Latest Announcements

Haeryun Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, with a concentration in Educational Administration and Leadership.

She was recently awarded a Korean Honor Scholarship by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United States.

The "scholarship is awarded to outstanding Korean heritage students to encourage high achievement of academic performance and the development of leadership qualities for their future professional careers."

Read the full announcement at the Republic of Korea's website... 

Alumna Marisol Jimenez, Ph.D. '26 EPOL, has been named an Illini Science Policy Program (ISPP) Scholar for 2027.

ISPP scholars spend a year doing immersive public service and policy leadership. Through placements with Illinois state agencies and legislative offices, members of the sixth cohort of ISPP scholars will apply their advanced training to address complex challenges in agriculture, digital equity, education, health equity, and environmental justice.

Jimenez will be working with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Office of Broadband. “Selected scholars will focus on projects which address key barriers to broadband deployment, supporting Illinois in its mission to reach universal broadband access statewide, while gaining exposure to essential state government initiatives,” said Office of Broadband Director Devon Braunstein.

“The Illini Science Policy Program continues to thrive because of the strong partnerships that make this work possible,” ISPP Director Evangeline Pianfetti said. “By bringing together host agencies, Extension professionals, community organizations, and public leaders, we create opportunities for meaningful dialogue and collaborative action. These partnerships strengthen our ability to address complex challenges, elevate community voices, and prepare the next generation of public service and policy leaders to make a lasting impact across Illinois and beyond.”

Two faculty members from the College of Education were selected to participate in the Emerging Research Leaders Academy (ERLA) from the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute.

Amber Ray from Special Education and Miray Tekkumru-Kisa from Curriculum & Instruction are part of the 16-member cohort for 2026-27.

Candidates for ERLA are nominated by a dean, director, or department head in one of their affiliated units. When submitting nominations, these administrative leaders expressed a desire to invest in and amplify the nominees’ efforts to scale their work, expand their impact, build strategic partnerships, and lead the future of research at Illinois.

Robb Lindgren, associate dean for research, nominated Tekkumru-Kisa and Ray, anticipating the same encouragement, knowledge, and access to resources that he experienced as part of the program.  

“When I participated in ERLA, I learned a lot about campuswide resources for things such as research communication and team management that have been invaluable to me in my current role, and I think Professors Tekkumru-Kisa and Ray will really benefit from these experiences. I’ve stayed in contact with many in my ERLA cohort, and it is my hope that these faculty members will have the chance to build community with their cohort as well,” Lindgren said. 

Royel M. Johnson, '10 LAS, '11 Ed.M. EPOL, has been appointed editor of The Review of Higher Education, the flagship journal of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). 

“The Review of Higher Education has been a space where rigorous scholarship meets real questions about who has access to higher education and why,” said Johnson. “I look forward to stewarding that legacy while pushing the field to grapple with the systems that form a student’s academic trajectory leading up to a college campus.”

The appointment follows an open, national search conducted by the ASHE Board of Directors. Johnson assumes the role as the journal approaches its 50th anniversary, marking five decades as one of the field’s leading venues for scholarship on higher education. His five-year term begins November 2026. 

Johnson is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Social Work at the University of Southern California. He serves as Co-Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education.

Johnson’s research examines access, equity, and belonging in higher education, with attention to how youth-serving systems, including child welfare and the criminal legal system, shape students’ pathways into and through College and how institutions can evolve to better support them. He brings editorial leadership to his new role, having recently served as co-editor of Educational Research (2023–2026) with the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Thomas McGreal, Ph.D. '68 ED and former professor of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, died at the age of 86 on August 16. His full obituary is available to view here.

A native of Rantoul, IL, Tom was a star athlete at Southern Illinois University, playing football and basketball. He taught math at Proviso East High School near Chicago before enrolling at the University of Illinois as a doctoral student. After earning his degree, he joined the faculty and remained at Illinois until his retirement in 2002.

McGreal was a well-known researcher in the fields of educational administration and teacher evaluation, publishing several prominent papers on these subjects. McGreal also served as a member and chair of the University of Illinois Athletic Board. The McGreal Scholarship fund was established in honor of his many years of service. This fund supports the recruitment and education of outstanding full-time doctoral students in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership.

A Celebration of Life will be held from 3:00-5:00 p.m. on September 19, in the garden at Pekadill’s, 503 South Mears Avenue, Whitehall, MI 49461. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Thomas McGreal Academic Award through the College of Education, or to your local humane society.

The College of Education is proud to announce a new Microcredential in Climate Change Education (CCE).

This Microcredential was developed to meet the new state mandate requiring CCE in all K-12 classrooms, beginning in Fall 2026. This asynchronous, online course equips educators to teach climate change thoughtfully and in ways that foster meaningful engagement and action. 

In this self-paced program, teachers will:

• Build a strong understanding of the fundamentals of climate change, including how it disproportionately impacts people globally
• Learn strategies for teaching climate topics while making space for students’ emotions, questions, and agency.
• Explore how climate education can inspire meaningful hope-in-action across disciplines
• Develop standards-aligned resources for your classroom
• Bring holistic climate action to your school

To enroll or for more information: https://illinois.catalog.instructure.com/browse/college-of-education/epol/courses/climate-change-education-for-classroom-teachers

Education Policy, Organization & Leadership professors Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis were awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Patras in Greece in July.

“The work of Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope is genuinely interdisciplinary,” said Professor Nektarios Stellakis. “It brings together insights from education, linguistics, communication studies, and learning technologies in ways that have profoundly enriched each of these fields.”

Longtime collaborator professor Eugenia Arvanitis said of Cope and Kalantzis “Concepts such as Multiliteracies, Learning by Design, New Learning, Ubiquitous Learning, and productive diversity have become part of the international vocabulary of educational research. They have shaped scholarly debate, inspired educational policy, and influenced generations of researchers, teachers, and educational leaders across the world.”

Kalantzis also has honorary degrees from the University of Athens and the University of the Aegean in Greece.

Viktoria Loidl, a Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has been selected to receive the 2026 Graduate Student Leadership Award from the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education.

Loidl was selected based on her versatile leadership work serving undergraduate and graduate students on- and off-campus at Illinois.

The Commission for Graduate Students of Adult Education (CGS) confers a Graduate Student Leadership Award that recognizes a graduate student who has engaged in outstanding leadership in the areas of research, teaching/practice, and/or service in adult and continuing education or related fields. The Graduate Student Leadership Award is intended to recognize exceptional achievement in adult learning graduate studies.

She will receive her award at the AAACE conference in September.

Applications are now open for the inaugural cohort of The Alma Project Senior Faculty Fellows.

The project seeks experienced community-engaged learning instructors to serve as Senior Faculty Fellows. Three fellows will be selected for the September 2026-June 2027 term. Each fellow receives $8,000 in project funding. 

The goal of the Alma Project is to create, support, and sustain a culture of neighborliness at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign through community-engaged learning courses. To learn more, view the project summary.

Applications for the fellowship are due by August 21 at 5:00 p.m.

Full-time tenure system or specialized faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign across any discipline or College are eligible to apply.

Anjali Forber-Pratt, Ph.D. '12 EPOL, has been named the head of the Department of Disability and Human Development in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Forber-Pratt comes to UIC with 20 years of high-level experience in research, sport and organizational leadership. She previously served as the presidentially appointed director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, and she has held academic appointments at Vanderbilt University and the University of Kansas. 

In 2023, Forber-Pratt was named the College of Education’s Emerging Leader Alumni Award.

Forber-Pratt was a member of Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games, where she medaled and became an American record holder in wheelchair racing.

The author of more than 65 peer-reviewed articles and numerous chapters, she focuses her research primarily on disability identity development. And as a wheelchair-user herself for more than 40 years, her lived experience informs her work.

Riley Parks, LAS ’26, Secondary Education, was one of seven University of Illinois students selected to receive a Fulbright Grant as part of the U.S. Student Program.

She will use her Fulbright award to teach English in Taiwan — another step in her journey to become an interculturally skilled teacher. Parks previously studied in Asia as a Gilman International Scholarship recipient, teaching K-6 students at an urban school in Thailand. Working with these students cemented her desire to become a teacher and to pursue more extensive teaching experience through the Fulbright program. 

Parks has received a graduate fellowship from the University of Washington to study early childhood education administration and policy upon her return from Taiwan. She plans to incorporate Taiwanese teaching methods into American public school classrooms and create a pen pal or extracurricular program that will facilitate cross-cultural communication between her current U.S. students and her former students in Taiwan.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program builds international relationships to help solve global challenges. This flagship international educational exchange program of the U.S. government awards grants to students based on their academic and professional achievement as well as their ambassadorial skills and leadership potential. The Fulbright student program will fund more than 2,000 U.S. citizens to live abroad for the 2026-27 academic year.

Osly Flores, assistant professor of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has been named a recipient of the Jozef and Huguette Cohen Innovation Award from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation.

Flores’ interdisciplinary collaboration will investigate heritage sites of slavery in Ghana and South Africa as sources for reparative educational practice and collective memory. The team will co-develop conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and partnerships that will underpin larger external proposals focused on educational equity, historical repair, and community-engaged scholarship.

The Cohen Innovation Awards program is intended to help faculty pursue ambitious ideas that may be difficult to support through traditional funding mechanisms. The awards support activities such as building new research collaborations, developing emerging areas of inquiry, acquiring specialized skills, engaging with archives and field sites, and creating new pathways for recognition and influence in their fields.

Three education majors have earned high marks in the classroom while competing in the Big Ten.

Two student-athletes were named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for the 2025-26 school year. Adisyn Caryl, softball and Elementary Education major, and Kenzie Cogan, volleyball and Elementary Education major were recognized by the conference. Additionally, both athletes were recognized for maintaining 4.0 GPA’s during the school year.

Caryl was also named an Academic All-Big Ten honoree for spring 2026. Jack Zebig, baseball and Secondary Education: Mathematics, was also recognized.

Distinguished Scholar Award recipients must have earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition in the previous academic year, must have been enrolled full-time at the institution for the entire previous academic year (two semesters or three quarters), and must have earned a minimum GPA of 3.70 or better during the previous academic year, excluding any summer grades. 

To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, students must be enrolled full-time at the institution for at least 12 months and have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

Fleda Mask Jackson, M.S. '77 ACES Ph.D. '91 EPSY, has been named the Diversity and Inclusion Award winner for the 2026 University of Illinois Alumni Association Awards.

Jackson is a nationally recognized expert on maternal mental health, has spearheaded research on stress and depression as risk factors for pregnancy outcomes, and has partnered with March of Dimes, United Way Healthy Start, and local and national health agencies to create safe spaces for pregnant women. She is the President of Majaica, LLC, a research firm and think tank where she leads the Save 100 Babies network.

The Diversity and Inclusion Award is bestowed upon alumni by the University of Illinois Alumni Association on behalf of the University of Illinois. This award recognizes those alumni who have demonstrated a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion through their professional and/or voluntary achievements and whose accomplishments support the UIAA’s goal of promoting diversity, cross-culturalism, open-mindedness, and respect within the University of Illinois community and beyond. In alignment with our mission to foster a supportive environment for all members of our university community, this award is open to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, or national origin.

The awardees will be honored at the UIAA’s 2026 Alumni Awards Gala on Oct. 1 at Pear Tree Estate in Champaign.

The Military Family Readiness Academy, hosted by OneOp, will focus on Building Strong Communities for Military Family Readiness through a no-cost, four-week virtual professional development series in August. This year’s Academy highlights how communities can better support military families when providers work together, share resources, strengthen local systems, and build lasting partnerships.

The Academy runs each Wednesday in August at 10:00 a.m., beginning August 5. Sessions include:

• August 5 | Partnerships that Strengthen Military Families
• August 12 | Creating a Network for Military Nutrition Readiness
• August 19 | Navigating Child Care Barriers and Their Effect on Military Spouse Employment
• August 26 | Building Strong Communities: A Panel Discussion

All sessions are available live and on-demand with continuing education credits across multiple disciplines. Related Practicing Connection podcast episodes will also be released each Thursday following the live webinars.

The Academy is designed for a broad professional audience, including Extension professionals, community development practitioners, state and local leaders, nonprofits, military family service providers, and community organizations. Together, participants will explore strategies to build partnerships, strengthen local systems, and improve support for military families across communities.

OneOp is a grant partially housed in the Department of Special Education, with professors Micki Ostrosky and Amy Santos serving as Principal Investigators. OneOp collaborates with the War Department and the US Department of Agriculture to provide free, open-access learning opportunities across a full spectrum of family service subject areas. 

Learn more and register at https://oneop.org/building-strong-communities-for-military-family-readiness/.

Nancy P. O'Brien, one of the organizers of the Youth Literature Festival (YLF) and Head of the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library (SSHEL) has been awarded the 2026 Outstanding Public Engagement Award from the University of Illinois Library.

O'Brien was recognized for her work as a founding committee member of YLF. 

Nominators praise her contributions to the festival and her commitment to bringing a love of literature to students. Victor Perez, Director of the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities, noted that the festival has engaged more than 12,000 students in a single cycle, citing Nancy’s “thoughtful guidance, commitment, and collaborative spirit” as key factors in the success of every festival since its inception."

Collaborators also point to Nancy’s exceptional dedication in making a program of this scale possible. Linda Tammen, former Youth Literature Festival Program Coordinator, emphasized Nancy’s wide-ranging contributions—including fundraising, donor outreach, promotional work, and leading author events and festival programming—and described her reliability as “an absolutely priceless attribute” when coordinating an event that serves thousands of students across schools and community partners.

Nancy and SSHEL will receive a $1,000 prize from the Revd. Professor Dom Bennett Hill OSB Memorial Library Fund to support outreach, social, and other promotional activities that enhance and further the Library's excellence.

Maria Alejandra Quintero, an Ed.D. student in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, was selected for a Best Poster award at the NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference in Orlando, FL.

Her poster was titled "Designing Global Partnerships for Lasting Dual Degree and 2+2 Programs." It presented a framework for designing sustainable global–local partnerships based on Quality Learning University’s (QLU) 28 years of experience with U.S. dual degree and 2+2 programs. Attendees learn key components, challenges, and replicable strategies for building or strengthening international academic collaborations.

Quintero currently serves as Academic Dean at QLU in Bellavista, Panamá.

Educational Psychology doctoral student Hou Xie, and assistant professor Kaylin Ratner are co-authors of a paper that has been published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Their article is titled "Establishing validity and measurement invariance of the Claremont Purpose Scale (CPS) among adolescents from diverse racial–ethnic backgrounds."

"This work is important because the meaning of “purpose” remains somewhat broad and contested, both in academic research and in everyday conversations," says Xie. "Our paper speaks to an inclusive understanding of purpose by suggesting that adolescents’ sense of purpose does not necessarily have to come from a grand beyond-the-self vision—a necessary, but restrictive, ingredient according to some leading scholars in the field. Instead, our work suggests that youth purpose may need to be defined in broader and more developmentally appropriate ways."

Read the full study here. 

Dr. Mari Altshuler, Teaching Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction, has been selected as an Associate Editor of Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK–12 (MTLT) for the elementary grades. 

During her three-year term, Altshuler will collaborate with other journal editors, recruit and support authors, read manuscripts and reviews, and make decisions about articles for upcoming issues of the journal. 

As described on its website, “MTLT reflects the current practices of mathematics education, as well as maintaining a knowledge base of practice and policy in looking at the future of the field." It is published monthly.

Gabriel Rodriguez, assistant professor Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has co-authored an article published in Teachers College Record. 

The article examines the experiences of Latine high school educators across different suburban schools outside of Chicago, Illinois. The study’s findings focus on how participants complicated the levels of support they received, as they felt pigeonholed and struggled to develop boundaries, and felt a sense of obligación (obligation) to serve the needs of their Latine students. 

Additionally, the findings highlight how participants leveraged their cultural and linguistic identities to facilitate conexiones (connections) and create spaces that affirmed their students. 

Rodriguez credits the Dean’s Summer Research Funding Award for being able to work with Marisol Jimenez, Ph.D. '26 EPOL, along with Julissa Carreño '26 LAS, for their important contributions as co-authors. 

Read the full article