure in any space she is,” co-teacher and nominator Cameron Pope wrote of Morton, whose “impact is felt far beyond the classroom.”

Stacy Arie, Ed.M. ’99, ’06 EPOL: “She is always ready, always calm, always on point and executes lessons that provide students with the best opportunities to use language in a variety of domains,” fellow Centennial ESL teacher Katy Lohmeyer wrote about the high school’s multilingual learners department chair. The “steady, humble” Arie can frequently be found putting in extra time to tutor students, monitor their progress, and coordinate complex schedules.

The Illinois Global Institute, a unit within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, has selected four students from Education Policy, Organization & Leadership for awards and fellowships.

Aidana Sirgebayeva received a Graduate Summer Research Award for her research “Mixed Methods Study of Faculty Research Experiences: Case of Kazakhstan.” Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Center. Summer research awards provide Illinois graduate students with up to $3,500 to support travel outside the United States, thereby contributing to the development of a dissertation or thesis project that draws on international research.

Three EPOL students will participate in the Graduate Language Fellowship. This program provides support for language training needed to conduct research or to meet other professional development needs. The fellowship offers a $22,000 stipend for the 2026-2027 academic year to support graduate students at the MA or Ph.D. level. 

Recipients, the language they will be studying, and the center or program that is providing support, are: 

• Asmaa Elsayed. Arabic. Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
• Mar Roig Ripoll. Portuguese. Center for Global Studies
• Jordan Troisi. Chinese-Mandarin. Center for Global Studies

Alejandro Gomez, Ed.D. '25 EPOL, has been hired as the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Champaign Unit 4 school district.

Gomez has served as the Associate Director of System Human Resources for the University of Illinois System since 2023. He also served on the leadership team of the University of Illinois Counseling Center for 11 years.

Gomez told the News-Gazette that he’ll approach his new role with "curiosity, questions, and a people-centered" focus. He was one of four appointments made to Superintendent Geovanny Ponce's leadership team at Monday's school board meeting.

The Education Justice Project (EJP) recently received the Research and Advocacy Award from Diversity & Social Justice Education, a unit of the university's Division of Student Affairs.

EJP was recognized for their Prison-to-Gown Pathway (PGP) program. PGP supports Illinois students who are formerly incarcerated or otherwise impacted by incarceration, such as having an incarcerated parent, and also helps future Illini navigate the application and appeals process.

“This award ultimately belongs to the students as a reflection of their strength, their brilliance, and their determination," said PGP director Chrissy Ferree. "Our role is simply to make sure the path is navigable and that barriers do not stand in the way of what they have already worked so hard to achieve.”

Praveen Chhikara, a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum & Instruction, was recognized by the Asian American Cultural Center with the Outstanding Asian & Asian American Graduate Student Leader Award. He accepted the award at the AACC annual ceremony on Monday, April 20, 2026, at Alice Campbell Alumni Center. 

The award recognizes graduate and professional students for excellence in developing and implementing programs for the Asian American campus community, excellence and innovation in classroom instruction that furthers knowledge of Asian American communities, and/or excellence in research that promotes awareness of Asian American issues. Award consideration favors nominees who have exemplified leadership over several semesters on our campus and will soon be graduating.

Chhikara's research focuses on how university mathematics professors perceive their instructional role in teaching abstract concepts. His research interests stem from his experience teaching mathematics to undergraduate and graduate students for around six years before joining the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Congratulations to Gariel Pierce, a Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, who has been awarded a prestigious and competitive American Educational Research Association (AERA) Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research for 2026-27.

Pierce is pursuing a doctoral double concentration in History of Education and Social Sciences and Education Policy. Prior to attending Illinois, she was a passionate and award-winning fourth-grade educator in South Carolina. Her research primarily focuses on the historical intersections of education, race, discipline, punishment, and policy. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she merges history with the contemporary. 

Pierce is currently working on a project that explores the history of corporal punishment and its connection to the School-Prison Nexus. Pierce will present her research at the 2027 AERA Annual Meeting and participate in a mentoring workshop with senior scholars.

The fellowship award is $25,000 and officially begins on July 1, when AERA will announce all Minority Dissertation Fellows in Education Research for 2026-27.

The Illinois Early Learning Project is a source of evidence-based, reliable information on early care and education for families, caregivers, and teachers of young children in Illinois.

Logan Pender, Ed.M. Student in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has been named Emerging Scholar for the Twenty-Sixth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations. 

Pender will serve as Online-Only Emerging Scholar, chairing their online-only, asynchronous themed panel sessions.

He will also be presenting his research, “Sustainability Education Abroad as a Global Common Good: Reciprocity, Governance, and Community Accountability,” under the theme of Education and Learning in Worlds of Differences. 

the Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations Research Network is brought together by a shared interest in human differences and diversity, and their varied manifestations in organizations, communities, and nations.

The conference takes place May 27-29 at the National Autonomous University of México in México City.

Jen Whiting, Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, was part of a team chosen as runner-up at the 2026 Cozad New Venture Challenge from the Grainger College of Engineering's Technology Entrepreneur Center. The team earned a $5,000 award for their project development.

Whiting’s team, AI/O, is a training platform that helps police officers practice high-stakes communications through realistic, repeatable simulations with measurable performance feedback, using artificial intelligence. Police receive extensive firearms training but limited, inconsistent communication training, despite most encounters relying on verbal interaction. AI/O provides scalable, scenario-based training that enables officers to repeatedly practice and refine their communication, improving decision-making, safety, and outcomes.

Her team, which includes Duo Wang, Ph.D. student in the College of Media, and Computer Science student Kyrian Liang, was also recognized with the Best Pitch award. The $5,000 Finals Best Pitch award recognizes teams that excel in conveying a compelling vision using their visual aids and sharing information in an organized way within the time constraints.

Asif Wilson, assistant professor Curriculum & Instruction, has been named the recipient of the 2026 William H. Watkins Award through the Society of Professors in Education (SPE). 

This award honors Dr. William H. Watkins and his commitment to freedom and self-determination through over 40 years of educational activism and scholarship focused on the lived experiences of the African diaspora in the United States. More specifically, Dr. Watkins’ illustrious career was a commitment to curriculum study, community/solidarity, socio-political and class issues, and culture in his activism/scholarship/mentorship. The recipient of this award exemplifies these qualities.

Wilson was honored at the SPE conference, which took place during the AERA conference in Los Angeles, CA.

The Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Association (CREA) is now accepting proposals for its upcoming CREA IX Conference.

This year’s theme, Future-Forward in Cultural Responsiveness: Opportunity, Equity, Evidence, and Innovation, calls us to engage both the realities of the present and the possibilities of the future. Proposals may address one or more of the above topics.

All proposals for symposia, papers, and roundtables can be submitted by logging in to the conference proposal management system and making changes until the submission deadline at 11:59 PM on May 1, 2026. Notification of proposal decisions will be made in June 2026.  If you are interested in proposing a pre-conference workshop, submit it here. 

The CREA IX Conference will take place October 6 - 9 at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago. Find out more about the CREA Conference and the call for proposals at the conference's website.

Mostafa Hanafy, Ph.D. candidate EPOL, was selected as one of the 12 judges for the American Evaluation Association’s Student Evaluation Case Competition.

The competition asks students to prepare to analyze a real-world case and craft an innovative evaluation plan to address a pressing contemporary issue. Teams will receive a pre-read about the case approximately a week prior to the competition date. On the competition’s opening day, teams will receive the remaining information about the case and prepare an evaluation proposal for the case organization using a variety of dissemination products.

This was Hanafy's second year serving as a judge.

Education at Illinois Dean Chrystalla Mouza has been elected as chair of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Consortium of University and Research Institutions (CURI) Executive Committee. She serves a two-year term as chair of the committee, beginning April 13, 2026, through the 2028 AERA Annual Meeting.

The Consortium of University and Research Institutions is the organizational home for institutions within the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Vital to the mission of the Association, AERA-CURI comprises schools and colleges of education and research institutions working together to advance the field of educational research and the next generation of educational scientists and scholars.

AERA-CURI serves as a unique forum for its member institutions to (1) examine and collaborate on emerging and persisting issues associated with their research missions, (2) facilitate their engagement in AERA's education and advocacy efforts to promote federal research support and sound research policies, and (3) enhance collaborative efforts among individual scholars within AERA and the academic and research institutions of which they are a part.

In her role as AERA-CURI Executive Committee Chair, Mouza also serves as an ex-officio member and liaison to the Government Relations Committee, a committee she has served on since 2023.

Congratulations to Dean Mouza on this prestigious leadership honor! More information about the consortium is available at the AERA website.

Curriculum & Instruction Professor Emeritus Kenneth Travers passed away on March 23, 2026, in Chicago.

Travers was an expert in mathematics education. In 1976, the College of Education became the coordinating center for the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s Second International Mathematics, with Travers serving as Director. He served as the inaugural director and later as director emeritus of the Office for Mathematics, Science, & Technology Education (MSTE).

Travers received his Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from the University of Illinois in 1965 and joined the faculty the same year. He remained at Illinois for his entire career until his retirement in 2002. He served in an emeritus position from 2002 until his death.

No funeral arrangements have been shared at this time.

Congratulations to Hyun-Sook Kang, associate professor Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, who has been elected to two separate positions within the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES).

Kang was elected to the CIES board of directors, where she will serve as treasurer. 

She will also serve as the chair-elect of the Study Abroad and International Students SIG. She was recently awarded a Best Article Award from that SIG, recognizing her publication "Internationalising an Engineering Group Project Course: an Intercultural Contact Study."

H. Chad Lane, professor of Educational Psychology and Curriculum & Instruction and director of the NSF-funded INVITE AI Institute, will participate in the upcoming forum hosted by the Office of the Provost. 

Navigating AI Together: Conversations on Teaching, Research, and Responsibility is Wednesday, April 15, from 8 to 11:15 a.m. in the second floor ballroom of the Illini Union.

Lane, along with Professor Vikram Adve of the AIFARMS National AI Institute and Professor Huimin Zhao of the NSF Molecule Maker Lab Institute, will discuss how AI is shaping how we teach, research, and operate, and how that will evolve.

Please register to attend by April 10.

Nate Wahl, Ed.D. student in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has been awarded the People’s Choice award from the Graduate College's 2026 Research Live! competition.

His presentation, "Teaching is Not Neutral," asked, 'are White teachers aware of the power they hold over Black students’ futures?'

Wahl was one of nine finalists, each of whom gave a three-minute presentation. Judges selected the winner and special recognition finalists. Audience members also cast a vote for the people's choice award, which Wahl won.

Wahl is a student interventionist at Urbana Middle School.

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.