“From the beginning of this process, my priority has been developing and implementing a plan that repositions and strengthens the human dynamics academic programs, research and communitywide impact,” says Lois Agnew, interim vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer. “This repositioning elevates our human dynamics programs, fosters stronger collaborations across colleges, advances faculty scholarship and better serves our students and the communities we serve.”

In June, task force members began assessing the current state of the human dynamics disciplines, both on campus and at peer institutions, aggregating feedback from key stakeholders and compiling recommendations for how these programs can be positioned for success and growth in the future. As part of the go-forward plan:

• Marriage and family therapy will merge with human development and family science and become one department within the College of Arts and Sciences.
• Public health will join the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
• Social work will be housed in the School of Education.

These changes, informed in large part by task force recommendations, are designed to enhance the academic and community impact of these programs, grow enrollment, drive research excellence and strengthen the University’s long-standing commitment to preparing professionals to thrive in human, health and social services. They will go into effect July 1, 2025.

“I am grateful to the members of the task force for their thorough, thoughtful and strategic recommendations. I also extend my appreciation to the many students, faculty and staff who provided feedback along the way—through surveys, engagement sessions and other opportunities for submitting input. Their participation in this process and candid feedback were invaluable,” says Provost Agnew.

Today’s news follows an April announcement that the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics will become the Falk College of Sport, the first standalone college on an R1 campus that specifically focuses on sport through a holistic academic lens. As part of the Falk transformation, the University convened the Human Dynamics Task Force, co-chaired by Rachel Razza, associate dean for human dynamics, and Peter Vanable, associate provost and dean of the Graduate School. The task force, which consisted of human dynamics faculty representatives elected from each department, staff and community partners, delivered a final report to the provost last month.

“This work required a commitment to collaboration, a willingness to engage in challenging but necessary dialogue and a shared focus on the immediate and long-term future of the human dynamics academic disciplines,” says Vanable. “Associate Dean Razza and I are grateful to our fellow task force members for their time, dedication and outstanding work. We also appreciate the provost’s commitment to upholding the spirit of our recommendations and look forward to seeing these programs thrive in the future.”

Razza says, “���ϲ����� has long been a leader in interdisciplinary education. The task force agreed that taking a reimagined approach to the human dynamics programs furthers our mission to provide students with a robust, future-focused education that emphasizes both theory and practice. I believe all members of the human dynamics community—students, faculty, staff and Central New York partners—benefit from this important realignment.”

Students currently enrolled in these programs will transition to their new schools and colleges effective July 1, 2025. Students enrolling in these programs in fall 2025 will matriculate into the school or college housing their academic program.

Students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members are invited to “Holidays at Hendricks” on Sunday, Dec. 8 in Hendricks Chapel. New this year, tickets are required to reserve your individual seat.

���ϲ����� invites students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members to “” on Sunday, Dec. 8 in Hendricks Chapel, to experience one of the most popular concerts of the calendar year. New this year, due to the concert’s growing popularity and limited seating in the Chapel, to reserve your seats for the free, in-person concert, tickets are required for Holidays at Hendricks and will be made available beginning on Monday, Nov. 18 at noon EST.

The two in-person performances will take place on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel, while the recorded virtual concert will premiere on Thursday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. EST.

New and Important In-Person Concert Ticket Details

• Complimentary tickets for the in-person Holidays at Hendricks shows can be ordered from the , beginning at noon EST on Nov. 18;
• All guests will be invited to reserve specific seats in Hendricks Chapel;
• Through this new digital platform, guests will be prompted to create an account, select individual seats and then receive their digital tickets. While tickets will not be made available until Nov. 18, guests can create an account at any time through the Student Box Office online.

Virtual Concert Registration Details

• Registration for the Thursday, Dec. 19, world premiere virtual concert will also be available on Nov. 18 at noon EST;
• Registration is required to receive the link to the YouTube premiere;
• Visit the .

An ongoing tradition hosted by ��and the����in the��, “Holidays at Hendricks” celebrates the sounds of the season and is anchored by the����and its director��, professor of applied music and performance and assistant director of choral activities in the Setnor School.

The student-centered concert features performances from:

• ���ϲ����� Symphony Orchestra, directed by James Tapia, associate professor of applied music and performance in the Setnor School;
• The international award-winning ���ϲ����� Singers, under the direction of John Warren, professor of applied music and performance and director of choral activities in the Setnor School, and Concert Choir, under the direction of Wendy Moy, dual assistant professor of music education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the ;
• Student organists and University organist Anne Laver on the Hendricks Chapel organ;
• ���ϲ�����’s big band, the Morton Schiff Jazz Ensemble, directed by John Coggiola, associate professor and chair of music education in the Setnor School and the School of Education;
• The World Premiere of “Gloria in Excelsis” from Christmas Cantata, by Peppie Calvar.

Some musical selections for 2024 include “A Christmas Festival,” by Leroy Anderson, “Winter,” by Antonio Vivaldi, a setting of “Joy to the World,” arranged by Taylor Scott Davis and many more.

is free and available on a first-come, first-served basis in Irving Garage, Hillside Lot and the College Place lot. Those who require accessible parking or would like more information about the event may call Hendricks Chapel at 315.443.2901 or email��chapel@syr.edu.

Communication Access Realtime Translation, American Sign Language interpretation and AIRA will be provided at the in-person concerts. Captioning will be provided at the virtual concert. Doors to Hendricks Chapel will open 30 minutes prior to each concert start time.

For more information, visit��. Hendricks Chapel will also post regular updates about the event through its��,�������Ի������貹�����.

Robert ’86 and Kathryn Taishoff

How do you inspire people to open their hearts and provide the support to raise the hefty sum of $2.5 million? Just ask retired U.S. Navy Capt. Robert “Rob” P. Taishoff ’86 who sees opportunities where others see obstacles, and who is determined to change the way the world views intellectual disability. With the recent Taishoff Family Foundation gift of $2.5 million to inclusive higher education at ���ϲ�����, Taishoff is challenging others to see the world the way he does and match his family’s pledge.

“I’ve seen the confidence that these young men and women with intellectual disabilities develop when given educational opportunities, and it’s mind-blowing,” says Taishoff. “If we give them the chance to pursue their interests and prepare them for careers, just like we do with every student at ���ϲ�����, they will thrive, excel, succeed and surprise us.”

Taishoff continues to marvel at the successes of the students who attend InclusiveU and the accomplishments of the , named for his father in 2009 with a $1.1 million grant from Taishoff. The center and InclusiveU have become national models for the inclusion and education of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. At that time, Taishoff was a University Trustee; he served as a voting trustee from 2009 to 2021 and is now a life trustee. Taishoff has been involved in many University initiatives, but it was inclusive education and the work going on at the (CDI) in the School of Education that captured his whole heart.

Taishoff’s daughter, Jackie, was born with Down syndrome in 2001, and he experienced firsthand the promise and the heartbreak felt by the families of young people often marginalized by society. “Jackie is very social and friendly, and frequently surprises us with what she’s capable of doing,” says Taishoff. He’d love to see her attend InclusiveU but as a resident of Maryland, her benefits associated with her disability won’t cross state lines. The portability of benefits is one of those systemic policy issues that CDI’s staff is working to change, helping students overcome barriers to pursue an education and career.

According to Sara Hart Weir, a national expert in disability policy and former president of the National Down Syndrome Society, Taishoff is the kind of visionary who “sees endless opportunities not just for Jackie, but for all people with disabilities. Rob wants them to have the kinds of opportunities every other American has, from education to health care, from financial services to careers.” Weir says individuals with Down syndrome are an “untapped workforce who, with access to programs like InclusiveU, can skill up, enter the workforce and become taxpayers.” She says InclusiveU is the “best of the best” in providing these kinds of opportunities.

Strengthening Programming

The Taishoff Family Foundation has contributed several million dollars over the years to strengthen CDI, the Taishoff Center and InclusiveU, providing resources for programmatic growth. “They’ve achieved all their goals in the last five-year plan and that set the stage for the next five-year plan,” says Taishoff, who hopes his new gift will be leveraged to bring in new donor support. The next five-year plan seeks to grow enrollment by 25% and offer new experiences for students with intellectual disability.

“We’re never satisfied with what we’re doing,” says Beth Myers, the Lawrence B. Taishoff Associate Professor of Inclusive Education, executive director of the Taishoff Center and assistant director of CDI. “We may be the largest program of our kind in the nation, but there are always more opportunities to pursue. For example, I dream of first providing our students with a two-week study abroad in Italy with the goal of a full semester of study abroad in any location where any other ���ϲ����� student can go. Am I dreaming huge dreams? Yes. Is it possible? Yes!” But, Myers acknowledges, it takes more resources and staffing to achieve those dreams.

Myers credits her “amazing team and an incredible staff at InclusiveU who would do anything for these students” to deliver on dreams. She has watched the program at InclusiveU grow from 14 students in three majors to 100 students in 45 majors taking more than 300 courses across the University. “We have allies in every department across campus, top down and bottom up support,” says Myers. “It’s a culture grounded in the University’s 60-plus year history in disability advocacy. People really value the work we do in inclusion.”

“I am continuously inspired by Rob Taishoff’s generosity and, now, his strategic challenge to others to help advance ���ϲ�����’s leadership in the disability community,” says Chancellor Kent Syverud. “Rob persists in challenging all of us to think of innovative and creative solutions and to collaborate across units and colleges to ensure equitable opportunities for all our students and to be a standard-bearer for academic institutions nationwide.”

Through those opportunities, Taishoff sees how students become one with the University community. “Our intellectually disabled students are woven into the fabric of the University, from the classroom to living arrangements, from social activities to career preparation,” says Taishoff.

Going Beyond

CDI’s strategic plan for growth goes beyond assisting the growth of the Taishoff Center and enrollment in InclusiveU. It would enhance access to higher education among students in the ���ϲ����� City School district (nationally, less than 2% of high school students with intellectual disability go to college). It would invest in innovative technical assistance for disabled students and establish an Inclusive Higher Education Technical Assistance Center to help other colleges and universities. It would support research, fellowships and teaching to advance the field. It would provide more resources for career advising and career placement (only 17% of adults with intellectual disabilities are employed nationally). The newly established Robert and Kathryn Taishoff Fund would support many of these initiatives and scholarship support for students.

In addition to the new fund, the latest Taishoff gift continues support through the Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education Endowed Fund. Part of the $1.5 billion , Taishoff’s gift builds on and the legacy of the School of Education. Rob Taishoff’s father Lawrence and grandfather Sol philanthropically supported education, journalism and health research. Taishoff says his father was “exceptionally close” to granddaughter Jackie, perhaps because he had witnessed a cousin with Down syndrome sent to an institution and shielded away from society and opportunity.

Taishoff says his own military experience also reinforced the family’s commitment to opening the doors of opportunity. He spent more than two decades in active duty in the Navy and managed Navy and Marine Corps attorneys and civilians representing service members. “No matter what background or walk of life someone was from, whether enlisted or an officer, we were all pulling for the same goals, trying to fulfill a mission,” Taishoff says. “I saw people who were given opportunities in the military that they would not have had otherwise, and I saw them thrive and excel.”

The Taishoff Family Foundation’s legacy aligns with that of the School of Education, which is recognized as an international leader in the deinstitutionalization and school inclusion movements. The school is home to the first disability studies program in the country and the first joint degree program in law and disability studies, and it helped ���ϲ����� become the first research university to launch an integrated elementary and special education teacher education program.

“It’s time to build on history once again,” says Taishoff. “I hope others will join me in creating new futures for countless young people who deserve a chance to contribute in ways that will amaze us.”

About ���ϲ�����

���ϲ����� is a private research university that advances knowledge across disciplines to drive breakthrough discoveries and breakout leadership. Our collection of 13 schools and colleges with over 200 customizable majors closes the gap between education and action, so students can take on the world. In and beyond the classroom, we connect people, perspectives and practices to solve interconnected challenges with interdisciplinary approaches. Together, we’re a powerful community that moves ideas, individuals and impact beyond what’s possible.

About Forever Orange: The Campaign for ���ϲ�����

Orange isn’t just our color. It’s our promise to leave the world better than we found it. Forever Orange: The Campaign for ���ϲ����� is poised to do just that. Fueled by more than 150 years of fearless firsts, together we can enhance academic excellence, transform the student experience and expand unique opportunities for learning and growth. Forever Orange endeavors to raise $1.5 billion in philanthropic support, inspire 125,000 individual donors to participate in the campaign, and actively engage one in five alumni in the life of the University. Now is the time to show the world what Orange can do. Visit����to learn more.

For employees wishing to advance their careers in higher education administration, using the to pay for a School of Education is a great choice for professional development.

This program enables students to develop their skills in student affairs, while offering a broad understanding of higher education systems, policies, professional organizations, faculty and staff culture, and student learning and development. Typically, the program takes two years of full-time study, or it can be completed part time while the student continues to work on campus.

Shelby Bergen

But what is it like to both work full time and take this degree program? We interviewed three of the program’s recent graduates to ask how they juggled work and study, why they decided the program was right for them, and how it has benefited their higher education careers.

Shelby Bergen G’23 signed up for the program while an administrative assistant in the College of Law; currently, she is a career advisor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Like Bergen, Carly Signor ’14, G’21 was employed by the College of Law when she entered the master’s program, as program coordinator and communications manager of the New York State Science and Technology Law Center. Now working in the Office of Admissions, Signor recently was promoted to associate director of admissions.

Sarah Tomlinson G’23 began her University career as a temporary office coordinator before moving to the College of Professional Studies’ English Language Institute. After graduating from the Higher Education program, she joined ���ϲ����� Abroad in March, where she now works as senior international program advisor.

1. Why did you decide to take the Higher/Postsecondary Education master’s degree program, using your Remitted Tuition benefit?

Shelby Bergen (SB): I like to think I center equity and justice in what I do, so the Higher Education program seemed to be a culmination of all the things I’m passionate about.

Carly Signor

Carly Signor (CS): I have such a passion for learning and believe in the value of continued education. The opportunity to pursue this program for free was too good to pass up, especially as I was changing careers and seeking to gain knowledge that would help me succeed in the field of higher education.

Sarah Tomlinson (ST): I started my career at ���ϲ����� in 2018 and knew within a few months that higher education was the career I wanted. In my previous role at the College of Professional Studies, they emphasized the importance of continuing your education and encouraged employees to seek out opportunities through the Remitted Tuition benefit. When I found the Higher Education program, I knew it would be a perfect to continue to grow my knowledge and passion for the field.

2. How were you able to fit the degree’s coursework and practicum around your full-time work?

SB: If you want complete transparency, it was a bit stressful! Luckily, I had supervisors that valued professional development and this program valued the “non-traditional” student experience by offering flexible class arrangements.

CS: It was definitely challenging, I’m not going to lie, but a little hard work goes a long way. I dedicated time in the evenings and weekends to complete homework. My practicum—you only have to do one as a full-time staff member—was in Athletics, which provided many opportunities for night and weekend hours. My practicum supervisor—Michelle Giordano ’11, G’15, who is also a Higher Education master’s alumna—was incredibly understanding and supportive of the balance I needed to maintain.

Sarah Tomlinson

ST: Having a full-time job while being in a master’s program is not easy; however, the program really allows for flexibility for part-time students. Most courses are once a week, starting at 4 p.m. The professors work with students to ensure that their schedules meet their needs. Plus, my practicum was a perfect fit for me. At the Stevenson Educational Center for Student Athletes, I met with students outside work hours, and my supervisor allowed me to work on projects during weekends or evenings. Overall, the Higher Education program helps its students every step of the way.

3. What aspect of the program stood out to you?

SB: It sounds nerdy but the literature and classroom structure! We collaborated on assignments and projects a lot, so it was cool to unpack topics in so many unique ways.

CS: The practicum and other hands-on experience, plus research opportunities, mentorship and campus connections.

ST: The ease of being able to build my schedule around my full-time job. Professor worked with me to ensure that my course plan fit well with my job, including my practicum. Also, the program was very applicable to my career. Being able to take what I learned the night before and apply it next day to my responsibilities demonstrates the tangible knowledge that I acquired. I use what I learned every day in my job.

4. How did receiving the Higher Education master’s degree benefit your career?

SB: I started as a part-time temp and didn’t really know what path to take professionally. However, this degree not only built my community but afforded me many professional opportunities, including my current role!

CS: In a very literal sense, this degree program connected me with my current supervisor—I received a job offer on the very day I graduated. The campus connections I made were invaluable. Additionally, it turned me into a self-proclaimed “data nerd,” and I apply the research skills I learned in my everyday work, enabling me multiple opportunities to present at national conferences.

ST: I use the theories, models and presentation skills gained from the program in my work. Having an understanding of how universities work and run is deeply beneficial when developing new goals, procedures and processes. Also, the network I built through the program has been great.

5. What advice would you have for a University colleague thinking of taking the Higher Education master’s while continuing to work?

SB: If you’ve been out of the educational game for a while it can feel intimidating to go back. But know your life experiences are what make you valuable in a program like this. You are worthy of the spaces you’re in.

CS: Just do it! The time flies by, and the benefits are so worth it. As a University employee, you’ll find a supportive community and a sense of camaraderie with many Higher Education alums ready to help you along the way—including myself. Take advantage of this opportunity to advance your education and career!

ST: Do it! It may seem daunting at first to be able to juggle a job and a degree program, but it is truly built with part-time students in mind. It is a very supportive community and provides foundational knowledge about higher education. Time management is definitely important though!

It’s a thorny issue, raising questions of students’ and parents’ rights, school safety, academic performance—and mental health.

A scan of recent news stories offers a snapshot of various positions: banning devices is good for “” it could mitigate and , and even help social media. On the other hand, smartphones help parents in an emergency and, sometimes, they are for instruction or even for monitoring health.

One scholar addressing the potential harms caused by overuse of smartphones—in and out of school—is , assistant teaching professor of in the .

One of Butler’s research and clinical interests is process addictions in children and adolescents, a topic closely related to the smartphone question. Given the groundswell of concern —not to mention high-profile lawsuits for and —about young people’s online habits, the School of Education asked Butler about the connection between process addictions, phones, apps, and mental health—and what, if anything, schools can do.

As a mental health counselor, how does your clinical work and scholarship frame how you view the controversy surrounding smartphone bans in schools?

My interest centers around the overuse of smartphones and other devices by children that can develop into what mental health professionals refer to as a “process addiction.” We become concerned when we see extensive attachment to the phone, including high rates of texting; addiction to online games, such as “Roblox,” or “Call of Duty”; and dependency on social media apps, such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

In general, we can say that gaming addiction affects boys more, leading to issues of quality of sleep and academic performance, while for girls social media addiction is more of an issue, leading to self-esteem, body image and other mental health challenges.

The data bears out these concerns. say they play video games, while children 8 to 17 years of age spend an average of one and a half to two hours daily playing online. Statistics reveal that 8.5% of children and teenagers younger than 18 have .

Meanwhile, associate the absence of their phone with at least one of three emotions: loneliness, being upset, or feeling anxious. Girls are more likely than boys to feel anxious or lonely without their phones. Interestingly, some unease is self-reported: 54% of US teens aged 13 to 17 say they spend too much time on their phones.

Sabrina Butler

How is a “process addiction” related to other kinds of addiction?

Process addictions are those compulsive behaviors where no chemical or other addictive substance is used. In addition to smartphone use, other examples include addiction to gambling, shopping, eating, self-harm, sex, and exercise.

Understanding and researching process addictions is hampered by the fact that the “” only recognizes a couple of these examples: gambling and sex addictions.

But process addictions can re-wire the brain much the same way as chemical addictions do. That is, the brain learns to reward pleasurable behaviors (such as checking the “likes” of a social post) and cravings can set in—the need to constantly look at the phone.

Nevertheless, this field is developing, and there are more studies underway, as well as more statistics from national surveys to reference.

What is the nature of your work around process addictions, both clinically and in your research and teaching?

I do a lot of work with children and process addiction in my clinical practice, and as a teacher of counselors, I help school and other counselors in training understand the signs of addiction, how to assess it and how to treat it.

In my research, I am interested in using large data sets to understand the scope of process addictions in young people in order to inform screening tools, treatments and counselor education.

What are some of the negative consequences of smartphone addiction that educators are dealing with?

There are a few. Overuse of smartphones can take away from the educational process because students’ focus is taken up by social media, texting and games. It can cause poor sleeping habits, with students catching up in the classroom or becoming increasingly absent from school. Sleep also can be disrupted by , especially about subjects that cause anxiety, and even the .

Then there are behavioral concerns. Overuse can affect young people’s social skills and interactions, with some finding difficulty making friends in real life or cultivating false friendships online (or worse, being solicited by predators posing as “friends”). We have even seen a change in how children see their futures. Anecdotally, I have heard students say they want to be “influencers” or YouTube stars when they are older.

Devices given to very young children can disrupt play and physical development. While the intentional educational use of web-based multimedia can help development in elementary-aged children, research indicates that screen media usage is negatively associated with fine motor skill development across time, with a particular impact on preschool-aged children.

Moreover, the age of first use is correlated to addiction; thus, the younger the child, the more likely they are to develop long-term struggles. Again, anecdotally, devices given to very young children can lead to some becoming more interested in watching another child play online rather than play—and thus physically, socially, and emotionally develop—themselves.

As a mental health professional, where do you stand on the question of smartphone bans in schools?

It’s a hard call. I think if you took out the unfortunate threat of school shootings in the United States —and therefore the understandable need for parents to stay in touch with their children—then I would say there should definitely be some restrictions on smartphone use.

But even so, one should balance the threat of an emergency in one school against how smartphone addiction is affecting the development of whole school districts. Then again, there are children’s and parent’s rights at stake, so it will be interesting to see how the legal cases play out.

I do believe there has to be some kind of intervention. An abstention-only approach probably won’t work, so the solution would have to involve harm reduction. There might be compromises and practical workarounds to be found—such as those that are used during exams, when devices are dropped in a basket at the front of the classroom—but it will be hard for a school district to find limits and make everyone happy.

What advice do you have for parents and educators concerned about signs of smartphone addiction in a young person?

I have a couple of guidelines to consider. In general, mental health professionals suggest restricting smartphone use to less than two hours at a time. Also, social media should not be put into the hands of children and young adolescents under the age of 13, advice that is in line with many age barriers put forward by social media companies.

Common warning signs of addiction include: negative consequences associated with the addictive behavior; increased intensity or time spent on the behavior and/or the amount of time spent limits the child’s ability to sleep, do homework, spend time with family, etc.; using the behavior as an escape from negative moods; unsuccessful attempts to control or reduce the behavior; and/or emotional dysregulation—that is, excessive anger, sadness, or anxiety—when the child cannot engage in the addictive behavior.

John E. Breyer

Breyer was first elected to the Board of Trustees in 2001, co-chaired the Budget Committee from 2003-2006 and was a life trustee participant on the Board Finance Committee. He was a member of the Dean’s Leadership Council at ECS and the Atlanta Regional Council.

His deep connection to the University began when he moved to Central New York to pursue a career with General Electric. For nearly three decades, Breyer worked for this Fortune 500 company’s underseas business division and rose to serve eventually as general manager of the entire underseas systems business. He took graduate courses at ECS and became the company’s representative for GE Corporate-sponsored programs on campus. Several of his employees were adjuncts in the college, and he appointed a member of his human resources department to initiate a program to help support minority students in engineering.

“We feel strongly that all citizens should support education, and we wanted to do something that would make a difference for many years to come,” said Breyer when it was announced that he and his wife bestowed a $1.1 million faculty endowment gift to establish the John E. and Patricia A. Breyer Professorship in Electrical Engineering to attract world-class faculty specifically to the electrical engineering program, and advance excellence in engineering research and teaching. The couple also established an endowed scholarship fund to support deserving students.

“John was such an ardent supporter of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and ���ϲ�����,” says J. Cole Smith, dean of the . “He and his family have made a tremendous impact in supporting our students and our research enterprise. I will miss him and will be forever grateful for the generous and sincere way John helped advance the aspirations of so many people in ECS.”

Breyer himself earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1961, after serving in the United States Navy as an enlisted soldier and continuing in the Navy Reserve. Described as a lifelong learner by his family, Breyer graduated from GE’s rigorous Advanced Engineering and General Management Programs. He was recognized as an innovator and leader in multiple fields related to communication, signal intelligence and antenna measurement.

Breyer joined Scientific-Atlanta Inc. in 1989 as the company senior vice president and president of two divisions before ascending to become president and chief executive officer of MI Technologies, a company he founded along with other investors. He continued to lead in these roles as the company expanded and merged to become NSI-MI Technologies, a high-tech company that develops and manufactures testing and measurement systems, equipment and products used to test communications, radar, satellite, wireless and EMC/EMI systems. He retired in 2021 at the age of 86.

Breyer’s connection to ���ϲ����� was personal and professional. His daughter, Deborah Knoblock ’88, G’90, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the School of Education and is chair of the School of Education’s Advisory Board. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Patricia, his daughters Deborah and Tamara, and three grandchildren. The family has requested that memorial contributions be directed to benefit ECS or the School of Education or the Tunnel to Towers Foundation that serves veterans and first responders.

From an early age, Mark Radel ’28 always demonstrated compassion for his peers. As a precocious 9-year-old, Mark would rush onto the basketball court (accompanied by the coaches) whenever someone got hurt to check in and offer a helping hand.

Luke Radel ’26 says empathy is his brother’s superpower. “Mark is overflowing with empathy, and he has a great ability to know if somebody is having a bad day, and what he can do to help them through it,” Luke says, with a proud smile—and that trait will serve Mark well as he strives for a career in sports and exercise science as an athletic trainer.

Mark’s career ambition is being supported by , an initiative from the�� that sets a high standard among inclusive higher education programs, making higher education more accessible for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through individualized and inclusive coursework, student-centered planning, internships, and social and extracurricular activities.

“I want to help people. I’m loving learning about the body, and how what we eat helps make us strong, and when I graduate, I want to work with my football team, the Buffalo Bills, as a trainer,” says Mark, a sports and exercise science major at the University who was born with Down syndrome.

When Luke (left) attended ���ϲ����� and study both political science and broadcast and digital journalism, Mark decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

An Unbreakable Bond

Mark’s benevolent spirit helped Luke during his darkest days. While visiting colleges with his family in Boston, Massachusetts, Luke, an aspiring broadcast journalist, was out to dinner when he discovered his voice had left him. Realizing there was a potential health problem, Luke checked into Massachusetts General Hospital for observation.

Within a few hours, the doctors gave Luke their diagnosis: Stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. With his head spinning, Luke began undergoing chemotherapy sessions twice a month for six months, oftentimes for five or more hours per visit. What got him through those trying times?

“Mark was by my side, and his compassion was so helpful. Plus, he gives the best hugs. Whenever I was having a bad day, those hugs were just amazing and turned my day around,” says Luke, whose cancer is in remission. “Mark’s had his fair share of health struggles, and in that moment, I realized what Mark overcomes every day just to keep going, all the work he does to go to school and live his life. If he’s taking on that daunting situation every single day, I can take care of my chemotherapy.”

When Luke decided to attend ���ϲ����� and study both political science in the and broadcast and digital journalism in the , Mark decided to follow in his brother’s footsteps, applying to and being granted admission into InclusiveU’s highly competitive program.

Their unbreakable bond was further strengthened as roommates on campus. Luke helps Mark with his homework and with prepping his meals, and configured Mark’s Google Maps app on his phone with the relevant directions needed for Mark to traverse campus on a daily basis.

Luke and Mark Radel during their shared class in the Falk College. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

“Mark is Mr. Independent on campus. He doesn’t want to rely on someone else to help him get across campus. He’s done an amazing job of navigating everything it takes to be a student,” Luke says. “I’m really grateful to be at an institution like ���ϲ����� that is always striving to ensure everybody has access to the opportunities they need to succeed and feel welcome in these spaces.”

Life-Changing Opportunities

From the moment Mark came into his life, Luke has embraced advocating on behalf of his brother, fighting to ensure he was given access to every possible opportunity. It’s part of the Radel family’s genetic makeup. Their father, Patrick, was an attorney who helped people with mental and developmental disabilities be included in their elementary and high school’s educational programs, and their mother, Mary, created a support group, , that raises awareness and educates and connects parents of children born with Down syndrome to resources.

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month, which, Luke says, is the perfect time for members of the University to learn how people with Down syndrome are valuable contributors to the University community.

“People with Down syndrome are more alike than they are different from us. Mark needs to be in environments that will push him outside of his comfort zone and push the limits of what a person with Down syndrome can accomplish,” Luke says. “You’ll be helping Mark by interacting with him, but you’re also helping yourself gain a better understanding of how people with Down syndrome see and interact with the world around them.

Inspired to become a broadcast journalist from his efforts advocating on Mark’s behalf, Luke has amassed an impressive portfolio as a broadcast journalist, recently covering both the Republican and Democratic national conventions and serving as a in Utica, New York.

Luke hopes to use his dual degrees to continue telling impactful stories that make a difference, including his brother’s inspirational journey to ���ϲ�����.

When Mark got his acceptance letter into InclusiveU I cried tears of joy. I was so excited for him, and I have loved being able to share in the ���ϲ����� journey with Mark, Luke says.

“I always wanted to go to college, and being here with my brother has been amazing. This experience has changed my life,” Mark says.

Sports as a Unifying Force

A lifelong fan of playing sports, Mark Radel enjoys participating in the Special Olympics Unified Sports club basketball team on campus. (Photo by Chuck Wainwright)

The table tennis area in the lounge of Luke’s off-campus apartment complex is getting quite the workout on a Tuesday morning before they both have class in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. Good-natured comments fly back and forth whenever a point is scored. Their friendly matches, typically a best two-out-of-three affair, offer insights into their dynamic.

“It’s fun to play sports and I like learning new things while I am playing,” Mark says. “And I like to beat Luke. We always have fun when we play.”

“Oh yeah, this is always fun whenever we play [table tennis]. Mark loves watching and playing sports because it’s exciting and fun for him, and it’s a great way to stay active and also be part of a team and a community. Mark just loves being around people,” Luke adds.

Outside of their sibling showdowns in table tennis, Mark also participates in the Special Olympics Unified Sports club basketball team on campus, practicing every Sunday in the Women’s Building.

Surrounded by friends, Mark takes great pride in his basketball abilities. “It’s fun to shoot, dribble the ball and then pass it to my teammates, but what I’m really good at is shooting and scoring,” Mark says with a smile—but more than his performance, he enjoys the camaraderie and friendships that form with his peers.

“It’s the best. We cheer each other on, cheer for big shots and we all want everyone to play well and have fun,” Mark says. “I play better when my teammates are cheering me on, yelling ‘Mark, Mark, Mark!’ It makes me happy and motivates me.”

Brothers Mark (left) and Luke Radel share an unbreakable bond, one that has only strengthened during their time at ���ϲ�����.

An avid fan of the ���ϲ����� football team, Luke and Mark eagerly await each home game. Mark can often be found yelling and cheering on the team while wearing his No. 6 ���ϲ����� jersey, originally purchased to honor former starting quarterback Garrett Shrader ’23, but this year, the jersey is a nod to current starting quarterback Kyle McCord ’25.

From his seats in the 300 section inside the JMA Wireless Dome, fans flock to Mark’s infectious attitude, exchanging fist bumps and high-fives every time ���ϲ����� comes up with a big play.

“It’s really cool and it makes me feel great to know I’m making new friends while we’re cheering on ���ϲ�����,” Mark says.

“Mark has such a big smile on his face when he’s interacting with our fans, and it makes me so happy to see his joy,” Luke adds.

Known nationally for spearheading unique teaching-excellence initiatives, Neuhaus is also a professor in the School of Education. Most recently, she was professor of history and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at SUNY Plattsburgh. She has also held teaching positions at several universities, including Denison, Case Western Reserve and Oregon State.

We sat down with Neuhaus to discuss her new role and CTLE’s approach to promoting teaching and learning success.

“Absolutely zero.”

Over his entire educational career—kindergarten to master’s degree—he says there was almost no one of color standing at the helm.

“In all of that time, maybe one or two of the teachers I interacted with were culturally diverse,” says Dorsey, a graduate of ���ϲ����� School of Education’s (SOE) and programs. “I had very little contact with anybody Native, even at the college and graduate levels, and I think that’s unfortunate.”

Now, thanks to an anonymous benefactor, . The Indigenous Teacher Preparation Fund will provide scholarships to at least seven undergraduate students in its first cohort, which will matriculate by the 2026-27 academic year.

Aaron Dorsey

Much of teaching benefits from the unique perspective a teacher brings, says Dorsey, who currently serves as English Department Chair and an eighth-grade teacher at Wellwood Middle School in the Fayetteville-Manlius school district near ���ϲ�����. “Native teachers can create a curriculum that’s culturally responsive, so their culture bleeds into what they’re doing in the classroom,” he says. “Their presence creates a welcoming and affirming environment for Native students.”

“One thing that is very clear to me as a teacher is the lack of educators with Indigenous cultural heritage,” Dorsey continues. “It causes a dilemma because we have nation schools—such as the Onondaga Nation School in Lafayette, New York—and many throughout the country. But the reality is, because there aren’t a lot of people of Indigenous background becoming teachers, those children are not seeing themselves reflected in their educators.”

He adds: “It’s nice to see people who look like you, in stories you read, on TV, and especially in the classroom.”

Moving Forward

Historically, forced relocation, genocide and the abduction of youth to more than 350 U.S. government-funded boarding schools created a among Indigenous communities. That mistrust still remains—with one result being a lack of Indigenous teachers.

Education schools have an obligation to educate about these legacies believes Heather Watts G’12, a former . “Teacher candidates need to understand how this trauma may show up in Indigenous communities,” says Watts, Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. “Grandparents, and even parents, may have experienced life in a boarding school, and they may have total mistrust for the education system.”

This apprehension may prevent guardians from visiting their children’s schools, which may be misinterpreted as a lack of care for their education. This mistrust may trickle down through generations, making Indigenous children view schools as unsafe spaces. Boarding schools also fostered a sense of “othering” of Indigenous peoples.

Today, Watts leads Canada-based consulting firm , advocating for more Indigenous teachers to address educational gaps.��She taught at various charter schools in New York State after graduating from SOE with a�� before pursuing graduate degrees in education policy.��Currently, she is focusing her doctoral research on Indigenous reclamation of education systems.

Watts stresses that teachers must know how education has been used to perpetuate harm against Indigenous peoples and then “consider how education can be used as a vessel for healing, moving forward, and centering Indigenous knowledge.”

Watts suggests that SOE might forge a deeper relationship with the Onondaga Nation School—located less than 15 miles from campus—where she completed a placement: “It was incredible to think about the principles of inclusive education, which I so valued learning at ���ϲ�����, and how that could be fostered at Onondaga Nation School. These principles of inclusion are very much echoed in Haudenosaunee ways of knowing.”

While her mentor teacher was non-Indigenous, Watts says the educator nevertheless knew when to seek guidance from Indigenous colleagues, “she included me in decisions around curriculum or on best practices for communicating with parents and families.”

Watts says she’s excited to see the journey the recipients of the Indigenous Teacher Preparation Fund will take. “It’s very much needed, especially in New York State,” she adds. “I hope SOE keenly listens to students’ suggestions on how programming and content can be improved. While SOE has so much to offer in terms of training future educators, it too is in a position to learn from Indigenous communities.”

To read the full story, visit the .

Story by Ashley Kang ’04, G’11

The MOST’s giant ear exhibition is visited by the author’s daughter, DuRi Kang, in August 2024.

But its depiction of one organ—the skin—was not as encompassing as it could be.

Now, the has received a much-needed inclusive makeover, thanks to a professor, ., who also is a dual professor in the and an associated professor in the , and his former student, Karyn Meyer-Berthel G’21.

Preserving art

For close to 30 years, Meyer-Berthel has worked as a professional artist, becoming known for her ability to combine paint colors into perfect matches to any skin tone.

This skill came over time, she says. Her start was painting theater sets.

For theater, she painted backdrops and scenery, primarily for opera and musicals. “Musical theater was my favorite to paint because it was usually really dramatic and full of character,” Meyer-Berthel says, who had to stop after an injury. “That kind of work is heavy labor—you’re carrying five-gallon buckets of paint; you’re standing on your feet all day. I loved it, but having that injury, I had to give it up. So that led to a world of figuring out all these different jobs in the arts.”

A slew of roles followed, including working for three different art material manufacturers, as well as a year as a Mellon intern, where she assisted in the conservation department at the National Gallery of Art.

“The work I did there was on painting conservation and understanding what materials last a really long time,” Meyer-Berthel explains. She learned not only how to preserve art for future generations but also how museums can protect pieces from the public, learning which materials work best to seal historic treasures, especially from the oils on little fingers that crave to touch them.

According to her former arts education teacher, this notable professional background combined with her art materials expertise made her a perfect fit to help complete a needed update to the MOST’s human body exhibition.

Rolling—who has taught arts education at ���ϲ����� since 2007 and serves as interim chair of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences—also runs JHRolling Arts, Education, Leadership Strategies, a DEI consultant entity. In his role as consultant, he was tapped to help the MOST make improvements to its exhibitions, with an eye toward equity and inclusion.

Creative placemaking

MOST staff identified models in the Upstate Medical University Life Sciences exhibition as a key area where improvements in representation could be made.

“Our main objective with this project was to better fulfill our core values by making sure that the models and images in our exhibitions reflect the people who visit them,” says Emily Stewart, Ph.D., senior director of education and curation. “Our community is dynamic and diverse, and our exhibitions should be too.”

This led the MOST to Rolling because his consultancy utilizes the concept of “,” a way of transforming a lived environment so it is accessible, inviting, and representative of the community. “That life sciences exhibition was over 10 years old, and it’s striking that there were no persons of color represented,” Rolling says. “Out of all those body parts—none.”

Karyn Meyer-Berthel G’21 helped transform the MOST body exhibition to make it more inclusive.

The Upstate exhibition explores the science of human anatomy with larger-than-life body parts, including a heart visitors can walk through, a brain that lights up and a giant ear, nose, lips and more.

Rolling immediately thought of his former student, connecting the MOST to Meyer-Berthel, due to her materials and preservation skill, unique background and understanding of inclusivity, .

Perfect balance

Meyer-Berthel and staff settled on the MOST’s giant ear display to receive the upgrade. “Different ethnicities have different shape ears, certainly, but this anatomy is a little more streamlined across the globe, so an adjustment with paint can change the representation,” she says. “The ear was the clearest choice, because changing the shape of something might actually mean completely rebuilding the object, and that part wasn’t quite in my wheelhouse.”

But the skill Meyer-Berthel does excel at is combining colors to match skin tone. “No matter the ethnicity, every skin tone includes blue, red and yellow,” she explains. “You can often tell by looking at a person’s wrist what their undertones are … Finding the perfect blend and balance is the joy.”

Because 28% of ���ϲ�����’s population is African American, the MOST wanted to change the ear to a brown skin tone, but the answer wasn’t as simple as mixing up a batch of paint and applying it.

Other factors Meyer-Berthel had to consider were the museum’s lighting and how this would impact the hue, and how well the paint would hold up to being touched. “The beauty of this exhibition is being able to touch it,” she says, noting that the paint needed to adhere to the material already coating the ear, the composition of which she and the MOST did not know.

After testing samples under the museum’s warm lighting, Meyer-Berthel first cleaned the existing model, using a micro sanding product to help her paint layer adhere. She chose acrylic paints, because she finds these to be the most versatile, and utilized Golden Artist Colors, a New Berlin, New York-based manufacturer of professional artist paints best known for its acrylics, where she also worked as a commercial applications specialist for three years.

“While house paint is wonderful for painting a house, it’s not going to be good for a museum because it has too many fillers in it, like chalk,” Meyer-Berthel explains. “For a museum model, a piece that needs to be so brilliantly colored, you don’t want much in it besides pigment and resin.”

Lastly, Meyer-Berthel coated the paint with a sealant because of how much the ear is touched, protecting it from absorbing oils and dirt from hands.

“We are so thrilled with the work she has done,” says Stewart. “Her thoughtful consideration and expertise helped us to identify the right paint colors, finishes and techniques to give our older anatomical model a new life.”

Story by Ashley Kang ’04, G’11

Elizabeth Carter

, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at ���ϲ�����’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, and her research team have received a water resource grant from the U.S. Geological Survey to develop a sensor network that measures flooding. This sensor network will help predict different types of flooding caused by natural disasters, particularly flooding in areas where people live, which is referred to as urban flooding. This project is known as the Urban Flood Observing Network, and you can learn more about it here.

Related to Hurricane Milton specifically, she writes: “We design flood control infrastructure, like storm sewers, reservoirs, floodwalls, and levees, to handle a storm that we think has a 1% chance of happening every year. The primary physical driver of these 1% flood events in the eastern and central United States are tropical cyclones (tropical depressions, storms, and hurricanes). More hurricanes directly translates to more frequent infrastructure failure. More intense hurricanes means more catastrophic infrastructure failure. In 1970, the most intense storm we’d see in an average year was a category 3. In 2010, it was a category 4. If these trends continue into 2050, we could expect at least one category 5 storm annually. We are not prepared.��Flood control infrastructure upgrades in the eastern United States are urgently required, and a critical public health and equity issue.”

Sarah Pralle

, associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at ���ϲ�����, specializes in environmental politics and policy, climate change and energy, flood mapping, flood insurance, and more. Pralle also serves as a senior research associate for the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. She was recently quoted in The Atlantic story ““:

“Many people assume that they face little risk if they aren’t living in an area included in high-risk zones on FEMA’s flood maps, Sarah Pralle, a political-science professor at the Maxwell School at ���ϲ�����, told me. But FEMA’s maps don’t capture the full picture of flood risk. They are drawn ‘based on the assumption that the past will help us predict the future. In a rapidly changing climate, that’s not the case.’ The maps can quickly become outdated as climate risks evolve, she noted, and don’t take into account pluvial flooding, or flooding from heavy-rain events, which is what North Carolina saw last week. Even people who have personally experienced flooding sometimes drop their policies, Pralle said, adding that ‘if people have lived in a place where it hasn’t flooded in decades, they lose that memory of what can happen and what kind of losses they might suffer. Those who do buy flood insurance usually live in areas prone to flooding. The result is a system in which the risk is not evenly spread out, making flood-insurance premiums hugely pricey—Pralle likened it to a health-insurance system in which only the sick buy coverage.'”

And then: “So much of the response following disasters can feel piecemeal and reactive, Pralle said. Insurance is important—but not the full story. ‘Every dollar we put into prevention is going to be a lot more efficiently spent,’ she explained. In a world reshaped by climate change, ‘this idea that there’s safe places you can go hide is unrealistic.’”

Robert Wilson

, associate professor at ���ϲ�����’s Maxwell School, studies animals and society, climate change, geography, and more. He can speak to human-pet relationships and the need to prepare for your pets ahead of natural disasters.

Wilson writes: “As Hurricane Milton barrels ashore in Florida, we’re reminded of how owning pets can complicate evacuations during natural disasters. When asked, most pet owners say they consider their cats and dogs to be like family. This affection for pets can complicate evacuation decisions during emergencies.

Pet owners often face a difficult choice. They can evacuate to a hotel or shelter that doesn’t accept pets, potentially leaving their animals behind. Or they can remain in place, facing the worst of a hurricane to stay with their pets. This dilemma underscores the need for emergency planning that considers the needs of pets as well as people.

In areas prone to hurricanes, wildfires, or other natural disasters, pet owners should develop evacuation plans that include their animals. This could involve plans that identify hotels and shelters that accept pets, preparing an emergency kit with supplies for people and animals, and making sure pets have proper identification. Being prepared can help save the lives of people and the pets they love.”

Patrick Penfield

, professor of supply chain practice at ���ϲ����� Univeristy’s Whitman School of Management, can speak to supply chain issues related to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

Penfield writes: “Hurricane Helene and Milton will adversely impact US supply chains. Unfortunately, we have a high concentration of critical manufacturing facilities in the South such as IV plants (North Carolina and Florida) and quartz factories (used in the electronics industry) which could be shut down for several months because of the hurricanes. In addition to southern manufacturing plant and distribution centers being closed, we will see a significant loss of vegetable and fruits which will impact availability and drive-up prices. Penfield further stated that significant infrastructure will need to also be rebuilt such as roads, bridges and ports which could further impact the ability of other companies in the South to function.”

Derek Seward

is an associate professor at ���ϲ�����’s School of Education. Dr. Seward’s scholarly interests focus primarily on the multicultural and social justice development of mental health professionals, with a particular interest in professionals of color.

Seward writes: “Repeated exposure to hurricane disasters can be devasting as the opportunity for hurricane survivors to have sustained psychological recovery time is disrupted. Hurricane survivors can experience a range of short-term psychological struggles including immense anxiety as their lives are threatened, intense feelings of helplessness as they deal with uncertainty regarding potential loss of life (i.e., family, friends, pets) and belongings, and increased stress from physical displacement. The impact on families can be particularly profound as children may lack psychological preparedness and resilience to handle acute unexpected adversities. Physical clinginess, refusal to be separated from parents or guardians, and nightmares or other sleep disruptions are behavioral responses children may display. During disasters, children struggle with experiencing that their world is not stable, secure, and safe. To protect their children, parents may withhold expressing their fears and anxieties which can be problematic as they are not attending to their own mental health needs. Parents and guardians should reassure their children they are being protected. Limiting children’s exposure to media coverage of hurricanes can help to avoid elevating their anxiety. Parents should consider seeking mental health support to deal with any symptoms of stress and anxiety they experience. Longer-term psychological struggles for hurricane survivors include increased substance use and post-traumatic stress symptoms such as having intrusive and distressing thoughts that interfere with concentration mood, irritability, avoidant behavior, and depression.”

Jennifer Genovese

is an assistant teaching professor in the School of Social Work at ���ϲ�����’s Falk College. She can speak to mental health and trauma related to natural disasters; and, specifically in this case, back-to-back hurricanes. She was recently interviewed for the ABC News story “

InclusiveU Director Brianna Shults and student Matthew Falanga discuss the life-changing opportunities InclusiveU affords its students, how InclusiveU has made a profound impact, how InclusiveU has become the standard-bearer for how colleges run an inclusive higher education program and how the benefits extend to the greater campus community.

The White House. Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The New York State Capitol building in Albany.

Matthew Falanga

These are just some of the places an enthusiastic delegation from ���ϲ�����’s InclusiveU program have traveled over the years, meeting with policymakers, politicians and higher education leaders to push for change to make higher education more accessible for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

For more than a decade, InclusiveU, an initiative from the��, has set the standard by which all other inclusive higher education programs are judged. Its model encompasses individualized and inclusive coursework, student-centered planning, internships, and social and extracurricular activities.

“I always wanted to go to college, and when I heard about ���ϲ����� and its InclusiveU program, I knew that was where I wanted to go to achieve my dreams,” says Matthew Falanga ’26, who was born with Down syndrome and is majoring in communications at ���ϲ�����. “The best part of coming to ���ϲ����� is making new friends and being involved on campus. It makes me feel very happy.”

Over the last 10 years, InclusiveU has experienced exponential growth and is now the largest program of its kind in the country. This year, 102 students are pursuing their academic dreams on campus, including 44 students who, like Falanga, live in residence halls.

Check out featuring Falanga and InclusiveU Director Brianna Shults G’20. A transcript [PDF] is also available.

Recruiting Advocates, Reducing Stigmas

Over the years, InclusiveU Director Brianna Shults G’20 has led countless trips to bring current InclusiveU students and recent graduates to meet with elected officials. These trips serve to recruit new advocates, increase support and awareness of the program, and reduce the stigmas that still exist surrounding students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The opportunities InclusiveU affords aren’t readily available for many students like Falanga. According to , only 2% of school-age students with intellectual disability are likely to attend college after high school, and of the 472 colleges and universities in New York state, only 24 have inclusive postsecondary education programs.

Brianna Shults

“There was this cliff that many students with developmental and intellectual disabilities would drop off once they graduated high school. Some would find work or a program that filled time in their day, while some would do volunteer activities. Some just stayed home. By being able to take that next step in their development alongside their peers, continuing their educations while gaining skills to launch their careers, InclusiveU has given students the opportunity to define who they are and what they want to be. They get to have the same experiences their peers were afforded,” Shults says.

Now, thanks to a $200,000 grant from the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation, the School of Education’s ��will provide technical assistance to schools and colleges in Western and Central New York to create and enhance inclusive college programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

This is in addition to the technical assistance InclusiveU has already provided to colleges and universities in Arizona, Florida, Kansas, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee when representatives from those institutions visited campus in 2023. InclusiveU students led campus tours while sharing how their higher education experiences had changed their lives.

“There are not enough inclusive programs like ours and our field is very collaborative. We want all students with intellectual or developmental disabilities who want to go to college to have an opportunity that fits their needs,” Shults says. “The demand versus available opportunity and the capacity of these programs is something that needs support. We are thankful for the Golisano Foundation’s help to build out this program and provide the type of support and knowledge that other programs [at other institutions] are looking for.”

Celebrating People With Disabilities

For many adolescent students with developmental disabilities, the pursuit of higher education is filled with roadblocks and can be a daunting task for both aspiring students and their families. But thanks to InclusiveU, students of all ages with intellectual and developmental disabilities are empowered to come to campus and experience college life in a fully inclusive setting, learning the necessary skills to thrive in the classroom and find a job after graduation.

These experiences prove to be life-changing for students like Falanga, who over the summer interned with , where he worked on a project promoting voting rights for people with disabilities, and also represented InclusiveU as an inclusive higher education advocate at a Disability Pride Event in the White House.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for Falanga, who had a specific message for the government officials he met during his visit.

“Just because I was born with a disability, I want to celebrate my disability. I also want to help other people with disabilities feel better about themselves. Be proud of who you are. It is important for people with disabilities to learn about these programs [like InclusiveU] and know that they can go to college and start their new life,” says Falanga, who hopes to use his degree to land a job where he can help create more legislation that opens doors for people with disabilities.

Representing InclusiveU at a Disability Pride Event in the White House over the summer were (from left to right): Karly Grifasi, assistant director of operations and communications, Jennifer Quinn, internship and employment coordinator, Matthew Falanga and Shafreya Wilkins.

Opening Doors for All

���ϲ����� has a proud 154-year history of opening its doors to all students who are interested in receiving a college degree, regardless of their background or upbringing.

InclusiveU, which was founded in 2001 as a dual enrollment program with the ���ϲ����� City School District, has provided the necessary skills for students to both thrive in the classroom and find a job after graduation. By incorporating InclusiveU students in classes with the general ���ϲ����� student body, Shults says the entire campus community benefits.

“It helps make all ���ϲ����� students better friends, better classmates, better coworkers and better community members,” Shults says. “Having this experience and interaction with InclusiveU students helps our whole campus think inclusively. It helps our administration think differently and more inclusively. We’re able to adjust the way students access their classes or how they interact with faculty to make sure those experiences are inclusive for all.”

Equipped for Lifelong Success

The initiative’s work is evolving. InclusiveU students now participate in the University’s First Year Seminar course, and in May, InclusiveU is launching the first inclusive ���ϲ����� Abroad experience to Italy, with a goal of expanding opportunities for its students to study abroad.

Once they earn ���ϲ����� degrees, many InclusiveU students successfully find paid, competitive jobs, due in part to the strong relationships InclusiveU develops with its partners, both on campus and in the Central New York community. It’s also a result of the yearlong internships InclusiveU students participate in as part of their three years of academic education.

Matthew Falanga (left) and Shafreya Wilkins during a visit to Washington, D.C.

But there’s more work to be done when it comes to support and funding for InclusiveU, including thinking beyond the students’ time on campus.

“We want to ensure that students can lead the lives that they want to live afterwards, and that goes for employment, community involvement and living situations. We have advocated for ending subminimum wage and closing sheltered workshops. The Higher Education Opportunity Act hasn’t been reauthorized since 2008,” Shults says. “These are all really important things to help individuals with disabilities lead productive and meaningful lives beyond higher education.”

For now, Falanga is focusing on fine-tuning his public speaking skills, continuing to make new friends on campus and finding ways to get and stay involved with the University he loves so much.

“���ϲ����� makes me feel very happy and proud. InclusiveU has helped me to make new friends, take great classes and explore my career choices. This has changed my life,” Falanga says.

Xiaoxia “Silvie” Huang

With “Engaging Refugee and Immigrant Youth in STEM Through Culturally Relevant and Place-Based Digital Storytelling,” — an associate professor in the program—aims to engage culturally and linguistically diverse refugee and immigrant middle school students in co-designing culturally relevant and place-based STEM learning experiences through immersive, virtual reality (VR) storytelling. The goal? To support their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and career aspirations.

During this two-year project, Huang, a project investigator, will collaborate with an interdisciplinary team, including co-PIs Professor (School of Education) and Professor (). Also joining the research team are professors and () and professors and ().

“During the VR storytelling co-design process, local middle schoolers will expand their STEM disciplinary knowledge and skills in agriculture, environmental science, and entry-level computer coding,” says Huang. “This learning will be deeply rooted in their lived experience, with immersive stories that interweave their identities, cultures, and interaction with local environments. The goal of this project is to increase participants’ STEM learning, identity and self-efficacy, and to broaden their interests in STEM career pathways.”

The project team will collaborate with various community partners and organizations during its implementation, including , the , ��and interconnected projects and programs organized through the (including Natural Science Explorers and Write Out). Huang’s project also will engage 10 ���ϲ����� undergraduate and three graduate students as mentors for the middle school participants.

“This exciting and interdisciplinary research project brings together collaborators from four different schools and colleges and a host of community partners to advance culturally sustaining STEM opportunities for refugee and immigrant students in the local ���ϲ����� community,” says Professor Beth Ferri, Associate Dean for Research, School of Education. “Drawing on cultural and community assets and engaged interdisciplinary learning, the project is as ambitious as it is innovative.”

Huang expects the project will produce not only the young participants’ digitally immersive stories but also curriculum modules for facilitators and participants, supporting the co-design process, as well as a practical guide for using community-based research to involve refugee and immigrant youth in STEM.

During this prestigious fellowship, Kim will work on her new book “Dignity Archives: Accompanying the Dead and Posthumous Care.”

Eunjun Kim

Kim is among 31 fellows from 492 applicants. In addition to working on her research project, she will have the opportunity to share ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences at the HNC, headquartered at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

Kim’s book project asks what kind of political work the dying and the dead are doing and what kind of connections and disconnections are happening around them.

“The collection of cases includes disabled people who were killed in an institution in Japan; factory workers who became disabled and terminally ill from toxic exposure; and people who died from neglect in an AIDS care facility in South Korea,” explains Kim. “By exploring the ways in which mourning and the demand for justice are intertwined in cultural and political discourses, my book aims to encourage others to rethink the primacy of autonomy, ability and health in the understanding of dignity.”

“The National Humanities Center is the world’s only independent institute dedicated exclusively to advanced study in all areas of the humanities,” says , professor and associate dean for research in the School of Education. “NHC is a highly prestigious fellowship and former fellows have gone on win a number of distinguished awards, including the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.”

Additionally, SOE is represented at NHC by , professor of disability studies and a NHC Resident Fellow, who is researching for , “Fermenting Stories: Exploring Ancestry, Embodiment and Place.”

The NHC is the world’s only independent institute dedicated exclusively to advanced study in all areas of the humanities. Through its fellowships, the center promotes understanding of the humanities and advocates for their foundational role in a democratic society.

Van Skoik and Jiang created “Cyberguard,” an anti-cyberbullying model, for their final project in the School of Education’s IDE 632: Instructional Design and Development II course. This course requires students to develop an instructional design model and appropriate accompanying implementation documentation.

Particularly Vulnerable

Van Skoik’s and Jiang’s model proposes a process for educational institutions to follow that should help to reduce the number of cyberbullying incidents. Currently, it is under review with , with hopes to be published soon in the higher education technology journal and presented at its annual conference in November.

Having taught middle school for six years, and later working as an instructional technology specialist for a school district in South Carolina, Van Skoik saw both the effects of student cyberbullying play out daily in his classroom and how his district tracked students’ use of school-issued computers. His firsthand experience sparked the idea for the model.

“I think middle schoolers are particularly vulnerable as far as emotional intelligence, behavior modification and behavior management are concerned,” says Van Skoik, who believes the model’s interventions implemented at this age would help students learn as they grow. “Then by the time they’re in high school, which this data is from, there would be a reduction in cyberbullying cases.”

The pair used the (NYSED SSEC) incident data to identify the state high school with the highest number of self-reported cyberbullying cases in the state. That school—which the pair are not disclosing—was then used as the focus of their model. The school reported 39 cyberbullying incidents over the 2021-22 school year, which the pair says is a high figure compared to other schools’ average of 0.67 incidents per school.

Based on this data, the pair devised their model as steps school districts can follow to reduce incidents. The model, they say, acts as a positive feedback loop by raising awareness, identifying cyberbullying and preventing further cases. “The point of the model is the awareness of what cyberbullying is,” stresses Van Skoik, who says by bringing the issue to students’ attention, attitudes can be changed and good behavior reinforced as the process is evaluated each school quarter.

When Both Worlds Meet

found that teens use six cyberbullying behaviors: offensive name-calling (most reported), spreading false rumors, receiving explicit images, physical threats, harassment and having explicit images of them shared without their consent.

Online anonymity, 24/7 connectivity, lack of supervision and digital footprints—traces of online activity that can be used to provoke cyberbulling—are among the causes of electronic aggression that the pair identified. “If we can address those potential causes, J.J. and I believe the cases will come down,” Van Skoik says.

Regarding online anonymity, too often people can hide behind a screen, creating a persona that often says or does things a person would never do if face to face. “This model eliminates that possibility,” Van Skoik says. “It has to bridge the gap because the educational training program is the only thing that can happen when both worlds meet.” The model brings these two worlds—digital and real—together by emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach that combines data-driven interventions, educational training programs, and repetitive assessment.

The pair suggest interventions take place in both the digital and real worlds. First, they recommend schools develop an automatic monitoring system by installing software on devices the school loans out.

They note that monitoring is helpful to the entire school community and not only to students because teacher and administrator computers can be monitored to identify any incidents among staff as well. According to the Pew survey, three in 10 teens say school districts monitoring students’ social media activity for bullying or harassment would help.

Software can record and report suspected incidents of cyberbullying, and Jiang suggests AI also could be used in the monitoring program. “A lot of students hide bullying action in the cyberworld,” she says. “AI can recognize and also learn how to make a decision about if there is a risk of cyberbullying or not.”

For in-person intervention, the pair recommends schools collect feedback from students, staff and parents at the beginning of the school year to have a baseline assessment. This can include mental health evaluations when recommended.

Next, an educational training should be implemented during teachers’ professional development sessions, as well as for students and parents. Finally, an avenue to allow staff, students and parents to report incidents of cyberbullying should be created, and all interventions should be reviewed quarterly to track incidents, to see if there is progress or if the process needs to be refined.

Why We’re Not Learning

Both Van Skoik and Jiang strongly believe that in addition to use of monitoring software, schools must provide training and education about online social behavior. “School’s goal is to learn, that’s why we’re in this environment,” says Van Skoik, who often saw cyberbullying interrupt lessons in his classroom. “So, if we can’t learn, we have to find out why we’re not learning.”

Today, he says, society—and schools—are impacted by so many devices causing distractions, and in some cases, harm.

The educational training that the pair recommends can be offered in multiple ways, such as an online training, in-person session or a mixture of both. “The ultimate goal is for the educational training program to address the issue that there is a cyberbullying concern at the school, and—I think—it’s another way to create awareness,” Van Skoik says.

A final goal of Cyberguard is to create a culture of reporting online harassment. While software can help to identify suspected incidents—based on keywords, for example—avenues for self-reporting can also be implemented, either by having students, staff and parents complete a Google form or by encouraging students to raise concerns to guidance counselors and school staff.

“I hope this model can improve everyone’s awareness and help them develop skills on how to report cyberbullying,” Jiang says.

Ultimately, the Cyberguard model serves as a template for schools and, Jiang says, it will evolve after initial implementation. “In the first year, formative evaluations will be conducted every quarter to test our objective,” she says. If incidents of cyberbullying decline, the objective is met.

In year two, objectives can change, with a goal of seeing greater declines. Across years three to five, the pair will evaluate the model’s effectiveness by comparing the number of cases each year, hoping to see a stark decline.

“Our theory is that the prevalence of cyberbullying results from a lack of awareness, education and training,” Van Skoik say. “This is what instructional design tells us—it comes from a lack of knowledge, skills and attitudes.”

Story by Ashley Kang ’04, G’11 (a proud alumna of the M.S. in higher education program)

, only 2% of school-age students with intellectual disability are likely to attend college after high school. Moreover, of the 472 colleges and universities in New York state, only 24 have inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs.

With more than 435 students with intellectual disability enrolled in these programs and an average of 18 students in each program, the Golisano Foundation recognizes the opportunity for CDI—along with the Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, which supports InclusiveU, ���ϲ�����’s inclusive higher education program—to expand on its current technical assistance model to increase and enhance the availability and inclusivity of programs across Western and Central New York.

Led by a new technical assistance director, in the first year CDI will pilot technical assistance in a few select colleges and universities, with a focus on creating or enhancing accessibility, promoting inclusivity and providing support services to empower students with intellectual disability in academic and social success.

“With InclusiveU, ���ϲ����� has a nationally recognized model. Serving more than 100 students, this program aims to fully integrate students into all aspects of campus life including academics, internships, social experiences and residential living,” says , professor and director of CDI. “We are grateful to the Golisano Foundation for this generous grant, which will help us build on our expertise in disability related research and inclusive education, practice and advocacy to remove barriers that exclude people with disabilities from campus life in New York.”

“The Taishoff Center’s approach to inclusive higher education—including utilization of existing campus resources—has fundamentally shifted the way in which schools and universities serve and support students with intellectual disability,” says , Lawrence B. Taishoff Associate Professor of Inclusive Education and executive director of the Taishoff Center. “With this experience, CDI and the Taishoff Center are uniquely positioned to provide technical assistance to support the development and expansion of inclusive college programs.”

“Along with the trustees of the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation, I am thrilled to be able to support the development and expansion of IPSE programs and supportive services,” says , director of the Golisano Foundation. “The trustees and I commend ���ϲ�����’s recognition of the potential throughout New York State, and we look forward to watching CDI and the Taishoff Center build a community of practice and work toward setting a national example and standard for inclusion in the higher education community.”

Among services planned for the project’s first year, CDI and the Taishoff Center will:

• Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment at pilot colleges and universities;
• Increase access to inclusive postsecondary education and participation in the general college curriculum for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities;
• Support improved academic, social, independent living, employment and self-advocacy outcomes;
• Disseminate research and best practices on inclusive postsecondary education;
• Distribute materials to support program development, evaluation and strategic planning; and
• Coordinate data collection with shared outcomes for IPSE programs.

Shikha Nangia

is professor and interim chair of biomedical and chemical engineering in the (ECS). is a distinguished professor of physics in the (A&S). They succeed outgoing co-directors and .

Nangia joined the University in 2012 as a tenure-track professor. Her work involves the creation of computational models to examine the body’s blood-brain barrier at the molecular level. Those findings help develop drugs that can penetrate the barrier to advance medicinal treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Marina Artuso

Artuso is an experimental physicist who works in experimental particle physics. Her research focuses on interesting properties of beauty and charm quarks and on the novel instrumentation needed to study their decay properties. She came to the University as a research assistant professor of physics in 1993, was appointed a professor of physics in 2005 and recently was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

WiSE faculty co-directors serve as advocates, engaging with university leadership, the campus community and external audiences. They also develop strategic vision for the organization, offer budget input, and actively participate in programming. WiSE was created by and is led by faculty. Its goals are to increase the representation and retention of women faculty members in STEM fields, to highlight women scholars and to develop advising and mentoring programs.

WiSE serves members across 18 departments in six colleges and schools: A&S, ECS, , , and the .��It presents social, academic and professional development programming for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty in tenure, tenure-track and non-tenure-track positions.

One of the programs WiSE hosts is the career-focused Future Professionals Program (top).

Faculty present workshops, act as mentors, offer portfolio reviews and serve in many capacities to support learning and teaching, says WiSE director Sharon Alestalo.

“Their active involvement helps direct how we can support faculty success. We do that through programming for them and by providing activities and events that support the students and scholars they work with,” Alestalo says.

WiSE also supports the recruitment of women faculty in STEM. When the program was founded, there were 18 women faculty members teaching in 10 A&S and ECS departments. Today, there are 174 tenure, tenure-track and non-tenure women faculty members working in 18 areas, Alestalo says. STEM women faculty in WiSE have also attracted more than $104 million in research funding during the last five years, she says.

WiSE also supports programming for Women of Color in STEM.

The organization is open to all. Undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty women and their allies of any gender, race, ability and identity who work, study or are interested in the STEM fields are welcome.

President of Domestic Distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures Group Jeffrey Goldstein ’77 (right) with actor Margot Robbie and Warner Bros. President of International Distribution Andrew Cripps. Taken at CinemaCon 2023, the pink suits helped introduce a Las Vegas crowd to Barbie ahead of its blockbuster release. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images)

If you were told that a (SOE) alumnus began his post-graduate career as a summer intern at Warner Bros. in Los Angeles, got a permanent job with the media giant because he just kept showing up for work, was then promoted and promoted until he became chief of the company’s domestic movie roll-out strategy—and was one of the executives who green-lighted mega-hit Barbie—would you believe it?!

Meet Jeffrey Goldstein ’77, President of Domestic Distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

“I’m an OG at Warner Bros.!” says Goldstein, referencing his long career. “I never planned out what I wanted to do. When I graduated college, I thought I would go into teaching special education. I just fell into Warner Bros.”

“The Roots of it All Started in ���ϲ�����”

Goldstein’s fascinating career path began right after he graduated with his special education degree. He wanted to take a year off before considering his next move. “I had an uncle who was in the entertainment business,” he says. “He said, if you are interested, I can get you a summer job at Warner Bros.”

Here’s where the story takes a slightly comical turn.

To explain, Goldstein draws an analogy with the George Costanza character from the TV sitcom “Seinfeld.” In one episode, George dramatically quits a job, only to regret his decision immediately. So he simply returns to work the next day as if nothing had happened, hoping no one will notice.

“I became the guy who wouldn’t leave, just like George Costanza,” says Goldstein with a laugh. “When my internship ended, I had nowhere to go, so I just went back on Monday morning.”

Eventually, his superiors caught on. But instead of showing him the door, they suggested he apply for a sales job in Jacksonville, Florida.

Goldstein admits this was the first time he moved somewhere with no support structure. He had followed his sister—Roberta Goldstein Manning ’76, a nursing student (she was his best friend then), to ���ϲ�����, and he had family in California during his internship. But there was no one in north Florida: “I got homesick. I was miserable. My boss even told me to take three weeks leave to visit my ‘mama’ during the holidays.”

Things got better. “From there, I had two dozen jobs all over the place. But the roots of it all started in ���ϲ�����.”

“I had a Bent for Business”

Today Goldstein has full responsibility for domestic distribution of all Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and DC Studios movies. He and his team oversee release dates and release patterns, business strategy, sales and administration, specialty formats and exhibitor relations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Since 2016, when Goldstein began in his current position, Warner Bros. Pictures has earned more than $10 billion at the domestic box office, with 49 films opening at the top of the box office and 36 titles crossing $100 million domestically. The hits, as they say, just keep on coming: “Aquaman,” “The Batman,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Dune,” “Dunkirk,” “Elvis,” “It,” “Joker,” and “Wonder Woman.”

And then there is “Barbie.” The summer blockbuster of 2023 was certainly “in the pink,” garnering numerous studio and industry records. It earned $1 billion in just 17 days of release; it recorded daily, weekly and weekend box office highs; and it was the studio’s fastest film to reach�� $400 million domestically.

So what connects ���ϲ�����, Hollywood and a successful movie executive with an eagle eye for a movie hit?

“I got my entrepreneurial spirit by working jobs in the dining hall, as a residence advisor and in the business affairs office,” says Goldstein. “While at ���ϲ�����, I realized I had a bent for business, as well as the ability to teach others, mentor others, be curious—and still make money!”

“That’s the Teacher Piece of it”

“���ϲ����� has been very good to me,” Goldstein says. “My years there formed me into the professional and person I am. It was the right-sized school for me. You could be anonymous if you wanted to, or you could make connections that last a lifetime.”

He cites two legendary SOE professors who were an early influence. “Both Burton Blatt and Douglas Biklen were unbelievable. I learned so much from them about life and relating to others,” says Goldstein.

In fact, over the course of this conversation, Goldstein recites a litany of skills his education degree bestowed: teaching, mentoring, listening, public speaking and managing, to name a few: “The thing I’m known for here is listening to colleagues and teams and elevating them. I’m able to manage up, down and across—and that’s the teacher piece of it.”

When asked whether his special education training under two legends in the field of inclusion have played a role in his line of work, Goldstein observes that “diversity and inclusion are crucial for commerce.”

In the movie industry, he explains, you must be as inclusive as you can in order to serve a very broad audience (what Warner Bros. calls its “commitment to serving all audiences at the cineplex.”)

“To be successful, you need to seek out a broad audience, cater to them and address them,” Goldstein says. “You need to look at the world as diverse and positive as it is and include everyone you can.

“Find the Things That Make You Smile”

Goldstein has this advice for graduates looking to leverage the so-called “soft skills” of an education degree into careers outside of teaching: “Keep your mind open and look for things you enjoy doing. Find the things that make you smile and that creatively inspire you. Be open and have curiosity to find out what you don’t know.”

If you remain open to other paths, Goldstein encourages, you might end up doing something you never considered: “I always knew I liked movies and storytelling. I just didn’t know I’d be exceptionally good at telling what will work.”

It is clear as he speaks that another aspect of the “teacher piece” for Goldstein is the sheer enthusiasm he brings to his role. That joy and energy exude even on a Zoom call across a continent on a Friday afternoon. There’s no doubt he would have made an inspirational teacher.

The wider Warner Bros. Pictures team gets to experience this motivating force at CinemaCon, the annual Las Vegas movie industry trade show, held in spring ahead of blockbuster season: “Give me a microphone, and I can do one and a half hours,” Goldstein says, adding he often ties this spotlight appearance into a movie marketing campaign.

In April 2023 he appeared on the stage in a pink suit for the roll-out of “Barbie.” “As Barbie says, everybody looks better in pink!” Goldstein told the audience. He caught the attention of People and Deadline magazines who covered the event and caught the early buzz—foreshadowing that movie’s now-legendary marketing campaign.

“That’s one reason I’m the OG here. I love my job and that enthusiasm really resonates,” says Goldstein, smiling broadly.

“I very much look forward to collaborating with our new faculty members, who help to fulfill the promise of the school’s and University’s academic strategic plans and initiatives,” says Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott. “As Central New York’s tech sector expands and the University focuses on STEM scholarship, we are adding a K-12 STEM teacher preparation expert, whose research addresses antiracist, inclusive and equitable education. We are also adding capacity to our instructional design and music education teams.”

In addition, “two counseling faculty will help our school meet the growing need to prepare culturally sensitive school counselors, mental health counselors, and counselor educators,” Chandler-Olcott says. “Plus, in Professor Jessamyn Neuhaus, the University welcomes a highly experienced faculty development scholar who will direct the .”

Sabrina M. Butler ’15, G’18

Sabrina Butler

Sabrina Butler joins the school as assistant teaching professor of counseling and counselor education. Before her appointment, she taught mental health counseling ethics, family counseling and group counseling at the University of Central Florida, where she was a doctoral student.

Butler’s research explores counselors-in-training and their clients’ religion and spirituality, feminist ethical decision-making in supervisor-supervisee relationships, trauma-informed approaches to romantic break-ups, and process addictions in children and adolescents.

A member of the American Counseling Association, Association for Specialists in Group Work, Counselors for Social Justice and EMDR International Association, Butler holds a Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision (2024) from the University of Central Florida. A scholar, Butler also has an M.S. in clinical mental health counseling (2018) and a B.S. in psychology (2015), both from ���ϲ�����.

David DeAngelis

David DeAngelis

David DeAngelis joins the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Setnor School of Music and the School of Education as assistant professor of music education. Before joining the University, DeAngelis served as an instructor and teaching assistant at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and was the founding music teacher of KIPP San Francisco College Preparatory.

With articles published in the Journal of Music Teacher Education and Update: Applications for Research in Music Education, DeAngelis’s research interests include beginning instrumental instruction and issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in music education, specifically focusing on music teacher preparation.

DeAngelis has served as an advisor for Arts and Music Programs for Education in Detention Centers (AMPED), a music mentorship program offered by the Northwestern Center for Civic Engagement that connects undergraduates with incarcerated youth.

DeAngelis holds a Ph.D. in music education at Northwestern University (2024), as well as an M.A. in music education from the University of Rochester Eastman School of Music and a B.A. in music from Yale University. He earned a certificate in leading equity and inclusion in organizations from Northwestern University.

Heather F. Lavender

Heather Lavender

Heather F. Lavender joins the School of Education as assistant professor of inclusive STEM education. She was most recently a postdoctoral fellow in the mathematics, science and social studies department of the University of Georgia Mary Frances Early College of Education.

Trained as a microbiologist, Lavender moved from the laboratory to the classroom after she began volunteering to educate K-12 schools about activities in her research lab and questioned how children receive science in the classroom.

Lavender’s primary research interests in science education include the awareness and participation of underserved youth—such as Black girls and visually impaired students—in STEM; sociocultural practices in science classrooms; antiracist and equitable science learning; professional development of in-service teachers; the content knowledge of pre-service teachers and women of color in technology.

Holding a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction, science education, from Louisiana State University (2021), Lavender also earned an M.S. in microbiology from UAMS (2012) and a B.S. in microbiology from Louisiana State University (1999).

Ahram Lee G’14, G’19, G’22

Ahram Lee

Now an assistant teaching professor of counseling and counselor education, Ahram Lee was a visiting assistant teaching professor at ���ϲ����� from 2022 to 2024, teaching research, assessment, group counseling and substance abuse courses. Before this appointment, she was a visiting assistant professor at SUNY Oswego.

An expert in multiculturalism and inclusion in counselor education, Lee’s research interests include a Q method analysis of the clinical training experience of bilingual Spanish-speaking counseling students, the clinical training experience of international counseling students and school counselor engagement with students with disabilities.

From ���ϲ�����, Lee earned a Ph.D. in counseling and counselor education (2022), a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling (2014) and a certificate of advanced study in women and gender studies (2019). She earned a bachelor’s degree in counseling psychology from Handong Global University (2011).

Jessamyn Neuhaus

Jessamyn Neuhaus

Jessamyn Neuhaus joins ���ϲ����� as the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) and as a professor in the School of Education. Before arriving in ���ϲ�����, she was director of the SUNY Plattsburgh Center for Teaching Excellence (2022-2024).

A scholar of cultural studies and teaching and learning excellence, Neuhaus has more than 20 years of classroom experience, teaching courses on U.S. history, gender studies, history of sexuality and popular culture history. As an educational developer, Neuhaus supports and promotes faculty teaching and reflection, effective teaching practices and equitable teaching and learning environments.

Neuhaus is the author of “Snafu EDU: Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the College Classroom” (University of Oklahoma/Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2025); “Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to be Effective Teachers” (West Virginia, 2019); “Housework and Housewives in American Advertising: Married to the Mop” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and “Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America” (Johns Hopkins, 2003).

Neuhaus holds a Ph.D. (2001) and an M.A. (1997) in history from Claremont Graduate University and a B.A. in religious studies from the College of Wooster (1992).

Rob Pusch G’03

Rob Pusch

Rob Pusch was named an assistant teaching professor of instructional design, development and evaluation (IDDE). An adjunct professor of IDDE since 2003, Pusch was most recently senior associate director at (SUPA), where he oversaw the design of instructional materials, as well as research and evaluation.

Originally trained as a chemist, Pusch began his career as a chemistry teaching assistant before moving into the field of instructional design. He graduated with a doctorate from the School of Education in 2003, the same year he was named SUPA’s chief instructional designer and joined the school as an adjunct professor.

Pusch is a co-founder of the Transgender Alliance of Central New York and board member for Sage Upstate, a not-for-profit promoting the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people in Central New York as they age.

Directed by School of Education Professor , Breedlove Readers encourages girls ages 13 through 17 to celebrate black girl stories through reading, writing and creating in the community.

For the , the club will explore ideas around identity and coming-of-age, two themes that the Art Museum addresses in its latest exhibition, “.”

Book club participants will read a novel that resonates with the life and works of Gordon Parks—a pioneering Black photographer, poet and musician—and then visit the Art Museum to explore connections between the novel and his photographs.

As a photographer, Parks worked in a variety of styles, including fashion photography, celebrity portraiture and social justice subjects. Parks famously called his camera a “tool of social consciousness” and a “weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs.” The exhibition includes photographs from Parks’ full body of work, which spans decades of his career.

About the Breedlove Readers Fall 2024 Program

• Meeting Dates: Saturday, Nov. 2 (���ϲ����� Art Museum) and Saturday, Dec. 7 (���ϲ����� MakerSpace)
• Applications close Tuesday, Oct 1. .
• Space is limited to 10 participants per cohort, ages 13-17.
• All programming is free of charge.
• Transportation is available.
• If accepted, participants must commit to attending all meetings.

Members of the Kehr/Hirsh family (from left to right): Steven Hirsh, Samantha Hirsh, Michael Kehr, Alice Hirsh, Ryan Kehr, Jonathan Hirsh and Rebecca Hirsh.

On an overcast Mother’s Day in 2018, a photo was taken outside of the Hall of Languages depicting a proud ���ϲ����� graduate, Ryan Kehr ’18, surrounded by happy family members.

It’s the kind of photo that gets taken repeatedly during Commencement weekend. This particular photo tells the story of the Kehr/Hirsh family—a proud collection of alumni whose connections to ���ϲ����� date back to the fall of 1966. That’s when Alice (Musikar) Hirsh ’70 began her pursuit of a nursing degree from the College of Nursing.

Hirsh is the matriarch of an Orange legacy family that currently boasts seven alumni members:

• Alice and her husband, Steven ’70 (philosophy, );
• Alice’s children, Jonathan ’99 (marketing management, ) and Samantha Hirsh ’10 (inclusive elementary and special education, ); along with Jonathan’s wife, Rebecca (Rosenstein) Hirsh ’99 (child development in what is now the );
• Hirsh’s nephew, Michael Kehr ’86 (political science, and the College of Arts and Sciences), and his son, Ryan (information management and technology, )

The family will add another branch to the tree when Julia Kehr ’26, Michael’s daughter, graduates in May of 2026 with dual degrees in international relations (Maxwell School) and information management and technology (iSchool).

Alice, Ryan and Julia sat down with SU News to discuss their love of the University, the Orange bonds that connect them and the impact ���ϲ����� has had on their lives.

Alice Hirsh ’70

Alice Hirsh

What drew you to ���ϲ�����? “The College of Nursing had a stellar reputation. It was hard to get into, and it was exactly what I wanted academically. When it came to choosing ���ϲ�����, I wanted a big school, one with great sports teams and Greek life. It was everything I wanted and more, and the College of Nursing really did a great job of teaching and preparing us.”

Involvement on campus: A member of the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority, Alice met her husband, Steven, during the fall semester of her sophomore year. They married a few months after graduation.

How strong is your affinity for ���ϲ�����? “I had such a positive experience at ���ϲ�����. It was an important part of my life. I’m still very close friends with a group of 15 women who graduated from the College of Nursing with me. We still communicate and we get together every couple of years for Orange gatherings that we plan ourselves. Now, seeing so many members of my family go on to study and earn degrees from ���ϲ����� really warms my heart. Everyone has had their own, great experiences. My family knows that everything I own is orange, and they know how important ���ϲ����� is to me.”

What makes ���ϲ����� special? “Each one of us found something different to focus our attention on. For me, it was Greek life. For Jonathan, he was passionate about . Samantha was on the . We each discovered our passions and interests because of our time on campus, and as a family we all believe ���ϲ����� is a great place.”

Ryan Kehr ’18

Ryan Kehr

What drew you to ���ϲ�����? “It wasn’t instilled in me that I had to attend ���ϲ�����, but ���ϲ����� was my number one choice. Plus, anyone I ever talked to about ���ϲ����� always mentioned how great their experiences were and how strong the alumni network was. I didn’t know what I wanted to study at first, so I applied to the iSchool and completely fell in love with the tight-knit community.”

Involvement on campus: An iSchool peer advisor, Ryan also worked for SIDEARM Sports, eventually running the student team of workers. “Working under SIDEARM Sports’ founder Jeff Rubin ’95, G’98 was invaluable. I owe so much of my career success to the lessons I learned from Jeff and from my classes. The first class I took from Jeff made me fall in love with technology as a career.”

Current job: Ryan is in his third year as a product manager for the NFL. He helps the league build up its electronic medical records platform for athletic trainers, team physicians and the players.

How did ���ϲ����� set you up for career success? “The iSchool gives students so many opportunities to learn, grow and pick their own career path. I learned how to be a good communicator, a good problem-solver and a good team player. Another key lesson I learned is to take advantage of every opportunity to meet with alumni. We did these iSchool road trips where we would go to Silicon Valley, New York City and Boston and meet with different companies that had ���ϲ����� alumni. We’d hear about their career journeys, and that helped me know what I wanted to do when I graduated. I’m thankful for all those opportunities; they shaped me into the person I am today.”

Julia Kehr ’26

Julia Kehr

What drew you to ���ϲ�����? “When we were all on campus for Ryan’s graduation and I saw all of my family members together, that was really cool to see everyone who shared that Orange connection. I knew right then that I was meant to be at ���ϲ�����. I applied early decision my senior year of high school and didn’t visit any other colleges.”

Involvement on campus: A member of the Delta Gamma sorority, Julia became involved with Slice Consulting, a student-run consulting firm that provides pro bono services to clients and nonprofits in ���ϲ�����. She currently serves as a project manager.

Career ambitions: “I interned at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey this summer and really enjoyed that experience. That solidified my interest in working for a nonprofit, which Maxwell definitely instilled in me and has been enhanced through my work for Slice Consulting. I feel like working in the public sector consulting or working as a project manager for a nonprofit would be a great fit.”

What makes ���ϲ����� special? “I always saw how closely tied to ���ϲ����� my family was, but I never realized what that meant until I enrolled. The second I came back to campus from winter break my freshman year, I understood how special it was that we all shared the same values because we were all at the same place for college and learned such valuable life lessons.”

Jennifer Pluta has worked in career services at ���ϲ�����, including spending the last 10 years providing advice to ���ϲ�����’s veterans and military-connected community.

When enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve on May 19, 1999, she had no grand plans for making a career out of her service to her country. Rather, feeling compelled to give back to her country, Pluta thought she would serve for a few years before embarking on the next chapter of her life.

Today, the military has become the focal point of Pluta’s career, connecting service members to their benefits and resources while providing both mentorship and guidance that enhances the professional development pursuits of soldiers.

Along with commemorating 25 years of military service, Pluta, a first sergeant in the Army Reserve, is celebrating another professional milestone. For nearly 20 years, Pluta has worked in career services at ���ϲ�����, including spending the last 10 years providing advice to ���ϲ�����’s veterans and military-connected community.

Jennifer Pluta

“I’ve always had a desire to go into the service. I’m so honored to have had this experience and I can’t believe I’m now at 25 years of military service,” says Pluta, director of Veteran Career Services in the , who also led the University’s Veterans Affinity Group for faculty and staff.

“I just never thought this was the plan when I first enlisted, but here I am. I love serving my country. I love helping and mentoring our soldiers on their journeys. Being a humble servant who gives back to our soldiers is the most honorable thing I can think of.”

By encouraging student veterans to discover more about the potential employment opportunities available to them, Pluta’s passion for career services has led to an impressive 100% placement rate for connecting student veterans to new careers following graduation. She achieves this through customized career coaching, mentoring, networking and her strong connections with potential employers.

Pluta’s commitment to serving veterans led to her being named a scholar for the 2023 Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program by the George W. Bush Institute. The initiative supports individuals who not only give back to our nation’s veterans and military families, but are motivated to broaden their skillsets, knowledge and influence to enhance their efforts to support the military-connected communities they serve.

Pluta, who earned a master’s degree in higher education administration from the in 2015, sat down with SU News to discuss her passion for service, the joy she gets from and the role she’s happy to play in making ���ϲ����� one of the best places for veterans.

Where did your passion for this work come from?

I always had an interest in career services going back to high school, when I would read resume books and wanted to learn how to make someone’s resume standout. When I was in college [at Alfred University] I did an internship with the Alfred University Carer Development Center. When I was first deployed to Kuwait as part of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, I wound up helping soldiers to access their GI Bill benefits, student loans and other educational assistance programs.

I didn’t know you could make a career doing this. But from the onset of my military career, I wanted to know how the military benefits worked, because, for so many, those benefits are the key reason they chose to enlist in the Army Reserve. I also knew, from conversations on the base [in Kuwait], that there were many soldiers in the military who weren’t aware of the many benefits and educational incentives available to them. I was eager to share my knowledge with as many soldiers as possible because access to education through the Army’s benefits could significantly enhance their career paths and help eliminate many financial barriers.

How satisfying has it been to connect veterans and soldiers to their benefits?

It’s always been so rewarding helping my fellow soldiers. I’m lucky that I can do something I’m passionate about while helping others achieve their goals. It’s my job to help soldiers realize that they have a tremendous skillset to offer to an employer. Too often, veterans have a limited viewpoint on the value of their skills and what opportunities might be available to them. But it’s such a rewarding feeling when they understand that employers are interested in their skills and what they bring to the workforce. That’s the reward, when they realize what’s possible.

Once I came to ���ϲ�����, shortly after my deployment in 2005, I started here as a temporary, part-time employee in the Center for Career Services. It was supposed to be on a limited basis, but it’s going to be 20 years for me with ���ϲ����� next year. I’m passionate about empowering our veterans and military-connected students with the skills and opportunities they need to succeed with their professional goals. I’ve had the best time and made some of the most amazing connections by helping the people I’ve served with.

How does your role with career services impact the University’s reputation as one of the best places for veterans?

Because I served as an Army Reserve career counselor and am still active in the Army Reserve, I have an understanding of not only what our service members have been through, but how their military experiences and leadership can be leveraged and utilized to help achieve their career goals. I know what resources to use to help translate their military experience into career success. I help those soldiers who want to go back into the service, and I help our faculty and staff who need help navigating their careers in the Army Reserve. I can use my network and my experiences to help connect veterans to the necessary resources, and I’m really happy I’ve been able to contribute.

The students were part of the Significant Disabilities: Shifts in Paradigms and Practices (SPE 644) course taught by , associate professor in the School of Education, who was the Libraries’ 2023-24 Special Collections Research Center .

The students presented their findings at a public showcase in spring 2024 and their work is available online as a digital exhibition. “” explores disability as a cultural construction by examining historical developments in special and inclusive education, as well as the development and later closures of institutions and asylums for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The archives—and exhibit—show details of how Americans in past decades regarded disability, including information about eugenics (the selective breeding of humans) as the basis for institutionalization; letters exchanged between institutions and individuals about certain individuals and situations; and striking images collected by those who advocated for disabled individuals and disability rights.

Graduate students held a public showcase last spring describing their research and capping their course, “Significant Disabilities: Shifts in Paradigms and Practices.” From left are Associate Professor Julia White and students Neil Boedicker, Kayla Cornelius and Raquell Carpenter. (Photo by Martin Walls)

White says the primary source materials provided the students with particularly rich and informative records, in part due to ���ϲ�����’s long history as a vanguard for disabled individuals and a leader in inclusive education and disability rights. Today, the Center on Disability and Inclusion continues the legacy of the , founded in 1971 by Dean Burton Blatt, a groundbreaking disability rights scholar. Blatt and other individuals at the University were involved in disability rights lawsuits during the 1970s and developed language surrounding the creation of special education law. All of that history—and dozens of associated original documents and artifacts—are preserved for viewing and research.

Julia White

“We at ���ϲ����� have really reconceptualized how to think about people with disabilities, especially intellectual disabilities. The University is known for its forefront advocacy on inclusive education and all that work is evident in the archives,” White says. “There are so many things to investigate and so many lessons we can get from this; it’s a gold mine waiting to be explored.”

A former special education teacher, White now researches national and international special education policy and inclusive education as a human right. But she “was always interested in how law and policies could be applied to different people under different circumstances. I noticed how some students could be placed in segregated or self-contained classrooms while others were in resource rooms and were more integrated. Very little was different about their learning profiles other than their race or socioeconomic profile. I wondered why, if some students had more significant disabilities, they were held to very few or no academic standards.”

Based on her experience as both a doctoral student and a teacher, White says, “I had a pretty strong sense of the racial and economic injustice inherent in U.S. society and always considered inclusive education a civil rights issue.” Yet it was her experience in a Fulbright teacher exchange program in the Slovak Republic and later work for the Landmine Survivors Network for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, that cemented her perspective of inclusive education as a broader human rights issue.

Cover of “.” (Photo: Special Collections Research Center, ���ϲ����� Libraries)

‘Fantastic’ SCRC Process

The time she spent examining materials and working with staff at SCRC “was a fantastic process all around,” White says. “Sometimes, an artifact had very little to do with what I was interested in—���ϲ�����’s role in deinstitutionalization, inclusive education and disability activism—but there were many�� ‘aha’ moments that sent me down rabbit holes and that was a lot of fun. The discovery of so many amazing contributions of folks affiliated with the University was the best part of this fellowship. And the staff were phenomenal; they had great insights. I came into this knowing little about archival work and hadn’t done any myself, but they were so gracious and so helpful.”

SCRC staff were also readily available to the , discussing their readings, helping them categorize materials and offering advice on how to formulate the exhibit, White says. , instruction and education librarian, was involved with the class almost every time they met. , humanities librarian and digital and open scholarship lead, helped them create the digital exhibit.

Gratifying for Students��

The experience of using primary source documents and finding so much relevant information to work with was gratifying for the students, two of the class members say.

Sierra Eastman ’20, G’25 teaches math to seventh- and eighth-grade students in the ���ϲ����� City School District. Her review of archive materials helped her gain a better understanding of the perspectives of people with disabilities, Eastman says. “I have students with various disabilities in my classes and I wanted to get an understanding of them that I didn’t have as an able-bodied person. We tried to put ourselves in their shoes and see how we could make sense of how this [institutionalism] happened, how they were personally impacted and the larger societal reasons that it occurred.”

A “Fight Handicapism” poster provides a historic perspective about the word’s definition. (Photo: , Special Collections Research Center, ���ϲ����� Libraries)

Kionna Morrison G’24 is an algebraic reasoning teacher in the ���ϲ����� City School District who completes the inclusive special education (grades 7-12) program this month as a scholar. She wanted to understand the experiences that people of color, especially Black children, had in institutions for the intellectually disabled. “I could see how disability, institutionalization and racism can be traced to the pre-Civil War and Reconstruction eras. I gained insight on how certain bodies have been consistently institutionalized.��Now, I want to continue to learn about the intersectionality between race and special education and how people from multiple marginalized communities navigate their experiences with disability,” she says.

White believes there has been a significant change in the public’s views on disability, and particularly on intellectual disability, in recent years. “The U.S. has much farther to go in terms of changing society’s perception of disability, intellectual disability and breaking down barriers for any group of marginalized people,” she says. “We need to recognize how far we’ve come in changing attitudes in society, making places accessible, and providing higher education opportunities for disabled people, such as ���ϲ�����’s program. That’s a good start to thinking differently. Although attitudes are something that we still have to change, the civil and human rights of people with intellectual disabilities are routinely denied in the U.S. and worldwide, and I hope that this project helps shed some light on the history of the continuing fight for disability rights.”

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The project——kicked off in February 2024 thanks to an by the College of Arts and Sciences. The funding allowed to offer five workshops in partnership with the local to explore how various communities that call ���ϲ����� home use food fermentation as a culture-making practice.

Workshops have explored recipes from kimchi to yogurt and included accounts by each instructor on their family connection to the fermentation process.

For week four—offered on April 14—Valerie Khaloo led a group of eight participants through the steps of her grandmother’s , a popular Mauritian condiment of pickled vegetables eaten on the Indian Ocean island that her family hails from.

Khaloo says she had to test the recipe multiple times prior to leading the class because her grandmother never provided measurements for each ingredient. Crafting a recipe others could understand—one based on exactness and not her memory of how it should taste–helped her remember her grandmother, who recently passed away.

“Every time I make zasar, I see my grandmother doing it in front of me, and I feel closer to her,” says Kahloo. Her grandmother made huge batches of the dish, bringing the whole family together. Khaloo recalls fondly how her family would bond over zasar, extended family members arriving at her house with up to five empty jars to fill.

Gill says he became interested in fermentation at an early age by helping to brew beer with his father and older brother. Later, he tried—unsuccessfully, he says—to make sourdough bread and then vegan kimchi. Then, from the fall of 2018 to spring of 2019, he spent a year on research leave in South Korea, the land of all things fermented.

When Gill returned to ���ϲ�����, he began to use the process as a metaphor for his graduate students. “We talked about the act of fermentation as a metaphor for how we think about research, as something we could slow down, or sort of let the magic or the microbes take over,” he explains, adding that he even assigned his students a fermentation project. “We want to create the right environment and make sure the bacteria is gone, that it has the right amount of salt—or whatever it might be—to allow the ferment to happen.”

Stories from each workshop held during winter/spring 2024 will be archived publicly on a website that is in development. Some accounts, explains Gill, might make their way into a book project that further explores how fermentation serves as a way to preserve one’s culture.

“Preserve” and “culture”—there’s that metaphor again!

How To Make Zasar: A Photo Essay and Recipe

Unpeeled carrots, chopped into very thin strips or sliced with a mandolin, are prepared to be added with the raw green beans, cabbage and onion. Zasar is one of the most popular condiments eaten on the island of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean, just east of Madagascar. Mauritian food is a fusion of tastes from India to Africa.

Zasar is primarily a mix of green cabbage, carrots and green beans. Instructor Valerie Khaloo says back in Mauritius she would leave the chopped vegetables outside to dry before heating. “They’d sit in the sun for a day, but here…I don’t know if we even have seven hours of sunlight,” she says with a laugh. Instead, she advised participants to pat all the vegetables dry with a paper towel before warming.

Avalon Gupta VerWiebe G’22, a food studies graduate, roughly chops ginger. Both ginger and apples are the last two ingredients added to the warmed zasar mixture.

Spices for the zasar include brown mustard seeds and turmeric powder. The two are ground together using a mortar and pestle until the seeds are coarse. Then, white vinegar is gradually added until the consistency resembles a moist paste. The ideal consistency, Khaloo says, is like creamy peanut butter: “not in-the-fridge peanut butter.”

Khaloo tells participants the best oil to use is sunflower oil, “but the heatness is debatable” because when asked her mother’s advice, she was told to “make the burner warm but not enough to cook or so it gets hot.”

Once the oil warms, add the onions first and then the two cups of mixed vegetables with three smashed garlic cloves. You only want to warm the mixture and not cook, Khaloo believes, because if the mixture gets too hot, it can become bitter.

After warming the vegetables, add about two teaspoons of the spice mix and wait until the vegetables become fragrant. Add the white vinegar after all is warmed through.

Once warmed through, scoop into storage jars, but leave open for a bit to start the fermentation process.

The Zasar mix should be left open for a bit to kickstart the fermentation process. Once sealed, leave the jar at room temperature for one to two days and then refrigerate.

Instructor Valerie Khaloo helps ���ϲ����� resident West Brimmage make a batch of zasar. Professor Michael Gill can be seen in the background.

Brimmage measures salt to add to their warmed vegetables. Under-salting, explains Brady Farm Coordinator Jessi Lyons, will prevent fermentation.

Khaloo guides ���ϲ����� resident Kaija Dockter on what ingredients to warm first.

Zasar is typically eaten with curry, basmati rice, or lentils and other beans. Khaloo says it’s a versatile condiment and is great mixed with pasta, on salads or sandwiches, or just straight out of the jar. She also explains that zasar is good for digestive health, while the ayurveda sunflower oil is warming, and both the turmeric and mustard seeds are anti-inflammatory.

Story by Ashley Kang ’04, G’11 and photos by Angelina Grevi ’28.

Tarzan

Have you met Tarzan or Juan yet on campus? These latest members of the University community are hard to miss, with their friendly dispositions, shiny coats and wagging tails.

Tarzan, a one-year-old black lab, and Juan, a��four-month-old yellow lab, are puppies being raised by good friends Arianna Kuhn ’25 and Megan Panny ’25 for , a nonprofit organization that trains and cares for guide dogs for people with vision loss.

Kuhn, a biology major in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Panny, a dual degree English major in the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Education, became involved through outreach being done on campus by Mary Oonk, the organization’s local volunteer region co-coordinator.

Headquartered in Yorktown Heights, New York, Guiding Eyes for the Blind has puppy raisers along the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to North Carolina, including in Central New York. Founded in 1954, the organization, with more than 1,700 volunteers, provides all of their services free of charge.

Juan

Kuhn was interested in the organization after reading about its mission. “I am passionate about giving back to the community and wanted to have a positive impact on an individual that would benefit from the services of Guiding Eyes,” she says. “In addition to the opportunity to volunteer, the chance to combine my devotion to helping others and my love for dogs drew me to want to take part in this experience.”

Panny wanted to get involved after seeing the impact it had on people’s lives firsthand. “My hometown is near the Guiding Eyes for the Blind headquarters, which has given me the ability to see how the program works throughout my life,” Panny says. “When I saw the opportunity to be involved through ���ϲ�����, it was one I was excited about. This program has allowed me to help others while also fulfilling the love I have for animals.”

The organization was first connected with the University through a simple phone call: Oonk called the JMA Wireless Dome box office to order basketball tickets and started talking to the representative about the work of Guiding Eyes for the Blind. “I explained to him the work I do for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, and that socialization of these puppies is a huge part of that and asked if there was a way we could bring the dogs into the JMA Dome for training,” Oonk says. “The next thing I know, I got a meeting with the entire team at the JMA Dome.”

Training Space for Pups

Mary Oonk

The JMA Dome offers a good training experience for the puppies. Guide dogs must navigate large spaces, like an arena, with stairs, elevators and expansive areas.

“Mary approached us about hosting a one-time training class with the volunteers and puppies, but we worked with them to create something more where they could come into the JMA Dome for regular training and even attend a women’s basketball game so that the puppies could be exposed to a live event in the Dome,” says Pete Sala, vice president and chief facilities officer. The organization has had a relationship with the JMA Dome since 2015—volunteers come approximately once a month to walk the arena, attend a game or train.

While the experience in the Dome is invaluable, Oonk says the group was hoping to find a way to get students involved with the program. A University campus makes an ideal learning and socialization space for raising guide dogs, with a variety of spaces and situations and groups of people.

Puppy trainers and their dogs in the JMA Dome

Life-Changing Experience

In Summer 2022, Stephen Kuusisto, University Professor and director of interdisciplinary programs and outreach for the Burton Blatt Institute, met with local volunteers and their puppies and shared his story about how his life changed since getting his first dog, Corky, from Guide Eyes for the Blind.

Steve Kuusisto with his former guide dog, Nira

“A lot of things were going on in my life that were difficult, including losing an adjunct teaching job and becoming unemployed,” says Kuusisto. “So I suddenly thought, well, here I am, really visually impaired, and have nothing on the calendar. Why not get a guide dog?”

His life was forever changed. Kuusisto went from not really going anywhere without the dependence of a friend and their schedule to going wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

“I spent the next month walking everywhere from country roads to Midtown Manhattan, learning that I could trust this dog with my life,” Kuusisto says.

Kuusisto, who is forever grateful for the volunteers at Guiding Eyes for the Blind, connected Oonk with the Student Experience team during the Fall 2022 semester, who was very supportive in finding ways to gain student volunteers for the puppy raising program. “We are so grateful for the University’s support. Everyone we’ve worked with on campus has become an integral part of the Guiding Eyes mission,” says Oonk.

The only stipulation for students wanting to be involved with raising puppies on campus is that they cannot live in North Campus student housing; puppies in training are, however, allowed in South Campus housing. But that was no problem; even for those students who live on North Campus or perhaps have a busy schedule that wouldn’t allow for puppy raising, there are still many ways to get involved with the program.

The campus program got a boost when the Guiding Eyes for the Blind group was invited to table at the Fall 2023 student involvement fair. Kuhn and Panny saw the opportunity to take their love for dogs and make a difference in someone’s life.

Otto the Orange becomes fast friends with one of the guide dog puppies in training.

Invaluable Lessons in Community

Kuhn says one of her favorite parts about this program is the community of Guiding Eyes volunteers.

Tarzan at the ���ϲ����� Mets game with Kuhn and Panny.

“These individuals have taught me countless invaluable lessons outside of just puppy raising that I will carry with me into my future endeavors,” Kuhn says. “As I have embarked on my puppy raising journey, it has been life-changing to see the impact that this organization and its pups have on the lives of not only individuals with visual impairments but the lives of us as raisers as well.”

Panny agrees. “The Central New York region of Guiding Eyes has so many wonderful people and has provided me with a home away from home while at school. I have also loved my time training our puppies. This program and time spent with the pups is one I will cherish forever,” she says.

For others who might want to get involved, Kuhn says the organization is a great way to give back and be of service to others. “Within this program, there are countless ways to get involved, including campus volunteer work, puppy raising and sitting, as well as home socialization, among other ways,” she says.

“Guiding Eyes is not only fulfilling but goes on to change the lives of those who receive the pup they have raised,” Panny says. “Many involved in the programs have also gained lifelong friendships with whom their pup goes on to guide!”

Interested in becoming a puppy raiser or looking for other ways to get involved? Faculty and staff are welcome to get involved with the program too. “In guide dog training, we talk a lot about relationship-based training. The dogs learn to build a relationship with their puppy raiser and then their formal guide dog trainer and finally they transfer that relationship to the partner they are matched with to form a lifelong bond,” says Oonk. “Relationship building is what we have strived to do with the campus community. Administration, faculty, staff and students have come together to support these dogs that will go on to change lives.”

Visit the , or connect with Oonk and the local chapter by email: centralnyregion@guidingeyes.net. Check out the puppies and their .

Livingston, an inclusive elementary and special education program graduate, sent Chandler-Olcott photos of her in the hand-printed dress and wrote, “I knew I wanted to create something with my students to wear on graduation day. I had each student from my placements pick which color and hand they wanted to use, and also had the teachers and teaching assistants from each class add their handprint.”

In addition to being a creative keepsake for a special day, the dress embodies what Livingston has learned about inclusion during her studies, as this photo essay explains.

Rory Livingston ’24, an inclusive elementary and special education program graduate, wore a hand-made, hand-printed dress to the School of Education’s convocation.

In addition to earning an inclusive elementary and special education degree, Livingston was a member of the and president of the student-led , the international honor society in education.

“Ever since I committed to ���ϲ�����, I saw graduating students decorating their dresses and stoles,” recalls Livingston. “I had never actually seen handprints on a dress, though. I thought this idea was more inclusive of students who maybe didn’t like drawing or had mobility issues. This way, all students could contribute without disrupting the classroom too much.”

One of Rory Livingston’s students applies her handprint to Livingston’s dress.

The dress has 56 colorful handprints in all, including 29 fifth-grade students from the Mae E. Reynolds Elementary School in the Baldwinsville, New York, Central School District, where Livingston had her first field placement, immersed in an inclusive classroom and doing small group math work.

Hosts and mentors Therese Carlin-Erich ’87 and Jaime Young ’05 added their hands. “I enjoyed working with my fifth-graders and enjoyed my relationships with them,” says Livingston. “I think they were excited to work with me as a young person.”

Adding their prints were 18 students from Livingston’s second student teacher placement in the third grade at Smith Road Elementary School in the North ���ϲ����� Central School District, as well as general education teacher Lauren Corbishley-Stuper and special education co-teacher Gia Pilger.

Rory Livingston poses with her handmade convocation dress and her customized graduation cap.

Livingston, a native of Norwich, Vermont, plans on moving to Connecticut after graduation, where she is “interested in mathematics education. I want to teach first, but then think about a master’s degree.”

Livingston has this advice for other student teachers embarking on their field placements: “Remember, you are still learning. It’s okay if you mess up. Don’t try to be the perfect teacher. Being honest with my students was super valuable. I would tell them that if what I’m saying doesn’t make sense, let me know and we’ll find another way. Being vulnerable opens you up and it helps open up your students.”

“I’m debating what to do with the dress” explains Livingston. “I might frame it. I have kept all the cards students in my placement classes have given me in a collage, and it might be fun to add the dress.”

Huntington Hall, School of Education (Photo by Jeremy Brinn)

An anonymous benefactor has given $150,000 to the to provide scholarships for Native American students preparing to become inclusive education teachers. The School of Education Indigenous Teacher Preparation Fund will provide scholarships to at least seven undergraduate students in its first cohort which will matriculate by the 2026-27 academic year.

The scholarship will pay for a maximum of 30% of an individual student’s tuition. A portion of the fund will provide support for special programming and academic opportunities for Native American teacher preparation students, such as undergraduate research, conference attendance or study away opportunities within the U.S.

“There is a critical need for Indigenous teachers in schools serving predominantly Indigenous communities, especially for those trained in inclusive education at the elementary level,” says Tammy Bluewolf-Kennedy, assistant director, Partnership Programs and Indigenous Recruitment. “Due to the lack of consistency and persistence in current teacher preparation programs, Indigenous students are left without adequate supports so vital to their educational journey.”

Bluewolf-Kennedy explains that young Indigenous students seeing themselves represented in their teachers—knowing they understand their cultures, histories and ways of life—is a crucial element for academic success.

“This financial aid will fill this gap in Indigenous education and create future leaders to strengthen communities,” Bluewolf-Kennedy adds. “Beyond impacting individual student-teachers, there will be a ripple effect impacting their home communities and Nations. The possibilities this gift opens for Indigenous teachers is very powerful.”

Indigenous Teacher Preparation Fund scholarships are reserved for qualified, admitted, first-year and transfer students enrolled in any Native American nation in the U.S. and Canada, with a preference for students from the Haudenosaunee nations. Students eligible for the Indigenous Pathways Grant programs may apply.

Thanks to its new, streamlined undergraduate teacher preparation curriculum, Indigenous students have two inclusive education options when applying to the .

The first option is the Inclusive Childhood Education bachelor’s degree program, which leads to New York State certification in General Childhood Education (grades 1-6) and Students With Disabilities (all grades). Students may also apply for Inclusive Adolescent Education, which leads to NYS certification in Students With Disabilities (all grades) and a chosen content area (English, mathematics, science or social studies).

“Thanks to our donor’s generosity, the Indigenous Teacher Preparation Fund is being created at an exciting time for the School of Education,” says Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott. “Our newly designed undergraduate curriculum has the opportunity to provide unique opportunities for Indigenous students, such as the . Plus, the emphasis in ���ϲ�����’s on experiential learning and study away creates new space to explore partnerships with tribal colleges and universities.”

113 Euclid Avenue, home to the Native Student Program (Photo by Angela Ryan)

At ���ϲ�����, Indigenous student teachers will find a welcoming campus community and with faculty, staff and alumni who are invested in helping Native American students succeed.

Among opportunities open to all Indigenous students include the , which supports students in their transition to college life and throughout their undergraduate experience; , a student-run organization; and the .

To learn more about the Indigenous Teacher Preparation Fund and other Native student supports, contact Bluewolf-Kennedy at tbluewol@syr.edu. To learn more about the School of Education’s teacher preparation programs, contact Heather Macknik, assistant director of Undergraduate Admissions and Recruitment in the School of Education at hmmackni@syr.edu or 315.443.4269.

Faculty members Beth Myers (left) and Don Carr. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Seven student-designed products, services and technologies meant to assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities won recognition and seed funding at the Showcase on April 25.

Fashion design major Shelstie Dastinot showed adaptive clothing having Haitian-inspired designs. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

The showcase is the culmination of the two-semester course taught by , professor and program coordinator for industrial and interaction design in the , and , Lawrence B. Taishoff assistant professor of inclusive education and executive director of the in the .�� They and the students are also supported by co-instructor , founder of entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises adjunct faculty member in the ��and strategic initiatives advisor, .

The interdisciplinary course and the open-call design competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students from across the University, including students studying in the program, and it is sponsored by ���ϲ����� Libraries. “It’s a unique program,” says Carr. “To my knowledge, Intelligence ++ is the only integrated design and innovation incubator in which students from a program such as InclusiveU work as part of a team to develop a wide range of product ideas.”

As part of the course, students learn about steps taken at the University to help address accessibility and neurodiversity across campus. Myers says the fact that students come from a range of majors and programs helps widen the understanding of access, disability and inclusion needs and abilities.

Policy studies major Ryan Brouchard emphasizes the planned journey for his team’s innovation, AdaptEd, created with computer science student Adya Parida. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

“We’re thinking about disability, accessibility and disability language and content, as well as the possibilities [for] disability and neurodiversity. We’re designing not for disabled people, but with disabled people, so it’s really meaningful,” says Myers.

Shelstie Dastinot ’24, a fashion design major in VPA, says her perspective on disability is formed by personal experience. “I realized that we all separate ourselves from the disabled community, but we can all become disabled at any point. We are all temporarily able, is what I like to say.”

Ryan Brouchoud ’25, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says the class taught him how to think in practical and functional ways about disability needs. “I’m learning about the best way to go about making products and programs that are accessible to all but that are also feasible to create. I’m interested in creating something that fixes problems that need addressing.”

Xiaochao Yu ’25, an interior design major in VPA, spoke to both disabled and non-disabled individuals as he worked on his project, and found the groups had similar concerns regarding public study spaces. “They expressed that the environment was distracting both visually and acoustically. I decided to create a product that would provide the privacy students were looking for.”

His project, Portable Sensory Enclosure, uses low-budget structural elements and materials to create temporary, movable barriers that offer more privacy and acoustic and visual improvements for use in public study areas.

The other winning projects were:

Four members of the team of UpliftU present how their website makes reporting incidents of bias and accessibility barriers easier, with a built-in feedback and assessment system. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

Uplift U,�� a website that allows reporting on barriers to accessibility, such as the lack of an access ramp at a building, and issues and incidents related to diversity and inclusion, such as a bias situation.

It was created by InclusiveU students Tanner Knox Belge ’27 an undeclared major; Devin Braun ’27, a food studies major; Sean Bleaking ’24, a food studies major and Arturo Tomas Cruz Avellan ’27, an undeclared major; along with Jasmine Rood, ’27, a design studies major in VPA, Caitlin Kennedy Espiritu ’25, a public communications major in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, and Megan Gajewski ’27, a fashion design major in VPA.

Cuse Up, an app to help InclusiveU students more easily discover social groups and campus activities, created by students Tojyea Matally ’27, a communication design major and Faith Mahoney ’26, an industrial and interaction design major, both studying in VPA.

Shelstie, a line of sustainable, adaptive clothing featuring bright colors and Haitian-inspired looks, designed by Dastinot.

AdaptEd, an educational tech platform that uses AI-powered software to support varied learning styles, created by Brouchoud and Adya Parida ’25, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Echo Classroom, a platform that provides resources to aid in lesson interpretation, developed by Alexandra Gustave ’24 and Charlotte Chu ’26, fashion design majors in VPA.

VocaLink, a concept by graduate data science students Dhruv Shah and Sampada Regmi, offers computer-based vocational training. (Photo by Angela Ryan)

VocaLink, a computer-based vocational training and interactive learning tool, developed by graduate students Dhruv Shah ’25 and Sampada Regmi ’24, who are both students in the applied data science program at the School of Information Studies.

Judges were Matthew Van Ryn, a ���ϲ����� attorney; Hanah Ehrenreich, a development associate at Jowonio School who also advises entrepreneurs; Brianna Howard ’20, G’21, founder of Faithful Works virtual assistant and grant writing services;�� and Gianfranco Zaccai ’70, H’09, co-founder and chief designer of Continuum Innovation, who helped establish the program through a gift to ���ϲ����� Libraries from the .

Team members, faculty and judges gathered to celebrate the innovations presented at the 2024 Intelligence++ Showcase. (Photo by Marilyn Hesler)

Saraswati Dhakal

In that role, Dhakal coordinated the center’s renal transplant services, delivering care and treatment to patients while providing counseling and guidance to both the recipients and the family members of the donors.

Dhakal experienced the challenging hardships of working with patients with terminal illness, and she saw firsthand the psychological impact it can have on a family watching a loved one go through their health battle.

Those interactions reinforced to Dhakal the importance of holistic health care while setting her on a path to become a professional counselor and mental health advocate once she graduates.

“Witnessing the impact of mental health challenges on individuals close to me sparked a desire to understand and support those struggling with such issues. Those experiences as a nurse and transplant coordinator further ignited my curiosity to learn more about mental health, which stems from a desire to better understand individuals’ experiences, motivations and resilience in the face of adversity,” Dhakal says. “I am continuously intrigued by the complexities of human behavior and the role of counseling in promoting well-being.”

Saraswati Dhakal plans to utilize her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling to create a safe, accessible environment for everyone seeking help.

During her time on campus, Dhakal was the graduate assistant at the Center for International Services, working with the staff to offer programming and services that support the well-being and overall success of the international student population while contributing to the center’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. She also was active with the , the counseling academic and professional honor society, serving as secretary during the 2023-24 academic year.

Dhakal will participate in the on Saturday, May 11, in the John A. Lally Athletics Complex.

Leading up to convocation, Dhakal sat down with SU News to discuss the challenges facing mental health care professionals and how she plans to utilize her degree to create a safe, accessible environment for everyone seeking help with their mental health.

The����funds a range of awards that include English teaching assistantships (ETA) and study/research grants in over 140 countries.

The 2024 recipients are:

• Caroline Barraco G’24, a history master’s degree student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, English teaching assistantship (ETA), Spain
• Olivia Budelmann ’23 (mathematics; environment, sustainability and policy; and Spanish language, literature and culture in the College of Arts and Sciences), ETA, Andorra
• Jaemon Crosby ’24, an acting major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA), study award, United Kingdom—London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA, classical acting)
• Avital Datskovsky, a Ph.D. student in anthropology in the Maxwell School, research award, India
• Jessica Hogbin, a Ph.D. student in history in the Maxwell School, research award, Italy
• Lindsey Kernen ’23 (psychology in A&S and citizenship and civic engagement in the Maxwell School), study award, United Kingdom—University of Strathclyde
• Yasmin Nayrouz ’24, an English and textual studies major in A&S, a public relations major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, study award, United Kingdom—University of Sussex
• Anthony Ornelaz G’24, a creative writing M.F.A. student in A&S,��ETA, Poland
• Alec Rovensky ’21 (School of Architecture), study award, Germany—Technische Universität Berlin
• Adriana Rozas Rivera G’21 (magazine, news and digital journalism, Newhouse School), ETA, Spain
• Zelikha Shoja G’24, an art video student in VPA, research award, Tajikistan
• Julianne Strauss ’23 (inclusive elementary and special education, School of Education) G’24 (literacy education), ETA, Spain
• Elizabeth Vanek G’24, a clinical mental health counseling student in the School of Education, ETA, Mexico
• Ciara Young ’24, an international relations and anthropology major in the Maxwell School | A&S and linguistics major in A&S and member of the Renée Crown Honors Program, ETA, Korea

The 2024 alternates are:

• Huleymatu Barrie ’22 (international relations in the Maxwell School | A&S, ETA, Ghana
• Ian Ferguson, a Ph.D. student in history in the Maxwell School, research award, Kenya
• Liam Goff, a senior broadcast and digital journalism major in the Newhouse School, ETA, Germany
• Mary Matthews, a senior international relations major in the Maxwell School | A&S, ETA, Estonia
• Laura Roman Lopez G’24, a master’s degree student in magazine, news and digital journalism in the Newhouse School, ETA, Argentina

Jaemon Crosby

Crosby, while studying at LAMDA, hopes to bring a new perspective and diversify the world of classical acting, as classical texts and acting historically have been written for and performed by white men.

Jaemon Crosby

“Some of these texts, for example Shakespeare, convey a bigger message and an experience that is not unique to just one race or gender, but to everyone,” Crosby says. “There has been a big revamp in the use of classical texts and bringing them to modern eyes, and I want to be a part of that. … I have always been very drawn to language, rhetoric and the power of listening. I hope this training will help me bring that into works that are performed today and give me a new perspective and interpretation of texts to bring into auditions as I begin my acting career.”

Crosby hopes he can be a role model for younger Black kids in that they may see themselves in classical texts. “Representation is very important in television, theatre and film,” he says. “I want to act and play roles that go against stereotypes of what a Black man is and show what we can be and the power in our Blackness.”

He also hopes that in the future, the connections he makes during his time in the U.K. will aid him in producing shows both in the United States and the U.K. “In my time during my previous semester abroad in London (through ���ϲ����� Abroad), I saw so many beautiful, specific and bold plays that are telling important stories that all should see,” Crosby says. “Theatre should tell stories that allow people to see themselves in them and relate, tell untold stories, educate and make people feel less alone. Everyone should have access to that. There are amazing shows I think should be brought to the U.S., and their messages shared with everyone. I want to be a part of that, and this training and the connections I make will help me get there.”

Jessica Hogbin

Jessica Hogbin

During her Fulbright year in Italy, Hogbin will conduct research for her dissertation, which studies how melancholy—a now-defunct medical category from humoral theory—was used and abused by Renaissance scholars and physicians to express and explain mental health and the mind. Her project, “Innumerable Melancholies: Medicine, Mental Health and Human Nature in Renaissance Italy, 1450-1650,” engages with the deeply interconnected relationship between medicine, narratives around mental health and politics in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Hogbin will conduct research in several archives and libraries in the Veneto region of Italy, including the Historic Archive of the University of Padua, the Marciana Library, and the State Archives of Padua and Venice.

“Through this study, I aim to explore the increasing presumption that it was a patient’s responsibility to care for their own mind and body, along with stereotypes that claimed certain people were more likely by birth and social status to be victims of melancholy, concepts that continue to affect how mental health is imagined to this day,” she says. “I am greatly looking forward to spending this Fulbright year building my dissertation project, conversing with Italian scholars and eating plenty of gelato.”

Hogbin plans to transform her dissertation into a book project in the future. “I hope to take everything that I learn during my Fulbright year, both academically and culturally, back into the classroom, where I am looking forward to sharing this information with my students and allowing the content that I find to shape my lessons.”

Lindsay Kernen

During her Fulbright year, Kernen will pursue a master’s degree in work and organizational psychology at the University of Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland.

Lindsay Kernen

Her research will focus on interpersonal relationships in organizations and how diverse groups have the power to produce creative, innovative and profitable outcomes as opposed to conventional top-down management styles.

“I hope to bridge theory and practice, promoting the importance of community involvement in psychological research. I’m looking forward to partnering with an organization in Glasgow to improve employee well-being and satisfaction,” she says. “I’m so excited to have a year dedicated to community-based learning and I hope this leaves me exposed to many diverse perspectives in the psychology field and beyond.”

Beyond her Fulbright year, Kernen plans to embark upon a career dedicated to connecting psychological research that informs employee wellbeing with organizational practices and to raise awareness of the benefits of inclusive group dialogue for innovative workplaces. “This experience will allow me to dig deep into these topics while providing many opportunities to collaborate with local organizations to implement these strategies while learning from the local community and diverse cultures,” she says.

In addition to her studies, Kernen plans to attend meetings for worship at the local Quaker meetinghouse and enjoy Glasgow’s vibrant music and arts scene.

Julianne Strauss

Julianne Strauss

During her Fulbright year, Strauss will be an English teaching assistant in the La Rioja region of Spain. “I hope to find ways to promote inclusive education within the classrooms I teach in and in the school community,” says Strauss. “I also want to instill a love of reading in my students and use inclusive children’s literature that I read in my own U.S. classrooms to promote English learning.”

Strauss, who studied in Madrid during her junior year through ���ϲ����� Abroad, hopes to grow as a Spanish speaker and immerse herself in Spanish culture. “I have not had the chance to visit this region previously, so I want to explore all of my new home,” she says.

She plans to use this Fulbright year as a chance to expand her teaching experiences to students who are learning English as a second language. “I want to bring this experience home and draw upon it to support my future students in the Central New York or New York City region,” she says.

Students interested in applying to the Fulbright program should contact the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising at 315.443.2759 or cfsa@syr.edu. The campus deadline for the 2024-25 application cycle is Sept. 10.

Kelly Chandler-Olcott

In a conversation with SU News, Chandler-Olcott says she is impressed by those working on the task force and their commitment to the University’s initiatives in this area.

The task force addresses sexual and relationship violence prevention, education and advocacy services. The task force’s leadership, situated in both the areas of academics and student experience, represents an overarching, Universitywide focus on engaging the entire campus community in a collective and holistic effort to prevent and respond to sexual and relationship violence.

The task force consists of a cross-section of dedicated students, faculty and staff who come together monthly during the academic year. The members collaborate in working pillar groups, covering the areas of survivor support, clear policies, multitiered education, public disclosure, schoolwide mobilization and ongoing assessment.

New Task Force Co-Chair

Chandler-Olcott succeeds former Falk College Dean Emerita Diane Lyden Murphy, who concluded her tenure as co-chair after serving since 2017.

SU News sat down with Chandler-Olcott to find out how the experience has been so far as a task force member:

As your first year on the Chancellor’s Task Force on Sexual and Relationship Violence ends, what are some key takeaways from this experience?��

I’ve been surprised—and impressed—by how many people working in different corners of our campus care deeply about this topic and related issues. We have a lot of varied expertise to draw on, and it’s well-coordinated within the task force, where people keep showing up consistently to collaborate.

What have you enjoyed most about being part of the task force?��

I’ve been surprised, and impressed again, by how seriously members take the work in the six pillar groups to which we are all assigned. I’ve been working with the public disclosure group, which, in full disclosure, I thought was a pretty dry topic at first. But the group has raised numerous complex issues that have turned out to be very compelling to think about, and the members are just good University citizens overall.��Reuniting with them each month is really a delight, even though the information we discuss can sometimes be quite heavy.

What is one thing you want members of the campus community to understand about the task force?��

The task force is working behind the scenes on important initiatives that are making our campus safer and more welcoming, even when you can’t see that work because of privacy and communication constraints.

Event Highlights for Sexual Assault Awareness Month

During a recent task force meeting, Leslie Skeffington, assistant director for sexual and relationship violence prevention, recognized the Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) planning committee and the Barnes Center at The Arch for their hard work in hosting a series of new events. The events, which were well attended by students, included the following:

• Unity in Healing: Exploring Yoga for Post-Traumatic Resiliency
• Let’s Talk Series: Destigmatizing and Demystifying Sex–Parts 1 and 2
• Crafting Connections Through Friendship Bracelets
• Healing Through Clay Art Therapy With Diane Schenandoah ’11
• Feminist Self-Defense

In addition to these new events, the pillar event, Take Back The Night (TBTN), was completely reformatted this year, focusing on creating a space for healing and community building. Additionally, offices, departments and student organizations across campus demonstrated their solidarity and allyship in the fight to end sexual and relationship violence with #IWillTBTN stars instead of the traditional posters that have been used in the past.

“While society has made a lot of progress, there’s still a stigma attached to talking about sexual violence and programming like this creates an opportunity to raise public awareness about the continued prevalence of sexual violence in our culture,” says Skeffington. “SAAM provides a platform for communities to show support for survivors, advocate for change and work toward creating a culture of consent, respect and empowerment for all.”

Judith Seinfeld.

Seinfeld is the fourth-generation head of Heritage Management Company LLC, a long-standing real estate investment, development and management company based in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Before joining Heritage, Seinfeld was the founder and president of Judith Greenberg Gallery, a jewelry design company, and she was also an executive vice president at Balenciaga Perfumes. A longtime patron of the arts, Seinfeld is the co-founder of the Nantucket Comedy Festival and the producer of several Tony award-winning plays.

Seinfeld earned a bachelor’s degree from ���ϲ�����’s , and a master’s degree in administration from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1957. In addition to her current role as a life trustee participant on the Academic Affairs committee, Seinfeld’s service to the University includes previous positions on the boards of the School of Education and the . Her service also includes assisting in establishing the Seinfeld Housing Initiative, the Judith Greenberg Seinfeld Distinguished Fellowships and the Judith Greenberg Seinfeld Prize for Creative Teaching Endowment.

Seinfeld resides in Saddle River, New Jersey, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, and is the mother of Jeffrey Greenberg and the late Steven Greenberg.

For more information on the celebration, visit the

Graduate students and educators enrolled in the School of Education course, Significant Disabilities: Shifts in Paradigms and Practices, will provide a showcase of their work on May 8.

Co-organized by the and the School of Education, this event will debut a digital exhibition, “From Institutionalization to Inclusion: Disability Activism in the ���ϲ����� Special Collections.” It was created by members of the course who have been critically engaging with primary source documents and artifacts in SCRC’s collections to explore disability as a cultural construction by examining historical developments in special and inclusive education, along with the rise (and fall) of institutions and asylums for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

The showcase and reception are free and open to the public. If you require accommodations, please email Max Wagh at mlwagh@syr.edu by May 1.

The pathway program, “Roadmap Into ���ϲ����� Engineering Undergraduate Programs and the Profession” (“RISEUP²”), aims to attract academically talented, low-income students from Central New York who historically have been excluded from those types of careers, including adult learners, first-generation students, traditionally under-represented minorities, veterans and students with high levels of financial need.

The grant also allows a multi-school project team to plan for and prepare to submit a later for NSF funding that would provide student scholarships for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies.

That step recognizes the need to educate, grow and retain a diverse and highly skilled STEM workforce in the Central New York region, a realization catalyzed by of plans to build a $100 billion megafab semiconductor manufacturing facility in the region and New York State’s subsequent in community and workforce development, says , Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence and chair of biomedical and chemical engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS), who is the project’s principal investigator.

Julie Hasenwinkel

“This is a really exciting opportunity for ECS to envision different ways to bring students into our undergraduate program. With the growing regional and national need for engineers, we want to attract students who don’t just come to us straight out of high school. This planning grant gives us the opportunity to dig deeply into assuring that we would give those students the best opportunity to succeed if they come here,” Hasenwinkel says.

The NSF award funds information-gathering, program research and partnership-building efforts that the multi-school, multi-organizational project team is undertaking through spring 2025, when the Track 3 S-STEM NSF grant proposal will likely be submitted, Hasenwinkel says. That type of grant would directly fund scholarships for engineering students and underwrite the support services to help assure the academic, social and career success of RISEUP² program participants, Hasenwinkel says.

Goals for the planning phase include:

• Strengthening current connections between the University and Onondaga and Mohawk Valley Community Colleges and expanding partnerships with additional regional community colleges (potentially Jefferson, Cayuga, Tompkins Cortland and Broome Community Colleges)
• Formalizing transfer agreements with the regional community colleges to provide direct admission to ���ϲ����� ECS programs
• Conducting a comprehensive needs assessment across all partner institutions to determine what kinds of programming best support low-income engineering students at their two-year college, during their transition to a four-year university and throughout their time at ���ϲ�����
• Developing formal partnerships with Micron and other area STEM employers and strengthening alliances with the Manufacturers Association of Central New York and the Technology Alliance of Central New York to solidify internship and employment opportunities
• Conducting research to better understand how a scholarship-based cohort model focused on workforce development can improve outcomes for low-income community college engineering transfer students

Project team members envision a program that offers a clear pathway to a bachelor’s degree within a “360-degree” system of student support. Beginning in the earliest years of college, it would offer ongoing guidance in financial aid, academic counseling, student success and educational and social programming at both the community college and University campuses. It would also offer living-learning residency opportunities, summer internships, professional development training and ultimately, job placement assistance.

Michael Frasciello

Working with Hasenwinkel are co-principal investigators ,��professor of mathematics at ; , associate professor of higher education in the ; , dean of the School of STEM Transfer and associate professor at ; and , dean of the at ���ϲ�����. Other ECS faculty and staff in admissions, recruitment and enrollment, student success and inclusive excellence are also part of the process, as are their counterparts at the community colleges.

David Pérez

Though the team fully plans to proceed with a Track 3 S-STEM proposal, this year’s planning activity and research will be useful in and of itself, creating knowledge and new information regarding the group of students the proposal aims to help, Hasenwinkel says.

“We’ll also be learning as we go, and we’ll be able to contribute to the educational literature on the most effective practices for supporting this population of students.”

Thirty-five students have been chosen as the 2024-25 ���ϲ����� Remembrance Scholars.

The scholarships, now in their 35th year, were founded as a tribute to—and means of remembering—the students studying in London and Florence through ���ϲ����� who were killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Those students were among the 270 people who perished in the bombing. The scholarships are funded through an endowment supported by gifts from alumni, friends, parents and corporations.

Significant support for the Remembrance Scholarships has been provided by Jean Thompson ’66 and ���ϲ����� Life Trustee Richard L. Thompson G’67 in memory of Jean Taylor Phelan Terry ’43 and John F. Phelan, Jean Thompson’s parents; by Board of Trustees Chairman Emeritus Steven Barnes ’82 and Deborah Barnes; by The ���ϲ����� Association of Zeta Psi in memory of Alexander Lowenstein; and by the Fred L. Emerson Foundation.

Selection Process

Remembrance Scholars are chosen in their junior year through a competitive selection process. Applicants submitted an essay and a reflective response in multimedia, artistic, musical or written format as part of a comprehensive application. The application evaluation committee is composed of University faculty and staff and current Remembrance Scholars. The $5,000 scholarships are awarded on the basis of scholarship, leadership and service to the community.

Additionally, two students from Lockerbie come to ���ϲ����� each year for one year of study through the ���ϲ�����-Lockerbie Scholarships, also in their 35th year. The scholarships are jointly funded by ���ϲ����� and the Lockerbie Trust. Cameron Colville and Anna Newbould were recently selected as the 2024-25 Lockerbie Scholars.

“Remembrance Scholars represent ���ϲ����� at its best through their academic achievements, their leadership skills and their contributions to the University,” says Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Gretchen Ritter. “They reflect the talent and promise of those students whose memories they honor. We are very proud to call them members of our University community.”

The Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars plan the Remembrance activities held at the University each year. The scholars will be recognized during a convocation in the fall.

The 2024-25 Remembrance Scholars, their hometowns, majors and schools and colleges are the following:

• Alba Aljiboury of ���ϲ�����, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), an information management and technology major in the School of Information Studies and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program;
• Linda Baguma of Iowa City, Iowa, a double major in international relations and political science in the Maxwell School and A&S and member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Adam Baltaxe of Arlington, Virginia, an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a Spanish major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Tanner Boshart of Jackson, New Jersey, an economics major and history major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a finance major in the Whitman School of Management and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Danis Cammett of Washington, D.C., an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S, applied data analytics major in the School of Information Studies, a member of the Crown Honors Program and a member of the University’s Army Reserve Officer Training Program;
• Natalie Dolenga of Lincolnshire, Illinois, an international relations major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Charlotte Ebel of Urbana, Illinois, a public relations major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, a women’s and gender studies and German major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Luke Elliott of Leesburg, Virginia, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School, a public relations major in the Newhouse School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mason Garbus of Hannibal, New York, a music education major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and the School of Education;
• Joshua Garvin of Houston, Texas, a music industry major in VPA;
• Tabitha Hulme of Saratoga, California, a public health major in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and health humanities major in A&S;
• Abigail Jones of Mashpee, Massachusetts, a public relations major in the Newhouse School, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Rajan Joshi of Dallas, Texas, an economics major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Sierra Kaplan of New York, New York, a health humanities major in A&S; a political science major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Kelsey Leary of Mahopac, New York, an art photography major in VPA;
• Nadia Lyngdoh-Sommer of Singapore, a sociology major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a law, society and policy major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Sophia Moore of Burbank, California, a television, radio and film major in the Newhouse School, a sociology major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Zachary Murray of Kingston, Jamaica, a political science and policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a modern foreign languages major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Ryan Myers of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a public relations major in the Newhouse School, a psychology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mark Nzasi of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a neuroscience and psychology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Cheryl Olanga of Nairobi, Kenya, a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS);
• Adya Parida of Odisha, India, a computer science major in ECS and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Jenna Poma of Queens, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Tia Poquette of Brooklyn, New York, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S:
• Alekhya Rajasekaran of Visalia, California, a biotechnology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Olivia Reid of Richmond, California, a policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Mason Romero of Olathe, Kansas, a music education major in VPA and the School of Education, a music history and cultures major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Alie Savane of Bronx, New York, a biology major in A&S;
• Abigael Scott of Plattsburgh, New York, a neuroscience and biology major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Yifan “Ivan” Shen of Shanghai, China, a student in the School of Architecture, a music history and cultures major in A&S, and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Justine Smith of Somerville, New Jersey, a political science and policy studies major in the Maxwell School and A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Joshua Spodek of Wayne, New Jersey, a history major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a social studies education major in the Maxwell School and the School of Education and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Alyssa Sutherland of St. Louis, Missouri, a public health major in the Falk College; a women’s and gender studies major in A&S and a member of the Crown Honors Program;
• Evelina Torres of Houston, Texas, a political science major in the Maxwell School and A&S, a citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School and a member of the Crown Honors Program; and
• Leondra Tyler of Cicero, New York, a neuroscience and psychology major in A&S.

Five ���ϲ����� students have been selected as recipients of the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), through which they will immerse themselves in intensive language study this summer.

The recipients and the languages they will study are:

• Christian Bevilacqua ’24, a social studies education and geography major in the , and , studying Urdu;
• Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer G’24 a creative writing master’s of fine arts (M.F.A.) student (poetry) in the College of Arts and Sciences, studying Russian;
• Anthony Ornelaz G’24, a creative writing M.F.A. student in the College of Arts and Sciences, studying Turkish;
• Chelsea Sato, a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences, studying Korean; and
• Ciara Young ’24, an international relations and anthropology major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and linguistics major in A&S, studying Korean.

The CLS program is an intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program for American graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities. Traditionally, some 550 students spend eight to 10 weeks abroad studying one of 14 languages—Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish or Urdu. The program is fully funded and includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains.

CLS, a program of the U.S. Department of State, is part of a wider government initiative to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to national security and economic prosperity.

Christian Bevilacqua

Bevilacqua will study Urdu in Lucknow, India. This is his second time participating��in the CLS program; he studied Hindi in Jaipur, India, in 2022.

“Participating in the CLS Urdu program is an exciting opportunity for me to further my language skills and expand my cultural understanding of South Asia,” he says.

Bevilacqua will be an incoming first-year master’s student in geography in the Maxwell School in the fall, and he looks forward to learning Urdu to better prepare himself for future research projects.

“I am interested in studying the experiences of South Asian migrant workers in urban cities of the Arabian Peninsula,” says Bevilacqua. “Learning Urdu as a lingua franca will enable me to connect with their stories, experiences, feelings and expressions of art and memory, which is crucial for understanding how transnational migrant workers construct and navigate a sense of home and community.”

Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer

As a child of former Foreign Service officers, being named a recipient of a CLS in Russian is incredibly meaningful to Bratt-Pfotenhauer.

“The importance of language as a means of communication and cooperation has been impressed upon me since birth,” she says. “I am proud to continue in my parents’ footsteps helping to foster connection between nations.”

Through her CLS experience, Bratt-Pfotenhauer hopes to gain a more complete view of Central Asia through her studies in Kyrgyzstan and a better understanding of how the Russian language operates in a country that was once part of the Soviet Union.

“After completing the CLS program, I hope to continue my studies of language and literatures through pursuing a doctorate in comparative literature,” she says.

Anthony Ornelaz

Ornelaz, a U.S. Air Force veteran and , served in the Middle East nearly a decade ago. “I feel I still have the ability to serve through the Foreign Service, which starts, for me, from the language up,” he says. “I would love to translate Turkish poetry into English while studying the Turkish poetic style.”

He is looking forward to his CLS experience in Ankara, Turkey. “This is a wonderful opportunity to build meaningful relationships while experiencing Turkish culture, food and understanding of the world,” he says. “I hope whatever I experience will be distinctly and organically Turkish from beginning to end.”

Ciara Young

During her time at ���ϲ�����, Young has maintained a deep commitment to the study of Korean language and affairs, particularly in the context of contemporary political developments and social movements. “In this way, being awarded CLS is the perfect culmination to my four years at SU, and the perfect beginning to my professional pursuits,” she says. “I am eager to meet my cohort and continue to immerse myself in Korean language and culture alongside them. I am especially looking forward to the time I will spend with my language partner around Gwangju.”

Following her CLS experience, Young will apply the linguistic and cultural insights she gains, as well as the intercultural communication, critical thinking, and teamwork skills she develops, to enhance her research pursuits and language studies in graduate school, focusing on foreign policy, security studies and��issues that impact U.S.-Korean relations.

“As I work towards my professional goal of becoming a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. State Department, the cross-cultural competence and Korean language skills I will develop during my time in Gwangju, a city renowned as the birthplace of Korean democracy and the May 18^th��Democratic Uprising, will be truly invaluable,” she says.

Kayleigh Sandford (left) and Stephanie Spicciati of the Mid-State Regional Partnership Center, part of the School of Education’s Center on Disability and Inclusion.

Before joining the Mid-State RPC, Sandford and Spicciati co-taught fourth grade in the Solvay Union Free School District near ���ϲ�����. Sandford was the general education teacher and Spicciati taught special education, but—modeling the kind of inclusive education that SOE has long championed—together they were responsible for all students in their class.

Sandford then taught special education in the Baldwinsville (NY) Central School District before the pair teamed up again at the Mid-State RPC, Sandford as a Literacy Specialist and Spicciati as a Specially Designed Instruction Specialist.

Building Capacity

Explaining how Mid-State RPC is embedded within and works with other services of the New York State Education Department cooks up something of an alphabet soup, but it’s critical infrastructure for families and communities, guided by NYSED’s .

The overseeing agency is NYSED’s (OSE), which organizes the , described as “a community of practitioners [that] work collaboratively to support students, families, and educational organizations to build capacity and improve educational and post-educational outcomes for students with disabilities.”

Supported by NYSED grants, CDI runs three OSE Educational Partnership programs that work collaboratively: the (EC-FACE), the (SA-FACE), and the Mid-State RPC. Three legs of one stool, if you will.

While EC-FACE and SA-FACE engage families, communities, and local agencies, the Mid-State RPC provides special education training and coaching directly to school districts (this triple support structure is mirrored in 12 other Regional Partnership Centers ��and 14 FACE Centers ��across the state.)

Data-informed Work

Spicciati explains that has held the contract for four-and-a-half years of a five-year grant cycle, with hopes that its funding will be renewed in summer 2024. Mid-State RPC has benefited from the School of Education’s expertise and , which includes administering an earlier version of the Educational Partnership that engaged students and families: the ���ϲ����� Parent Assistance Center. The current partnership structure now adds a focus on systems-level change.

“The Mid-State RPC supports pre-K-12 school administrators and teachers in the ���ϲ����� City School District and the surrounding counties of Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Seneca, Tioga, and Tompkins,” Spicciati explains. “Our team includes literacy specialists, behavior and transition specialists, a culturally responsive educator, a systems change facilitator, and a special education trainer. We go into schools to support and coach teachers and administrators who serve students with individualized education programs (IEPs).”

“Some of our work includes embedded support to help teachers use data to make instructional decisions for student with disabilities ,” adds Sandford. “In addition to this kind of support, we also offer regional training sessions. Our specialists have different packages that they are trained to deliver to teachers, administrators, and educational advocacy organizations.”

The Mid-State RPC works with technical assistance partners who develop professional development packages based on the most current research into statewide schools. The team uses these resources to support schools with evidence-based practices.

Walk Beside You

As a compliment to these in-school trainings, the Mid-State RPC and CDI took their engagement a step further in 2023, launching a lecture series that invited the education community to dig deeper into essential topics around equity, mental health, and inclusion, featuring SOE faculty, community partners, and others.

Sandford stresses that she and her Mid-State RPC teammates work hard to ensure that districts feel supported: “Our motto is, ‘We want to walk beside you, not in front of you.’”

“We are able to build trust and good relationships with teachers and administrators because we are clear that we are there to help them and want our work to be meaningful for their students,” Spicciati adds. “I’ve found the majority of time, people are happy to have us. Once a school has met its goals and state performance plan indicators—and once systems are put in place to sustain that improvement—schools can be sad to see us leave.”

The coronavirus pandemic was especially rough on students with IEPs, says Spicciati. Shutdowns became months of missed instruction for some, and students requiring extra supports and intensive instruction fell behind. Although the first year back to in-school instruction was also demanding, Spicciati sees learning gaps starting to close as teachers adjust their approach to make up for lost skills acquisition.

Nevertheless, according to Sandford, a new challenge has arisen: the over-identification of students with disabilities: “Right now, schools are trying to identify if some students have a learning disability , or if learning loss can be attributed to the shutdown. It’s important to use the right measures and make informed decisions about students who are struggling.”

Promoting Sustainability

Assuming CDI’s OSE Educational Partnership grant is renewed, there will be another five years of growth for The Mid-State RPC, so what do Sandford and Spicciati hope to accomplish in that time?

“I want us to continue building supportive infrastructure within schools to keep things progressing forward for all students, general education and special education,” says Sandford.

“I want to promote sustainability,” adds Spicciati. She says the Mid-State RPC has learned over the years the importance of creating sustainable support systems for the whole school rather than focusing on individual teachers, who might then leave with the knowledge they acquired.

“It’s about focusing on building capacity with school leaders and getting teaming structures in place to help leaders connect data to intervention and ��instruction,” says Spicciati. “Once we have put protocols in place that can be used school and district wide, when we leave, those supports are able to stay in place.”

Janie Hershman ’24 contributed to this story.

Jing Lei

is a professor at ���ϲ�����’s School of Education who focuses on technology integration in schools. She answers some questions about how teachers and school districts can address these concerns productively and harness AI as a tool for learning.

Q: According to the CDT survey, 52 percent of teachers say generative AI has made them distrustful that students have actually done the work themselves. And 68 percent report regularly using an AI content detection tool. How reliable are those tools?

A: AI detection tools give a “probability” of a piece of work being produced by AI, which, even if it’s 99%, doesn’t mean that it is certainly created by AI. The reliability of AI detector tools varies greatly, based on many factors including what algorithms and technology is used and how the tool is trained. They also suffer from biases, stereotypes, and the lack of contextual understandings. AI detectors should not be used as the sole source of deciding whether a piece of work is generated by AI. A teacher’s best tool in detecting any potential violation of academic integrity is their understanding of their own students. A teacher who knows their students well enough would not need an AI detection tool to determine if something is not right. That understanding and the human connection can never be replaced by any technology.

A teacher’s best tool in detecting any potential violation of academic integrity is their understanding of their own students.

Jing Lei

Q: How does this level of distrust and uncertainty impact students?

A: This level of distrust and uncertainty is harmful to everyone involved: it lowers teachers’ confidence in and passion for teaching, dampens students’ enthusiasm and decreases their motivation to learn, and harms teacher-student relationship—one of the most crucial elements in a healthy and productive learning environment. Particularly, a “false positive” accusation of plagiarism can be devastating to students and can have long-lasting detrimental effects on their educational aspirations.

Q: Only 28 percent of teachers say they’ve received guidance on how to respond to suspected AI use. What should district leaders consider as they set policies?

A: School districts need to help their teachers to develop a sound and evolving understanding of AI technology: what is AI, what AI tools and resources are available, what can AI tools do, what limitations do they have at this stage, what risks do they pose, why is it important for their students as well as themselves to learn how to use AI tools meaningfully, and how. To develop this understanding, districts need to provide learning opportunities, resources, and ongoing support to help teachers learn, explore, and experiment with AI tools in their classrooms. District level policy-making should involve important stakeholders: teachers, students, administrators, and parents and guardians, consider multiple perspectives, set equitable and inclusive guidelines, and leave room for flexibility based on contextual factors and the evolving nature of AI technology.

Q: How should teachers approach responsible AI use in the classroom? Are there lessons that will help students learn to productively use the technology while also avoiding some of these academic integrity concerns?

A: There are many ways that teachers can use AI technology with their students productively. For example, they can learn what AI technology can or cannot do,�� discuss the limitations of AI technology and the importance of human oversight, work together to clearly define what constitutes plagiarism with AI and what is acceptable use of AI, help students develop critical thinking through critically analyzing AI generated content to identify errors and biases, encourage students to using AI for personalized learning, and explore how AI is being used in various working context, etc. Through activities like these, teachers can help their students navigate how to productively use AI technology with academic integrity and to develop their digital citizenship.

To request interviews or get more information:

Chris Munoz
Media Relations Specialist
Division of Communications
cjmunoz@syr.edu

The One University Awards Ceremony, an annual event to honor members of the ���ϲ����� community who are making a difference through academics, scholarship, creative work and dedicated service, will be held Friday, April 19, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel.

“Every year, we come together to celebrate the outstanding contributions and tremendous success of our students, faculty, staff and broader community,” says Chancellor Kent Syverud. “The accomplishments of this year’s recipients reinforce what it means to be Orange. This ceremony also shines a bright spotlight on the work being done around campus, much of which happens behind the scenes. I thank the many members of our community who organized this event and look forward to recognizing this year’s winners.”

Two major awards—the Chancellor’s Medal and the Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence—will be bestowed. The ceremony will also include the presentation of the Student-Athlete Award, Judith Seinfeld Scholarship, Meredith Professorship for Teaching Excellence, Teaching Recognition Award, Diversity and Inclusion Award, William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Lifelong Learning and Chancellor’s Forever Orange Award.

and�� will also be recognized. This year’s��University Scholars,��, and Remembrance and Lockerbie Scholars will also be honored.

All members of the University community are invited and encouraged to attend. A reception will follow in the lobby of the Heroy Geology Laboratory.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be provided at the ceremony. For questions about accessibility or to request accommodations, contact Gabe Coleman at gbcolma@syr.edu.

Award Recipients��

The��Chancellor’s Medal��is the University’s highest honor and is awarded to individuals in honor of their trailblazing and extraordinary contributions to the University, to an academic body of knowledge or to society. This year’s recipient is��, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The��Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence��recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions in four overarching categories:

• The award for��Excellence in Student Research recognizes students who have engaged in collaborative research that has the potential to make a deep and lasting impact on greater society. This year’s recipients are Jingjing Ji, a doctoral candidate in chemical engineering in the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (graduate), and Ashtha Singh, an international relations major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and citizenship and civic engagement major in the Maxwell School (undergraduate).
• The award for��Outstanding Contributions to the Student Experience and University Initiatives acknowledges faculty and staff who, through their work, enhance the undergraduate experience for students or make invaluable contributions to supporting and advancing the University’s mission and goals. The recipients are��, associate professor of communications in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications (faculty); , chief operating officer for the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (professional staff); , program coordinator of citizenship and civic engagement in the Maxwell School (professional staff) and , events coordinator at Lubin House (support staff).
• The��Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction award is intended for faculty members who are collaborators in work of intellectual richness that has the potential for future impact. The work of these nominees offers possibilities for collaboration within the University and outside in partnership with others. This year’s honorees are��, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Art and Music Histories in the College of Arts and Sciences, and , associate dean of research and professor of Public Health in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.
• Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence, Lifetime Achievement Award. This award honors those who have made extraordinary contributions toward advancing all four pillars of excellence over the arc of their careers while at ���ϲ����� and beyond. This year’s recipient is��, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The other awards to be presented are:

• The��Student-Athlete Award recognizes the top female and top male student athletes and are presented to the senior student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade point average over the course of their academic and athletic careers. This year’s recipients are Izabela Krakic, an international relations major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences and member of the women’s rowing team, and Julius Rauch, an entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major in the Whitman School of Management and a member of the men’s soccer team.
• Seinfeld Scholarship: Each year ���ϲ����� honors the talents of outstanding faculty or students through an��, a distinguished alumna and member of the University Board of Trustees. Awards are made to those who have been determined by their peers to have made outstanding contributions to the beauty of the world, to have added to human values and to ending human abuse anywhere in the world, and to have demonstrated passion for excellence, creativity and originality in academic or artistic fields. This year, the designation is bestowed upon a faculty member,��, associate professor of advertising in the Newhouse School.
• The��Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorships for Teaching Excellence were created in 1995 to recognize and reward outstanding teaching among faculty. The 2024-27 Meredith Professors are��, professor in the School of Information Studies, and , Bond, Schoeneck and King Distinguished Professor in the College of Law.
• In 2001, the Meredith Professorship Program was expanded to recognize teaching excellence by non-tenured faculty and adjunct and part-time instructors. Awards are given in two categories:��Early Performance and��Continuing Excellence. This year’s honorees in the Early Performance category are��, assistant professor of television, radio and film in the Newhouse School; , associate teaching professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering and Computer Science; , assistant professor of visual communications in the Newhouse School; , assistant teaching professor of Chinese and Chinese language in the College of Arts and Sciences; and , assistant professor in the School of Architecture. The two honorees in the Continuing Excellence category are��, assistant dean of online and distance education and associate teaching professor of social work in the Falk College, and , teaching professor and graduate director of nutrition and food studies in the Falk College.
• The��Diversity and Inclusion Award��recognizes an individual who is integral in helping us achieve academic excellence at a university that is welcoming to all through our investments in a diverse, inclusive, accessible and equitable community. This year’s recipient is��, teaching professor in the College of Law and faculty fellow for the Office of Strategic Initiatives and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
• The��William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Lifelong Learning is based in the School of Education and honors national or international leadership in support of lifelong learning. This year’s recipient is ’77, executive director of MidPenn Legal Services, adjunct professor of law at PennState’s Dickinson Law and an alumna of the School of Education.
• The��Chancellor’s Forever Orange Award recognizes individual students, faculty or staff who—by virtue of extraordinary hard work, good values and commitment to excellence—have come to embody the best of ���ϲ�����. This year’s recipients are , associate vice president of parent engagement and student experience, and , head coach of the men’s soccer team.

Raphael T. Richard

Richard is the emerging talent recruiting lead for tech giant Cisco’s university partnerships, driving recruitment strategies and engaging programs that connect emerging and university talent with career opportunities at the Fortune 100 company.

While earning a bachelor’s degree in urban studies and public policy at Dillard University—a historically Black university in New Orleans—Richard experienced the educational and career benefits created by student leadership. Inspired by his experiences during and after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, Richard launched his professional career as a diversity education specialist at ���ϲ�����, where he received a master’s degree in higher education from the School of Education.

Continuing his higher education career at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (as coordinator of multicultural and diversity programs) and at Columbia University (as assistant director of the office of multicultural affairs), Richard designed, branded, and expanded social justice, intercultural, and dialogue initiatives.

Richard then transferred his passion for diversity recruitment into the non-profit sector, spending four years managing a national internship program for college students at the T. Howard Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing diversity in the media industry. At the foundation, Richard helped more than 700 students secure internships at more than 40 media, entertainment and tech companies, such as Paramount, NBCUniversal, Snap Inc., The New York Times, and ABC/ESPN.

In 2021, Richard earned a certificate in diversity and inclusion through the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, and he joined Cisco in the same year, first as an emerging talent and campus channel manager.

Committed to furthering his impact through service, in addition to advising the School of Education, Richard is an advisory board member for the National Capital Region of Per Scholas, a senior fellow in the Melton Foundation and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.

The event will highlight undergraduate and graduate student teams from across campus who have created concepts for products, services and technologies that can assist intellectually disabled people and their families. A distinguished panel of experts will award a total of $2,500 for the best showcase ideas.

Students present their designed products, services or technologies that can assist intellectually disabled people and their families at the 2023 Intelligence++ Showcase competition. (Photo by Marilyn Hesler)

Students wishing to present should e-mail , professor of industrial and interaction design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and program coordinator, at dwcarr@syr.edu before April 15 to secure a spot and to receive showcase instructions.

The event is sponsored by , a collaboration among , a program of the at the , VPA School of Design��and . The event is open to students across campus, and all are welcome to attend the showcase.

Launched in 2020 through a generous donation by Gianfranco Zaccai ’70, H’09 and the , Intelligence++ is an innovative, interdisciplinary initiative focused on inclusive entrepreneurship, design and community. The initiative is available to both undergraduate and graduate students from all academic disciplines, including students with intellectual disabilities. A key element of the initiative is a two-semester course (DES 400/600) that encourages students to work in teams to imagine and create products, devices, digital platforms and services for persons with disabilities, culminating in the spring showcase.

Intelligence++ centers around three main concepts:

• Aspects of Design—once a specific need or opportunity is identified, student teams are supported by a group of experts to help develop a working prototype of their design. By taking a build-to-learn approach, students gain real-time feedback while continually evolving their design.
• Understandings of Disability—including accessibility, disability rights and advocacy, disability history, language, disability culture, models of disability and inclusion.
• Entrepreneurship—students learn to develop a commercialization roadmap that moves through problem solving, solution building, testing, iteration, lean business model development, team formation, finding advisors and strategic partners, developing a funding strategy and pitching for investment.

DES 400/600 is taught by Professor Carr, with support from , Lawrence B. Taishoff Associate Professor of Inclusive Education in the School of Education and executive director of the Taishoff Center. , founder of and strategic initiatives advisor with the Libraries,��provides entrepreneurial support to teams.

In addition to the course and the annual showcase, students can seek funding to commercialize their ideas through . Students from any school or college can apply for this funding, and they do not need to take DES 400/600 to apply. However, priority is given students working with research and commercialization programs such as the Blackstone LaunchPad, , , , , , Intelligence++, NSF I-Corps, ��and .

Intelligence++ Ventures funding supports specifically defined projects with clearly identified timeframes and outcomes that move a research project or venture toward proof of concept and commercialization. Funds assist tangible needs through four innovation phases: discovery, testing, building and launching to market.

“Interrogating the Racial Wealth Gap: Thinking Locally,” featured presentations by five faculty teams whose research is supported by 2023 grants. Projects focused on how demographics, situations and policies may create conditions that contribute to—or can help resolve—the existence of a .

The term “” refers to disparities in levels of accumulated wealth for individuals, families and groups and the ability of different racial and ethnic populations to access and accumulate opportunities, means of support and resources.

The symposium’s local focus is especially pertinent because has one of the highest poverty rates () in the U.S. and a child poverty level of close to 50%, according to and . Poverty rates impact such as accessibility to health care, housing, employment and educational opportunities, as well as economic well-being and racial and social equity.

At the symposium, researchers presented their findings and local community leaders spoke about how their organizations are addressing wealth gap issues.

Five Research Teams

“Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Through Environmental Justice and Participatory Design” findings from research of and of the and Daniel Cronan of the were presented.

The researchers reported on how air quality, heat islands, recreational facilities, public infrastructure, shelter and outdoor activity spaces affect the well-being and livelihood of neighborhoods in marginalized communities. Working with community partners and city agencies, they planned a new community space on ���ϲ�����’s south side that features structures, landscaping and programming, with construction to begin this spring. Lender Center postdoctoral researcher J Coley also spoke on “Gentrification and Displacement in the American Rust Belt.” That presentation examined the impact of federal housing policy and gentrification on Black Americans’ ability to build wealth.

“Do Underserved and Underrepresented Communities Pay a Higher Premium in Employer-Sponsored Healthcare Coverage?” was presented by and of the and Patricia Crawford of the University of Rhode Island. They discovered significant socioeconomic disparities in healthcare coverage costs for underserved and underrepresented communities, especially for employer-sponsored health insurance at the state level. They reported that underserved populations, particularly those identifying as Black, allocate a higher percentage of income to employer-sponsored healthcare premiums than white and Hispanic individuals.

University Trustee Gisele Marcus ’89, a Whitman alumna, chaired that discussion session. Marcus is vice dean for the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and a professor of practice for diversity, equity and inclusion at Washington University in St. Louis.

Food Policy, Mental Health Response

“Food Policy Councils as a Vehicle to Address the Racial Wealth Gap in Food System Labor” was presented by of the and of the .

Data from 2016-2022 surveys by The Food Policy Network at the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future, and labor questions from its 2023 survey, were analyzed to assess tensions between small-scale food business owners and worker advocates. The pair found that while food business owners may be reticent to discuss labor policy, worker advocates want to see improvements in wages and labor conditions. Though both groups have worked with American food policy councils, the researchers said progress toward racial justice for food system workers may be limited due to these divided viewpoints and differing priorities. The researchers are continuing to conduct interviews and focus groups with some of the food policy councils.

“Advancing Mental and Behavioral Health Equity through the Promotion of an Equitable Crisis Response System” was presented by of the Maxwell School. She created two surveys—one for ���ϲ����� students, the other for the general public—to measure attitudes and perceptions about the national 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, particularly among communities of color. The surveys gauge attitudes toward mental health help-seeking; barriers to help-seeking behavior; perceptions and concerns about the service; and experiences of unfair treatment based on race and other identities.

Lender Center Senior Research Associate Kira Reed (right) introduces Maxwell School researcher Michiko Ueda-Ballmer (to her left) and community panelists Ann Rooney (far left) of Onondaga County and Carrie Brown of the University’s Barnes Center at The Arch for a discussion on a 988 suicide and crisis lifeline and community resources.

“K-12 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Policies and Plans” was presented by and of the . They discovered a spotty approach to the development and adoption of DEI policies and program integration in the New York State school districts they studied. While many had a DEI plan or have integrated DEI into their strategic goals, they found that support for the DEI work leaders are doing, and the speed and quality of those program implementations are highly varied. They also noted that several districts experienced community resistance to adopting DEI initiatives, especially around practices concerning LGBTQIA students.

Land and Wealth Loss

Thomas Shapiro, research professor of law and social policy at Brandeis University, also spoke about how the dispossession of lands from Black farmers has contributed to the racial wealth gap in the U.S. Though they collectively owned 16 million acres of land by 1910, Black farmers were dispossessed of 90% of that land over 70 years, extracting $326 billion in wealth (in today’s dollars) from that group, he said. Shapiro cited Pigford v. Glickman, a lawsuit the farmers brought against the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging systemic racism in the allocation of farm loans and assistance. He called it “an important story…of racialized structures, policies and institutions that might be important to the work…of reparation frameworks and reparative justice.”

Community Participation

The event concluded with a community roundtable featuring local government and organizational leaders and moderated by , associate provost for strategic initiatives. Reporting on how their groups are addressing the racial wealth gap locally were Sharon Owens, ���ϲ����� deputy mayor; Melanie Littlejohn, president and CEO of the Central New York Community Foundation; and Robert Simmons, director of Micron Gives North America at the Micron Foundation.

This was the second annual symposium supported by MetLife Foundation’s $2.7 million award sponsoring three years of inquiry regarding racial wealth gap causes. The funds have also permitted the Lender Center to host community conversations and form new partnerships with leading national civic and academic institutions.

The next conversation, “Closing the Racial Wealth Gap: Public, Private and Philanthropic Collaborations,” takes place June 4 at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.

On Thursday, April 4, family, friends and supporters of the program will in downtown ���ϲ����� to celebrate the program, the largest and most inclusive program of its kind in the nation. Among the scheduled speakers at the anniversary gala are ���ϲ����� Chancellor and President ; State Sen. Rachel May (D-48); Captain , JAGC, USN (Ret.), benefactor of the Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education; and , Lawrence B. Taishoff Associate Professor of Inclusive Education and executive director of the Taishoff Center in the School of Education.

Andrew Benbenek at ���ϲ����� Welcome 2017

Founded in 2014, InclusiveU offers real opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in every aspect of ���ϲ����� campus life. Students take , on and off campus—and as far away as —join in , and in Albany, New York and Washington, D.C. Currently, the program hosts more than 100 students with intellectual or developmental disabilities from across the country.

InclusiveU and the Taishoff Center are both part of the School of Education’s . Together, CDI programs and initiatives demonstrate SOE’s global leadership and in disability and inclusion.

Sharing anniversaries with InclusiveU in 2024 are SOE’s first-in-the-nation program (1994) and “” (1984), a summer study abroad program that invites students to immerse themselves in Italy’s inclusive schooling.

“It’s hard to believe that we have reached our 10th year of serving students at ���ϲ����� through InclusiveU,” says Myers. “The milestones of our program—students in campus residence halls, InclusiveU Remembrance Scholars and Unsung Heroes, and full participation in all that our campus has to offer—remind us of the ways our program continues to make a profound impact in our community.”

Chloe Payne, left and a friend attend a game in the JMA Dome

Inclusion initiatives, such as dual enrollment with the ���ϲ����� City School District and partnership with a community agency, predated the establishment of InclusiveU in 2014 but did not provide a fully integrated campus experience. Receipt of a federal grant got the program off the ground, and it started with 14 students. “We started our internship program, and a few years later were able to have students live in residence halls and really build out pieces of the program,” says InclusiveU Director Brianna Shults.

Since its establishment, more than 320 students have accessed nearly 300 classes based on interest across most of the University’s colleges and schools. The last year of the four-year program is focused on internships and employment, building skills and connecting theory they learned at in the classroom and applying it to their resumes. Beyond the necessary skills, the program helps to instill confidence in students as they prepare for careers beyond college. Students receive a certificate upon completion of the program.

In addition to classes, students are fully immersed in the social life of the University. While students have a mentor to help with class needs and facilitation, social interaction happens organically through peers. “Socially, the Peer-2-Peer program is the piece that many students access,” says Shults. InclusiveU and matriculated students connect for whatever events are on campus. A lot of this is natural support.” Students attend Orange After Dark activities, speakers, athletic events and holiday events such as Diwali. “This happens through natural peer support that every other student can access on campus,” Shults says.

Bobby Pangborn, center, celebrates his graduation with his parents

And this interaction is good not just for the InclusiveU students, says Shults. “Having our students around makes their peers better friends, better employees down the road, better neighbors,” Shults days. “It makes them better people all around because our students are here and they are all working together.”

Andrew Benbenek ’21 enrolled in InclusiveU after graduating from Bishop Grimes High School in East ���ϲ�����. He was the first InclusiveU student to access classes in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and was the second InclusiveU student named as a Remembrance Scholar, one of the University’s highest student honors. He was involved in lots of activities on campus including OttoTHON and Camp Kesem.

“���ϲ����� was where I had wanted to be since I was a kid,” Benbenek says. Peers helped him to get involved. He joined Z-89 and Citrus TV, which he says “is a big part of how I got to where I am. Once I joined, felt like this could be a career for me.” He also did a full-year internship in the Newhouse Sports Media Center with Professor Olivia Stomski.

Benbenek now works for Galaxy Communications as a board operator for SU games. “InclusiveU gave me the knowledge I needed to be successful and helped me discover what I really wanted to do,” he says.

Chloe Payne ’22, studied human development and family science and now works at Little Luke’s Daycare and Preschool in DeWitt. During her time at ���ϲ�����, Payne immersed herself in her classes and campus life, including becoming a member of a belly dancing troupe. InclusiveU was the best thing I have ever done,” she says.

Bobby Pangborn ’20, graduated from Nottingham High School in ���ϲ����� and studied drama through InclusiveU. He has brought his skills to many local productions through the years for both the Redhouse and Front Row Players and will play Sir Robin in a local production of “Spamalot” in late June. He also participates in Special Olympics, where he has won several medals downhill in skiing events.

Pangborn interned at the Whitman School of Management during his time with InclusiveU, and now works there full-time as an assistant In the mailroom, Pangborn does the jobs that people don’t see but that are critical to the smooth function of the school’s operations. He completes copy jobs, sorts and distributes mail, distributes student paychecks, sends package notifications and makes sure that supplies are stocked, organized and labeled. He is also a mentor for student employees.

“As an alumni, Bobby has been active in participating in various conference panels and employment events to share his experience while he was on campus and how that helped to shape what he is doing now that he has graduated,” says Shults.

When InclusiveU first started, there were about 30 post-secondary programs across the country—now there are little more than 300. And while that number seems large, it’s still pretty small, Shults says. “There are a lot of students who want to access education beyond high school. We are seen as a model, trying to support other programs at other schools starting to do what we are doing. It’s important that students have a choice and are able to pick the program that is best for them,” she says.

“There is such a rich history of disability work here at ���ϲ�����,” says Shults. “The fact that InclusiveU is here and is seen as a leader is really important in being able to push this work forward and in being thoughtful and innovative with what we are doing. … This is the first generation of students with disabilities to go to college and have this opportunity, and having this program here in ���ϲ����� is a really big deal.”

is a professor in the Counseling and Human Services Department at ���ϲ�����’s School of Education. He shares some signs parents should watch for and tips to help their children feel more secure.

Derek Seward

Q: How can news about these types of disasters impact children?

A: Children are highly observant and often more knowledgeable about societal events than parents might realize. Recent disasters connected to traveling such as the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Boeing plane damage, and fire on the Carnival Freedom Cruise Ship may negatively impact children as their sense of safety and normality within the world can be jarred.

Q: What are some of the symptoms they might they exhibit?

A: Children may experience anxiety, stress, and fear that adults may not initially identify or connect to these traumatic situations. Parents might expect that their children will present with anticipatory anxiety leading up to a family trip that may include a mixture of increased excitement and worry about the upcoming vacation. However, children struggling with traumatic events may (a) have higher levels of anxiousness, (b) exhibit disturbances in their typical sleep patterns such as having nightmares, (c) feel physically ill, exhausted or have headaches; and (d) be highly irritable.

Q: How can parents address their children’s fears constructively?

A: Parents concerned about their children should consider:

• Providing information to their children about their trip including the destination, method of travel, and who will be traveling. Parents want to convey confidence about how carefully the trip has been planned. Use information to reassure and alleviate the children’s worries.
• Spend time with your children where you invite them to disclose their specific fears and emotions. Listen and respond to them by validating their anxiety about traveling or confusion about traumatic events. You might tell them it is okay to feel unsure, confused, or anxious about what has happened. Normalize this experience for the children.
• Talking about the circumstances of the tragic event(s). Help children to understand what has happened. Use language that is understandable to children. Avoid being overly descriptive or graphic.
• Modeling a demeanor that is calm, open, and reinforces safety can help children feel protected. When talking about the upcoming trip, be positive about the experience. Share your optimistic anticipations.
• Consulting with professionals who have frequent interaction with their children. These might include teachers and school counselors. These professionals can share their observations of potential problematic behaviors. But also, professionals can work collaboratively with parents to identify and address problematic symptoms.

��To request interviews or get more information:

Chris Munoz
Media Relations Specialist
cjmunoz@syr.edu

When it comes to fostering a strong relationship between herself and her mentees, Montgomery understands that representation matters, and being able to relate to the students she advises is just as important as the advice being offered.

Montgomery and her fellow student mentors with —a peer-to-peer group designed to help women of color support and empower each other as they navigate their college journeys—have been helping first-year and transfer women of color successfully acclimate to life on campus through engaging programs and meaningful mentorship.

The result? Members of Dimensions form a true sisterhood and strengthen their leadership and professional development skills through weekly meetings that focus on pertinent topics like acclimating to college life, building community, setting goals, mental health awareness, career-oriented support and more.

Kamille Montgomery

“Dimensions offers a support system of people who are going through the same journey together. If I can provide advice and guidance for incoming first-year students, that’s such an important way to help out. Dimensions offers an opportunity to build those relationships and make students feel like they’re not alone on their journeys,” says Montgomery, an early childhood and special education major in the .

On Friday, Dimensions is holding its Women’s History Month reception from 4-6 p.m. in Room 304 ABC in the Schine Student Center. SU News sat down with Montgomery to learn more about the powerful impact of Dimensions, where her passion for education came from and how she will put her degree to use in the City of ���ϲ����� through the .

Huey Hsiao

As assistant dean, Hsiao will enhance student success and belonging as leader of SOE’s . In this role, he will oversee undergraduate and graduate recruitment, student advising and support, career services and certification, and leadership and success initiatives such as the and student organizations.

“Huey Hsiao is well known on this campus as a staunch advocate for students and a sterling colleague,” says SOE Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott. “He has deep institutional knowledge and has collaborated with our school in numerous capacities over the years. We can’t wait to have him on our team.”

Most recently, Hsiao served as Kent G. Sheng ’78 Associate Dean of Students, Director of the Asian and Asian American Center (A3C) and interim co-director of the Centers for Student Equity, Empowerment and Belonging at Cornell University. As part of his role as the director of the A3C, Hsiao established Elevating Asians, a program supporting students’ personal growth and leadership development. He also re-envisioned and centralized the A3C’s work around Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month.

Before Cornell, Hsiao served at ���ϲ����� for 16 years, most recently as associate director of multicultural affairs and director of the Kessler Scholars Program. In these roles, Hsiao directed the WellsLink Leadership Program, an academic and leadership development initiative for first and second-year students of color; served as the campus lead for the Kessler Scholars Program, a national cohort-based scholarship program for first-generation college students; chaired the planning committee for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month; and facilitated workshops and seminars on issues connected to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility and the transition to college.

In his previous role as interim director of the University’s Disability Cultural Center, Hsiao partnered with students, faculty and staff to produce “Cripping” the Comic Con, a symposium exploring representations on disability in popular culture.

Hsiao began his ���ϲ����� career as assistant director of student services, MBA and M.S. Programs, in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, where he provided services and programming for more than 200 graduate students aimed at facilitating students’ academic and professional success.

Before joining the University, Hsiao worked for the Council on International Educational Exchange, including as assistant resident director at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan.  He has also taught English at Nankai University in Tianjin, China.

Hsiao holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and an Asian Studies certificate from the University of Rochester; an MBA from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain); and a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University.

In doing so, “” (Routledge, 2024) illustrates how the choral music community journeyed through crisis to rebuild itself in an new era.

Moy will celebrate her new publication on April 3, with a in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons, Bird Library Room 114, from 4:45 to 6 p.m.

When former American Choral Directors Association Executive Director Tim Sharp learned of Moy’s research, he noted that, “It’ll be interesting, and I think important, to document this. In 10 years, we’ll look back and maybe see more clearly what we were up against and what we did, and hopefully, what we did better and what we lost.”

Moy interviewed more than 40 choral musicians from across the United States and Canada and from a spectrum of contexts: community choruses, professional choirs, children and youth choirs, school choirs and choral organizations.

“The singers and directors shared with me what it was like to make choral music during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says . “This book documents these interviews. It was heartbreaking to hear personal stories of what they went through as people, as educators and as musicians. There was a lot of loss.”

When the pandemic emerged in early 2020, the impact on choral music was immediate and devastating. The act of gathering and singing together became a source of contagion and potential severe illness or death.

“Nevertheless, it was inspiring to hear how new ideas came about to help singers overcome during a time when singing was deemed a ‘superspreading’ activity,” says Moy. “’Resurrecting Song’ documents how singing became a source of joy during tragic circumstances. It was wonderful to connect human to human through these stories.”

Documenting both pandemic experiences and the lessons learned from surviving and thriving, Moy’s book showcases the resilience of choral music and helps point the way to new directions for the choral community in the wake of the pandemic.

In their own words, community members share how they banded together to innovate, use technology in new ways and generate changes to practice. Moy also explores how the pandemic caused many directors to realize the need to create a more inclusive place of belonging in their rehearsals, and it provides reflections on the philosophy of singing and creating a choral community.

As Moy puts it, during the challenging months of COVID-19 the subjects of “Resurrecting Song” went from being advocates and educators of choral singing to literally “saving the choral art.”

Doris “Dottie” Payson

Doris “Dottie” Payson ’57 first parlayed a bachelor’s degree in education from ���ϲ����� into a teaching career in the Brooklyn School District. But her passion for travel and learning about the wonders of the world led to her second career in the travel industry, serving clients at Jeffrey’s World of Travel, Ltd. in Great Neck, New York.

Payson passed away on Feb. 12, 2024, at the age of 87. She was first elected to the Board of Trustees in 2000 and served as a voting trustee until 2012. She was co-chair of the Academic Affairs Committee from 2003-07, and continued to be engaged in that committee and the Facilities Committee as a life trustee.

Payson’s service to ���ϲ����� went far beyond the Board of Trustees. She was an alumni representative for the Office of Admissions for nearly two decades. Payson also served on the Metropolitan New York and advisory boards and was co-chair of the National Campaign Council for the Commitment to Learning Campaign, a multi-year capital campaign launched in the 1990s.

After graduating from the , Payson earned a master’s degree in history from Columbia University and enrolled in New York University’s Law School, but took a break from her law studies to raise a family. While parenting, she taught in the Long Island School System.

Payson’s philanthropic endeavors included the , the Maxwell School (where a scholarship fund is set up in honor of her parents David and Tillie Greenberg) and the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center.

Payson and her husband, Martin, a renowned media executive and former vice chairman of Time Warner Inc., set up the Martin and Doris Payson Foundation. They had a fund dedicated to supporting the New York Jewish Film Festival. Dottie Payson also served on the boards of the United Jewish Appeal and Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.

It was her love of the arts and international travel that drew her to the travel agency business where she served an impressive array of clients and earned the description, “travel agent extraordinaire.” She is her husband of 63 years and their children Michele Rosenfield, Leslie and Eric Payson; grandchildren Benjamin, Simon and Daniel Rosenfield; and son-in-law Mark Rosenfield.

It is a job Baker didn’t even believe existed, but it’s the right position at the right time, she says. She’ll join a lab that is situated in the “hard sciences” (STEM and biology), but whose faculty decided they wanted to change the way they teach those subjects. The lab group is now focused on researching and exploring approaches to teaching that are equitable, accessible and inclusive for all students, especially for those who identify as neurodivergent, transgender and queer, Baker says.

That’s where she came in. The lab needed a qualitative researcher as a counterpart to its quantitative focus. Since most biology lab positions involve data crunching or taking samples, Baker says she is especially excited about this unique role.

Emilee Baker, a Ph.D. candidate in special education, is pursuing a unique postdoctoral research role in a biology lab.

“This job aligns with all of my vast and intersecting interests—education and learning, the environment and nature, qualitative research, writing, inclusive education, instruction, social justice issues, neurodiversity, disability and queerness,” she says.

During her time in the School of Education, Baker took advantage of many opportunities to position herself for the career she originally expected to have: assistant professor of inclusive education. She researched the program, a preservice teacher study away experience centering inclusive education and working with diverse students in New York City. She earned certificates of advanced study in and . She completed the Graduate School’s . She was a teaching assistant and a research assistant for the School of Education’s .

When the job market didn’t support her plans, Baker’s own neurodivergent behavior—anxiety—set in, she says. During the job-hunting process, “I was freaking out. People kept telling me I’d find the right position, though I was getting nervous. But I did end up finding what seemingly is going to be a perfect position for me.”

Summer Camp

Baker’s research for her dissertation, “Inclusive Environmental Education: Learning in Relation for Disabled, Genderqueer Youth,” bridges the gap between environmental and inclusive education and centers the voices of multiply marginalized youth learning in nature. As she searched for an environmental context for her work, she found it in a setting that perfectly aligned with her interests: a rare summer camp for queer and disabled students and students of color.

There, Baker was at ease with the students, and they shared a sense of comfort with her, in part because she divulged her own neurodivergent tendencies, she says. “I really understood and wanted to understand these kids and listen to them, and they sensed that, so they very much gravitated towards me,” she says.

The camp provided the kids with a vastly different learning experience than their typical school settings. “It was outdoors, away from families, school and support systems. The students were going through a lot personally, but they were still able to focus and learn in that inclusive and healing space, and that difference was transformative for them,” Baker says.

Formal Training

Baker says her highly interdisciplinary background, qualitative research experience and research with multiply marginalized students across K-12 and higher education earned her the spot in the biology lab. Associate Professor Sarah Eddy, who runs the lab, says she appreciates Baker’s formal training in education and her depth of knowledge. “What I have valued is the depth of knowledge graduates have developed, through their education Ph.D., in quantitative��methods, qualitative��methods and/or both educational theory and also critical theories. I appreciate how my projects are stronger when I partner with colleagues with formal training,” Eddy says.

Though Baker is still analyzing her dissertation findings, she hopes her research will lead to the questioning of arbitrary disability labels now used within K-12 schools, provide critical connections to schooling that takes place outside of formal education settings and reveal deeper meaning behind kids’ learning in relation to nature and STEM education, she says.

And while she’ll be conducting her lab projects remotely, Baker is satisfied that she won’t be working alone. Having new counterparts in a setting where she’s looked to for her unique strengths, skills and characteristics is exciting, she says.

“You can’t do research alone, let alone good research, and the most impactful experiences I’ve had at ���ϲ����� are in lab spaces and collective groups. Being able to focus on a research agenda will allow me to feel comfortable and content about the work I’m doing instead of feeling the ‘mad dash’ to do it all,” she says. “This is allowing me to dip my foot in to see if academia is still the world I want to be a part of, and it seems like this role will support whatever avenue I want to take.”

ParKer Bryant

and found the existence of AI technologies in communities affects people in many ways. They were part of a five-student research team working with , professor of anthropology in the , who was chosen as the 2022-24 Lender Center faculty fellow to study how artificial intelligence impacts weapons systems, communities and issues of social justice.

Bryant has worked in education since 2008. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education leadership and moved to ���ϲ����� from Georgia to pursue her doctorate in literacy education in the . Now in her third year, she wants to work as a faculty member or education researcher after graduation to stay involved with students but use data to ensure that educational policies are structured to benefit them.

Aren Burnside

Burnside is a third-year Ph.D. student in anthropology at the Maxwell School. He grew up in the ���ϲ����� area and obtained dual bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and philosophy from ���ϲ����� in 2020. He wants to become a professor because he especially enjoys teaching.

Here, Bryant and Burnside discuss how their thinking about AI evolved after investigating its social intricacies. Together with Bahn and other student fellows, they will present their findings at the Lender Fellows Symposium on Friday, .

Vernon L. Lee Jr.

It’s a love story that began at Hendricks Chapel, where Vernon L. Lee Jr. first met Marcia L. Heath. Both undergraduates, they raised their voices in song together, worshipped together and, six days after they both graduated from ���ϲ����� in 1954, they married. Their devotion to each other and to the Orange Community lasted a lifetime and beyond—in the establishment of the Marcia ’54 and Vernon ’54 Lee Endowed Fund for Hendricks Chapel.

The Reverend Vernon LaMont “Bonky” Lee Jr. was 92 when he passed away on Dec. 10, 2023. He had served as a voting trustee on the ���ϲ����� Board of Trustees from 1976 to 1989, when he became a life trustee. He also served on the Hendricks Chapel Advisory Board.

“Vernon was a valued trustee and supporter of ���ϲ����� for decades,” Chancellor Kent Syverud says. “I am so grateful for his life and work.”

Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama from the College of Arts and Sciences followed by a master’s degree in theology from the Boston University School of Theology in 1957. He began as a pastor in 1957, advancing to the position of superintendent of the Elmira District of the Methodist Church in New York. Lee also had served as executive director of the church’s Central New York Conference, headquartered in ���ϲ�����. In retirement, he had been a senior consultant to the United Methodist Frontier Foundation Inc.

It is noteworthy that the Methodist leader was so dedicated to and engaged with his alma mater, a university that was initially founded by resolution of the Methodist State Convention in ���ϲ����� in 1870. “Reverend Lee embodied the dynamic relationship between faith and learning,” says the Rev. Brian E. Konkol, dean of Hendricks Chapel. “Through his lifelong commitment to mission and ministry, Vernon truly lived the famous quote by Methodist theologian John Wesley: ‘Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.’”

“To be on the receiving end of Rev. Lee’s kindness and wisdom was an honor. Though ���ϲ����� is no longer affiliated with the Methodist Church, leaders such as Vernon help to ensure that the spirit and soul of our campus community will remain strong for generations to come,” says Konkol. Lee’s ministry mentor was Charles Noble who was the dean of Hendricks Chapel when he and Marcia were students. The endowed fund set up by the couple was created “to initiate, support and/or enhance programs that fulfill the mission of Hendricks Chapel.” Konkol says it provides support for students in need, and creates opportunities for student engagement.

As a Methodist pastor in the Central New York Conference, Lee served churches in Watkins Glen, ���ϲ�����, Auburn, Geneva and Elmira. In later years, he became district superintendent for Elmira, and subsequently conference executive. He completed his active ministry at the United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, New York.

Lee was a member of the United Methodist Frontier Foundation’s Board of Directors, serving New York and Connecticut. He was past president of the Board of Directors of the Folts Foundation Inc. in Herkimer, New York; past chair of the Board of Trustees of Alban at Duke Divinity School (formerly The Alban Institute in Herndon, Virginia); and past president of The Rotary Club of ���ϲ�����.

He and his wife Marcia, who received a bachelor’s degree from the School of Education, were also generous supporters of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, ���ϲ����� Athletics and ���ϲ����� Libraries.

He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Marcia, two children, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Join University of Michigan’s Jon M. Wargo for the spring 2024 School of Education Ganders Lecture as he uses case studies to explore sound as a material and a design resource for learning and to explore the cultural politics of noise.

“” will take place on March 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. in Watson Hall 036. The event is free; Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART) will be provided.

is associate professor of educational studies at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education. Building on a decade of fieldwork, his scholarship addresses the role of media and technology as it intersects with literacy learning, examines how ingenuity is interpreted in schools and classrooms and leverages young peoples’ differences as a way to understand human sense-making.

Fueled by his experiences as a queer, multi-ethnic, first-generation college graduate and elementary educator, teaching in urban multilingual schools, Wargo’s work is informed by longstanding commitments to educational equity, racial justice, the arts and community activism.

Jon Wargo

“Jon Wargo’s interdisciplinary work and innovative methods engages sound in the context of learning, social interaction and play, and the phenomenology of navigating inequality and silencing,” says Professor , SOE associate dean for research.

In this lecture, Wargo will address the material and political aspects of sound with observations of queer youth navigating the sounds and silences of homophobia, the noise of embodied learning in a Pre-K STEAM unit, and the social interactions of undergraduates engaged in an immersive escape room game.

The remembers Harry S. Ganders, the School of Education’s fourth dean (who oversaw the transformation of the Teachers College into the “All University” School of Education) and his wife. The lecture was established by the Ganders’ daughters and is also supported by alumni and other contributions to the Harry S. and Elva K. Ganders Memorial Fund.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the , , ��and .

The awards are funded by a 2022 grant that supports research and community programming over three years to examine the racial wealth gap’s root causes and ideas that may resolve its economic and social inequalities, says , Lender Center interim director. The awards are part of the Lender Center for Social Justice initiative led by the

The racial wealth gap is an ongoing issue that undermines potential economic and social progress and opportunities for members of underserved and underrepresented communities, according to , Lender Center senior research associate and associate professor in the Whitman School of Management.

“These research projects are noteworthy because of their unique courses of inquiry, their highly inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional nature and their close engagements with ���ϲ����� community members and organizations,” says Phillips.

Projects receiving the one-year grants and involved faculty are:

“Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap Through Increasing Decennial Census Self-Response Rates in Marginalized Communities”

Leonard Lopoo

This project will test mechanisms to try to increase self-response rates for the 2030 federal census in undercounted communities in New York State. Successful efforts could offset census undercounts that might otherwise reduce federal funding for education, health care, housing, infrastructure and other vital services.

• , , principal investigator
• ,

Brice Nordquist

“���ϲ����� Futures”

This study looks at ���ϲ�����’s arts and humanities infrastructure and how universities and community organizations can partner in offering arts and humanities programming and college and career support to historically marginalized communities.�� Led by the ’ , the effort involves multiple South Side organizations.

• , College of Arts and Sciences, principal investigator.
• ,
• ,

“Does Military Service Mitigate the U.S. Racial Wealth Gap? Overlooked Pathways for��Underrepresented Minorities in Public Service”

Arielle Newman

Corri Zoli

This project explores how military service intersects with racial wealth disparities. Researchers will look at military service as a means of economic advancement and a way to overcome social barriers that may hinder underrepresented minorities who are pursuing post-service career advancement and entrepreneurship.

• , , and , Whitman School, principal investigators
• , (IVMF)
• ,
• , Maxwell School
• , IVMF
• , Lender Center for Social Justice
• , University of Pittsburgh

“From Highways to High-Speed Internet: Leveraging Equitable Infrastructure for the Data Economy”��

LaVerne Gray

Researchers are determining whether access to first-class digital information, services, assets and increased technology training can reduce the racial wealth gap by lessening barriers to digital networks, critical information and data literacy skills. Skills-training workshops are planned with community members.����

• and , (iSchool), principal investigators
• , iSchool
• , iSchool
  

  Beth Patin

• iSchool
• , College of Arts and Sciences/
• , , Whitman School

“Opportunity Design: Engaging Public Health in Low-Income Communities”

Hannibal Newsom

This study leverages interest in ongoing energy retrofit work at 418 Fabius Street in the James Geddes Housing development in ���ϲ����� to generate a more comprehensive examination of social determinants of health through the process of opportunity mapping.

• , , principal investigator
• , College of Visual and Performing Arts, co-principal investigator
• , School of Architecture, co-investigator

“Nourishing Families: Parents as Partners in the Alignment of a Mindful Eating Intervention to Meet the Needs of Low-Income and Marginalized Families With Young Children”

Lynn Brann

Parent and teacher workshops that include mindful yoga and mindful eating lessons for children are planned to address the nutrition needs of low-income, underrepresented families in ���ϲ�����. Research will explore if better nutrition for vulnerable populations can mean better health for families and more opportunities for their gainful employment, lessening the racial wealth gap.

• , , principal investigator
• , Falk College
• , Falk College

“Addressing Obesity and Hypertension in Refugees through Culturally Relevant Meal Interventions”��

Miriam Mutambudzi

This project looks at obesity and hypertension in diaspora populations and works with African immigrants on post-immigration diets to introduce healthy adaptations while preserving culinary heritage. The goal is to assess whether healthier eating can reduce health issues and boost labor force participation, generating improved socioeconomic status.

• , Falk College, principal investigator
• , Falk College

“Disability as a Critical Element in Exploring the Racial Wealth Gap”

Nannette Goodman

Researchers will identify challenges faced by Black, Indigenous and People of Color individuals with��disabilities and will examine the role of disability in the racial wealth gap. They plan to develop recommendations regarding policies and practices that limit economic inclusion and trap people with disabilities into poverty.

• , College of Law, principal investigator
• , College of Law

“Optimizing Corporate Supplier Diversity Programs and Corporate-Facing Regulations for Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap”��

Karca Aral

This initiative examines diversity interactions and legislative interventions in business-to-business aspects of wealth distribution and corporate supplier diversity programs. Researchers will develop guidance on diversity programs and diversity initiatives while enhancing those programs’ potential to level the racial wealth gap.

• , Whitman School, faculty lead
• , Whitman School
• ., Whitman School

Ann Covitz, right, with her daughter Jill

A Queens, New York, native, she always wanted to be a teacher, and friendly influences and a strong School of Education led her to ���ϲ�����. “My best friend Susan wanted to go to ���ϲ�����, and it got to be a whole clique of people in the neighborhood who went,” she recalls. “It was too big a school for me, really. But I loved the area all around campus.”

One weekend she met David Covitz, a Cornell University student in the same fraternity as her brother. After Ann graduated from ���ϲ�����, the couple married and settled near Cornell. They later moved to Long Island, where their daughter, Jill, was born. But Ann ran the household as David was frequently attending to his veterinary practice, and the marriage fell apart when Jill was 2 years old. Ann adapted as best she could, focusing on her teaching career and raising her little girl.

For 35 years Ann split her time between teaching and family therapy. She always loved children and became a Montessori School directress. She also organized parenting classes. Ann applied the lessons she learned as a single parent to help build up other families and guide schoolchildren in the same way she nurtured her daughter.

“She was such a happy kid—the girl whose perpetual, dimpled smile would light up the room,” Ann recalls. “I remember her receiving the ‘Friendliest Camper Award’ as a young child. They used to call her ‘bubbly’; she was very outgoing and made friends everywhere she went.”

A Love of Travel

Jill Covitz ’92 loved music throughout her childhood, especially bands. And while Ann admits ���ϲ����� wasn’t the ideal choice for her, it was perfect for Jill, who joined Alpha Chi Omega sorority and majored in electronic media production at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She loved the entertainment aspect of the music industry and aspired to work in events production.

Ann and Jill Covitz at Commencement

Of all her ���ϲ����� experiences, a semester abroad set the tone for the rest of Jill’s life. “Jill studied abroad in London and traveled all over Europe. She loved being in a group and exploring, especially being an only child,” Ann says. “She always had the travel bug, but ���ϲ����� was the place that gave her the inspiration to live internationally.”

Jill graduated cum laude and spent over a decade in New York City, working for Columbia Records and Sony Music Entertainment. But she still wished to live in another part of the world and was drawn to Australia for its people and its beauty.

“Australians are very happy people—boundless. They have a light about them similar to Jill’s personality, and she loved the camaraderie,” Ann recalls. “She said, ‘Mom, one day I want to go to Australia. It’s just the place I want to be.’”

In 2005, Jill moved across the world and joined Fox Studios Australia. Six years later she went into business for herself, starting The Corporate Method (known as TCM Events), an event management company responsible for a full range of launches, premieres, galas and corporate, live and public events. In 2016 she kicked off a new start-up called FUNLOCKA, a tech platform connecting businesses with fans in meaningful ways. Jill applied all her entertainment experience into being a freelancer and consultant, living her dream. Life was perfect…except for the distance from her mother.

“I’m very different from Jill—I’m an introvert, and we have opposite personalities. But we had a strong bond,” Ann says. “We were just always apart because Jill wanted to travel, while I was afraid of planes and wanted to stay close to home.”

Jill Covitz with her dog, Paris

In the fall of 2021, Ann got the courage to fly across the U.S. and the Pacific to live out her retirement in Australia with Jill nearby. It was a beautiful plan: mother and daughter together again, exactly where they wanted to live. But only months after Ann’s arrival, tragedy struck.

For one so outgoing and working in the bustling entertainment business, Jill enjoyed private moments too. Every morning she took her dog, Paris, for a walk, and most days included a quiet swim.

On the morning of Jan. 25, 2022, Jill went swimming alone on Peregian Beach, a small coastal town in Queensland, where she was caught in a rip current and drowned. The news of her sudden passing devastated everyone who knew her, but no one more deeply than her mother Ann, left to ponder the impossible question: “Why?”

“She was amazing, always. The friendliest, warmest, nicest and strongest young woman. She had a magic about her, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s still so hard for me,” Ann says. “Jill was described as ‘the bright flame that all good things and people gravitated towards. Her open and beautiful smile will be eternal to all who knew her.’”

Celebrating Jill’s Life

Two years since that tragic day, Ann has tried to channel her grief in a manner that celebrates her daughter’s life. After all, it’s what Jill would have wanted.

“‘It is what it is, Mom,’—that’s what she would say whenever we faced any kind of loss or hardship,” Ann recalls, knowing Jill wouldn’t want to dwell on things one couldn’t change. “It reflected her whole attitude and zest for life. Jill wasn’t going to waste a moment of life.”

For the first anniversary of her daughter’s passing, Ann and friends raised over $5,000 to plant trees in Jill’s honor across various Australian national parks, to build landscape resilience after recent fires and flooding. “Jill had been heartbroken about the devastation from these natural events and the impact of the habitat loss on koalas and other animals,” she says. “It seemed fitting to celebrate her by supporting our community.”

Closer to Jill’s home, a park bench bearing her name sits along Jill’s favorite route by the water, where she walked each morning with Paris (Jill’s beloved pet died just two months after her passing).

The trees and bench were beautiful ways to honor Jill and her love for Australia. But as Ann, in her 80s, contemplated her own legacy, she sought an avenue to ensure her daughter’s memory would never be forgotten.

Jill Covitz

Everything Ann had saved was intended for her daughter, so she wanted her estate to pay tribute to all that was special about Jill—the zest for life, the pursuit of adventure, the appreciation for learning about new cultures and perspectives, and the joy of bringing people together.

Inspired by those qualities, Ann created the Jill Rebecca Covitz ’92 Memorial Scholarship through her estate to provide financial assistance to students participating in a ���ϲ����� Abroad program, with preference to students enrolled in the Newhouse School. She hopes the scholarship will enable students to explore the world and gain a new perspective, as Jill experienced. Anyone wishing to support the scholarship in Jill’s memory can make a gift at .

“There are no words of comfort to soften Ann’s grief, and it is with deeply grateful but heavy hearts that we accept her incredible generosity,” says David Whitmore, vice president for advancement, academic affairs. “We can’t ease the pain of Ann’s loss, but we can honor Jill with the promise that every student who receives her scholarship will know her story and keep her memory alive.”

Today, Ann feels some peace knowing her gift will bring students together in the spirit of learning, to make lasting memories and view the world differently, reflecting Jill’s attitude toward life.

“Living abroad is like living more than one life at a time—you go there alone and isolated, but you come back with lifelong friends. I think that’s why Jill liked it so much,” Ann says. “She just took the most she could from life and ran with it, and anyone who wanted to run alongside was welcome. And I thought that was a wonderful way to live.”

• (Maxwell): ““, Yahoo News; ““, BBC��
• (iSchool): I I I I I I
• (Newhouse) and (Law):�� “”��
• (Law): ““, Associated Press��
• (iSchool): ““, Miami Herald��
• (Falk): ““, WRVO-FM��
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• (Whitman): ““, ���ϲ�����.com��
• (Newhouse/Law): ““, Spectrum News National��
• (Newhouse): ““, AFP; ““; ““, CHCH-TV (Canada)
• (ECS): ““, ���ϲ�����.com����
• Courtney Mauldin (Education): ““, The Grio/Associated Press��
• (Whitman): ““, The Washington Post
• (Newhouse): ““, Associated Press��

To get in touch and learn more about ���ϲ����� faculty members available for interviews, please contact��media@syr.edu.

For more than a decade, McIntosh has charted an unconventional course in higher education, focusing on administration, operations and organizational transformation rather than a traditional student affairs path. His mantra, as he puts it, is to immerse himself in roles that are “messy, complicated, creative and in need of strengthening.”

Transformative Challenge

McIntosh believes his greatest assets lie in helping institutions strengthen their operational and organizational platforms. For example, among his past roles, he has supported the merger of ���ϲ�����’s offices of Greek Life and Student Activities, overseen the master plan for Housing and Residence Life at Harvard College and established a counseling center at Bates College.

Joshua McIntosh G’12

Between 2014 and 2023, McIntosh served as vice president for campus life at Bates College, a private liberal arts college in Maine. He is most proud of two efforts during his time there; standing up the counseling center and leading the college’s COVID-19 public health management initiative. “When I arrived at Bates, there was no counseling center, and health services and sports medicine were in need of significant improvements,” he says.

McIntosh says he found health care and counseling an interesting, complex and transformative challenge. “It was an especially interesting task because I had no expertise in health care,” he admits. And despite recalling the orchestration of the college’s response to the pandemic as a “nightmare,” he embraced entering the highly regulatory world of health care because it allowed him to use creative thinking. “Leading transformation of health care on campus and creating access with an equity and inclusion lens was in many ways the work with the most impact on the student experience,” he adds.

McIntosh defines his work as always being in incredibly stimulating and creative spaces and as balancing a school’s administrative, operational and financial platforms. “It’s been different jobs, with different titles, but the common threads remain,” he says, noting there are always a variety of stakeholders to please. “From faculty, staff, students, and, for some undergraduates, their families as well, higher education is a very complex environment.”

Proven Dedication

Now back at Harvard, new challenges await, which McIntosh finds exciting.

As executive dean of the Kennedy School, he will be the school’s chief administrative officer and report to the dean. He’ll oversee a broad range of activities in financial operations, facilities, human resources, information technology, communications, the library, research administration, security and executive education.

The challenge, McIntosh says, is two of these areas are completely new to him: research administration and executive education. “It’s what caught my eye,” he says. “It’s the complexity of the environment, coupled with the subject matter I need to learn that I find most motivating and stimulating.”

McIntosh also looks forward to supporting the Kennedy School’s research. He will coordinate closely with the directors and executive directors of the institution’s research centers to ensure effective support of all activities. “Some of the best thinkers and scholars of our time are here and will be addressing current issues from gender to human rights to international affairs to climate change,” he notes. “These are our current and future problems, not just as a country but globally.”

In announcing McIntosh’s appointment, Dean of Harvard Kennedy School Douglas Elmendorf says, “With his experience as a strategic leader and proven dedication to the mission of higher education, Josh will be a tremendous asset to the Kennedy School. I’m delighted that he will join our community and help advance our mission of improving public policy and leadership.”

What sets McIntosh apart is his ability to build and lead strong teams. “I understand how the pieces all fit together and how different stakeholders want different things,” he observes. “Oftentimes, these can be in conflict with one another. So, where I think I can be most useful to the Kennedy School is to work across its many stakeholders to advance a shared set of priorities once those become crystallized.”

Broad Foundation

McIntosh launched his career in higher education at ���ϲ�����, after earning an undergraduate degree from Elon University and his master’s in college student development from Appalachian State University.

After ���ϲ�����, McIntosh held management and leadership positions as associate dean of Harvard College, the undergraduate liberal arts college of Harvard University, before moving to Johns Hopkins University, where he collaborated closely with the president and provost on strategic priorities and oversaw seven departments.

Across that time, he earned his doctorate in higher education from ���ϲ�����’s School of Education.

McIntosh credits ���ϲ����� with providing a foundation for understanding the complexity and mission driven work of higher education. “It’s hard to work across an organization if you don’t understand the different elements of it because you typically just view what’s important or what seems material through your own lens, which can be very limiting,” he says. “So, the broad foundation from ���ϲ����� was incredibly important for me to understand the complexity of higher education institutions.”

He found that ���ϲ�����, too, connected him to great people and support. “I was lucky at ���ϲ����� to not only have really good teachers but ones that are really good human beings,” he says. He also honed his communication skills both through coursework and in completing his dissertation. This, he says, greatly helped him cultivate the ability to build reasoned, persuading arguments.

“You cannot overstate the importance and value of effective communication, interpersonal skills and the ability to work with people who hold different points of view with competing interests,” McIntosh observes, adding this is especially true in the realm of higher education where multiple priorities and personalities collide.

Looking back over his career, McIntosh says he cherishes his ability to hire, recruit and further develop solid teams. “The teams piece, as well as my ability to work with a number of dimensions of the enterprise to get important work done, is probably where I’ve been the most successful.”

McIntosh’s journey has been marked by deliberate choices, calculated risks and a passion for transformative change. In his new role at Harvard Kennedy School, he stands poised to make a consequential impact, helping to shape the future of higher education as he goes.

Story by Ashley Kang ’04, G’11 (an alumna of the M.S. in higher education program)

To learn more about the School of Education’s ,�� contact Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions and Recruitment .

The input will help researchers better understand student experiences at the University and improve the resources available. Participation is entirely voluntary and anonymous.��

Time commitment

The should take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

What’s in it for you?

By participating, students will also have the chance to win one of 50 $75 Amazon gift cards. The email address provided will be kept separate from survey responses, ensuring there is no way to link survey responses with the identity of respondents.

The survey is open��until Friday, March 15.

Any questions should be directed to the principal investigator of the survey, Michiko Ueda-Ballmer, associate professor, public administration and international affairs department, Maxwell School, at��miueda@syr.edu.

“Uyghur Genocide: The Ongoing Efforts for Accountability” takes place on Wednesday, March 6, at 6 p.m. in Watson Hall 036. Details, including how the event can be streamed, are found at .

The panelists will be Babur Ilchi, (UHRP) Program Manager; Elfidar Iltebir, President of the ; and concentration camp survivor Tursunay Ziyawudun. Julie Milsap, UHRP Government Relations Manager, will moderate.

, China began a systematic campaign of human rights abuses against Uyghur and other vulnerable minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region more than a decade ago: “More than one million Uyghurs have been imprisoned in ‘re-education centers’ and subjected to forced labor, torture, rape and sterilization. The United States and other nations have determined that these crimes constitute genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs.”

“The U.S. is beginning to take action,” says Julia M. White, an associate professor and director of the School of Education’s minor program. “In late 2021, in response to the Uyghur forced labor program in the Xinjiang region, the U.S. Congress passed the , which prohibits importing goods, from textiles to solar panels, from this province. It is a start, but it is also a fraught diplomacy issue. This panel will provide context for and lived experiences of this genocide and the efforts to hold the Chinese government, and the world, accountable for these crimes.”

Supported by Lauri ’77 and Jeffrey Zell ’77, the annual spring atrocity studies lectures convene speakers from disciplines at the intersection of history, memory and international human rights. The lectures fundamentally ask how we can use the lessons of the past to inform and improve our world.

The 2024 lecture is co-sponsored by the following ���ϲ����� departments and programs: citizenship and civic engagement program, College of Law Office of International Programs, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of Religion, Humanities Center, Journal of Global Rights and Organizations/Impunity Watch News, Lender Center for Social Justice, Maxwell School social science Ph.D. program, Native American and Indigenous studies, and Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration.

The final round—a pitch competition—occurred Feb. 9 in the Whitman School of Management and was led by Don Carr, professor in the VPA School of Design, and Kai Alexander Patricio G’23, a design consultant at Matchstix in Brooklyn, New York.

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The students behind “Dialog,” an application to increase a sense of belonging on campus for student with disabilities, won the fast-paced, seven-day No Code Design Sprint competition.

A multidisciplinary team, Dialog consists of Fasika Melese G’18, G’19, a doctoral student in SOE’s instructional design, development and evaluation program; Viha Mashruwala, G’24, a master’s degree student in the School of Information Studies’ applied data science program; Lang Delapa ’24, a senior in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ advertising program; and Sawyer Tardie ’27, a first-year student in the Whitman School of Management.

The Dialog team consulted with students from SOE’s to identify a challenge neurodiverse students face—loneliness. To increase their sense of belonging, the team designed and developed a mobile app to help develop communication skills, including journaling prompts, discussion boards, daily challenges and more.

Honorable mention went to LearSona, a team that developed a working prototype of an app that offers academic content to users in a medium that fits their learning preference, such as visual, textual or kinesthetic.

Other teams pitching their ideas—and developing —w�����:

• Optimal Assessment, an artificial intelligence-powered teaching and assessment “co-pilot” for professors, to tailor course content for different learning preferences;
• Equilearn, a learning platform to address the “pain points” of accessible education; and
• BookTalk, a platform that encourages neurodiverse students to better understand material by sharing learnings with each other.

The Design Sprint began on Feb. 2, with an intensive workshop on no code and inclusive design led by Patricio. The author of “,” Patricio is an expert in regenerative design, inclusive design, interaction design and the development of new digital interfaces.

After the initial workshop, teams assembled to create a minimum viable product for an inclusive product or service that could vie for the pitch competition prize of $500, plus $5,000 in Amazon Web Services credits.

Coaches for the week of intensive idea development were: Samantha Calamari, senior learning experience designer, Microsoft; Quinton Fletchall, senior design researcher, Conifer Research; Max Mirho, content creator, Make with Max; and Andrew Tsao, founder, Codeless Coach.

The competition judges were: Samantha Calamari; Seth Gitner and Adam Peruta ’00, G’04, associate professors in the Newhouse School’s magazine, news and digital journalism program; Aimara Rodriguez, co-founder of Function Wellness; Brenton Strine, co-founder and CTO of Kicky Art; and Gianfranco Zaccai ’70, H’09, co-founder of the innovative design firm EPAM Continuum and Founder of . Joining the hosts as competition sponsors were the and .

L. Hazel Jack

Jack was working in the airport advertising field after earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing management and advertising from Pace University. She was responsible for her company’s national sales conference, scheduled in New York City on Sept. 10 and 11 that year, and was at a printing facility in New Jersey when the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center occurred.

“It was this moment that got me thinking, ‘Is this really what I want to do? What’s my purpose?’” Jack recalls. Soon after, she began searching for more meaning within her selected field, ultimately leading to a job in marketing and communications for the City University of New York’s School of Professional Studies.

That ignited her passion for higher education, and she has since held various executive roles related to marketing, communications, special events, advancement and crisis management with Johns Hopkins University, Howard University and now Colgate University, where she currently serves as vice president and chief of staff to the president. She has continued to collect advanced degrees along the way, and in fall of 2017, began her pursuit of a Ph.D. from ���ϲ����� to take her expertise to the highest possible level.

An Unexpected, But ‘Easy Choice’

Jack, a first-generation college student, says when she was choosing where to study as an undergraduate, she didn’t consider her current role in higher ed administration as a viable career path. “I didn’t even know this was a thing. I just assumed I would do some kind of corporate communications or advertising. I never anticipated getting this level of education,” she says of attaining an MBA in marketing and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Baruch College before moving on to a doctoral degree.

“I often feel like I shouldn’t be here,” Jack says. “When you read about education and who tends to persist and who does well, I don’t exactly fit that mold.” After deciding to attain a Ph.D., she applied to a handful of programs, including the one at the School of Education. She didn’t think she would be admitted. “When I did, I was like, ‘Well that’s an easy decision!’”

She immediately connected with the professors and coursework. “I took a course on organization and administration in higher education, which was immediately applicable to my role at Colgate—looking at various aspects of how different institutions of higher learning are structured and some of the nuances of hierarchies and governance, which was really helpful,” says Jack.

Beyond coursework, she has been grateful to connect with her peers in the program who also work in higher education, helping break down the siloes that can prevail within and across institutions.

DEIA In Theory and In Practice

Another favorite course of Jack’s was one she took with on race, representation and culture. “It instantly gave me language to put to experiences I’ve had that I couldn’t explain before,” Jack says. “We dove into the literature around identity and place within higher education. As a woman of color in higher ed, working mostly at predominantly white institutions, there was always this ‘outsider’ feeling, even as I progressed in my career. Reading literature that described that experience, I realized it was not just in my head; it was real. It helped me make sense of what I’ve experienced in the space and reassured me that I deserve to be in this space.”

Jack plays an integral role in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) work at Colgate and through her association with several professional organizations—including One X League, Chief, the National Council of Negro Women and as a John Roberts Lewis Fellow with the Faith & Politics Institute. She finds herself continuously revisiting and integrating her School of Education coursework into her career and advocating for others in the space who may share her background.

“Right now there is so much conversation around DEIA and higher ed, especially with affirmative action being struck down,” Jack says. “A lot of the conversation hits very close to home, and it’s often taking place in spaces where I’m the only one or one of very few who have a similar experience to me. Considering multiple perspectives is more important now than ever as we’re dealing with such complex issues.”

Dissertation Research on the Visibility of Black Women Leaders

Jack’s doctoral dissertation explores how Black women college presidents have historically been covered by the press—a topic she selected years ago, but has a certain element of timeliness in the wake of recent high-profile resignations of female college presidents, including the departure of Claudine Gay from Harvard University.

Focusing on eight Black women who led higher education institutes of various types and sizes beginning in the late 1980s, Jack examined national, regional, local and student press coverage of their tenures. She completed a content and discourse analysis of what was written and how they were written about, resulting in three preliminary findings.

“Up until recently, and I’m talking within the last 20 years, these women were often described physically in the coverage. For example, ‘She had short cropped hair with a beautiful smile and wore a blue suit,’” Jack says. “How often do you see a man written about in these terms? Second, unless they had a controversy or were a ‘first’ of some sort, they weren’t written about at all. A lot of the presidents in the middle of my timeline were basically non-existent in terms of being covered. My third finding is this notion that [Black female presidents] have to be perfect in their role and act in an exemplary way at all times—there is no margin for error.”

Jack anticipates defending her dissertation by the end of the spring semester. She plans to continue in her role at Colgate and considers a future in teaching, but says she isn’t in a rush to make any big moves or firm plans: “I’ve been working full-time and studying part-time for the better part of the last 20 years,” she says. “Maybe it’s time for a break. Maybe it’s time to come home from work and take a walk for a change. I never would’ve expected that I would be here in the first place, so we’ll see what happens next.”