Category: Alumni News

School of Education’s AERA Alumni Reception April 19 in San Francisco

The School of Education will be hosting its annual Alumni Reception during the 2020 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting in San Francisco. This reception will be held on Sunday, April 19 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the W Hotel San Francisco, located at 181 3rd St. The event is free, but registration is …

New John and Tashia Morgridge gift: $70 million committed to one-for-one match

By Tod Pritchard Thanks to the generosity of alumni John and Tashia Morgridge, UW–Madison has announced a new $70 million matching opportunity to support faculty recruitment and retention. The match will be available to donors who would like to establish or enhance an endowed professorship or chair fund. An endowed professorship or chair distributes income annually …

Q&A with alum Nora Smith

From UW–Madison Graduate School communications Nora Smith has degrees from two land-grant universities (Montana State and UW–Madison) as well as Harvard Divinity School (MTS ’94). She earned her Ph.D. from the UW–Madison School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis in 2004. Smith has worked in a variety of administrative and instructional roles …

Education Dive names alum Contreras an ‘administrator to watch’ in 2020

UW–Madison alumna Sharon Contreras was named one of five “administrators to watch” in 2020 by Education Dive. Contreras received her Ph.D. from the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis in 2015. She has served as the superintendent of the Guilford County Schools since 2016. Contreras is the first woman and the first Latina …

UW–Madison alum Marri named dean of Ball State’s Teachers College

UW–Madison alumnus Anand R. Marri was named dean of Ball State University’s Teachers College, BSU announced in a news release on Jan. 7. Marri will begin his post at Ball state on July 1. Marri earned his Ph.D. from the School of Education’s highly ranked Department of Curriculum and Instruction in 2003. He also is …

Hirshberg studies benefits of fusing mindfulness training into preservice teacher education

UW–Madison’s Matt Hirshberg is the lead author on a new paper published in the journal Learning and Instruction that examines the merits of incorporating mindfulness training into preservice teacher education, and how such efforts can lead to improvements in the classroom. Hirshberg is a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the university’s Center …

Learning Connections Summer 2019 edition

This is the online edition of Learning Connections, a news magazine from the UW–Madison School of Education. The ​Summer 2019 issue is filled with exciting news about School of Education faculty, staff, students and alumni. A pdf of the ​Summer Learning Connections is available here. Summer 2019 edition highlights include: Keep in Touch! The School of Education …

Wisconsin media spotlight School’s extension of Teacher Pledge through 2028-29

Media outlets in the Madison area and across Wisconsin have reported on the UW–Madison School of Education’s extension of its groundbreaking Teacher Pledge program through 2028-29. This is the third extension of the program, which launched in the fall of 2020 and was originally scheduled to run for five years. This latest extension was made possible …