College of Education > About > College News & Features > December 2021 Good News in the College of Education

December 2021 Good News in the College of Education

​​​Fall 2021 Staff Recognition Awards were bestowed upon the following staff members for going “above and beyond” during the summer and fall: Meredith Gioia; Dalila Gonzalez; Nancy Hashimoto, EdD; Alyssa Hepker; Jordan Humphrey, PhD; Kathy Iwashima; Elyse Kienitz; Kate Liston; Kevin McCann; Nikki Nudo; Stephanie Parrillo-McCullough; Erin Rice; Sandra Tanksley; and Brandon Washington. COE Staff Council would like to thank all of them for their commitment to the College of Education and its students and for answering the call to do “what must be done”.

Art installation at DePaul Art Museum
On November 2, Dean Paul Zionts, PhD and Associate Dean Sally Julian, PhD hosted an event at the DePaul Art Museum for members of the Dean’s Advisory Council. Dr Zionts opened with a brief presentation on the state of the college, new initiatives and recent accomplishments. Following his remarks, attendees were treated to a presentation by Jim Duignan, MFA (Chair of Visual Arts Education and the Director of the DePaul Stockyard Institute) and were then encouraged to tour the exhibit titled, Stockyard Institute 25 Years of Art and Radical Pedagogy. The exhibit runs through February 13, 2022 at the DePaul Art Museum.

On November 12, Kathie Kapustka, EdD and alumna Sarah Bright, PhD presented at the National Association for Gifted Children Conference in Denver, Colorado. The title of their presentation was: "Representation Matters: Identifying Quality Books for Use with Diverse, Gifted K-3 Learners."

Secondary Education Social Studies student Hayden Pfeifer was featured in DePaul Newsline on October 22nd for his exemplary work as a student orientation coordinator in the Office of New Student Engagement.

The Stockyard Institute and its newest exhibit running through February 13, 2022, was listed in New City Magazine as one of their “Art Top 5” for October 2021 and were featured in a subsequent New City Magazine article entitled "Best of Chicago 2021: Michael Workman's Personal Best" in November. In addition, Daniel Kennedy of the DePaulia wrote a feature on November 3, called ‘A seamless, uninterrupted action’ on Jim Duignan, MFA and the Stockyard Institute retrospective at the DePaul Art Museum. On November 12, Lori Waxman, art critic for the Chicago Tribune wrote a wonderful article on the Stockyard Institute retrospective at the DePaul Art Museum featuring the practice of Jim Duignan.

Congratulations to the following doctoral students, led by Jason Goulah, PhD, whose proposals based on coursework in CS 794 Posthumanism and Human Education were accepted under blind review for presentation at the annual conference of the American Educational Studies Association: Brian Maj (Humans, Nature, and the Demands on Economics Education), Ritsuko Rita (The Role of Language Education in Post-Human Turn), Nitesh Sil (Professional Growth as Developing Teachers’ Humanity), Erik Parsons and Stephanie Bennett (Post-Pandemic Pedagogy: (Re)examining the Role of Education), Zixuan Huang (The Inevitability of the Developing of Humans Technology and Criticism of Posthumanism), MaryAnn Mwende May (Global Citizenship, Peace Education and Sustainable Development for the Sake of Humanity), Nicole M Osborne (Rerouting the Journey: A Quest into the Anthropocene), Sara Sukalski (Decoding the Curricula of Language Acquisition: An Examination of Social Constructs and Transformative Theoretical Frameworks), Courtney Romero (Valuing Black Special Education Students: Using Global Citizenship for Value Creation), Andrea Nicole Rehani (The Ecology of the Poet’s Practice: Curriculum as Metonymy of Stillness within the Anthropocenic Weltbild), Qianhui Hub (Becoming Human: Realizing Human Education Philosophy and its Applications to Service Learning for Social Justice), Tomas D. Ramirez (Dignity, Voice, and Healing in the Anthropocene), Amy Weatherford and Melissa Feiger (Flattening the Hierarchy in Education to Foster Global Citizenship: A Duoethnography).

Andrea Kayne, JD continues her media blitz in support of her new book, Kicking Ass in a Corset, in which the leadership expert identifies the six core virtues of novelist Jane Austen’s heroines — confidence, pragmatism, diligence, integrity, playfulness, and humility — and shows how they form the basis of internally referenced leadership. That is: cultivating the ability to direct one’s focus internally, rather than on external forces.
Jobs Blow Podcast
Small Business Radio Show with Barry Moltz (Segment 3 starting at 37:15)
The Language of Love Podcast with Dr. Laura Berman
Coffee with America TV Segment
Op-ed for Chicago Tribune

On October 22, 2021, Hilary Conklin, PhD was an invited presenter at the Midwest graduate student retreat at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI. On November 19, 2021, Dr Conklin and Molly Andolina, PhD (LAS) presented a session titled "Fostering Empathic Listening in Democratic Education: Putting Theory into Practice" at the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies.

On October 27, 2021, Facing History and Ourselves conducted a workshop for undergraduate and graduate students in DePaul's secondary social studies education program as part of their long-standing collaboration with the DePaul COE: "Examining Identities, Civic Education, and Our Roles as Educators."

Jason Goulah, PhD had a very busy autumn. Dr Goulah wrote the Foreword to Daisaku Ikeda's latest collection of writings on education, The Light of Learning: Selected Writings on Education (2021, Middleway Press), published the chapter "Transformative Learning at the Multilingual Turn: Toward an East-West Perspective on Selfhood" in Transformative Language Learning and Teaching (2021, Cambridge University Press), and published the chapter "Value Creation and Value-Creating Education in the Work of Daisaku Ikeda, Josei Toda, and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi" in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies (2021, Oxford University Press). In addition, he was invited to give the keynote address at the 11th International Academic Symposium on the Philosophy of Daisaku Ikeda where he explored Ikeda's perspectives on global citizenship and creative coexistence to confront identity divisions, multipolarity, and the climate crisis. He was also invited to speak on Daisaku Ikeda's philosophy of human education by the Harvard Graduate School of Education in October 2021. That virtual event was attended by two hundred members of the Harvard community from 17 countries. Finally, Goulah and Isabel Nuñez were featured on the Ethical Schools podcast for their book Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda across Curriculum and Context (2021, Teachers College Press).

On October 16, Sr. M. Paul McCaughey presented a Board Retreat to the combined corporate boards of Rosary High School (Aurora), Marian Catholic (Chicago Heights), and Sacred Heart-Griffin (Springfield) High Schools. The retreat was titled "Defining the Role of a Board Member in the Light of the Dominican Charism." Sr. M. Paul also presented for the teachers of the Archdiocese of Chicago as a part of their required racial justice training. The title of the presentation was "Too Pooped to Do the Heavy Lifting for Racial Justice? Use the Levers."

Mojdeh Bayat, PhD was interviewed by Faculti about mental health in children, causes and intervention.  In addition, Dr Bayat presented a paper, "Harnessing the power of relational play for children (During COVID-19)", at the virtual Sharing a Vision (SAV) conference, Oct 7-8.

The DePaul College of Education Early Childhood Education graduate program received approval from the Department of Teacher Education, the College of Education, and the Illinois State Board of Education to go fully online, starting at the beginning of the Winter Quarter.

Under the leadership of Marie Donovan, EdD and Alice Moss, MA in partnership with Marillac/St. Vincent DePaul Center, an Infant/Toddler Demonstration Room was opened in the St. Vincent DePaul Center in early September. The Demonstration Room will be used for the ECE students' internships under ECE faculty supervision, to demonstrate and model best practices in early childhood education for professionals in the St. Vincent DePaul Center.

Roxanne Owens, PhD's piece, "In Pandemics, Life, and Bowling...It's All About Your Approach" was published in the Fall 2021 Bulletin of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Rebecca Michel, PhD was granted the 2021 Illinois Career Development Association (ICDA) Advocacy Award.

DePaul College of Education Special Education programs have received the "Exemplary" designation by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

Donna Kiel, EdD was invited by the Library of Congress to be a roundtable presenter at the NCSS Conference in November. She presented the RISE: Racial Justice framework which is part of the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs currently being offered to the Catholic elementary and high schools as well as part of the TPS grant that Dr. Kiel was awarded. Also this fall, Kiel was featured in the Courageous Dialogue series. The Courageous Dialogue Series is an innovative, media-based dialogue project regarding race, equity, and diversity models. The project highlights the narratives of students, faculty, staff, and alumni within the DePaul community. Using testimonies and a storytelling framework, this media project centers on social justice and equity issues through personal testimonials to promote open dialogue about diversity literacy. Dr. Kiel shared the compelling story of her experience as a high school principal and the transformational moment she had with her students. The Courageous Dialogue Series is supported by The Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity (OIDE) at DePaul University. The project was created and directed by Associate Professor Chi Jang Yin, DePaul Presidential Fellow, 2020–2021. For more information, contact Chi Jang Yin, cyin1@depaul.

The Ask Every Student program of the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC)'s Students Learn, Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition, awarded Marie Donovan, EdD and Summer Brown, JD (BUS) a $5,000 grant to expand their work with BUS emerita faculty, Nina Diamond, on the Vote DePaul initiative this year. Funding will be used to employ DePaul undergraduate students in continuing the peer voter registration drive currently underway across the University.

Melissa Bradford, EdD participated in the Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice in Dayton, OH. She presented a solo-authored paper entitled, "Daisaku Ikeda’s Perspectives on the “Enlightened” Nature of Dialogue: Implications for Curriculum Theory and Practice". She also presented a co-authored paper with DePaul doctoral student Sarah Margalus entitled "Casting Light and Shadow: Learning in Democratic Makerspaces". Other DePaul doctoral student presenters at the conference included Nicholas Hayes as well as Erik Parsons and Stephanie Bennett. Recently, Bradford also participated in the American Educational Studies Association Annual Conference in Portland, OR. She presented a co-authored paper with fellow DePaul VCE program faculty member Nozomi Inukai, PhD entitled "Human Education as the Foundation of Education: Actualizing Wisdom, Courage and Compassion in our Classrooms". Finally, she participated in the 35th Annual Convention of the University Council for Educational Administration, Columbus, OH. Bradford presented a co-authored paper with DePaul VCE graduate Michael Cornell entitled, "Value-Creating Leadership: A Thematic Analysis". She also presented a co-authored paper will fellow Educational Leadership faculty member Thomas Noel Jr, PhD entitled, "Preparers of Socially Responsible Educational Leaders: A Self-Study".

The DePaul College of Education continues its commitment to on-site professional development for Catholic Schools. On November 12, faculty from the departments of Leadership, Language & Curriculum and Counseling & Special Education facilitated workshops on racial justice and social-emotional learning for teachers across the Archdiocese of Chicago Schools. Barbara Rieckhoff, PhD and Sr. M. Paul McCaughey presented a full morning in-service on Social Emotional Learning on St. Helen School in Chicago as a part of the COR grant program. Later that day, Sr. Mary Paul with OIPL Adjunct, Tinal Curry, EdD facilitated a two-hour racial justice workshop at St. Malachy School. Donna Kiel, EdD, Deanna Burgess, PhD and Carlos Medina, PhD all facilitated different virtual workshops on Racial Justice available to all schools and Melissa Ockerman, PhD and Barbara Rieckhoff, PhD facilitated a virtual workshop on social-emotional learning. On November 17, St. Francis of Rome faculty began their six-time SEL coaching sessions with Sr. M. Paul. All of these workshops collectively served Catholic teachers and leaders across the city and suburbs.

On October 19, 2021, the DePaul College of Education hosted the virtual Fall Forum 2021 entitled "Back to School: Care and Safety in the Classroom". Hosted by Melissa Ockerman, PhD and coordinated by Diane Horwitz, PhD, the forum featured panelists Micere Keels, PhD (Associate Professor of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago), Lissette Flores (Counselor at Grissom Elementary School) and Monique Smith (Diversity Equity and Inclusion Coach at Piccolo Elementary). Organizational and technical assistance were provided by staff members Erin Rice, Alyssa Hepker, and Meredith Gioia. A recording of the forum can be found on the College of Education YouTube channel​.