Penn GSE Fall/Winter 2023 Magazine

MAGAZINE

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Board of Advisors

Jeffrey S. McKibben, W’93, Chair

Deborah L. Ancona, C’76, GED’77

Olumoroti G. Balogun, GRD’20

Brett H. Barth, W’93

Allison J. Blitzer, C’91

Harlan B. Cherniak, W’01

Jolley Bruce Christman, GED’71, GR’87

Samara E. Cohen, C’93, W’93

Beth S. Ertel, W’88, WG’92

Evan S. Feinberg, W’09

Jeffrey L. Goldberg, W’83, WG’89

Patricia Grant, GED’01, GRD’04

Joel M. Greenblatt, W’79, WG’80

John A. Henry

Heather Ibrahim-Leathers, W’95

Andrew H. Jacobson, WG’93

Douglas R. Korn, W’84

Gregory A. Milken, C’95

Andrea J. Pollack, C’83, L’87, GED’17

David N. Roberts, W’84

Francisco J. Rodriguez, W’93

Molly P. Rouse-Terlevich, C’90, GED’00

Michael J. Sorrell, GRD’15

Navin M. Valrani, W’93, GED’18, GED’22, GRD’23

Steven M. Wagshal, W’94

The Penn GSE Magazine is produced by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, 3440 Market Street, Suite 560, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Reproduction of these articles requires written permission from Penn GSE. ©2023 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Please contact Penn GSE at (215) 573-6623 or alumni@gse.upenn.edu for references or to update your address.

Katharine Strunk

Dean

Laura Tepper

Publisher

Rebecca Raber

Editor

Editorial Board:

Umar Aly

Sylvia Davis, C’20

Amanda Ellis

Jane L. Lindahl, GED’18

Melanie Hieronimus

Jennifer Moore

Kat Stein

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA NONDISCRIMINATION STATEMENT

The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected class status in the administration of its admissions, financial aid, educational or athletic programs, or other University-administered programs or in its employment practices. Questions or complaints regarding this policy should be directed to the Executive Director of the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs, Franklin Building, Suite 421, 3451 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6205; or 215-898-6993 (Voice).

Designed by Bold Type Creative

Copyedited by Colleen Heavens

Cover Photo: Greg Benson Photography

Editor’s note: This issue of The Penn GSE Magazine went to print on November 30, 2023.

Photo credit: Greg Benson Photography

Krista Cortes, GED’11, GED’13, director of Penn’s La Casa Latina, in her campus office in the ARCH Building.

Beyond her professional accomplishments and extensive CV, who is Penn GSE’s new dean?

Penn GSE is serving on the front lines of what the U.S. Surgeon General has called “the defining public health crisis of our time.”

Inside Penn GSE’s new and improved home—and a look at some of those who made it possible.

Penn GSE alumni and students have translated their passion for education into careers as children’s and young adult authors.

Education economics policy expert A. Brooks Bowden, GED’07, recently earned tenure at her alma mater—the place that first introduced her to her field.

Photo credit: Joe McFetridge for Penn GSE

Letter from the Dean

Dear Alumni and Friends,

When I received the news that I’d been offered the job of dean of Penn GSE, my family and I were on top of the world—literally. We were skiing in Colorado, and my sons and I were on top of the highest peak at Winter Park, 12,000 feet above sea level. I took out my phone to take a picture of them, and I saw the email from Penn.

I was so excited that I accidentally took my 11-year-old twins down a very steep black-diamond run full of bumpy moguls. I realized how arduous the run was only once we had made a few too many turns to go back. So, I took a breath, plastered a determined smile on my face, and led the boys down the mountain. When we made it to the bottom unscathed, I pointed up and showed them what we had done—what they had just accomplished. Then we went inside, found my husband, and told him the news, both about the skiing challenge we had overcome together, and my exciting new job that would bring us all to Philadelphia.

Since arriving on campus over the summer, I’ve thought about that afternoon a lot. In many ways, that ski run with my kids is an important reminder of the work we are doing here at Penn GSE and why we do it. Trying new and difficult things is exciting, and scary, and worth it. It is easier to face challenges together than alone. And we need to take pride in the skills of those we have taught, knowing that they have not only the expertise to succeed but also our support to help them along their path.

Here at Penn GSE, we are at the top of our game—12,000 feet up, so to speak. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have room to learn, grow, challenge ourselves, and work together to accomplish incredible things we didn’t know we could do.

Since July, I have had the privilege of immersing myself in the Penn GSE community. My top priority has been getting to know the heart of our institution—its people. We live in deeply polarizing times, but I have been invigorated by our community’s shared commitments to service, discussion across difference, and a belief that Penn GSE must continue to contribute to the public good. I am beyond honored that I have joined a team of people who are not satisfied with simply reaching the top of the mountain, but instead, are willing to support each other as we tackle the challenges that inevitably come when we make our way through the bumps, working to improve the world around us.

I am eager to embark on this journey together, and I look forward to all we will achieve as a community.

All my best,

Dean,

Penn Graduate School of Education George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education

Photo credit: Joe McFetridge for Penn GSE

NEWS BRIEFS

Trauma-Informed Practice with Oprah

In July, Charlotte Jacobs, GR’17, director of the Penn GSE Independent School Teaching Residency program and co-director of HEARD: the Hub for Equity, Anti-Oppression Research, and Development, traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) conference. The meeting, “What Happened to You: Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Learning, Teaching and Psychological Functioning,” centered on trauma-informed practice (TIP), which examines how adversity, background, and lived experiences shape a student’s development and learning.

“Education doesn’t make a whole person,” said Jacobs, who serves on OWLAG’s board of directors. “It is not just the academics that are important for growth and development. You must also understand where the students come from mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.”

After 10 years of integrating TIP into its own program, OWLAG is creating a framework to empower educators and practitioners to utilize the practice. “[The group is] at a point now where they want to share their learnings and practices with folks outside the school,” said Jacobs. “As more people become informed and learn, the hope is it will spread.”

For Jacobs, the conference was an opportunity to put into practice years of research, teaching, and her own lived experience. “One reason I joined the board [of OWLAG] is the purpose of the school aligns so well with my work in supporting adolescent girls of color, especially in an educational context,” she said. “I’m very interested in how trauma-informed practice helps current students and alumni.”

FACULTY AWARDS & UPDATES

Ross Aikins (1) and student Albert Kuo, GED’23, co-authored an article, “What Students Said About the Spring of ChatGPT,” in Inside Higher Ed

Rachel Baker (2) was named associate editor of the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. She also received a grant from Ascendium Education Group for her project, “How Community College Students Choose Programs of Study,” in partnership with researchers at the Community College Research Center at the Teachers College of Columbia University.

Sigal Ben-Porath (3) was awarded the inaugural MRMJJ Presidential Professorship. She was also named faculty director of Penn’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program, which is designed to provide all Penn undergraduates with the knowledge, skills, and ethical frameworks necessary to be informed, engaged, and effective community members, and to lead integrated personal, professional, and civic lives.

Peter Eckel’s (4) book, Governing Universities in Post-Soviet Countries: From a Common Start, 1991–2021, was published by Cambridge University Press.

Roberto Gonzales (5) was elected to the Sociological Research Association, a highly selective, 400-person society of sociological fellows founded in 1936 that annually elects only 14 new members based on research excellence.

Tawanna Jones (6) presented at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Summit. Her session, "Radical Reading: Context Matters in Structured Literacy," focused on the need to integrate cultural competence into literacy instruction. Additionally, the community organization she founded, REIGN Inc., was highlighted in a report from the Education Law Center on Black girls’ experiences in Philadelphia public schools.

Rand Quinn (7) was appointed faculty director of Civic House, Penn’s hub for civic engagement, and the Civic Scholars Program.

Sharon Ravitch (8) published “New Tools for a New House: Transformations for Justice and Peace in and Beyond COVID-19” in Perspectives on Urban Education

Ariane Thomas (9) and two Penn undergrads received a Projects for Progress award for their Positioned for Success initiative, which provides academic support to Philadelphia middle schoolers who are in the child welfare system and have been affected by gun violence and/or parental incarceration. Its enrichment and mentoring services aim to increase their educational attainment.

Susan Yoon (10) was awarded the inaugural Graduate School of Education Presidential Professorship.

Jonathan Zimmerman (11) was named a columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he is now writing two columns a month. He also contributed an essay, “Higher Ed’s Founding Promise” to Washington Monthly’s annual issue devoted to college rankings.

Charlotte Jacobs (right) with Oprah Winfrey in South Africa. Photo courtesy of Charlotte Jacobs.

NEWS BRIEFS

Connecting Communities through Crafts

Education is at the heart of everything Fabiola Lara, GED’14, does. It’s in her family, too. She and her husband, Sabith Khan, are both educators. So were and are both of their mothers. So, when she and Khan decided to launch their business, they knew that education had to be a key component of their brand.

In September 2021, the couple launched tlali•pani, an online storefront and lifestyle brand that partners with women-led artisan families and female entrepreneurs globally to support ethically sourced, produced, and consumed products. Currently, their offerings are exclusively from Oaxaca, Mexico, and include premium-quality homewares (coverlets, rugs, table linens, robes) and single-origin, artisanal cacao and chocolate. An integral part of their mission is to give back to the communities behind the products.

“In our conversations, we kept finding that artisans and entrepreneurs, especially women, struggled in terms of having access to resources and opportunities that would enable them to market their product outside of their local community and, for some, their country,” said Lara, whose interest in supporting communities in the Global South was nurtured during her time in Penn GSE’s International Educational Development Program (IEDP). “And a lot of these highly skilled, incredibly talented people had ambitions to share their products with the rest of the world. They have these centuriesold craft traditions or food production practices, and they really wanted to grow their audience. They wanted to find ways to sustain their traditions for future generations, as well as sustain themselves.”

The social enterprise, which has been featured in Vogue and Shoutout LA , among others, takes its name from the couple’s cultural backgrounds: “tlali” means “earth” in Nahuatl, an Aztecan language, and “panï” is the Hindi-Urdu word for “water.” (Lara’s mother is from Jalisco, Mexico, and Khan grew up in Karnataka, India.) The pair currently works with five intentionally selected women-led artisan families and a women’s cooperative in Oaxaca to bring handcrafted textile- and basket-weaving and cacao and chocolate to consumers in the U.S. and Canada. But their work goes beyond giving their partners a wider marketplace for their products.

“From the very start, we’ve always said that we’re a lifestyle brand, and the education component is a part of that lifestyle,” said Lara. “We want people to learn about where these products come from, who the communities are that are making them, and build social awareness on critical issues.”

And the education goes both ways. Not only is tlali•pani educating consumers about ethical and sustainable consumption, but they are also offering learning opportunities to their partners.

“A key issue impacting one of our partner communities is genderbased violence—the women of the community highlighted this in an interview that we held with them,” said Lara. “We were then able to respond quickly and identify a local gender expert from Oaxaca who specialized in gender-based violence. She was able to deliver an awareness training on what incidents of gender-based violence can look like and what you can do if someone you know in the community is affected.

“So for us, it’s about offering products of the highest quality to our customers, and also making sure that we’re addressing issues that are important to our partner communities by providing enriching opportunities for them.” Explore more: tlalipani.com

(Below, left) Fabiola Lara, GED'14, examines threads with one of the women artisans in Oaxaca, Mexico. (Additional images) Examples of tlali•pani’s offerings.

Winners Announced for the 2023 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition

The winners of the 14th annual Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) were announced at an event at EDTECH WEEK 2023 in New York City on October 4, after the seven finalists pitched their ventures to a live judging panel and an audience of investors, researchers, and practitioners.

Unlocked Labs, a venture that empowers and employs individuals impacted by the justice system to design and build technology that enables decarceration, captured the $40,000 grand prize and the Osage Venture Partners Audience Choice Prize. Skizaa , a venture that helps education leaders make realtime, data-driven decisions by collecting and analyzing data from rural schools in Sub-Saharan Africa, won the $25,000 Cognativ Inc. Prize.

Other winners included Storyshares, a digital learning solution for young readers, which received the Magnitude Digital Prize, and EdVisorly, a nationwide community college-to-university transfer platform, which was given an additional investment from Conscious Venture Partners.

Considered the most prestigious and well-funded competition of its kind, the EBPC attracts innovative education ventures from around the world. To date, the EBPC has awarded over $2 million dollars in cash and prizes. Winners and finalists have gone on to earn more than $200 million in funding.

Professor Howard Stevenson Remembers Constance Clayton, 1933–2023

Constance Elaine Clayton, GRD’81, passed away on the morning of September 18. Clayton, who began her career in Philadelphia as a teacher, became the first woman and the first African American to serve as superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia from 1983 until her retirement in 1993. Her legacy of fighting to ensure that all children deserve the best education possible was not only known in Philadelphia, but across the nation.

Clayton was known for tackling the district’s difficult budget without cutting student services, attracting local businesses to help equip schools with better resources, and establishing schools as the center of their communities. Clayton was known as “No Close Clayton” because she rarely closed schools, believing children should have as much learning time as possible.

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Despite the turmoil of teacher walkouts for a decade prior to her becoming superintendent, no walkouts happened on her watch. Clayton was the last superintendent to have led with a balanced budget. She was a master negotiator and gained the respect of the Philadelphia teachers’ union and politicians alike.

As a testament to her work, the University of Pennsylvania established the Constance E. Clayton Professorship in Urban Education in 1994. This made her the first African American woman in the country to have a named professorship. Diana Slaughter Kotzin was the first Constance E. Clayton Professor and currently, since 2014, that distinguished honor is mine. A lectureship at Penn GSE was also created in her honor in the late 1990s and still takes place annually on the fourth Thursday in October at Penn.

As much as Clayton was a national activist and a Philadelphia legend, her courageous legacy left an imprint on the University of Pennsylvania, the Graduate School of Education, and the Racial Empowerment Collaborative faculty, clients, and students.

– Howard Stevenson Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education Professor of Africana Studies Director, Racial Empowerment Collaborative

EJ Milken (left) and Unlocked Labs Founder Jessica Hicklin embrace on stage after learning that Unlocked Labs won the grand prize.

POLICY CORNER

Penn GSE experts on the educational headlines of the moment

by Rebecca Raber

THE HEADLINE

U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden Administration Student Loan Forgiveness Program

THE STORY

In 2022, the Biden administration announced that it would cancel up to $400 billion in student loans via the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act, which enables the secretary of education to waive or modify provisions for loan forgiveness under the Higher Education Act in the event of a war or a national emergency. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that the Department of Education did not have the authority to cancel that debt. Said Chief Justice John Roberts in his majority decision, “The authority to ‘modify’ statutes and regulations allows the Secretary to make modest adjustments and additions to existing provisions, not transform them.”

THE EXPERT

Laura Perna, C’88, W’88, the University’s vice provost for faculty and GSE Centennial Presidential Professor in Education, who studies college access, affordability, and success, especially for low-income, first-generation, and non-traditional students.

HER TAKE

Perna said that the ruling has wide-ranging consequences because of the prevalence of educational debt. “According to the Education Data Initiative, federal student loan debt now totals more than $1.645 trillion across 43.6 million borrowers. So, it’s a lot of money and a lot of people are affected,” she said. “This is more total debt from student loans than from credit cards—it’s lower only than mortgage debt. . . . It’s something that’s now structured into our higher education system—the use of loans to pay college costs is not a choice.”

And, she points out, the debt does not affect all borrowers equally. “It’s more common for Black students to be borrowing and to borrow higher amounts,” said Perna. “Again, according to the Education Data Initiative, on average, student loan debt is $25,000 higher for Black college graduates than white college graduates. And, for more than half of Black student borrowers, the amount owed in student loan debt exceeds their net worth. So, this is a really important social justice and racial equity issue as well.”

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the Biden administration announced a new plan, Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE), that calculates payments based on a borrower’s income and family size—not their loan balance—and forgives remaining balances after a certain number of years. Perna thinks it is an important step, particularly because of the relief it provides to those with the lowest incomes and those working in public service. “People have criticized the cost of this program, but these changes recognize the very real challenges that some experience in repaying student loans.”

She also applauds SAVE’s simplified approach. All borrowers of federal direct subsidized and unsubsidized loans are eligible, those on the previous Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) plan were automatically enrolled, borrowers can be automatically recertified each year, and there are changes that could reduce the monthly payment for borrowers. For example, as long as someone on the SAVE plan makes their principal payments each month, they won’t be penalized with growth of unpaid interest.

Beyond this plan and other recent actions from the Biden administration—including the cancellation of $9 billion in student loan debt in October—Perna would like to see broader bipartisan conversations about college affordability and who should bear the responsibility of paying for the cost of an educated population— something that she argues is essential to our nation’s current and future economic and social prosperity. Additionally, she suggests that the language around educational debt be rethought to be less accusatory.

“It’s interesting that we talk about ‘loan forgiveness,’” she said. “[University of Southern California’s] Bill Tierney—full disclosure, a mentor of mine—wrote an op-ed in Inside Higher Ed, [saying] student loan ‘forgiveness’ is not a good way to talk about the issue. These students haven’t done anything wrong. Forgiveness is usually saying, ‘I’m sorry for something I did.’ But it is not the fault of students that they have these loans. We really should be talking about this as ‘debt relief’ and addressing a structural and systemic failure in our nation’s current approach to financing higher education.”

Pictured: Laura Perna

Photo credit: Stuart Goldenberg for Penn GSE

A View from Campus

CELEBRATING NEW BEGINNINGS

On October 25, Penn GSE celebrated the official opening of its building renovation and expansion project. (More on the building on page 17.) On hand—along with numerous alumni, staff, faculty, students, and friends— were (from left) GSE Board of Advisors Chair Jeffrey McKibben, W’93, Dean Katharine Strunk, Penn President Liz Magill, former dean Pam Grossman, and Penn GSE Board Member and former chair Doug Korn, W’84, who cut the ribbon together, formally launching the School’s next chapter in its new and improved space. More at penng.se/opening

AWARDING EDUCATOR EXCELLENCE

Morgan State University President David Wilson, Superintendent of the Los Angeles County Office of Education Debra Duardo, and Oakland University Distinguished Professor of Engineering Barbara Oakley (pictured here, from left, flanked by Harold “Terry” McGraw III, WG’73, on the left and Robert and Suzanne McGraw on the right) were selected for the 2023 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education. Each winner received an award of $50,000 and an iconic prize sculpture at the November 8 ceremony at the Morgan Library in New York City. Learn more about the winners and their work on graduation rates, student outcomes, and adult learning: penng.se/mcgraw23

THE NEXT GENERATION

This fall, Penn GSE welcomed 880 new students from 37 countries. At their orientation, organized by the Office of Student Success, they learned about campus resources, as well as how to navigate the academic environment at Penn and living in Philadelphia. They also enjoyed a reception, a trivia night, tours, and other social events to get to know their new classmates.

Photo credit: Joe McFetridge for Penn GSE

SPOTLIGHT ON MENTAL HEALTH

This year’s Homecoming panel was tasked with “Addressing the Mental Health Crisis for Learners Across the Lifespan.” (From left) Dean Katharine Strunk moderated the conversation with Penn Associate Provost and Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé, Director of Penn GSE’s Professional Counseling Program Ariane Thomas, and Founder and CEO of the Institute for Global Flourishing Noémie Le Pertel, GRD’21 Many of the gathered alumni and friends asked questions about the effects of social media and the different mental health resources that could or should be available across K–12 schools, colleges and universities, and workplaces. Learn more: penng.se/hc23

Photo credit: HKB Photo

Photo credit: HKB Photo

Photo credit: Steve Belkowitz

Our Alums in Their Spaces

Krista Cortes’ book-filled office on the top floor of the ARCH Building on Locust Walk is quiet, cozy, and full of golden, autumnal light. But the director of Penn’s La Casa Latina— the campus hub for Penn’s Latine community and Latin American culture—is more often found posted up in La Casa’s bright, bustling home on the garden level, chatting with students, organizing programming, and welcoming people into the space.

How a space is organized and outfitted for optimal learning and inclusion is important to her. After finishing her two master’s programs at Penn GSE (in teacher education and language and literacy), Cortes earned her PhD in education at the University of California, Berkeley, where her dissertation explored how Afro-Puerto Rican mothers create learning environments for their children that center Blackness.

“That’s what I’m trying to do in my work here,” said Cortes, who is also teaching “Applied Linguistics in Education” at GSE this semester. “It’s really important to me to bring AfroLatinidad into conversations in a Latine cultural center. . . . I want us to really think about the multiplicity within our understanding of Latinidades. How do we do that, not only through programming, but how we do that in our interactions with students? How we do that in the ways that our space is designed?”

That care and intentionality is obvious throughout her office and at La Casa. She gave us a tour of everything from the personally meaningful art she’s hung on her walls to the snack closet she keeps stocked with condiments—Valentina hot sauce, Tajin chililime seasoning, adobo seasoning—to remind students of a taste of home.

1. Orisha prints I practice Santería—that's my religion. Santería is an Afro-Cuban religion that came to Cuba when enslaved people from Africa who practiced Yoruba were brought over. These are representations of orishas [spirits] that are really important to me. That’s Oya—goddess of the wind, who represents transformation—with the sword, and Oshun—the river deity [not pictured], who represents love—is behind my desk. And there’s Elegua—deity of the crossroads, who represents destiny. I think they are super important as a lens or a metaphor through which to understand the ways in which Afro-Latinidad is often obscured and not talked about. . . . Even in thinking about the way that this tradition has persisted over time, it very much had to be hidden, right? To keep their traditions alive, they had to hide them behind Catholicism, and then Santería is really a blending of the Yoruba traditions with Catholicism as a way to adapt to a new situation. When folks come in my office, I don't know that they would know what these images are. But it was important—a way of me bringing a piece of myself into this space.

2. Prints of Puerto Rico I inherited these when my grandfather passed away and my grandmother asked me to help clean his room. In the back of his closet, I found this canister of prints like ones my grandmother has hanging in her home. . . . They are of streetscapes in Puerto Rico, which is where my grandparents and parents were born. I grew up on Long Island. But for me, the identity that is important to me is my “Puerto Ricanness.” That’s how I understand myself. These prints are like me trying to bring the idea of “a home that is not here” into this space. [Only one print pictured here.]

3. Spiderman and La Borinqueña comic books These feature Miles Morales, the Afro-Puerto Rican Spiderman, and La Borinqueña, who is also Afro-Puerto Rican. She's a superhero that is meant to save Puerto Rico, so she talks about eco-feminism and climate justice. There was a comic shop in Berkeley that I was able to get some of these from. While I was in California, I met the author of the La Borinqueña comic books, Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, and he signed some of them for me. Folks really are into superheroes, and these have become a conversation-starter with students.

4. Día de los Muertos decorations These are the boxes we’ve been packing for Día de los Muertos. They are full of supplies that we use to build an altar. We began this partnership with the College Houses—we give them all the supplies, and then usually a resident advisor or graduate resident advisor will make a program out of it where they build the altar in a common area in their College House. . . . Día de los Muertos is very much associated with Mexicanness. But it’s actually a practice that is celebrated all over Latin America and the Caribbean and beyond. It’s a cross-cultural practice. Lots of cultures honor their dead and want to remember their passed loved ones.

Krista Cortes, GED'11, GED'13

5. 2021 Lambda Theta Alpha Award Lambda Theta Alpha is a Latina sorority. . . . and that award says that I command respect in the community. It was really meaningful because at the time—we were just coming out of the pandemic shutdown—there hadn’t been a director in La Casa for at least a year. . . . I was the only full-time staff in the office. It was really important for me to develop trust with the students, to build relationships with them and the community so that we can do the work, and so that the work felt collaborative and felt like it was representative of the students here. So that award really meant a lot because it made me feel like I wasn’t there yet, but I was on the right path.

6. 2023 Penn Model of Excellence Award and poster

I won the Model of Excellence Award last spring, which was a little unorthodox because I haven’t been here for that long. [Cortes started running La Casa in 2020.] But folks put my name in the mix, and I was selected. The poster was made by one of the students who works at La Casa. She did the letters and passed it around so a lot of students could sign it. And it’s just really humbling to read these words from folks about what you mean to them and the impact you’re having right now on them. It reminds me why I’m here and why the work I’m doing is important.

ASK ME ANYTHING: Katharine Strunk

Beyond her professional accomplishments and extensive CV, who is Penn GSE’s new dean?

by Rebecca Raber

When Katharine Strunk joined Penn GSE as dean in July, she brought with her decades of experience as an educator, policy researcher, and expert on teacher labor markets, school and district improvement and accountability, and student achievement. But Dean Strunk is more than just her many accomplishments. In the year ahead, we will have much to share about the new dean’s vision for the School’s future, but first, we hope this Reddit-style AMA (Ask Me Anything), will help you get to know the woman behind the work. Sourced from Instagram—are you following @penngse?—and from folks across campus, these questions represent some of the silly and serious things our community wanted to know about its new leader.

PENN GSE: What’s the first word you think of when you think of Penn GSE?

KATHARINE STRUNK: Impact.

GSE: Why?

KS: Because one of the things that drew me to Penn GSE—and that has been clear to me from the conversations I’ve been having with faculty and staff and students—is that everybody here wants to make a positive impact on the world, whether it be through kids in schools, through kids in community programs, or through [supporting] educators or leaders. That is the defining focus of GSE: how do we make positive change?

GSE: What area of education brings you the most joy?

KS: I would have said, for a long time, thinking about education policy. But I have been doing some research on early literacy, and I’m thinking a lot more now about instruction inside elementary school classrooms.

GSE: What’s your favorite travel destination?

KS: My favorite trip that we’ve ever taken was to Patagonia in Chile and Argentina. But as a consistent travel destination? I grew up in the Bay Area in Northern California, and the Sierras [Sierra Nevada mountains] will always be the place that makes my heart sing.

GSE: Do you have any hobbies?

KS: I run. I have two dogs: Dodger, because we’re big baseball fans in my family and we lived right near Dodger Stadium when we lived in L.A., and Ollie is the [name of the] second one, but only because I wouldn’t let my kids name him Mookie. And so, we run, and we do a lot of hiking as a family. We like to bike and to be outdoors. And I’m a big reader. I love to read a good novel. That’s how I relax.

Photo credit: Joe McFetridge for Penn GSE

GSE: When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?

KS: I wanted to be a singer. GSE: Do you still sing?

GSE: What was the last good book you read?

GSE: What was your first job?

KS: I babysat. But my first “real job” was as a teacher in a Making Waves Summer Bridge program, where I taught math and music to fourth graders in the Bay Area.

KS: One of the last good books I read was Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow [by Gabrielle Zevin]—that was amazing. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks. I just listened to American Dirt [by Jeanine Cummins], which was phenomenal. I highly suggest everyone read it.

KS: No. I used to sing pretty seriously, but I have not done that in a long time. But I sing a lot to my kids [twins Bryce and Cole, now 11]. My kids were in the NICU for six weeks when they were born, and so it was like a concert every day for all the babies in the NICU because all I could do was sing to them. My parents always said that my kids got lots of concerts for their whole life, growing up.

GSE: What are your guilty pleasures?

KS: I love Sour Patch Kids. It’s dangerous when they’re near me. I will eat them all. One of my sons has become quite the baker, which is unfortunate for me, because he’ll make these cookies and cakes and then I eat them all. Also, I always said I would never let a dog sleep in my bed. But have you seen Dodger? Who could resist?

GSE: What was your favorite class in school?

KS: My favorite class in college was a freshman seminar on controversies in literature. It was very cool. It was taught by an anthropology professor and presented through the frame of an anthropology course. If I had not been a policy major, I was going be an anthropology major.

GSE: What’s your favorite Philly spot so far? Or what’s on your Philly bucket list?

KS: My favorite Philly spot so far is probably the Wissahickon [Valley Park]. It’s so gorgeous. I had no idea I was going to get that kind of park here. I also love the Schuylkill River Trail and Boathouse Row on Kelly Drive—those are beautiful. For my bucket list, I really want to go to the Magic Gardens [mosaicked community art space]. And we want to go see a show at the Kimmel Center.

GSE: What have you learned from all of your different jobs?

KS: I learned that it’s all about the people. Every single job—whether it’s been as a waitress or as a tutor or as a teacher or as a babysitter or working at a nonprofit or working in policy—it’s always about the people with whom you work and the people whom you’re trying to serve.

GSE: What professional accomplishment are you proudest of?

KS: I’m proudest of the work we were able to do at EPIC [Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative] to help the state think through how to safely bring kids back into the classroom during the pandemic. And our work on the impacts of the pandemic on kids—emotionally, academically, all around—and on educators, and how they might develop programs and interventions to help educators and kids recover.

GSE: Now for a classic Reddit AMA question: cake or pie?

KS: Pie, for sure! Hands down. Pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie, or berry pie. In fact, when I was little, my birthday cakes were always pumpkin pies because I’m born in November.

GSE: How will you engage with current PhD students?

KS: It’s a great question. First of all, we have always welcomed the first-year doctoral students with a lunch, and I’m really looking forward to this year’s. I am excited to come to research talks when I'm able to and to be able to be part of that community. One of the things I definitely want to do is find a way to connect more with all of our students at GSE. Right now, I’m thinking through how to make sure that I’m getting to hear and understand the different voices of all our students.

GSE: I know you are still developing your priorities for the School, but we received several questions about your vision and your plans for the future. Any previews?

KS: One of the things that attracted me to Penn GSE was this idea of impact, [particularly locally]. So, one of my priorities is thinking through how we work closely with our community partners, including the school district, to help address their needs. We have one of the best schools of education in the country, and we are right here in Philadelphia. I think it’s our responsibility and our privilege to work with our community partners to help improve outcomes for kids. ■

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation

The Dean's dogs (from left) Ollie and Dodger

Dean Strunk’s sons at the Liberty Bell

the Mental Health Crisis in Schools

From training the next generation of school counselors to innovating district-wide strategic plans and teacher-wellness programming, Penn GSE is serving on the front lines of what the U.S. Surgeon General has called “the defining public health crisis of our time.”

By Alyson Krueger, C’07

On the Tuesday after Labor Day, Eric Brown, GED’16, a school counselor, welcomed students back to Horatio B. Hackett Elementary School in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood. “There are some students who are new to the community, and some whom I am reconnecting with,” he said. “I hang out with them during lunch and recess and visit them during art class or music.

“I want to make sure they know that support is available to them,” he said.

Even before the pandemic, he saw students of all ages struggling with mental health issues. “For some of them it’s just school stuff, grades,” he said. “I saw fourth and fifth graders spiraling over politics and elections.”

But since the pandemic, more of his students have suffered from other mental health conditions, especially anxiety. “We get selfreports from young kids about the fear of the unknown and what is coming next,” he said. “Last school year, I had two students who were having these debilitating panic attacks multiple times a week.” He also has numerous students who have lost family members, witnessed gun violence, and questioned their sexual and gender identities in recent years.

Similar challenges can be felt across the country. According to a 2021 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42 percent of high school students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness during the past year. That is a 13.5 percent increase from 2019, and a 50 percent increase from a decade earlier. Additionally, 30 percent of high school girls and 45 percent of LGBTQ+ teens reported seriously considering suicide.

In May, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an alarming warning about the harm social media (which up to 95 percent of young people, ages 13–17, use) poses to the mental health of children and adolescents. The same month, he boldly declared that “mental health is the defining public health crisis of our time.”

As a mental health professional on the ground, Brown feels fortunate that he is in a position to help these children.

He works with small groups of elementary school students at a time, teaching them how to do breathing exercises and meditations that can distract them from anxiety. “It can be as simple as coloring a maze,” he said. “I do this meditation where I have them put a Hershey’s Kiss in their mouths and let it melt and have them reflect and meditate on it, the flavors, the texture of the chocolate. It’s amazing.”

Brown is also encouraging the school, as a whole, to make changes to help students. At the start of the day, each class now holds a community meeting where the kids, along with the teacher, discuss a fun, personal topic. “It helps build a better rapport with students and it makes these connections, so if there are issues that need to be addressed, they feel more comfortable talking about it,” said Brown.

He’s also working one-on-one with teachers to help them see the need to make time in a student’s day for addressing mental health. “The teachers have a curriculum to teach, so there is a lot of competition for time, but we are working on that,” he said. “We’re making progress.”

Brown is only one of the many Penn GSE players—students, alumni, and faculty members—who are trying to address the mental health crisis in our country’s schools. Some, like Brown, are working directly with children or adolescents. Others are trying to change things from the top, guiding educational professionals to prioritize mental health and create wellnessminded communities.

During a ten-year span there was a INCREASE

50% in U.S. high school students who stated they were experiencing PERSISTANT FEELINGS SADNESS OR HOPELESSNESS

Eric Brown, Hackett Elementary school counselor

Michael Nakkula, a professor at Penn GSE whose research focuses on studying the development of resilience and possibility for children and youth from low-income backgrounds, has always believed in the power of schools to address mental health challenges. “Families and students cannot consistently follow up on recommendations for outside counseling support,” he explained. “In schools, you have a chance to reach the students on a regular basis.”

Schools are also a place where you can reach all children. “All students need this type of support, not just the ones who are the most challenged,” he said. “The ones in the middle often fall between the cracks because they aren’t getting in trouble, and they aren’t the highest achievers, but they have social and emotional challenges, too.”

But if they aren’t careful, schools can also become places that exacerbate students’ mental health challenges. “The other side to this is, when there is school disengagement and isolation, students tend to feel sadder, bored, depressed, anxious, all of these negative feelings,” he said.

To help schools make sure they are helpful, not hurtful, he and Andy Danilchick, an education consultant and Penn GSE doctoral student, launched the Project for Mental Health and Optimal Development. Based at Penn GSE, it brings together representatives from Pennsylvania school districts once a month to create and execute strategic plans for addressing mental health in their districts. Every district sends a team of approximately five participants that usually includes a teacher, a counselor, an assistant principal, and a principal. The program started in 2018 and now works with 30 Pennsylvania districts.

Every meeting starts with a training so representatives from each district can learn techniques to support students. For example, the consortium has been focusing on traumainformed approaches to address disruptive classroom behavior. “In one of the sessions, a teacher was asking for language [to use in class], so we brainstormed ideas,” said Nakkula. “One thing that I shared was that you might not be able to calm down a student who is misbehaving in the moment, but you can say, ‘Jeremy, something is clearly bothering you. We can’t talk about it right now, but I would like to check in after class if that’s okay with you.’”

Then each district engages in a private strategic planning session to address its own particular needs. For example, one district decided what they really needed was more resources for students who need intensive support. So they used the time in the consortium to figure out how they could advocate for a children's partial hospitalization unit in their county. “They ended up getting the resources, which was an extraordinary achievement,” said Nakkula. “They gave credit to the consortium for giving them the time and space to focus on this.”

Individual practitioners were coping with their own mental health issues and wellness issues. We were always on the cusp of burning out, and then the pandemic happened, and we realized that the old tactics we were using to cope would no longer work.

— Stacey Carlough, GED’06

Penn GSE also provides a liaison for each district to check in between meetings and see how their plans are going.

“The reason this is so important is that the people in school districts are overwhelmed with challenges,” said Nakkula. “They have a lot on their plates.”

Penn GSE Professor of Practice Michael Nakkula

Photo credit: Lora Reehling Photography

As the country was emerging from the pandemic, it became clear that mental health challenges were not just facing students, but the teachers, counselors, and other “helping professionals” in schools as well. “Individual practitioners were coping with their own mental health issues and wellness issues,” said Stacey Carlough, GED’06, assistant director of teaching and learning at the Penn GSE Office of School and Community Engagement (OSCE). “We were always on the cusp of burning out, and then the pandemic happened, and we realized that the old tactics we were using to cope would no longer work.”

Even before the pandemic, educators were grappling with how to prioritize self-care in a profession where burnout is all too common. Taking time off, even when it’s the responsible thing, can have unanticipated effects.

“Should, for example, a teacher who is experiencing chronic stress take a day off to rest, the other adults in the school need to fill that gap, and that leads to their stress levels rising,” said Carlough. “So then you’re in this situation where no one is getting the rest they need to stay well, which can lead to burnout, and even those staff members leaving the school or the profession altogether. The snake just keeps eating its tail.”

This need to strengthen individual practitioners’, as well as whole school communities’, capacity for wellness is what led Carlough, with Caroline Watts, senior lecturer and director of OSCE, to expand its Alliance for Interprofessional Education—to try and help “right this ship,” as Carlough put it.

The goal of the initiative is to build an engaged community of education professionals (including teachers, counselors, social workers, nurses, administrators, and other school-based staff) who support one another in creating and maintaining communities where wellness is sustainable. That way, the “helpers” have the skills, knowledge, and support they need to consistently show up for their students with less risk of compassion fatigue.

And it’s not about offering a one-time meditation or giving staff a coupon for a free coffee. “It’s about shifting the entire system and creating a culture where everyone is responsible for making sure everyone is focusing on wellness,” said Carlough.

Sometimes, the Alliance brings professionals together in person to learn strategies they can implement in their schools. For example, at last year’s Winter Wellness Mixer, the group invited pre-service and in-service teachers and counselors to a series of workshops. In one, a somatic bodyworker instructed educators on self-message and breathing techniques that can help lower stress levels immediately.

Last year, in another session designed for Philadelphia school leaders, participants learned how to engage in mindful communication. “Say a principal and a teacher are walking down a hallway. They might both have a lot on their minds, and so that quick conversion has the potential to leave one or both of them feeling frustrated or more stressed out. Or it can be a moment of connection, leaving them feel heard and supported,” said Carlough.

This year, the Alliance launched the New Practitioner Collaborative (NPC), a twice-daily, drop-in virtual support and co-working space for anyone volunteering, training, or working in a K–12 school. Education practitioners can pop in at their leisure to engage in thought-partnership on a professional challenge or idea. Or they can use the space to have someone hold them gently accountable for practices that reduce stress, from staying on top of grading to following through on a daily meditation goal.

“The NPC is open and staffed, and now we just need to get the message out that this is here,” said Carlough. “This is about folks who have something to give, offering to hold the space for folks who have a need. It’s a place to come and receive support, to get ideas, to have a sounding board, and to feel connected to a community that cares about the next generation of helping professionals. This isn’t just self-care or a spa day. This is the energy you get from a partnership with people who care and want you to succeed.”

Penn GSE is also preparing the next generation of school counselors who will be addressing students’ mental health needs at the ground level.

OSCE’s Watts, who is also a licensed psychologist and former faculty member in the Professional Counseling program, said that Penn GSE’s counseling programs have become even more focused on addressing the impact of social injustices in the preparation of its school and mental health counselors. “We really need to have a counseling mindset that is inclusive and be able to respond to a range of individuals from a range of backgrounds and a range of identities.”

The counseling faculty have also incorporated teaching alternative therapeutic approaches so it can reach as many people as possible in the ways that work for them. “As a result of the pandemic and the increased presence of telehealth, we also train our counselors on what are the best practices at forming effective therapeutic relationships over Zoom and over the phone,” she said. “We talk about issues like: How do you set boundaries in this kind of setting? And what are the appropriate ways to handle this relationship?”

Marsha Richardson, a senior lecturer and the director of the School and Mental Health Counseling program, said in her class they focus on unique and creative ways to engage students and children through the use of technology. “One of my former students, who now teaches, created this amazing website for an elementary school where there is a cartoon character of her, and she is situated in a virtual office,” she said. “Everything you click on, whether it’s books on the shelf or a chair, opens up a link or activity to teach about mental wellness.

“It’s amazing,” she added. “I had her come to my class this year to demonstrate to students all the interactive ways they can reach people.”

Richardson said the pandemic also exposed educators and counselors to heightened levels of anxiety—like fear of germs or fear of going out and being in public—that counselors are now being trained to deal with.

Penn GSE also has new initiatives to get counseling students in front of more children and in more settings. It’s a win-win—students get experience and the institutions need the help. “The national recommendation is that there should be a counselor for every 250 students,” said Brown, the alumnus who is working in Fishtown. “That low number might blow you away, but there are many schools, especially in Philadelphia, where that ratio isn’t even met. It’s more like one counselor to 400 kids.”

For the past three years, as a way to support students coming back to school in person after the pandemic, OSCE has collaborated with the Netter Center for Community Partnerships to provide increased academic and social-emotional supports for elementary students in West and Southwest Philadelphia over the summer. As part of this program, Penn GSE graduate counseling students seamlessly integrated their mental health and wellness work with the students’ academic schedule.

“Unlike previous years, we didn’t have scheduled classroom guidance lessons,” said Semaj Capers, GED’22, GED’23, a certified school counselor who worked for two summers in West Philadelphia schools. “We would attend their chess or dance or acting classes, or we would play with the kids during recess and at lunch.”

When a mental health need arose, he would step in. For example, he gave a lesson on boundaries after the third and fourth graders were being too physical in the way they were playing. “We did an activity where there were four circles, and the smallest circle was for your personal space and then it grew,” he said. “They labeled who could be in that space, and they had fun with it.”

Vicki Swanson, a second-year graduate student in the Professional Counseling program, also spent the summer as a counselor at Comegys Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia, where the counseling office was known as the “Zen Den.” She said she felt encouraged by how excited the kids were to have adults in their lives who were just there to support their emotional health.

“They liked having a group of staff whose job wasn’t necessarily to teach them anything or make them do certain things and, instead, provide a space the students could have some agency over according to their individual needs,” she said. “Some kids would come hang on a daily basis. That’s when you can really make a difference.” ■

Director of School and Community Engagement Caroline Watts in her classroom. Photo credit: Darryl W. Moran Photography

Senior Lecturer Marsha Richardson meeting with Penn GSE counseling students. Photo credit: Ryan Collerd

FACES of Philanthropy

Inside Penn GSE’s new and improved home—and a look at some of those who made it possible.

By Rebecca Raber

This fall, Penn GSE unveiled its first new construction in over 50 years. Driven by the growth in student population, which has more than doubled since the last renovation two decades ago, and a need for more student-centered, collaborative space, the capital expansion project connected the two 1960-era buildings in which the School makes its home (Stiteler Hall and 3700 Walnut Street). The now-linked buildings add 16,200 new square feet to GSE’s footprint and include another 16,900 square feet of renovated space.

But this project, begun in April 2022 and finished this summer, is more than just an expansion. It’s a physical manifestation of Penn GSE’s priorities and values. It brings most of the School’s people and programs together under one roof for the first time in its history, fortifying the School’s commitment to “One Penn GSE.” It prioritizes collaborative spaces to bring people together to help solve 21st-century educational challenges. And it includes technology-rich spaces—like the Andrew and Marina Jacobson Innovation Studio and the Gregory and EJ Milken Makerspace because advancing education in novel and meaningful ways demands innovation and technological expertise.

Photo credit: Greg Benson Photography

This next chapter of Penn GSE was made possible by the generosity of almost 100 donors who supported the capital expansion as part of the Extraordinary Impact campaign. They gave for their own personal reasons—a commitment to expanding educational access, a desire to honor a loved one in a permanent way, an impulse to make the facilities match the cutting-edge education delivered inside—but they were all moved by the School’s mission and belief in its future.

“The success of our capital campaign has strengthened GSE in numerous ways, some of which are more visible than others,” said Board of Advisors member Doug Korn, W’84, who served as both campaign chair and board chair during the fundraising effort. “The beautiful new building provides better spaces for learning, sharing, collaborating, exploring, and community building, all of which will allow the School to magnify its impact and continue to attract the most committed and talented students and faculty. But, less visible and equally important, we are now able to invest more in crucial areas like financial aid, community partnerships, educational innovation, research, and faculty support.”

From the beautiful glass-enclosed Shleifer Lobby and its second-story Andrea Pollack and Adam Usdan Overlook, to new classrooms named for the Korn Family and Jeffrey and Nicole Goldberg, the names of some of the supporters who made the expanded and renovated building a reality can be found throughout. We asked a few of them why they chose to support the building project and how they hope the new spaces will inspire the future of Penn GSE.

McGraw Center for Educational Leadership

What is it?

A dedicated home for the new center, created last year thanks to a transformative gift from the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation. “The center’s vision is to facilitate the development of the next generation of educational leaders—from preschool through lifetime learning—who are at the forefront of scholarship and practice,” said Harold “Terry” McGraw III, WG’76. “To achieve this vision, the center will harness the collective expertise of McGraw Prize winners and students, alumni, and faculty across GSE, which is why having a dedicated space in the new building was so important.”

Why support it?

“We hope the space will enable current and future leaders inside and outside Penn GSE to collaborate and share best practices to advance learning at all levels in our society,” said McGraw. “It’s a tall task, but one Penn GSE is uniquely suited to lead.”

Stairs with seating connect the Andrea Pollack and Adam Usdan Overlook to the Shleifer Lobby.

Photo credit: Greg Benson Photography

Photo credit: Chuck Choi

Photo credit: Chuck Choi

Monica Valrani Conference Room

What is it?

A bright, glass-walled conference room equipped with state-of-the-art technology off the new Pollack/ Usdan Overlook.

Why support it?

Navin Valrani, W’93, GED’18, GED’22, GRD’23, named the space in honor of his wife, Monica, who runs early-years nursery schools in Dubai that serve more than 400 students a year. “I hope the Monica Valrani Conference Room will allow Penn GSE students from diverse cultural backgrounds to engage in meaningful dialogue,” he said. “Monica was born in Ghana and raised in Nigeria. She has seen first-hand the difference education makes to those underserved and marginalized by the world, and is determined to continue increasing educational access to children. This room will remain a legacy for her contribution to society.”

Barth Commons

What is it?

A gathering space and lounge in front of the three new activelearning classrooms that can be used for everything from group study to School receptions.

Why support it?

“My wife Natalie and I are staunch supporters of Penn, and we contribute in many areas, but are passionate about the teaching, research, and impact that are hallmarks of GSE. Therefore, GSE is one of our most important philanthropic priorities,” said Brett Barth, W’93. “The expansion project successfully achieved several objectives: combining the facilities, expanding the spaces available, creating a welcoming new entry, and providing communal space for students and faculty to meet and share ideas. A common area in this new space seems like a perfect way to help contribute to all of the project’s goals.”

Pam Grossman Classroom

What is it?

One of the three new flexible, interactive classrooms in the building addition that bumps out into the courtyard, this room was the gift of dozens of donors who wanted to honor the outgoing dean who envisioned the new building as an inclusive home for “One Penn GSE.” “Pam was a very visible leader, getting to know and support her faculty, administration, and most of all, students,” said Deborah Ancona, C’76, GED’77, one of the donors of the space. “She showcased that rare combination of head and heart: she really cares about new ideas, but also has a passion for people and change. She harnessed that passion to create a welcoming environment for all, and tackled the critical issues of today’s schools.”

Why support it?

“Why support Pam Grossman by creating a classroom in her name? Simply because she did an amazing job as dean of Penn GSE,” said Ancona, the Seley Distinguished Professor of Management at MIT. “I am also an academic and have seen deans come and go. Pam stands out as a superstar.”

Photo credit: Chuck Choi

Photo credit: Chuck Choi

Edward M. Yorke, W’81 Memorial Courtyard

What is it?

The new courtyard—bounded by the now-connected Stiteler Hall–3700 Walnut Penn GSE building on one side and Solomon Building on the other—is an outdoor gathering space for the community that features a long, beautiful wooden bench and lots of plants. It is a tribute to the late Ed Yorke, a nineyear Penn GSE board member, devoted family man, and, as many noted at the courtyard’s dedication, an ardent book lover. “For generations to come, future educational leaders will sit in the Yorke Courtyard to study, build personal connections, or just contemplate life. Most of them will have no idea who Ed Yorke was, but my hope is perhaps they can draw inspiration from the beautiful setting that will help them become better educators and mentors, and continue to compound the positive impact Ed had on the educational landscape and world around him,” said Doug Korn, a longtime friend and colleague who proposed naming the space in Yorke’s honor and chaired the committee that brought together more than 70 donors to support it. “I am confident that Ed would have appreciated that.”

Why support it?

“Ed cared deeply about education and about Penn, and his tragic passing left a deep hole in the hearts of those who knew and loved him,” said Korn. “As a longtime member of the board of advisors, he was a respected and trusted confidant—offering sound advice and wisdom to two deans and numerous board members, senior administrators, and faculty. . . . The broad support for this project is a testimonial to the love so many had for Ed, as a friend, mentor, and inspirational community and business leader. Dozens of people, some of whom have historically had no connection to Penn and many others who are part of the Penn community, came forward with stories about how Ed had shaped their lives or careers in a positive and impactful way. It was truly a remarkable outpouring of support in memory of a remarkable man.”

Fundraising to support crucial spaces in the new and renovated building is ongoing. Please reach out to Vice Dean of Development and Alumni Relations Laura Tepper to learn more: ltepper@upenn.edu.

Photo credit: Greg Benson Photography

Take a Look

,

it's in a Book

Penn GSE alumni and students translate their passion for education into careers as children’s and young adult authors.

By Lini S. Kadaba

While teaching music to young children at an independent school in Brooklyn over two decades, musician Carolyn Sloan, GED’17, was shocked to discover that many had never heard a symphony.

At the same time, she was reading books about music to her young son and was disappointed she couldn’t find any that offered a concrete, kid-friendly understanding of musical concepts, that played the sound of an instrument or, say, a melody. “Why would you make a book about a violin,” Sloan said, “without any sound? It’s very abstract to a little one who doesn’t know what a violin is.”

So grew a seed of an idea that has blossomed over the years into a series of fun children’s books that introduce the orchestra, jazz, and opera (so far)—complete with sound buttons. Her first, the 2015 award-winning Welcome to the Symphony (Workman Publishing Company), uses Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 to explore the orchestra and plays snippets of not only the major instruments but also key concepts such as the main theme, melody, and the famous da-dada-daah end of the first movement.

Since then, she has written two other books for the same publisher: Welcome to Jazz, winner of the 2019 Gold Nautilus Award for best children’s nonfiction book, and the brand new Welcome to the Opera. Meanwhile, Sloan left the classroom in 2021 to focus on an education platform (TeachMe TV) she founded with the help of her Penn GSE degree in education entrepreneurship.

“I was trying to give access to music and culture in a book,” she said. “At a time when schools are cutting arts programs, it’s crucial for kids to have exposure to music, art, dance, and theater.”

Sloan is one of several alumni who have translated their passion for education—further honed during their graduate studies—into children’s and young adult (YA) books that take on a range of topics. The other Penn GSE authors have written about positivity, community service, and different types of families. One middle-grade book tackles sexting. Another YA novelist tells a story of police brutality involving a teenager of color. Often, the authors are driven to create stories they would have enjoyed as children or adolescents, books that reflect a diversity of people, places, and experiences.

Seeing Me in the Story

Growing up on the North Shore of Long Island, where she and her family were some of the only Korean Americans in the community, Yuna Hur, GED’20, said she felt like an outsider, at times. Books only reinforced that perception. “I never saw a book with my name. I rarely saw a book that had a character that looked like me. How powerful it would have been to have something like that growing up.”

Something like ABCs of Positivity

A self-published children’s book that Hur co-authored with her cousin last year takes young children on an alphabet journey with positivity as the theme. It showcases racially and ethnically diverse characters with lived experiences from different cultures—including their names.

For instance, “C” is for “confidence”: “Cerys is unsure about answering her teacher’s question,” the text reads with an illustration of an Asian American girl. “Her classmates encourage Cerys to raise her hand with confidence.”

Hur said her passion for diversity and inclusion was cultivated at GSE’s two-year Independent School Teaching Residency, where master’s students teach at partner schools as they pursue their degrees through on-site and online courses. Empowered, the former math and computer science teacher said she strove to create a classroom where the diverse students at her Connecticut boarding school felt “seen and heard and represented.”

“Throughout my Penn program,” said Hur, who worked on curriculum development for an electric-vehicle manufacturer and a learning-tech startup after leaving the classroom in 2021, “being able to understand with empathy and a growth mindset who is part of our community and giving voice to those who perhaps may not have had a voice have been the fuel for my professional experiences thus far, and the origins of the book.”

Representation Matters

Similarly, current doctoral student Maritza Moulite, who’s researching diversity in children’s media and its impact on

self-perception, said she created a YA novel she wished she could have read growing up in Miami, where she said she practically lived at the library and mostly read books about “a lot of white girls with red hair.” Think Anne of Green Gables and tales of Pippi Longstocking.

Published in 2019, the widely praised Dear Haiti, Love Alaine (Inkyard Press, an imprint of HarperCollins), written with sister Maika Moulite, is the story of a rambunctious Haitian American high school senior who is sent to Haiti when a school prank goes very wrong. The sisters followed with One of the Good Ones, which takes on police brutality when a teen dies in custody. And currently, they’re working on The Summer I Ate the Rich (MacMillan Children’s Publishing Group), due in 2025, which delves into socioeconomic and racial inequality through the story of a zombie (an important figure in Haitian lore) who is hungry for revenge.

“I like being able to connect my creative endeavor with my academic life,” Moulite said. “I definitely want to keep championing diversity, so enough people see themselves and learn about people different from themselves.”

What do families look like?

Former Broadway performer (The Lion King, Rent) and youth advocate Philip McAdoo, GRD’15, also melded his doctoral studies in educational leadership, concentrating on

diversity and inclusion, with the themes of his 2017 selfpublished children’s book Every Child Deserves…

“The Penn program spoke to diversity in a way that I hadn’t seen,” said the DEI consultant and former vice president of DEI at Earthjustice who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. “It was really mission-driven—to create an equal playing ground in terms of access to education.”

The sweet Every Child Deserves… Zaden—who McAdoo and his partner adopted from foster care when he was six years old—to send the message that all children deserve equal access to a family and a plethora of rich experiences, including “to be buried in the sand, … hate cello, … swim to the edge of the ocean,” as the story said. Depicting diverse characters and family models that include two dads (like Zaden’s parents), the story was inspired by a visit to the Capitol, said McAdoo, where he and his partner, along with Zaden, met with the late Rep. John Lewis in support of LGBTQ+ rights. In response to a reporter’s question, a young Zaden replied, “‘Every child deserves a family,’” McAdoo recalled. “That became

In 2022, he coauthored the children’s book (Ingram Sparks). Its theme is financial responsibility, but like his first book, the story is grounded in diverse characters and family types. “We tend to think about this work from a trauma space,” McAdoo said. “I really want to find ways and spaces to tell these stories in a joyful, celebratory way.”

, director of the

Center for Children’s Literature at the Bank Street College of Education in New York City, never anticipated becoming a children’s author during her master’s in foreign language education, the degree set her on the path to writing nine multicultural children’s books and counting. First, she landed a job as a Spanish teacher at Glastonbury High School in Connecticut, where the district had a rare K–12 foreign language program.

“The entire department met regularly to talk about how cultural artifacts could be used in the classroom to teach basic concepts, as well as more sophisticated ones,” said Weill, who lives on the Upper West Side.

A dozen years later, she left the classroom to work for Catholic Relief Services, where she met an expert embroiderer during a stint in Vietnam. The encounter

Getting Books Into the Hands of Young Readers

Growing up the child of immigrant parents from India, Rina Madhani, GED’19, first learned Hindi and Gujrati at home. It was only in the public schools of Chicago, she said, that she mastered English—thanks in part to the school librarian.

“When I was in third grade, she helped shape my trajectory,” said Madhani, who lives in Manhattan, “helped me discover books and really become a proficient reader.”

Perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that the former AmeriCorps reading interventionist and classroom teacher cofounded Start Lighthouse. The New York City-based nonprofit, primarily serving the Bronx, provides multicultural books to children, revitalizes defunct public school libraries, and brings diverse authors and illustrators into classrooms.

“In a world where knowledge is power,” Madhani said, “every child must have access to quality educational resources regardless of race or ZIP code.”

Research has shown that children with access to books, especially at home, attain higher achievement in school. But too many low-income communities are book deserts, and students lag significantly in reading skills. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 2.5 million children across the country are enrolled in districts where there are no libraries. One study found that nearly two-thirds of the low-income families studied owned no books for their children.

Madhani and Sibylla Shekerdjiska-Benatova, who expects to complete her master’s in reading, writing and literacy this year, are two members of the Penn GSE community determined to close the literacy gap. Like Madhani, Shekerdjiska-Benatova runs a literacy nonprofit that distributes children’s books.

“This is driven by the idea that you need to catch children’s attention and love for reading early on,” says the founder of A Book a Day, based out of her West Philadelphia home, and senior conservation technician for paper at Penn Libraries. “If they don’t read well before fourth grade, then it’s becoming much harder for them.”

Rina Madhani (center) shares books from her Start Lighthouse nonprofit with children in the Bronx. Photo credit: Celeste Sloman

inspired a counting book—Ten Mice for Tet (Chronicle Books, 2003)—illustrated with original embroideries highlighting the Vietnamese New Year. Once again, she was using cultural artifacts as a teaching tool.

Since then, Weill has used Mexican folk art by Oaxacan artisans to illustrate a series of eight bilingual books, published by Cinco Puntos Press, that teach basic vocabulary and concepts (opposites, colors, animal sounds). The first, ABeCedarios: Mexican Folk Art ABCs in English and Spanish (2007), co-authored with K.B. Basseches, GFA’88 received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Her latest, last year’s Vámonos: Mexican Folk Art Transport in English and Spanish, is an exploration of transportation through delightful wooden carvings of animals traveling by plane, taxi, boat, and more. Her next installment will feature animals playing musical instruments.

“It’s truly work of the people,” Weill said of the original carvings. She also supports the folk art tradition by buying the pieces from artists in Oaxaca and then donating them to Chicago’s Field Museum, where they are part of its permanent MesoAmerican collection.

Lessons in Imagination

At heart, of course, most of these authors are educators first—and they view books as valuable teaching tools that inspire children.

“Penn really opened my eyes to how children’s books can be used in the classroom as tools to ignite a child’s imagination and interest in a particular theme,” said Villanova resident Meredith Newman, GED’02, a former early elementary teacher in Philadelphia and New York City, and author of this year’s The Lost Umbrellas of Lexington (Ethos Collective). “In my own classroom, I would springboard an entire curriculum or unit from a children’s book.”

Newman found inspiration for her story while walking on a rainy afternoon past an empty playground on the Upper East Side that normally bustled with children on drier days. “It was such a sad scene to me,” she said. Fast forward to the pandemic, when the Penn GSE master’s graduate who concentrated in children’s literature finally wrote the story that had long captivated her.

" Children’s books can be used support, and to nurture as well

playground cover from a patchwork of umbrellas in his cab and gives neighborhood animals a place to play on a rainy day. Newman made use of her classroom experience by including curriculum-related extension activities, such as identification of umbrella patterns (math) and discussion of rainy-day poems (language arts).

“Children’s books can be used to teach, to inspire, to support, and to nurture as well as for pure enjoyment,” she said. “Almost everything I did the classroom began with a children’s book and I learned that from my coursework at Penn.”

Teaching Digital Safety

Amy Feldman, GED’94, L’94 counsel and chief diversity officer for the Philadelphia business consultancy The Judge Group, would agree. Her middle-grade novel, Ezra Exposed (Blackstone Publishing), which came out this year in paperback, educates tweens on the legal liabilities of sexting—but without lecturing them.

In this cute tale of creativity and giving back to the community, a taxicab-driving dog uses ingenuity to build a

“The best way to get information across to a kid is through the corner of your mouth,” said the mother of three who lives in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, and earned her higher education administration master’s while pursuing her law degree at Penn. In other words, tell a tale about a 10-year-old boy who shares a funny picture of his derriere taken with his new cell phone that lands him in big trouble. It’s a story that has its seed in the experience of Feldman’s friend, whose 13-year-old son was accused of pornography when he texted a naked picture of himself to his 12-year-old girlfriend and she reciprocated.

“I thought, OK, enough is enough,” said Feldman when she heard about the legal troubles of her friend’s son. “It’s time to start teaching kids this.” She also created a companion

to teach, to inspire, to as for pure enjoyment. "

— Meredith Newman

curriculum that includes lesson plans and learning assessments. “I learned all of that at GSE.”

Meanwhile, music-inspired author Sloan is weighing a fourth book, this one about Broadway, even as she continues to build TeachMe TV, which provides online activities, games, videos, and worksheets to help children improve their learning strategies. Her GSE education entrepreneurship courses, she said, confirmed her “intuitive choices for an interactive [music] book and introduced some new ways I could continue to engage students through multimedia.”

“What Penn helped me realize and work toward,” Sloan continued, “is a kind of honing of skills, really showing me where my strengths already were but also where I needed to get better. That’s the best thing an education can do.” ■

Shekerdjiska-Benatova saw the need when her children were beginning school. A Bulgarian immigrant, she said she was shocked to find inequities in financial support for schools, including school libraries, in the land of opportunity, “even for schools that were only meters away from each other.” A Book a Day was her chance to make a difference in her adopted homeland, ShekerdjiskaBenatova said, adding that her master’s has helped her to better understand the roots of discrimination in American education.

Since its 2014 start, the 10-person organization with a budget of $162,000 from grants and donations has distributed more than 7,400 multicultural and international titles to Henry C. Lea Elementary and Penn Alexander schools, both in West Philadelphia. It also operates programs in poetry writing and asks authors of color to write a letter to their young self. It was recently nominated for the 2024 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a global recognition of contributions to the field of children’s literature.

“The library is at the heart,” said Shekerdjiska-Benatova, who mastered English by checking out children’s books from the local library. “That’s your knowledge center. That has to be well, well supported, well-funded and staffed.”

Start Lighthouse takes a similar approach. Madhani describes the four-woman organization, which has a budget of $767,000 that includes city, state and federal support; grants, and corporate sponsorships, as “a beacon of hope for the children in the Bronx.”

Its Literary Adventures program has BIPOC authors and illustrators lead school workshops on the creative process and provides a spread of free books from which students can build a home library. “A child will go from zero books at home to five multicultural books in the span of one week,” she said, adding that so far, Start Lighthouse has provided 23,000 books for home libraries.

At its Literacy Hubs (rehabbed school libraries), students have access to curated materials and a safe place to gather, including on Saturdays and during the summer.

“More students are engaged with the love of reading,” she said of the first hub that opened last year at a library that had gone unused for 16 years. A second opened this fall, and a third is in the works.

The nonprofit launched during the pandemic, when schools and libraries were shuttered, and parents of Madhani’s elementary charter school students in the Bronx asked her for books. “Their children didn’t have any books at home,” she said. Madhani began distributing new books, and once the pandemic eased, she used her Penn GSE education—particularly her “Education Entrepreneurship” class—to build Start Lighthouse from scratch. “That course changed my life.”

Now, Madhanai hopes the children she serves can have the confidence to dream big, too.

“Start Lighthouse isn't just a nonprofit,” she said. “It's a driving force behind a more equitable and educated future for our kids.” ■

Shekerdiska-Bentova (center) painting a poetry-inspired mural at Lea Elementary School. Photo credit: Rich Liuzzi

Back Where She Began

Education economics policy expert A. Brooks Bowden, GED’07, recently earned tenure at her alma mater—the place that first introduced her to her field.

By Rebecca Raber

Penn GSE's A. Brooks Bowden isn’t just a faculty member, she’s also a proud alum. An associate professor in education policy, she earned her master’s degree in educational policy at the School where she now trains the future of the profession. In a nice bit of symmetry, her current office on the fourth floor of 3700 Walnut Street formerly belonged to her mentor, Professor Emerita of Education and Social Policy Rebecca A. Maynard. “That was intentional,” said Bowden, who credits Maynard’s “Economics of Education” class as an early inspiration for her professional path.

Since graduating from Penn GSE, Bowden earned her PhD at Columbia University, conducted research at the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education—a center now housed at Penn that she directs—and joined the Penn GSE faculty, where she earned tenure earlier this year.

Her research focuses on program evaluation and economic analysis with the aim of mitigating poverty-related challenges that prevent students from experiencing the full value of schooling. She co-authored the primary text on cost-effectiveness, Economic Evaluation in Education: Cost-Effectiveness and Benefit-Cost Analysis, and is an editor of the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

Bowden spoke with us about making a career change from psychology to educational policy, why she wanted to work at her alma mater, and the partnerships that make her work possible.

Photo credit: Joe McFetridge for Penn GSE

You started your academic and professional career in psychology. How did you make the turn to educational policy?

Mostly my work was with little kids, birth to age eight, and was focused on behavior—thinking about the way that learning happens, thinking about language. But at a certain point, instead of spending my days with children, I was spending my days teaching other people to work with children, working on IEPs and with school systems, and trying to help families find resources. I felt like the research we were relying on [to inform that work] was often very old. Those concerns are really what drove me to reconsider my path. I decided research was the way to really make change, and that’s how I learned about policy. I realized that I could apply all of the really strong research and social science training I had in psychology to social policy. And then at Penn, I learned about the economics of education. . . . And so today, I’m a social scientist who focuses on policy with the lenses of psychology and economics.

What is it like to work at the school you went to?

[When I came to Penn,] I wanted to do rigorous causal research toward understanding if policies and programs work. I wanted to inform public resource allocation to try to improve the lives of children, and Penn helped me to find a way to do that. . . . And then when I heard that Penn was hiring, it was like another moment of “I can’t believe it!” Because this is the place that changed my life, this is the place that gave me this path. And so, the opportunity to go back to this place and to be that change agent for other people was very, very exciting.

What is the focus of your current research?

I have a couple of things that started with the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education moving here. One of them has been a partnership with NYU, the International Rescue Committee, and Sesame Workshop, with funding from the LEGO Foundation and MacArthur Foundation, working with families and children with extreme levels of vulnerability because of refugee crises. We’ve contributed to five cost-effectiveness evaluations of displaced families and children in many different contexts in humanitarian settings. . . . Other new work that is starting, that’s been in development since around 2020, is a partnership with [the state of] North Carolina, where we have truly coconstructed research questions that use data from both education and the Department of Health and Human Services—things like TANF [Temporary Assistance to Needy Families] child care subsidies, early childhood education opportunities, and other social support services that tend to be targeted for early childhood years. We will look at that with data from education to think about ways that we can use large data to inform our understanding of children more holistically. Ultimately, we want to consider how we can use data to better allocate resources and to inform public investments in children and families.

"What is vulnerability? How is it conceptualized? How much of that is poverty? How much of that is income? How can we use large data to think about vulnerability?"

— A. Brooks Bowden

What kinds of questions, specifically, are you hoping to answer with that data?

Our early education system is really very focused, from an education policy perspective, on what skills children have at the end of third grade. Part of this project is really rooted in thinking about our K–3 students and how they are prepared for school and how they move through school. There is a focus across the U.S. on literacy by the end of third grade, so one of the questions I started with is, “Why third grade?”. . . We also are focusing on questions related to readiness, especially “kindergarten readiness”— what does that mean? With the DHHS data, we’re able to add big-picture questions around vulnerability and access to services: What is vulnerability? How is it conceptualized? How much of that is poverty? How much of that is income? How can we use large data to think about vulnerability? That’s actually not as clear as you might think—there’s actually not a great set of definitions. Another big question is around access and who has access to social support systems and what barriers exist for families to participate.

How has your research had impact in the

“real world”?

I’ve been very lucky to have been able to do policy-relevant work from very early on in my career. It’s tricky to say, “My work did this or that,” because it is not that straightforward in policy to know what was influential. My approach was to do good work by listening to my colleagues in the field. The work I did on integrated support services was designed to reflect practice and to inform policy. Then, after the work was done, I was invited to share that work in Massachusetts with the education committee of the legislature. That was such a remarkable experience to be in that beautiful space with elected officials and to get to hear their questions and thoughts. Then, in North Carolina, I built on that work by studying the economic aspects of school food. I started the work by meeting with the governor’s office, legislators, and senators. I listened to issues their constituents were facing. Then, the time I spent and the effort that went into the work felt worthwhile when those policymakers allocated state budget funds to provide lunch for no fee to students who qualified for reduced-price lunch. At the end of the day, my job is to do the best work that I can and to produce the most rigorous, high-quality science that I can, and to partner with people so that the work is meaningful to them. They take the work and do things with it, and that's where the magic happens, right? It really is about a being part of this ecosystem of how science informs policy, but being very intentional about doing work that is created with partnership in mind. ■

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Penn Affiliations

At Penn, all alumni have an affiliation— q series of letters and numbers following their name to indicate their degree, school, and year of graduation. A master’s degree from Penn GSE is represented as GED and an education doctorate as GRD. A philosophy doctorate from any school at Penn is represented as GR. An undergraduate degree offered by the School of Education until 1961 is represented as ED. The two numbers following the letters represent the year in which that degree was completed.

1970s

Myrna Skobel Agris, CW’63, GED’73, GRD’79, was promoted to vice president at Morgan Stanley.

Craig E. Burgess, GED’71, was recently elected president of the Premier Cadbury Continuing Care Retirement Community Residents’ Association in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. His latest book, A Fleeting Glimpse of Paradise, features Hawaiian culture, history, music, art and lifestyles.

Miriam Camitta, CGS’71, GED’72, GR’87, earned an MFA in fiction from Bennington Writing Seminars after retirement. Her personal essays appear in The Masters Review and Fourth Genre literary magazines. Her essay “Necessary for Life” was selected as notable in The Best American Essays 2023

Alice Korngold, CW’74, GED’77, published her third book, A Better World, Inc.: Corporate Governance for an Inclusive, Sustainable, and Prosperous Future (Palgrave Macmillan).

1990s

Courtney Allison, GED’96, currently serves as a curriculum expert at EdReports.org, where she builds tools to evaluate materials and works with teachers across the country to produce informative reports. She is also doing research on artificial intelligence and its implications for future classroom materials.

Athena Anthopoulos, C’86, GED’93, is the founder and principal of Main Line School Match

Alumni Notes

in Pennsylvania. With an extensive background in early childhood and elementary education, she has taught and guided children and families on the Main Line for over 25 years.

Anna Beresin, GRD’93, is an incoming Fulbright scholar at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Her free new book, Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation, is available via Open Book Publishers.

Jennifer Cressman, GED’92, GR’05, has joined Penn State Abington as chair of the Early Childhood and Elementary Education program and director of Teacher Education.

George Steinhoff, GED’97, has been reappointed as superintendent for the PennDelco School District in Delaware County, Pennsylvania—a position he has held since 2008.

Vincent Travaglione, GED’98, recently founded Agile Enrollment Solutions (AES), a consulting firm that mixes best practices from the project management and enrollment management fields. AES is focused on supporting enrollment management teams in creating foundational, sustainable operations and comprehensive documentation.

2000s

Jake Becker, GED’02, currently serves as the managing director for specialized health services for Public Health Management Corporation in Philadelphia. He was previously the head of school at The City School and CFO at Esperanza Health Center, both also in Philadelphia.

DeAngela Burns-Wallace, GRD’09, began her role as the new president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in August. Located in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Foundation provides access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity regardless of race, gender, or geography.

Sandra Every Dean, W’59, GRD’06, has published a new book, Beyond Civics: The Education Democracy Needs. She writes, “Failure to teach civics is often blamed for the problems facing democracy. But civics alone is not enough to prepare young people for the hard work of sustaining a democratic society. It is not enough to learn how a bill becomes law. Rather, a school should itself be a democratic ecosystem where young people have the opportunity to observe and practice those skills and dispositions required to be an engaged and informed citizen.” Every Dean was head of the Philadelphia School from 1983 to 2006.

Dean Donaher, GRD’09, was appointed principal of Bethlehem Catholic High School (Pennsylvania) on July 17, 2023, by the Most Reverend Bishop Alfred Schlert.

Pamela Felder-Small, GRD’05, facilitated an official side event panel on reparatory justice for the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Monique Robinson, GED’08, was in Nairobi, Kenya, this summer doing humanitarian work with Action Against Hunger, educating mothers about malnutrition prevention and horticulture.

Allison Rodman, GED’05, GED’09, released her second book, Still Learning: Strengthening Professional and Organizational Capacity, with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). This thoughtful guide offers a framework for creating and sustaining learning organizations where both students and educators can truly thrive.

Mimi Romeo, GED’ 01, spent 22 years as a classroom teacher and is now an ESOL teacher, working with students in kindergarten through fourth grade. Her primary role includes supporting English language learners with their grade-level content, while using scaffolds so they can access the curriculum.

Hanadi Shatara, GED’09, taught in Philadelphia until 2014. She received her doctorate at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2020 and then became an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Michiko Uryu, GED’02, is an assistant professor at San José State University in California. She has been teaching Japanese language and culture for five years. She has also been conducting and presenting her research on intercultural communication in the global age and ideological issues relevant to Japanese heritage speakers in the U.S.

2010s

Rohan Arjun, GED’15, served as an interim co-director of community and equity and interim director of financial aid at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Massachusetts. Then, he became the director of admissions at his alma mater, George School, in Newtown, Pennsylvania, before transitioning to director of enrollment management and financial aid at Friends Select School in Philadelphia in 2021. He writes, “Beyond my primary roles, I have been honored to found and chair the My Brothers’ Keeper: Retreat for Men of Color in Education, a platform dedicated to fostering support and camaraderie among male educators of color navigating predominately white spaces that were not originally established with them in mind.” He also recently started the leadership and learning in organizations doctoral program at Vanderbilt University.

Beverly Brooks, GED’16, received the College of Wooster’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award, which recognizes an alum with notable early-career achievements and service to the college. Brooks is the director of college counseling at St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis, Tennessee.

Carlo Cinaglia, GED’16, is a doctoral candidate in the Second Language Studies program at Michigan State University, where he co-edits the graduate student journal, Working Papers in Second Language Studies, and coordinates a peer-mentoring program for applied linguistics graduate students focused on academic socialization and wellbeing. He also works as an editorial assistant for the journal TESOL Quarterly. Although no longer in Philadelphia, he continues to mentor graduate students in the TESOL M.S.Ed. program at Penn GSE during their teaching practicum.

Amanda Haber, GED’18, is an applied developmental psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Her research examines children’s social-cognitive development and early learning experiences across sociocultural contexts. She studies how children’s schoolreadiness skills and learning are shaped by conversations and social interactions with caregivers, teachers, and technological devices in informal and formal learning environments. Her work has been published in Journal of Cognition and Development, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, and Mind, Brain, and Education

Kalyn Higgins, GED’14, writes, “Many of my career opportunities have originated from my studies and time spent at Penn GSE. Prior to writing proposals for the education technology company GoGuardian, I was employed as a full-time teacher and learning specialist. At GSE, I worked as a graduate assistant for Penn Literacy Network, where I had my first opportunity responding to a request for proposal from the NYC Department of Education, which we were granted. My time at Penn GSE was valuable and transformative, and I hope the School continues to inspire students as much as it has inspired me.”

Mandisa John, C’09, GED’14, completed the Surge Academy as a member of the inaugural Philadelphia cohort. The Surge Academy develops emerging education leaders of color in select cities so that they, as a coalition, can go on to build movements that transform the education space in their own communities. John was also selected for the DiverseForce on Boards program in partnership with ImpactED at the University of Pennsylvania. The program provides nonprofit board training, certification, and matching to facilitate the placement of qualified professionals of color in governance roles.

Susan Klusmeier, GRD’17, was named chief of staff at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri, in September 2023.

ALUMNI BOOKSHELF

& denotes alumni authors whose latest book is featured below.

Chris LaTempa, GED’16, is now director of college counseling at Moorestown Friends School in New Jersey.

Ben Maddox, GRD’16, has been named chief information officer for Cornell’s Ithaca campus and Cornell Tech. He was previously the chief academic technology officer at New York University.

Adam Morrow, GED’13, recently moved to Seattle and joined Treehouse, a nonprofit that serves children in the foster system, to help expand the impact of its donor community. After a decade of fundraising at Harvard University, he’s excited about Treehouse’s mission, which envisions future leaders, innovators, and dreamers in the children it serves, and creates infrastructure and support to launch those ambitions.

Edward and Christie Pietrzak, both GED’19, met during their Education Entrepreneurship graduate program in 2019, and tied the knot in July in San Diego, California.

Victor Shin, GRD’16, was appointed head of high school prep at Holy Trinity: An Episcopal School in Glenn Dale, Maryland.

Daphne Valcin, GED’10, recently attained a Korn Ferry Leadership Architect (KFLA) training in June, becoming certified to utilize 38 KFLA competencies to align an organization’s business strategy with its talent acquisition, onboarding, and development strategy.

Yohana Wijaya, GED’19, currently serves as a kindergarten teacher in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her role includes promoting literacy through a rich environment and a curriculum that encourages students to read, write, and develop their literacy skills across multiple subjects. She is also a member of the curriculum team at her school, working to develop a specific and targeted literacy program for K–12 students.

Cory Zoblin, GED’13, has been teaching in Philadelphia for over a decade. He also helped launch a growing education-based nonprofit, We Love Philly, which helps bring the classroom to the community.

2020s

Daniel Blake, GR’20, recently started a tenuretrack assistant professor position at Georgia State University. He also recently published in The Journal of Higher Education

Sarah Budlow, GED’23, recently started teaching at Muñoz-Marín Elementary School in the Fairhill neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Kimberlin Butler, GRD’23, recently delivered a convocation address to graduates at the Maxwell School of Public Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Tom Chiang Jr., GED’20, was elected, in November, to the Board of Education in Mountain Lakes, located in Morris County, New Jersey.

Lucia Cucinotta, GED’23, leads research-based trauma therapy and educational workshops for community members who have been directly impacted by gun violence as part of the Center for Families and Relationships’ Together Through Trauma program.

Juan Espinoza, GED’22, writes, “I’ve found that your Penn education provides you with boundless possibilities to learn, grow, and develop as a professional and as a human being. Penn allowed me to exercise my creative academic dexterity in ways I didn’t know [were] possible, and it gave me a priceless network of trusted friends, colleagues, and experts that I can always count on. Thank you for the most transformative time of my life!”

R. Marc Johnson, GRD’21, was promoted to senior associate dean for student engagement and chief strategy and innovation officer at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. In this role, he leads strategic planning, strategy execution, and innovation initiatives. He is responsible for ensuring exceptional student engagement through the complete experience for its globally diverse student body across all Darden degree programs.

Kamaljit Kaur, GED’23, continues her Penn journey working at Wharton. She does career counseling for students interested in management consulting, an industry in which she worked prior to her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Neil Larocque, GED’23, recently signed a publishing deal for three books that will be published and marketed in China. The books are about how to effectively teach Shakespeare and feature personal anecdotes from his 20-year teaching career. He is currently working on a novel based on a play he wrote for his students five years ago.

Leo Lo, GRD’20, currently serves as the dean of the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences at the University of New Mexico and has been elected as the vice president/ president-elect of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Established in 1940, ACRL serves as the largest division of the American Library Association, representing nearly 9,000 members across various academic and research libraries. This leadership role marks another step in his commitment to advancing the field of library science and underscores his dedication to fostering excellence in academia.

Jessica Shapiro, GED’22, is now in her second year teaching at Abraham Lincoln High School—the Philadelphia institution where she first learned to teach through Penn GSE’s Urban Teaching Apprenticeship program.

Huimin Tang, GED’21, is starting a new position as an English language learners (ELL) teacher for students in grades K–9 at Basis International and Bilingual School in Wuhan, China. She is also teaching the English literacy course for sixth and seventh graders.

Mark Ziegler-Thayer, GED’20, GED’21, was accepted into the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Presidential Management Fellows Program. At the U.S. Department of Education, Ziegler-Thayer works as an educational specialist focused on three areas: collaborating with state and local education agencies to support the educational stability of students in the foster care system, managing and analyzing the effectiveness of grants to state and local education agencies, and collaborating with schools to improve the academic and life outcomes for at-risk or marginalized students.

Submissions have been edited due to space constraints and magazine style guidelines.

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Penn GSE partnered with the Center for Professional Learning and student-led affinity group We Support Diversity of Mind (WSDM) to offer pre- and post- engagement opportunities during Homecoming. From left, WSDM Founder Ufuoma Abiola, GED’12, GRD’17, poses with current WSDM President Meghan Shah. Photo credit: HKB Photo

6 Ways Tips from the Educator's Playbook

EDUCATORS

CAN CREATE INCLUSIVE CLASSROOMS

Students bring different experiences, talents, and abilities into every learning environment, but not all classrooms are set up to welcome that diversity. Assistant Professor María Cioè-Peña, a former bilingual special education teacher and author of the award-winning book (M)othering Labeled Children: Bilingualism and Disability in the Lives of Latinx Mothers, has some advice to help change that.

Below, she offers six ways educators can embrace diverse learners in a single classroom, whether they are multilingual, differ in their mobility levels, are neurodivergent, or are otherwise differently enabled.

Invest time in universal design for learning.

Develop curriculum in multiple formats, like text, audio, and video. Some students prefer learning with one modality over another, while others may require a specific modality. Let students choose what works best for them—without having to ask permission to use them. For example, a student with vision loss may feel embarrassed to ask for audiobooks if they are not readily available. If possible, provide materials in multiple languages.

2. Don’t label kids.

Use “special-ed student” and “special needs” carefully. “Special education” describes services designed to support student learning, not the students themselves. People with disabilities are not broken or less enabled than others. Nobody is fully enabled; we all have needs. When you label a kid “special needs,” the label can stick far longer than they have the need for any special help.

1.

Assistant Professor María Cioè-Peña

A roadmap for teachers: a simple, fun way to "map out" how to help provide students with instruction that matches their needs over a school year. Illustration by David Connor.

3. Recognize that your goals may not be their goals.

Tips from the Educator's Playbook

Your students and their families have opinions, ideas, and the right to determine their own goals, which may not conform to your views of success. For example, non-English-speaking parents may want their child to speak in the language of their community or home country, but they might need help to articulate or advocate for that need. When decisions need to be made for a student, engage families as full partners in the decision-making process.

4.

Ableism is a toxic addition to racism.

Students who enter special education are often kept out of gifted and talented programs or mainstream classrooms. That’s not fair to talented kids with disabilities. And it’s especially unfair when you consider that many children in special education programs are students of color. To make sure that all students have a chance to reach their full potential, design your learning environment to accommodate all kinds of learners.

Be conscious of culture.

Kids will be more likely to listen to you if you listen to them. If your students come from different cultures, especially if those cultures are different than yours, be sensitive to their understanding of what is expected.

Representation matters.

Incorporate disabled experiences into everyday lessons. When children hear stories about disabled people in the normal course of instruction (say, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a man in a wheelchair who was president of the United States), they are more likely to understand that people with disabilities are part of everyone’s culture.

LISTEN

UP (We have a podcast!)

Learn more from Cioè-Peña and other Penn GSE experts in our new companion podcast to the Educator’s Playbook. Find all the episodes at penng.se/podcast or on your preferred podcasting platform.

Illustration by David Connor, professor emeritus of urban education at CUNY's Graduate Center who wrote the afterward to Cioè-Peña's book, (M)othering Labeled Children: Bilingualism and Disability in the Lives of Latinx Mothers

Celebration of educators

NOMINATE

an exceptional member of the Penn GSE Community!

On May 18, over Alumni Weekend, Penn GSE will host the annual Celebration of Educators—the School’s signature event that connects and celebrates our remarkable community. The event includes a program, reception, and recognition of the 2024 Education Alumni Award recipients.

The Penn GSE Education Alumni Awards honor alumni and friends who have made outstanding contribution to the School and across the field of education locally, nationally, and globally.

Know someone who is having an extraordinary impact? Let us know by submitting a nomination for the 2024 awards by January 31.

Visit penng.se/alumnominations to learn more about the awards and to submit a nomination.

SCAN HERE to learn more about the awards, to view previous honorees, and to submit a nomination

2023 Alumni Awards recipients with former dean Pam Grossman (center). Photo credit: HKB Photography