College of Education doctoral student Michael Reid, Jr., was named a 2024 Rising Graduate by educational publication, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Reid is among ten scholars selected nationally for the recognition. Driven by his life and educational experiences growing up in Philadelphia and attending public schools, Reid focuses on poverty as a barrier to student development. Currently, Reid is working on completing his dissertation, which will examine segregation in education through an interdisciplinary lens.
After graduation, he hopes to promote educational equity and apply research and data to advocate for policies that support schools and families from marginalized communities.
Dr. Veronica Yan has received the J. Don Read Early Career Award from the Society for Applied Research in Memory & Cognition (SARMAC) for her work empowering people to become motivated and self-regulated learners. The accolade recognizes notable contributions by emerging scholars in the fields of applied memory and cognition domain which are in line with the Society’s goal of integrating basic and applied research. Dr. Yan’s work focuses on the cognitive and metacognitive processes in which learners engage to understand their learning strategies.
The Society’s Awards Committee recognized Dr. Yan’s ability to make “seamless connections” between theoretical traditions intertwined in practice and her “eclectic” methodological toolkit. Her work will be formally honored at the Society’s fifteenth biennial meeting in County Kildare, Ireland in June 2025, where Dr. Yan will also present a keynote address.
The Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education has awarded a new doctoral training grant to Dr. Jessica Toste. The grant, titled Leaders in Advancing Data Decisions for Educational Responsiveness (LADDER): Enhancing Expertise in Data-Based Decision-Making for Academic Intervention, will support recruiting and training special education scholars at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Minnesota (UMN). Dr. Toste will serve as the principal investigator and project director. Dr. Christian Doabler will serve as co-director at UT Austin while Dr. Kristen McMaster will serve as Co-Director at UMN.
Dr. Toste also will serve as PI on a four-year project funded by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Special Education Research. The project, called Disentangling Intervention Practices Aligned with Motivational, Agentic, and Self Theories (MAST): An Integrative Meta-Analysis and Scoping Review, will encompass a comprehensive, systematic investigation of the application of MAST to interventions for students with disabilities in K-12. Ultimately, the research results will guide the design and development of highly impactful interventions that serve to improve outcomes for a wide range of learners. Dr. Toste will be joined on this project by Dr. Karrie Shogren of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities, Dr. Tyler Hicks at the University of Kansas and Dr. Peng Peng of UT Austin.
Dr. Edward J. Leach was awarded the inuagural Pathways to Possibility Partnership Award by National University, one of the largest minority-serving higher education institutions in the United States which focuses on providing opportunities to non-traditional, working and military students. Upon his retirement, National University recognized Dr. Leach, who led the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) as executive director for over a decade, for his 35 years of service to higher education teaching, learning and leadership.
The Pathways to Possibility Partnership Award seeks to acknowledge change-makers whose leadership has made a difference and whose resiliency, determination and commitment has aided in opening doors to new and accessible opportunities to create change. Dr. Leach was presented the award during the NISOD conference in May.
