College of Education > About > College News & Features > Good News April 2021

April 2021 Good News in the College of Education

​​​​​On March ​6, Drs. Deanna Burgess, Darrick Tovar-Murray, and Autumn Cabell, in partnership with The Egan Office of Urban Education and Community Partnerships at DePaul, led a discussion​ focused on mental health awareness and advocacy in the Black community. Read more​. 

Grant-funded work from COE faculty was featured on DePaul's newly launched Research, Creative Activities & Innovation website. This includes Catholic Outreach with Drs. Donna Kiel, Rebecca Michel, Sasha Novakovic, Melissa Ockerman, Barbara Rieckhoff, and Sr. Mary Paul McCaughey, as well as Dr. Rebecca Michel's work with the Career Success Program.

This past month, Dr. Rebecca Michel published the article “A Grounded Theory of Counselor Educators' Academic Leadership Development” in Counselor Education and Supervision.

Drs. Sasha Novakovic, Eva Patrikakou, and Melissa Ockerman recently published “School Counselor Perceptions of Preparation and Importance of College and Career Readiness Counseling,” which was highlighted as “featured research” in the Professional School Counselor, the flagship journal of the American School Counselor Association.

Dr. Donna Kiel and Dr. Deanna Burgess coordinated a racial equity program with 300 Catholic high school students from schools across the Archdiocese of Chicago. Kiel and Burgess engaged the students in examining the challenges of racism in Catholic schools. Students engaged in thought-provoking discussions leading to each school developing a vision of racial equity for their school. Students discussed solutions to racism in preparation for a meeting with Cardinal Cupich, during which they will share their work.

Dr. Jason Goulah and Isabel Nuñez edited the book Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda across Curriculum and Context, out in April 2021. Published by Teachers College Press, the book includes chapters from faculty members Dr. Melissa Bradford and Dr. Nozomi Inukai and doctoral candidates Ritsuko Rita and Michio Okamura. Isabel Nuñez is currently Vice President of AERA for Division B, Curriculum Studies.

Dr. Sonia Soltero was invited to join the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC) Research Advisory Council. The IWERC is a new research consortium at University of Illinois devoted to studying the most pressing education issues facing the state of Illinois and is a unit in the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) at the University of Illinois System. The IWERC is funded by the Joyce Foundation, Pritzker Traubert Foundation, McCormick Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Steans Family Foundation, and others.

Dr. Hilary Conklin published the journal article “The preparation of novice teacher educators for critical, justice-oriented teacher education: A longitudinal exploration of formal study in the pedagogy of teacher education” in Teachers and Teaching.

Dr. Hilary Conklin and Molly Andolina (LASS faculty) published the journal article “Cultivating empathic listening in democratic education” in Theory and Research in Social Education.

Dr. Hilary Conklin was chosen as an Outstanding Reviewer for 2020 for American Educational Research Journal

NCEA selected Dr. Donna Kiel to present her work entitled, “Empathy, Equity, and Engagement: Keys to transform Catholic School Culture and well-being.” Dr. Kiel's presentation will provide information on the social and emotional factors which have a tremendous impact on academic performance. As our Catholic schools have been impacted by ongoing crises, trauma, and the divisiveness of our nation, this call to support the emotional resiliency and healing of our students is more urgent than ever. Beyond healing and building resiliency, Catholic schools can offer the skill-building and knowledge to use empathy and engagement to create children who are Catholic social justice advocates and equity-driven. As we enter a time of healing from endemic racism, COVID-19, and an uncertain future, this session will share the research and best practices to integrate social-emotional wellness, trauma-informed practices, and equity throughout Catholic school culture.

Dr. Donna Kiel presented a roundtable session on her research that is in progress focused on the impact of remote teaching on Catholic school students and educators on April 8, 2021 at the AERA Annual Conference.

Dr. Christopher Worthman and Dr. Roxanne Owens were recently acknowledged by the DePaul Egan Office of Urban and Community Partnerships for their work with the Multi-Faith Veterans Support Initiative. Drs. Worthman and Owens provided literacy expertise for the military veterans as they tutored 4th through 8th grade children through the Veterans Read Project.

Dr. Roxanne Owens presented “The Titanic: Mysteries, Myths, and Matters of Fact” to the women of the Delta Kappa Gamma Honor Society on March 30th, 2021 via Zoom.

DTE is proud to announce that graduating senior, Hannah Hartung, has been awarded one of the highly competitive Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships for SY '21-22 from the U.S. Department of State. Hannah will be heading to Taiwan for this exciting opportunity soon after she virtually crosses the graduation stage this June.

Dr. Ronald Chennault has secured a contract for Liberation and Education: Perspectives on Black Educational Thought on Rutgers University Press. He and Dr. Derrick Alridge (University of Virginia) will be coeditors of the book.

Dr. Sonia Soltero was invited to join the National Committee for Effective Literacy for Emerging Bilingual Learners, led by Dr. Kathy Escamilla. The committee examines the negative effects of various reading policies and practices on bilingual learners, especially Latino students. The main focus of the committee is on the current Science of Reading movement.

Dr. Rebecca Michel was recently granted research leave for the Autumn Quarter of the 2021-2022 academic year to carry out her project entitled “Transforming Lives through Job Training.”

Dr. Nell Cobb will serve as a featured speaker at the NCTM 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting. Other featured speakers include Bob Moses, BJ Walker, and Danny Glover.

Dr. Anna Marie Frank will serve as the next Faculty Athletics Representative​.

Sr. Mary Paul McCaughey’s book Grace and Guts for School Leaders: Practical Prayers​ was published by the National Catholic Educational Association.

Ritsuko Rita, a doctoral student in Curriculum Studies and the doctoral assistant in the Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education, was selected as one of three recipients of the two-year education fellowship from the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning and Dialogue in Cambridge, MA. The award recognizes outstanding ongoing dissertation research and comes with $20,000 funding. Ritsuko is the fifth DePaul doctoral student to receive this prestigious award. Past winners include Dr. Melissa Bradford, Kendrick Johnson, Dr. Nozomi Inukai, and Michio Okamura. Dr. Gonzalo Obelleiro also received the award when he was a doctoral student at Columbia University.