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It was good to see Lauren Sneed and Shanice Robinson-Blackwell featured in this week’s Campus Memo. Lauren Sneed, who presented her work at a GCOE Research Roundtable session in December, and Dr. Robinson use strength-based approaches to study the successful exits of Black boys and men from the “School-to-Prison Pipeline,” addressing literature gaps and challenging the narrative of inescapability. We’re proud of our doctoral candidates and alumni, and glad to see them featured campus-wide.

In addition to Ms. Sneed and Dr. Robinson-Blackwell, four other doctoral candidates or alums have had their papers accepted at AERA 2025: Chu Hsi, Carmen Madden, Sarah Stein, and Ruby Turalba. The EdD Evaluation Project led by Dr. Robert Gabriner will also be presented at AERA, with Violet Ballard, Barbara Henderson, Catherine Aragon, and Sara Yuen Marcopoulos. Congratulations to all on these accomplishments!

Maria Zavala was part of the STEM team that was commissioned by the Spencer Foundation to author one of the new papers in their Culturally Sustaining and Relevant Education Approaches White Paper Series. These papers were written by teams of scholars over the last two years, and the full set was released in December. Maria’s paper, written with Carrie Tzou, Symone Gyles, and Julia Aguirre, is titled An Urgent Need for Transformation: Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Math and Science Education Towards Thriving Futures. 

Dr. Mayumi Hagiwara has a new book being published entitled Promoting self-determination for students with intellectual disability through standards-based instruction. It is written in Japanese, allowing Mayumi to share her work on self-determination in Japan – both cutting edge and so critical for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Mayumi and colleagues trained 15 Japanese special education teachers to develop and implement instruction with the focus on self-determination for a half year and wrote about how the instruction went. As detailed in the book, they saw positive outcomes among students with intellectual disability

Gloria Soto and Jennifer Vega, a GCOE graduate student, have published a second article titled "Exploring Core Competencies for Language Facilitation in Parent Training Programs in AAC," in the international journal Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology.

This article presents the core competencies that professionals (clinicians and educators) should target in parent coaching sessions. These competencies are designed to support parents in becoming more effective communication partners for their children who use AAC.

The full article is available here.  Congratulations, Gloria and Jennifer!

For the past two days, a site visit team of four people has been interviewing all members of the SLHS community, to verify all the information that appears in their self-study report – 49 standards! This afternoon at the exit report, the team shared all their findings, and the process for next steps. Nearly all the standards were “verified,” and the team was very complimentary for the program, faculty, and students. Final outcomes will be announced in March 2025. Congratulations to Chair Laura Epstein, AOC Mallorie Desimone, all the SLHS faculty, and to Carlos Julio for working with Laura and the department to create  one of the most clear and complete websites they had seen. 

This month’s GCOE Research Roundtable featured the editors and co-authors of Advancing Equity and Inclusion in Early Childhood Education (IGI Global, 2024). Amber Friesen, Maryssa Mitsch, Karina Du, Mayumi Hagiwara, and Jennifer Ward presented together to summarize several chapters of the book and provide overall context for the publication. It was a great space for us to hear current research and perspectives on inclusive early childhood education, and to appreciate the outcomes of hard work by this solid group of scholars.

Upcoming GCOE Roundtable Dates:

                Thursday November 14, 1:00 p.m.

                Thursday December 12, 1:00 p.m.

Dr. Yvonne Bui (Department of Special Education) has been appointed as the Faculty Associate Director of Asian American Collective Action for Racial Equity and Solidarity (AA CARES) within Asian American Studies, College of Ethnic Studies for the Fall 2024 semester. AA CARES strives for healing, innovation, and nurturing our communities’ continued commitment for liberation and justice. The organization is uniquely situated to uplift and give voice to the lived experiences of diverse segments of our multi-ethnic and intersectional communities. We develop programs, research innovation, and support youth (or future leaders) and the broader San Francisco Bay Area community and beyond. Learn more here: https://aa-cares.com/ Congratulations, Yvonne!

Dr. Amber Friesen, Dr. Maryssa Mitsch, and Doctoral Candidate Karina Du have recently had their co-edited book published – congratulations! Titled Advancing Equity and Inclusion in Early Childhood, this work profiles many of their esteemed colleagues/students including Dr. Maria Zavala (Elem), Dr. Mayumi Hagiwara (SPED), Dr. Maryssa K. Mitsch (SPED), Dr. Erica Bosque (Social Work), and 6 doctorate students from our joint program with UC-Berkeley including Sara Burton Ucar, Karina Du, Jaqueline Anton, Prince Estanislao, John Kim and Hadas Arbit. They hope this book contributes to the growing number of voices seeking meaningful, high-quality, equitable and inclusive opportunities for young children, their families, and the communities they live within them. Congratulations to all these authors, and to Amber, Maryssa, and Karina for conceptualizing and collecting this important work into one volume.

Dr. Alex Mejia (SED) has been selected to be part of Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color (CNV) for the 2024-26 cohort, a program through the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The program is designed to provide two years of support, mentoring, and networking opportunities for early career scholars of color. It aims to work with doctoral candidates and early career postsecondary faculty of color to cultivate the ability to draw from their own cultural and linguistic perspectives as they conceptualize, plan, conduct, write, and disseminate findings from their research. Congratulations, Alex – it’s great to know you have this well-deserved opportunity.

Dr. Mary Requa (SPED) has been has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant as a co- PI with colleagues Yiyi Wang and Zhuwei Qin entitled, Supporting Neurodiverse Students in Engineering Teamwork through an AI-Driven Platform. This is a three year grant worth $399,979. We are excited to learn with you, Mary, and are proud of your accomplishment!