Education

Around the College: April 14, 2021

Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Students, staff and faculty members from Penn State's College of Education share recent research and career achievements.

  • Bernard Badiali, associate professor of education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been named the recipient of the Special Interest Group (SIG) Distinguished Achievement Award at the American Educational Research Association conference. Badiali's main teaching and research activities have been in the areas of school/university relationships, staff development, school reform, supervision and curriculum. He has served as mentor to many doctoral students and junior faculty committed to moving forward the fields of supervision and Professional Development Schools. He is also the newly elected SIG secretary/treasurer.
  • Christy Beck, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education (EPCSE) and Dr. Edwin L. Herr Clinic supervisor, discussed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the mental health of college students on a recent episode of Your Health Matters on ABC23.
  • Soo-yong Byun, associate professor of education (educational theory and policy) was awarded a Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) Level-2 grant ($23,837) for his Reducing Social Disparities proposal, “Gender and Racial Disparities in Occupational Privilege: Effects of Occupational Discrimination on Career, Health, and Life Outcomes.” He will be collaborating with Hee Man Park, assistant professor of human resource management, and Sarah Damaske, associate professor of sociology, labor and employment relations, and women's studies.
  • Erica Frankenberg, professor of education (educational leadership and demography), received a Social Science Research Institute award for a project on which she is co-principal investigator (PI), “Longitudinal School Attendance Boundary Project: Understanding how boundaries and populations change, 1990-2020.” Chris Fowler, associate professor of geography, is the PI for the project.
  • Ed Fuller, associate professor of education (educational leadership) was quoted in a story, “Pa. teacher shortage could result in lower quality education for K-12 students” by WLVR Lehigh Valley, an NPR affiliate.
  • Royel Johnson, assistant professor of education (higher education) and research associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE), will be the opening keynote speaker for the 2021 Black and Latino Male summit that will be held this summer by his alma mater, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In addition, Johnson is the lead author on a new article, “What’s the ‘problem’ of considering criminal history in college admissions? A critical analysis of ‘Ban the Box’ policies in Louisiana and Maryland,” in the Journal of Higher Education. Johnson’s co-authors on the paper are Rafael Alvarado, who is pursuing a joint juris doctorate/doctoral degree in law and higher education through a partnership between Penn State Law and the Department of Education Policy Studies; and Kelly Rosinger, assistant professor of education and research associate in the CSHE.
  • Paul Morgan, professor of education in the Department of Education Policy Studies (EPS), along with Adrienne Woods, a postdoctoral scholar in EPS, and Orfeu Buxton, Elizabeth Fenton Susman Professor of Biobehavioral Health, were awarded $80,250 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to support their project, “Investigating sleep-related disparities in U.S. children’s learning difficulties.” Additionally, Morgan, along with co-authors Yangyang Wang, a doctoral candidate in EPS, and Woods have a new paper, “Risk and protective factors for frequent electronic device use of online technologies” in Child Development.
  • LaWanda Ward, assistant professor of education in Education Policy Studies  and research associate in the the Center for the Study of Higher Education, was named as one of two new associate editors of Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.

"Around the College" highlights accomplishments by faculty, staff and students in the College of Education, including publications; research presentations at conferences and workshops; and awards, grants and fellowships. Please share your news with us and your colleagues by emailing edrelations@psu.edu.

 

 

 

 

Last Updated April 21, 2021

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