Liz Altieri: Developing Inclusive Educators

Upon retiring from Radford University in 2024, Professor Liz Altieri established the Inclusive Educator Scholarship to provide financial assistance to a rising senior in the Inclusive Educator Teacher Preparation Program. Altieri worked diligently with colleagues to establish this four-year program that provides both elementary and special education licensure.

“Teachers need to be able to address all the intersecting complexities that children bring to school,” Altieri said. “It’s not just kids who have identified disabilities. There’s trauma, there’s poverty, there’s homelessness. If you want teachers who are prepared to work with all the kids in their classrooms, you need inclusive teacher preparation that focuses on not only providing good core instruction but also providing intervention, remediation and specialized instruction.”

To celebrate Altieri’s retirement, a crowdfunding effort was launched to ensure the scholarship would have an immediate impact. A dedicated network of Highlanders rallied together to raise more than $10,000 for the Inclusive Educator Scholarship. Additionally, Altieri established a planned gift to support her scholarship in the future.

Altieri dedicated her career to creating inclusive schools and communities. She is a founding faculty member of the Collaborative Co-Placed Elementary/Special Education Cohort and a co-director of the Virginia Inclusive Practices Center. During her tenure at Radford, she also brought in more than $700,000 in tuition funding for graduate students.

“I believe that teaching is a calling,” Altieri said. “It’s about the ability to touch so many lives through your teaching. That’s what makes it one of the greatest careers you can have.”

To support the Inclusive Educator Scholarship, please visit www.radford.edu/ inclusive-educator-scholarship. To learn more about including Radford in your estate plans, please contact Rebekah LaPlante at rlaplante@radford.edu.