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News Briefs

McGraw Center Welcomes Inaugural Leader

Photo: Courtesy of Cheryl Logan

Cheryl Logan, GRD’17, is returning to Penn GSE, where she will oversee the launch of the new McGraw Center for Educational Leadership as its first executive director. A former chief academic officer at the School District of Philadelphia, Logan was most recently the superintendent of Omaha Public Schools, where she led the district through a groundbreaking COVID-19 testing pilot study with the University of Nebraska Medical Center that enabled Omaha to be one of the first large, urban school districts in the nation to return to in-person learning in 2020. That leadership was one of the defining factors cited when she won the McGraw Prize for K–12 Education in 2022.

“With her wealth of experience and expertise in the field of education, Dr. Logan is poised to play an instrumental role in the development of the next generation of education leaders,” said Dean Pam Grossman. “We believe that her innovative and visionary approach will help shape the direction of our Center and ensure that the Center becomes a driving force for positive change in the field of education.”

The McGraw Center was announced last fall as part of a record-setting gift by the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation, and its focus will be on creating next-level education leaders across all sectors of learning.

Eight Penn GSE Professors Noted for Public Influence

Eight Penn GSE professors made Education Week’s 2023 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings list. This annual list recognizes university-based scholars whose voices shape educational policies and practices. Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology with a secondary appointment at Penn GSE, ranked second on the list, which also included GSE faculty members Vivian L. Gadsden, Roberto G. Gonzales, Dean Pam Grossman, Richard M. Ingersoll, Penn’s Vice Provost for Faculty Laura W. Perna, Howard C. Stevenson, and Jonathan Zimmerman.

Angela Duckworth, Vivian L. Gadsden, Roberto G. Gonzales, Dean Pam Grossman, Richard M. Ingersoll, Laura W. Perna, Howard C. Stevenson, Jonathan Zimmerman

Featured in list order left to right. Photo credits: Ryan Collerd, Stuart Goldenberg, Kielinski Photography, Mary Levin, Darryl W. Moran, Eric Sucar

Dissertation Winner Announced

Gordon Divine “Dee” Asaah, GR’21, a Reading/Writing/Literacy (RWL) doctorate, won the 2023 Jolley Bruce Christman and Steven S. Goldberg Award for Best Dissertation in Urban Education for his qualitative practitioner research study on the learning experiences of Black African and Caribbean immigrant and refugee youth.

The award celebrates research with a commitment to social justice in education and takes into consideration both the methodological and substantive aspects of the honoree’s dissertation. Asaah’s groundbreaking work explores community cultural wealth, transnational knowledge, and systematic challenges for Black immigrant and refugee youth, examining the role community-based organizations play in mediating students’ transnational literacy practices and the potential partnerships they can forge with schools.

To lay a solid research base and build trust with a historically underexamined population, Asaah spent years studying extant literature and languages and working in community-based organizations and nonprofits. “For two years, I immersed myself as a student and teacher in social justice work alongside multilingual, multiethnic Black immigrant and refugee youth and their families in Philadelphia,” he said.

Gordon Divine “Dee” Asaah, GR’21 in all black suit

Two New Grads Awarded Early Career Honors

Two recent graduates of the Independent School Teaching Residency (ISTR) program received significant teaching awards as early career teachers.

Sabrina de Brito, C’21, GED’23, works as an upper school humanities teacher at St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Virginia. She was recently awarded the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching for the 2022–2023 school year, a prize whose winners represent less than two percent of all teachers in public and private schools in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia. She was also recently selected for a prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Thailand, which begins this summer after her current fellowship ends.

“Receiving the Fulbright news was so surreal, I still can’t believe that it’s actually happening,” she said. “I feel incredibly grateful for the immense support that I’ve received both at St. Anne’s-Belfield School and through the ISTR program at Penn. I really am so very lucky.”

Jamiah Bennett, GED’23, was honored with the Class of 1959 Fund for a Career in the Classroom award from Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. The award recognizes excellence in teaching by a faculty member in the first years of their teaching career. In addition to being a humanities teacher, Bennett has worked in the Miss Porter’s summer programs, run the Serious Fitness program, coached the volleyball team, and is now the advisor to an affinity group.

“As someone who is passionate about education and puts 110 percent into my career as an educator, it was rewarding to receive such recognition of that work early in my career,” said Bennett, who became a full-time faculty member at Miss Porter’s after her fellowship there ended.

Jacobs Fellowship Launches

Drawing of pencil shooting up like a rocket

Penn GSE launched a new partnership with the Jacobs Foundation last year to support and empower the next generation of education entrepreneurs. A cornerstone of this collaboration is the Jacobs Education Impact Prize, which awards a selected cohort of Penn GSE Education Entrepreneurship master’s students practical and financial support to develop and launch their own education social impact venture. Over a year, these fellows receive $10,000 to $20,000 in funding for their venture, coaching from industry experts, professional development opportunities, and access to the global network of Jacobs Fellows who are also working to transform learning through social entrepreneurship.

The first six recipients of the Jacobs Education Impact Prize are (pictured below from left) Aqeela Allahyari, Sidra Alvi, Psacoya Guinn, Neha Gupta, Heidi Mitchell, and Natalia Rodriguez. (All are set to earn their master’s degrees in the coming months.) Their projects differ in geographic and educational focuses but share the collective goal of addressing individual learning needs to fully support education.

Aqeela Allahyari, Sidra Alvi, Psacoya Guinn, Neha Gupta, Heidi Mitchell, Natalia Rodriguez

Allahyari is working on a bilingual, instructional-level-based educational model in Saudi Arabia instead of the traditional grade-level-based one. Alvi’s venture forms partnerships with Islamic preK–12 schools in the US to provide accommodations in faith-based learning environments for children with disabilities. Through tutoring, mentoring, and intergenerational drama therapy, the nonprofit that Guinn created helps K–5 students experiencing homelessness combat chronic absenteeism and enhance learning and development. Gupta brings her tutoring and consulting experience to equip second-generation students with future-ready skills. Hearth and Home Education, created by Mitchell, mentors families in their transition to homeschooling. Rodriguez is the founder of FAM Academy, which helps girls and women in Colombia access critical knowledge about their bodies, sexuality, and relationships. Learn more at penng.se/jacobs1.

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