2025-26 Public Engagement Faculty Fellows Announced

Now in its fourth year, this cohort-based program enhances the ongoing community engagement efforts of the College of Education. The program strengthens campus-community ties and gives educational partners (e.g. teachers, directors of local nonprofits) more opportunity for participation in campus activities.

Fellows receive up to $6,500 to help fund their community-engaged research or teaching project.

Beginning July 1, 2025, the three faculty selected as fellows will work closely with educational partners to develop work that addresses social and civic issues, aligning with community priorities.

“We are thrilled to continue the Public Engagement Faculty Fellows Program, which sends a clear signal of the College's commitment to building and strengthening partnerships with our local and statewide communities," said Emily Stone, director of public engagement. "The 2025-26 cohort of fellows represents the College's dedication to addressing community priorities through solutions that support innovation and discovery for all,” she said.

Elizabeth Dyer, Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction

Dyer's project involves working with NIA Incorporated, a community organization in Rantoul that aims to support families and youth through programming that promotes education, skill development, and personal growth. Dyer's project will work through NIA's current parent mentor program to incorporate community-centered, critical data visualization into parents’ participatory action research in schools. The project will study how to support community learning through data visualization activities.

“My hope is that the project will provide space to develop expansive ideas for how communities can critically engage with data to transform and advocate for community priorities such as education,” says Dyer.

Chang-kyu Kwon, Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership

Kwon is partnering with the Illinois Division of Rehabilitation Services to develop, implement and evaluate the impact of an educational workshop focused on disability employment, targeting small- and medium-sized manufacturing employers in Illinois. The workshop will provide an opportunity to bring together employers facing similar challenges and equip them with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to create disability-inclusive workplaces.

“Small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies often face unique barriers to securing a qualified workforce compared to larger firms. At the same time, people with disabilities remain underrepresented in the labor market. The goal of this project is to address this gap by helping these employers recognize and tap into people with disabilities as an underutilized human resource,” says Kwon.

Kary Zarate, Teaching Assistant Professor of Special Education

The objective of Zarate's project is to develop an online training course for paraprofessionals to on-board them to their new roles. The course will be created in collaboration with local paraprofessionals to enhance the knowledge and skills of newly hired paraprofessionals in their districts. Paraprofessional perceptions of their learning and ability to apply the newly acquired content will be measured. After year one, the goal is to scale up the project to be open to school districts, nationally.

“Often, special education paraprofessionals are either left out of or are an after-thought for receiving professional development within schools,” says Zarate. “This project aims to provide current paraprofessionals an opportunity to teach others what they know about their roles, so that they can improve the training landscape for new paras. I hope to empower veteran and incoming paras so that outcomes are improved for students with disabilities,” she says.