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SILICON VALLEY’S VANESSA COLELLA (M.A. ’96) HOW POVERTY TC SHAPES YOUNG Today CHILDREN’S BRAINS JACK MEZIROW: HE THE MAGAZINE of TRANSFORMED LIVES TEACHERS COLLEGE, AND LEARNING COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SPRING/SUMMER 2015 GREAT MINDS THAT DON’T THINK ALIKE TC seeks the right combination as it builds a faculty for the future { spring + summer 2015} Table of Contents 10FRESH PERSPECTIVE Meet a group of new faculty and staff who — like their colleagues — are redefining fields or shaping new ones. Here, neurosci- entist Kim Noble, who is probing the impact of poverty on brain development (p. 22), with her daughter, Lucy. Features Great Minds that Don’t A Longtime Advisor 10 Think Alike 24 Says Farewell TC seeks the right combination as Scott Fahey, Chief of Staff and it builds a faculty for the future Secretary of the College, is leaving after two decades at TC How Poverty Shapes 22 the Brain Learning About the Research by Kim Noble could 26 Next Big Thing suggest new policies for supporting Vanessa Colella (M.A. ’96) has moved from families with young children education to venture capital, but teaching remains at the heart of her work Photographs: Above, Don Hamerman departments TC 3 PRESIDENT’S LETTER As faces and fields change at TC, Today we’re still asking the right questions The magazine of Teachers College is produced by the Office of Development and External Affairs at Teachers 5 @TC College, Columbia University. Teacher tenure on trial, new partnerships Suzanne M. Murphy with New York City and more VICE PRESIDENT, DEVELOPMENT & EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (ED.M. ’99, M.A. ’96) James L. Gardner 30 UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, Paradigm-changing work and commen- EXTERNAL AFFAIRS tary yb Warner Burke, Lena Verdeli, Sara Clough SENIOR DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC Carmen Martinez-Roldán, Marie Miville, COMMUNICATIONS TC’s aphasia group and the College’s Center on History and Education TC TODAY STAFF Joe Levine EDITOR 35 EARLY RISERS Heather Donohue In this issue, young alumni making BUSINESS OPERATIONS & MARKETING INITIATIVES MANAGER, EXTERNAL AFFAIRS their mark as leaders in business and the nonprofit world CONTRIBUTORS Paul Acquaro, Gifty Agyapong, Linda Colquhoun, Harriet 60 FUTURE LEADERS Jackson, Patricia Lamiell, Mindy Liss, Nikki Marenbach, Urania The Last Word Why Ph.D. candidate Mylonas, Kelsey Rogalewicz, Basil Smikle, seasoned in real-world Scott Rubin, Sally Sweeney, Matthew Vincent, Hua-Chu Yen politics, is studying education policy Nina Ovryn Class Acts Twin sisters and new ART DIRECTOR graduates Alaa and Dalal Alhomaizi are mental health advocates in Kuwait TC Today Spring/Summer 2015 Volume 39, Number 2, Copyright 2015 by Teachers College, Columbia University alumni news Articles may be reprinted with the permission of the Office of External Affairs. Please send 48 INBOX alumni class notes, letters to Readers recall their favorite TC professors the editor, address changes and other correspondence to: NEWS, PROFILES & NOTES TC Today 49 525 W. 120th St., Box 306 Campaign Update: We’re News Goldie Hawn at Academic New York, NY 10027 40 212-678-3412 In the Home Stretch Festival [email protected] TC nears the $200 million mark Profiles Preston Green (Ed.D. ’95); www.tc.edu/tctoday thanks to donors as innovative as Jane Katz (Ed.D. ’78, M.E. ’72); Maritza the work they support Macdonald (Ed.D. ’95); Joyce Rafla (M.A. ’13); Willie C. Robinson (Ed.D. ’76) ON THE COVER SILICON VALLEY’S VANESSA COLELLA On Board (M.A. ’96) HOW POVERTY TC SHAPES YOUNG 46 Today CHILDREN’S BRAINS New Trustees Andrés Alonso JACK MEZIROW: HE THE MAGAZINE of TRANSFORMED LIVES CLASS NOTES TEACHERS COLLEGE, AND LEARNING 52 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY and Reveta Bowers are giants on the SPRING/SUMMER 2015 education landscape 58 IN MEMORIAM Barbara Barnum, Charlotte Cremin GREAT MINDS THAT (M.A. ‘75), Irene Dalis, Jack Mezirow, DON’T THINK ALIKE TC seeks the right combination as it builds a faculty for the future Douglas Williams Cover No Spine_v5.indd 1 5/29/15 9:04 AM Illustration by James Steinberg secure tcˇs future and your own… …the Teachers College way When you establish a Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA) you get fixed income for life, significant tax breaks and the remainder helps our students in need. Receive guaranteed payments for life. With a minimum gift of $10,000 to create the annuity, your age at the time of the gift will determine the annual payout rate. For instance, at age 65 the payout is 4.7%. At 70, it’s 5.1%, at 80 it’s 6.8% and at 90, it’s up to 9%. A CGA may even be established as young as 45, designed to pay an even higher rate beginning at 65—great for retirement planning! You’ll enjoy a large percentage of your guaranteed income—tax-free for several years—and receive a substantial upfront charitable tax deduction. When you pass away, the residuum comes to TC. A Charitable Gift Annuity is easy to create with a gift of cash or stock and no annual fees—ever. Contact us today for a personalized calculation. We’ll provide you with all of the benefits! Louis Lo Ré Director of Planned Giving [email protected] 212-678-3037 { president’s letter} The More Things Change… hange is continual in any insti- decades of invaluable service to TC as Secretary of tution. But periodically there the College and Chief of Staff, both to me and to Pres- comes a moment — a tipping ident Arthur Levine before me. And we introduce point in the number of new Scott’s successor, Katie Conway (Ed.D. ’12, M.E. ’07, faces in the hallway; a profusion M.A. ’06), a product of Teachers College’s program of unfamiliar names on office in Higher & Postsecondary Education who has previ- doors — when long-timers ously served as my Deputy Chief of Staff. think: This is not the same place it used to be. Our students and alumni are also taking us into CThat moment has arrived at Teachers College new realms. In this issue, you’ll where, since 2007, we have recruited 50 new ten- meet Alaa and Dalal Alhomaizi, ure-track professors — about one-third of our current Kuwaiti twin sisters who are faculty. As they arrive they force us to question: How championing the rights of people do we move new ideas forward and advance the with mental illness and estab- lifecycle of TC itself? How do new colleagues who lishing psychology as an acknowl- look at the world in new ways join us in a community edged and respected discipline in that is “still TC?” their home country; Basil Smikle, You’ll find our answers in this issue of TC Today. a Ph.D. student in Politics & Edu- We introduce a cross section of new faculty members cation who is Executive Director who are challenging basic assumptions in their fields of New York’s Democratic Party; and sometimes creating new fields entirely. They and donors who are shaping new include the hearing daughter of two deaf parents who programs in areas ranging from uses “visual phonics” and other alternative forms of movement sciences to psycholog- HOW DO WE MOVE literacy to reach special-needs children; a learning ical services for returning military theorist who explores technology’s influence on veterans. They typify the creativity new ideas forward and students’ perceptions of nature; a neuroscientist who and generosity that have carried advance the lifecycle of TC? is revealing how poverty shapes the brain; and others us to the two-thirds mark in our “ How do new colleagues who whose work ranges from engaging teens through mul- historic $300 million campaign. ticultural literature to helping children with autism Clearly TC is not the place we look at the world in new succeed in school. Several earned their degrees at were five years ago, nor even five ways join us in a community TC, and all teach here because they feel a connection months ago. But to quote Professor to our work, past and present. And stay tuned: in the Hope Leichter: “What’s important that is ‘still TC? ’ fall, we’ll showcase our growing expertise in learning is to keep raising questions about analytics and other areas of quantitative analysis. fundamental premises — and to think beyond disci- Nor is it only our faculty that’s changing. Since plines to identify the questions that are pertinent to a 2007, 13 new Trustees have joined our Board. Here given focus of research.” ” you’ll meet the two newest:Andrés Alonso, a well- TC has always done that better than anyone known education leader; and Reveta Bowers, a TC else, and we don’t plan on changing now. Klingenstein Center alumna who has devoted her career to leading one of the nation’s top independent schools. We bid a heartfelt “thank you” and a fond farewell to Scott Fahey, who rendered nearly two SUSAN FUHRMAN (PH.D. ’77) Photograph: Lofi Studios tc today spring + summer 2015 3 @tc Short takes on big news at the College Defining the Conversation he big topics continue to be debated @TC. In this issue: the future of teacher tenure, factors associated with gun violence by young people, why diversity matters in pre-K classrooms, T the importance of “cognition in the wild” and more. Photograph: Don Hamerman tc today spring + summer 2015 5 { @ TC } (EPSA) hosted the first non-partisan, scholarly Teacher Tenure on Trial consideration of that question. Should seniority and dismissal be courtroom matters? “We’re seeing a shift in strategies — what polit- ical scientists call ‘venue shopping’ for arenas where achieving victory appears more likely,” said EPSA Chair Jeffrey Henig.