tc Fall/winter 2012 Today The Magazine of Teachers College, Columbia University

Wellness in a Thinking Wo r l d Teachers College explores the mind-body connection

Bringing Body and Soul to Clinical Psychology Why closing the achievement gap depends on Student Health Getting kids to like gym cutting through the noise in deaf education PRESIDENT’S LETTER

liver an outstanding, comprehensive competition. With childhood obesity education reflecting our knowledge and diabetes threatening the nation’s and experience in teaching, learning future, their work argues powerfully and child development. for a reconsideration of gym, recess This issue of TC Today taps that and other endangered activities. same source and grows out of our Beyond these more traditional belief that being “comprehensive” areas of health, you’ll read about – in education or any other area of our new Spirituality and Mind/ development – means addressing Body Institute, founded by psychol- physical health and its connections to ogist Lisa Miller, who has helped intellectual and emotional well-being. establish meditation, mindfulness Of course, the mind-body con- and prayer as a legitimate focus of n my elevator speech about nection has been remarked upon psychological inquiry. Supported Teachers College, I remind throughout human history, from by Goldman Sachs Gives at the people that TC has long stood Scripture (“Do you not know that direction of Phil Armstrong, a Gold- for educating children through your body is a temple?”) to the Iron man Sachs partner, Lisa and her a rich array of academic and non- Chef, recycling the epicure Brillat- students are using these techniques I academic programs that meet their Savarin (“Tell me what you eat, and I to help New York City’s homeless intellectual and developmental needs. will tell you what you are”). But today, children attain and maintain emo- This past September, we stood science is revealing precisely how our tional health. tall indeed as we celebrated the minds are inextricably linked with These stories illustrate how our arrival of the Teachers College our physical selves. health care system can deliver more Community School (TCCS) at its TC health education professor for less. They also suggest ways permanent home in West Harlem. Charles Basch has underscored that each of us can take control of our The ceremony brought together link in his remarkable crusade to own health. For example, in reading parents, teachers, community board document how seven major health about health education professor and members, TC faculty and staff, and conditions are hindering the academ- Deputy Provost John Allegrante’s representatives from the New York City Department of Education and The mind-body connection has been Columbia University. Their joy and pride were evident as first graders remarked upon, from Scripture to the Iron Chef. sang “What a Wonderful World” and But today, science is revealing precisely how TCCS Founding Principal Jeanene Worrell-Breeden spoke of building our minds are linked with our physical selves. the school of her dreams. Virtually from the moment I ic achievement of low-income and research on using positive thinking to became TC’s President, one of our minority students. Chuck has worked help patients manage chronic illness, board members and staunchest tirelessly to bring this information you’ll meet an elderly woman who supporters, E. John Rosenwald, to audiences ranging from White recalls how researchers urged her to has challenged me to conceive and House officials to community groups. take advantage, in exercising, of her execute big and bold ideas about the Several states have adopted many two-story home. future of the College. TCCS, which of his recommendations for using Following her lead, I’m inclined counts John as a leading benefactor, schools to provide students with to adjust my TC elevator speech enables us to demonstrate one of our coordinated health care. along similar lines: Instead of using biggest and boldest ideas: University Even as many districts cut school the elevator, let’s all take the stairs. partnerships with local schools and physical education programs, Ste- afternoon IN communities can bring about lasting, phen Silverman, Carol Ewing Garber MORNINGSIDE cost-effective improvement to urban and other TC faculty are champion- A tranquil vista, just beyond TC’s doors. public education. At TCCS, you will ing a new approach to youth fitness find our faculty and students working that emphasizes enjoyment and Photograph by with parents, teachers and staff to de- lifelong athletic skill-building over susan fuhrman (ph.d. ’77) Elizabeth Weinberg lofi st udio s lofi

www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 1 alumni focus Wellness tc in a 66 A Very Patient Today Thinking Wo r l d Advocate The magazine of Teachers College is Raising a child with autism was produced by the Office of Development hard, but getting the nation to and External Affairs at Teachers College, Columbia University. understand the disorder really required Ruth Christ Sullivan to Suzanne M. Murphy vice president, take the long view development features & external affairs (Ed.M., Organization 67 Putting Her Best & Leadership, 1999; Fall/WinterFoot Forward M.A., 1996) As both a dancer and a scientist, BODY AND SOUL James L. Gardner Elizabeth Coker Girón explores associate vice @tc the ties between imagination and president, external affairs 14 How Faith Heals 4 First Editions movement

TC is offering the Ivy League’s Leadership guides for nurses and tc today staff first master’s degree program in the rest of us, by Elaine LaMonica 68 A Fencer with spirituality and psychology Rigolosi; Building Mathematics Joe Levine an Edge executive director, Learning Communities, by Erica Walker Her familiarity with other cultures external affairs 20 The Power of Positive helped Olympian Maya Lawrence Sheryl Hoffman Patients 6 News in London director, As America ages, people need to TC’s new public school finds a external affairs think positively to better manage permanent home; the College hosts a 69 Running the Numbers Jeff Glendenning creative director their own care major conference on teacher prep; Alumna and new faculty member and more Sonali Rajan uses statistics to Paul Acquaro director, identify programs that address office of the tc web SOUND mind, SOUND body 12 Essays overall health in a synergistic way (M.A., Instructional Barbara Wallace on a new paradigm Technology, 2004) for understanding health disparities; 70 Helping All Women Patricia Lamiell 26 Randi Wolf on building trust to director, Head Games WE HAVE LIFTOFF The Teachers College Community School is to Have It All media relations Welcome to “the New Gym,” conduct health education As the new leader of the nation’s launched in its permanent home. Matthew Vincent where kids hold group oldest YWCA, Danielle Moss associate web editor discussions and use iPads, and Lee is reaching out to overcome Hua-Chu Yen teachers ponder the role of race, disparities for women at all levels web development 57 alumni news specialist gender and body type 42 Eating Smarter friend of tc When patients relearn the 71 Up on the Roof Kalena Rosario 32 Taking Student seemingly innate act of 58 Alumni Association Nate Wight and his students are administrative assistant Health to Scale swallowing, their brains change – 54 Not Very Tall, 59 Alumni Awards creating an environmental literacy Rebecca Chad, Chuck Basch says we won’t and their lives can too lab atop their school in the Heather Smitelli but Bigger Than Life 61 Class Notes editorial assistants close the achievement gap until E. John Rosenwald Jr. is a South Bronx we attend to student health. 64 In Memoriam Urania Mylonas 46 A Community fount of wisdom and force of contributing writer He has a plan of Healing nature who can prod institutions 72 Looking Kids in the Kee eun Lee Lena Verdeli has brought a to reinvent themselves Eye, Every Day contributing designer 38 Cutting Through talking cure to people living in the The late educator, counselor TC Today, Fall 2012 Volume 37, Number 1 the Noise most adverse circumstances The Joy of Giving and philanthropist Betty Fairfax Copyright 2012 by Teachers College, Columbia University TC’s Deaf/Hard of Hearing Thanking and celebrating major believed in involving herself in program poses the big questions 50 students’ lives TC Today is published twice per year by As Nurses Go, So Goes donors to Teachers College: Teachers College, Columbia University. about assistive technologies Health Care Evalyn Edwards Milman (M.A. ’64), Articles may be reprinted with the per- mission of the Office of External Affairs. Current TC faculty and legendary page 7; Joyce B. Cowin (M.A. ’52), alumnae weigh in on why Please send alumni class notes, letters page 8; Sue Ann Weinberg to the editor, address changes and other nursing education is more correspondence to: y jeff glendenning jeff y (Ed.D. ’97), page 11; Marla Schaefer important than ever TC Today Office of External Affairs, 525 (M.A. ’03), page 19 W. 120th St., Box 306, New York, NY 10027, 212-678-3412, [email protected] on the cover: b ogra p h t www.tc.edu/tctoday

Photograph by Elizabeth Weinberg Pho

2 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday 2012www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 3 First Editions Members of the TC Community in Print @tc On Management – Changing the Odds Bedside and Lakeside for Math Success Leadership guides for nurses and the rest of us Why math communities are critically important for supporting student achievement

two new books by Elaine La Monica in building mathematics learning Rigolosi, Professor of Education Communities: Improving Outcomes in and Director of TC’s Executive Urban High Schools (Teachers College Program in Nursing, could not seem Press), Erica Walker, TC Associate more different. Unlock Your Cage Professor of Mathematics Education, (CreateSpace, 2013) is an allegorical argues that, too often, school policies fable in which a lake-dwelling and practices limit the math family consults a Great Wizard to involvement of students of color. These figure out why their lily pad seems students generally have positive smaller. Management and Leadership attitudes toward mathematics, Walker writes, but often in Nursing and Health Care: An lack opportunities to learn high-quality math in schools. Experiential Approach (Springer, 2013) Decades of research document that many educators have is a practical guide to organizational low expectations for students of color, often teaching effectiveness that applies theories basic-skill mathematics that does not promote higher- from business, organizational order thinking. Many students of color are simply psychology, health care, law and consigned to a remedial track from which they never education administration. emerge, branded as “underachievers” regardless of their Yet both books exhort readers to take potential or even their actual performance. control, set goals and be the leaders Walker, who did research for her book at a New York City of their own world. Or as Rigolosi writes in Unlock Your school she calls Lowell High School, learned that family, peer Cage, “You put on the eyeglasses that frame what you see.” and teacher networks contributed significantly to the math Rigolosi herself has worn many lenses. A success of high-achieving students. She suggests that by practicing attorney, she holds degrees in human strengthening peer academic communities, grounding rigorous relations and counseling, and medical and surgical educational content in real-world experiences and holding nursing administration. She consults for health care students to higher expectations, educators, families and organizations and other businesses and formerly communities can raise the bar for math achievement by all. chaired TC’s Department of Organization Building Mathematics Learning Communities, and Leadership. which contains a foreword by civil rights activist and Management and Leadership cites thinkers as diverse as math educator Bob Moses, describes several models the psychologist Abraham Maslow and the management for such an approach. Walker suggests that schools can consultant Peter Drucker, and offers tips as specific as better serve students of color through practices that “keep the coffeepot going” and as broad as an injunction support mathematics engagement and build on students’

to communicate in “an open, mature and direct way… that strengths. Given that the United States ranks 25th among L e w i s U xem an allows others to learn about one’s feelings and identity OECD nations in secondary students’ mathematics her V t her while enhancing self-esteem.” achievement, Walker argues, it is high time we capitalize 6 News TC’s new public school finds a permanent home; the College hosts a major conference on teacher prep; and more y H ea y Yet a single line in Rigolosi’s shorter book succinctly on all students’ significant mathematics potential and 12 Essays Barbara Wallace on a new paradigm for understanding health disparities sums up her outlook: “I have the power to become whatever ­— across and within schools — “ensure meaningful h b ogra p h t I want to be. I alone am responsible!” —Joe Levine mathematics learning for all.” —Steven Kroll Randi Wolf on building trust to conduct health education Pho

4 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 5 The joyof gi1580+ving 75 NEWS@tc Evalyn EDWARDS milman Preparing the Next Generation of Literacy Specialists

ine the improvement we would see in public education in America if every university worked in concert with local schools and communities?” Fuhrman was joined on the TCCS auditorium stage by others who made the school possible, including the Rev- erend Georgiette Morgan-Thomas, Chair of Community Board 9; Donald iteracy is the community and transfer Notice, Chairman, and Kofi Boateng, “ freedom to expand learning into practice.” Executive Director, both of the West L one’s thought, Evalyn studied child one’s mind, one’s con- development as an Harlem Development Corporation; fidence,” says Evalyn undergraduate at Cor- New York City Councilman Robert Edwards Milman (M.A. nell. Her gift marks her Jackson, who chairs the Council’s ’64), who has given graduation from TC’s Teachers College master’s degree program Education Committee; Manhattan $1 million to establish in Curriculum and Teach- Borough President Scott Stringer the Evalyn Edwards Mil- ing nearly 50 years ago. (represented at the event by Deputy man Literacy Fellowship. She taught in the early- Borough President Rosemonde Pierre- “I would like to see the childhood grades before College boost literacy earning another master’s Louis); New York State Board of and involve children who degree in art history Regents Chancellor (and TC alumna) are in need, and produce at Hunter College. She Merryl Tisch; New York City Schools scholars and teachers has since worked as a Chancellor Dennis Walcott; Columbia who will excel.” curator and television The Milman Fellowship producer and owned a University President Lee Bollinger; will support two or more cultural tour company. New York State Assemblyman Keith outstanding TC students Daniel Ferguson, a IT’S A WRAP President Susan Fuhrman and friends cut the ribbon for the Teachers College Community School in late September. Wright; and Nancy Streim, TC’s to further their literacy- C&T student and the first Associate Vice President for School related research and Evalyn Edwards Milman practice in TC Partnership Fellow, will be in the and Community Partnerships, with- Schools in Harlem. The new cohort of literacy out whom, Fuhrman said, the school Milman Fellows will be specialists. Daniel, who “would never have happened.” directed by Nancy Streim, has taught in New York, A School Arrives Morgan-Thomas said that “TCCS Associate Vice President Alabama and Japan, calls for School and Com- teaching literacy “life- TCCS celebrates its new home illustrates for us the value of collabora- munity Partnerships, and changing” and “by far tion” and praised TC for having “heard mentored by TC faculty. the most philosophically the needs of our community and been The Fellows will play a stimulating experience big role in improving the I’ve had.” Evalyn antici- extremely responsive.” educational and devel- pates “celebrating the “Good afternoon, everyone. I want TCCS, a public, university-assisted Now serving 125 students in pre-K, Wright also drew thundering ap- opmental outcomes of award and seeing Daniel to welcome you to the Teachers Col- school for pre-K through eighth grade, kindergarten and first grade, and with plause. “Langston Hughes wrote a children in West Harlem. in action. lege Community School’s permanent run by the New York City Department plans to add one additional grade per long time ago, ‘What happens to a “Through Evalyn’s “I am so pleased that generosity, we can the Milman Fellows will home. Thank you!” of Education and formally affiliated year, TCCS is operating in a refur- dream deferred – does it dry up like transform learning for get to the heart of what At those words from TCCS with TC, admitted its first class – a bished building located at 168 Morn- a raisin in the sun?’” Wright looked teachers and students,” teaching means,” she Founding Principal Jeanene Worrell- group of kindergarten students – last ingside Avenue at West 126th Street. around the room and grinned. “No! A says Kecia Hayes, Direc- says. “I love the fact that tor of the TC Partnership the program enables TC Breeden, an audience of more than year in a temporary facility. The “This is a dream become reality,” L e w i s U xem an school gets built on 126th Street and L e w i s U xem an Schools Consortium. students to teach and 300 parents, teachers, neighborhood school, designed with neighborhood said TC President Susan Fuhrman, Morningside Avenue!’” her V t her “Her wonderful gift learn on a one-on-one V t her residents, city and state dignitaries residents, integrates delivery of ser- “a university-supported public school provides teachers with basis. TC is in a position y H ea y H ea y a unique opportunity to to lead other schools and and members of the Teachers College vices for children and families in order that will offer unparalleled education To view a video about TCCS, go to and Columbia University communi- to optimize educational opportunities for the children of our community.” study effective instruc- universities, not just in h b ogra p h http://bit.ly/TNk3z8 b ogra p h t tional practices in a the United States, but t ties burst into loud applause. and achievement. She added, to cheers, “Can you imag- Pho professional learning around the world.” p ho

6 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 7 includes participants from Chicago and NEWS@tc The joyof giving Newark, New Jersey, as well. Joyce B. Cowin episodes from the HBO television series Masterclass has been distributed by the Ensuring Financial Literacy for Professionalizing Tomorrow’s Citizens Pakistan’s Teachers Young Arts Foundation free of charge to some 6,500 middle and high schools in This past summer Teachers College New York City, Los Angeles and Miami. hosted 22 high-ranking Pakistani Masterclass chronicles the experiences education officials and provincial of teens chosen by Young Arts to work Xiaodong Lin Derald Wing Sue leaders as part of a USAID-funded with great artists such as tenor Placido project to professionalize teachers Domingo, choreographer Bill T. Jones, Saying Yes to and significantly improve education tolerance among children ages 10 architect Frank Gehry, actress Liv Science in Pakistan’s primary and secondary to 16. The curriculum, a response to Ullman and playwright Edward Albee. schools. Under the three-year, rising levels of racism and xenophobia Creation of the study guide was led TC faculty member Xiaodong Lin $5 million TC collaboration, all worldwide, will enter pilot distribution by Hal Abeles, TC Professor of Music has received a five-year, $2.5 million Pakistani teachers will be encouraged in 2015 in 5 to 10 countries. Sue has and Music Education, and former TC grant from the National Science to hold four-year or two-year teaching been a leader in moving issues of Professor Margaret Crocco, now Dean Foundation to probe what motivates degrees in their fields by 2018. Since identity and difference to the center of of the University of Iowa College of students to pursue an interest in the 2009, TC faculty members have worked counseling psychology. Education. The guide seeks to build very person past new program. STEM subjects (science, technology, with 15 Pakistani universities in four 21st-century critical thinking skills. “ the ninth grade “This collaboration engineering and math). Working in 13 Eshould have knowl- is a wonderful example New York City–area schools, Lin and the Elephant edge of money – how to of partnership between did you Stanford University social psychologist in the Classroom Connecting Teaching finance a college educa- the public and private know? tion, how to balance a sectors, with the goal Carol Dweck will test the impact of to Research checkbook, how to en- of strengthening New two classroom-based motivational “Beyond the Schoolhouse Door: In 2006, American sure that expenses don’t York City public school instruction programs on students’ Bringing Non-School Factors Into In July, TC and TeachingWorks, exceed income, how to students’ skills in an students ranked monitor a credit card and important field,” Dennis performance in STEM courses: a Education Policy,” a conference held based at the University of Michigan, interest, how to shop for M. Walcott, New York neurocognitive approach that teaches at TC in September, focused on the presented “Connecting Advances clothes and food, how City Schools Chancellor, students that their minds and brains latest research on the connection in Learning Research to Teacher much to pay for rent wrote to Joyce. can literally change and grow through between poverty and education and Practice,” a conference on the future of and what a mortgage “Financial literacy is is,” says Joyce B. Cowin necessary for our stu- hard work; and a social-historical the implications for policy. teacher preparation. (M.A. ’52). dents’ success in the approach using stories of how famous Gita Steiner-Khamsi Sponsored by TC’s Department of TC President Susan Fuhrman told To that end, a generous 21st century.” scientists such as Albert Einstein and Education Policy and Social Analysis more than 400 attendees that recent gift from Joyce, who is a To help ensure that TC alumna and longtime The Cowin Financial Marie Curie struggled to achieve their provinces, as well as with the global (EPSA), the event featured Richard negativity about the value of theory Trustee, is funding a part- Literacy Project takes breakthrough discoveries. nonprofit Education Development D. Kahlenberg, of the Century in educator preparation coincides, nership among Teachers hold throughout the New Center, to create an undergraduate Foundation; Greg J. Duncan, of the ironically, with “an explosion of new College, the New York City York City school system 136-credit, four-year teaching degree School of Education at the University knowledge…about how both adults Department of Education and beyond, the EdLab and a two-year associate’s teaching of California, Irvine; Richard Murnane, and children take in information most and the nonprofit Working unit of Teacher’s Col- st A New Director For in Support of Educa- lege’s Gottesman Librar- TC’s Cahn Fellows degree. The USAID grant was received, of the Graduate School of Education effectively. tion (W!SE): The Cowin ies will create a website 21 and the project is administered, by TC’s at Harvard University; William F. Tate, “How will we incorporate this new Financial Literacy Project, from which teachers can in TC’s Cahn Fellows Program for Office of International Affairs. Faculty of Washington University in St. Louis; knowledge into teacher preparation a unique professional download the project’s science th development program materials at no charge. literacy 25 Distinguished School Principals has a member Gita Steiner-Khamsi is the and TC’s Michael Rebell, Professor and practice?” Fuhrman asked. for New York City public For Joyce Cowin, new director: Nora Heaphy, a former project’s principal investigator. of Law and Education. Jeffrey Henig, The answer, said Deborah in

school teachers working financial literacy is a math special education teacher who served s our c e: w ’ Chair of EPSA, moderated. Loewenberg Ball, Dean of the School with students in grades moral imperative. “When literacy as Deputy Director of the Colin Powell “There has been a remarkable of Education at the University of 9-12. The first workshops the market collapsed in for teachers from select 2008, so many wonder- Center for Leadership and Service at Sue Named To divergence in the educational outcomes Michigan, begins with recognizing age

New York City schools ful, hardworking people the City College of New York. Heaphy p for kids growing up in high- and low- that “simply knowing the subject

; ‘did you kno you ‘did o s ; UNESCO Panel

among students t will begin in Summer who had saved money in 30 succeeds Krista Dunbar, who has income families,” said Duncan. doesn’t enable you to teach it well.” 2013. The program has throughout their lives w e b t e” industrialized become Senior Director of Recruitment Derald Wing Sue, TC Professor of Ball argued for a medical residency been developed by TC were snookered about p ho file countries, on in the Office of New Schools of tc : Psychology and Education, is serving model of teacher prep that combines

faculty member Anand subprime mortgages, I nnova o the Programme lef t Marri, with consultation and they lost everything,” the New York City Department of t t e on an advisory panel for an effort A Masterclass theory with hands-on experience.

for International o p by alumna Pola Rosen. she says. “We need to Education. The 15-month Cahn by the United Nations Educational, Study Guide New York State Education Student educate the next genera- o s Assessment Fellows program, which counts more t Social and Cultural Organization to Commissioner John King tion to ensure this never View a video of the conference at comparison. than 12 percent of New York City’s develop a global curriculum designed A study guide created by Teachers also has fully endorsed the happens again.” http://bit.ly/QqVcSC public school principals as alumni, now p ho file to foster racial, ethnic and multicultural College to accompany the first year of E du c a “ H ou s e Whi t e e from t from c k w i s e c lo tc

8 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 9 NEWS@tc TC alumnus Marvin Lynn, of the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. The joyof giving Knight-Diop and doctoral student Joanne Marciano presented on Sue Ann Weinberg Dear TC Alumni & “Troubling College Readiness and Honoring a Champion of the History Community: Access for Black and Latino High of Education School Youth”; Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Please know that our hearts and TC Assistant Professor of English thoughts are with you in the wake Education, co-led “Give Them Celebrating a Tradition of Hurricane Sandy. We know that Something to Talk About: Racial for Tomorrow many of you were hit hard by this Derrick Bell storm and that the aftermath is still Literacy Roundtables as Community As Teachers College prepares to celebrate the 125th taking a toll on your daily lives. Building in Higher Education”; and anniversary of its founding, we are presented with a wonderful Fortunately, our campus was TC Professor of Education Celia opportunity to tell the TC story – our rich history, our legacy special report of “firsts” and our positive impact on the community. Now is spared damage; however, we are Oyler, with students Wanda Watson, our time to reinvent ourselves by building on our strengths, painfully aware of the destruction Sarah Schlessinger and Maryann embracing our distinctions and creating an institution that the storm has left on New York City Honoring Derrick Chacko, spoke on “Towards a Praxis honors the past while transforming the future. and the region. Collectively, we Bell’s Legacy of Critical Inclusivity.” To that end, we have literally sought to make our mark extend our concern for those whose Theodora Berry, President of the anew, developing an anniversary icon that speaks to our core lives, families and neighborhoods arry Cremin was a TC’s relationship with values while reflecting the unflagging vibrancy we bring to our The sixth annual Critical Race Critical Race Studies in Education “ magical teacher,” Columbia through have been most seriously affected work in each new era. The new TC icon will be visible across Studies in Education Conference, Association, recalled the killing says Trustee Sue collaboration with our campus and in all our communications, evoking a sense by flooding, loss of power and L hosted at TC in May, honored the last February of Trayvon Martin, Ann Weinberg (Ed.D. Columbia’s Department of forward motion and representing our three major areas of other damage. late Derrick Bell, the first tenured an African American high school ’97). “He was so widely of History. focus: Education, Health and Psychology. Each of the three read, and he had such “I had such a great Our city and surrounding African-American professor at student, by George Zimmermann, overlaps with the others, as they do in our daily endeavors. communities have much hard a broad understanding experience at TC that So, welcome to a year to remember. Join us in celebrating Harvard Law School, whose work a white man who had followed him work to do in recovering from of education.” opened up so many 125 years of excellence – and join us in looking forward focused on race and social justice. because he seemed “suspicious.” To honor the former intellectual interests this historic storm. For a list of to 125 years more. “I’ve owned this book since I was Florida police initially reported TC President and Pulitzer and pursuits for me,” resources that may prove helpful, Prize-winning historian, says Sue Ann, who Visit www.tc.edu for updates on the 125th anniversary please visit: http://bit.ly/TNk9a8. a puppy Legal Aid lawyer in New that Martin was six feet tall who was also her started out just taking celebration. Meanwhile, it is heartening to York City,” Janice Robinson, TC’s and weighed 160 pounds, while dissertation adviser, Sue courses, but ended up see neighbors and communities Vice President for Diversity and Martin’s family described him Ann has given a sub- pursuing a doctorate Community Affairs, told audience as being six-foot-three and 150 stantial gift that honors because of Cremin’s throughout our region coming Lawrence Cremin’s encouragement. “Larry together as one to help one other. members as she held aloft Bell’s pounds. The autopsy listed him as vision and memory by was trying to teach us Stay safe, and know that all of us masterwork, Race, Racism and five-foot-eleven and 158 pounds. laying the foundation for to think critically — to in the TC Community wish you and American Law. “Listen to these To Berry, these conflicting a center for the History see that each historian your loved ones the best. chapter headings. ‘American accounts underscore the need of Education. was writing from “What this wonderful his own perspective,” The Alumni Relations Team Racism and the Uses of History.’ for “counter stories” of black gift will allow us to do is she says. ‘Interracial Sex and Marriage.’ identity. “Race is often placed in to approach the history With Cremin as her ‘Public Facilities: Symbols of the forefront,” she said. “To date, of education as a form of adviser, Sue Ann wrote civic education, because her dissertation about Subordination.’ ‘Discrimination in the only counter stories reported in educational histories are Lewis Mumford, the the Administration of Justice.’ Have regard to Trayvon Martin are those file a gateway for under- philosopher and architec- ; tc ;

w standing the formation of ture critic who wrote for did you know? any of these issues gone away?” regarding his height and weight. Organized by Michelle Knight- If George Zimmermann had had citizens and the develop- The New Yorker. “I think A gen c ie s ment of democracy over it’s important to have Multiple independent Diop, TC Associate Professor of access to those counter stories – if time,” says Provost history written by many e A r ts t e studies have Education, and Lee Bell, Professor he knew what was worth knowing a Thomas James. different people from Representing the Candidates shown increased years of Education at Barnard College, about young men of color – Trayvon As TC celebrates its many different points of on Education of enrollment in the conference included youth might be alive today.” 125th anniversary, such view,” she says. a center will help the With this gift, Sue Ann In a debate in the Cowin Conference Center at Teachers hool of L a of c hool S U niver s i t y ork

performances coordinated by Y College reclaim its is ensuring that Cremin’s College on October 15, Jon Schnur and Phil Handy, top Urban Word and spanned theory standing as the custo- history and legacy is not education advisers to President Barack Obama and his and practice. David Gilborn, S t of Ass em b ly t ional dian of the history of forgotten at TC or Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor ARTS American education. It anywhere else. “Larry was courses are Professor of Critical Race Studies Mitt Romney, staked out clear philosophical differences over will encompass funding a real renaissance man,” positively correlated in Education at the University of for senior faculty, she says. “He was the role of the federal government in funding education and

with higher N e w t he of Cour t e s y : London, delivered the keynote, and doctoral research and constantly reading. He incentivizing reforms in testing and teacher preparation. N a 2006, s our c e: w ’ three leading scholars were honored: lef t future programming in was interested in Titled “Taking the Election to School,” the debate spot- o p Gloria Ladsen-Billings, of the the History of Education, everything his students lighted a topic many felt had received short shrift during the broadly conceived as were doing. And he gave campaign. The event – this year’s Phyllis Kossoff Lecture o s sat University of Wisconsin–Madison; t Cremin intended it. And of himself without on Education and Policy – was moderated by TC President

verbal and math scores. Daniel Solórzano, of the University kno you ‘did o s ; it will strengthen holding back.” t Susan Fuhrman. Watch a videotape of the debate at Michelle Knight-Diop p ho of California, Los Angeles; and t from c k w i s e c lo ile Pho F ile TC http://bit.ly/Z61w29

10 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 11 essays@tc Barbara Wallace Randi Wolf A New Paradigm for Understanding Reaching Patients Health Disparities Where They Are neglecting evidence of their strengths Yet, men and women over the age and resilience in the face of stress. Far of 50 often resist having colonoscopy too much research tells this same sad done. They tend to be unfamiliar with story over and over again: Members the test’s purpose or to view it as of historically oppressed racial-ethnic embarrassing. They are less likely than groups fare worse than whites. younger adults to perceive themselves A new paradigm investigates relation- as at risk, doubtful that peers have ships among health status; experiences undergone screening, and fearful both of specific sources of stress in the social- of cancer and of the procedure itself. environmental context, such as racism or Their primary care physicians are often factors associated with poverty; various inconsistent in directly supporting coping strategies that respond to that colorectal cancer screening. stress; and demographic and other Thus, we have learned to tailor our variables. By adopting this paradigm, communications to each individual. researchers can not only conceptualize Sometimes that means abandoning and document the resilience of many efforts to promote colorectal cancer diverse groups, but also understand screening and instead talking to people ways that many “problem behaviors” about other pressing health issues, or represent attempts to adapt and cope simply addressing their fears. with stress. Researchers can then focus We start with an approach we call on distinguishing between adaptive “RESPECT,” for creating rapport, Too much teacher may enjoy the beau- and maladaptive attempts to cope with Standardized s a health educator, I believe educating without overwhelming, start- tiful leaves of autumn, but stress. Not to be forgotten, social action an informed public is a ing with people where they are, having research tells the once in the classroom may for social justice and advocacy may be health education healthy public. But educat- a philosophical orientation based on a be stunned by empty seats among the adaptive responses — wheth- ing people isn’t just about humanistic approach to education, en- same sad story, –A particularly in an inner-city school. er by members of diverse populations, often doesn’t impartingA information. gagement, care and empathy, and trust. overlooking Asthma, which in some neighborhoods researchers or teachers. work. Teaching Over the past decade, my colleague Unlike other widely used health behav- disproportionately affects children of Before this century’s end, I believe Charles Basch and I have shown ior models, this approach is unique in what the resilience color by a 6-to-1 margin, is contributing that teachers will enter urban class- people about that telephone outreach can increase being conceptualized as a set of general to absenteeism. rooms and encounter greater evidence screening for colorectal cancer in hard- guidelines rather than as specific learning of diverse groups Researchers must recognize the im- of health equity. However, key to this wellness starts with to-reach, low-income, urban minority objectives, content or scripts to promote can teach us pact of asthma and other health dispari- vision is a paradigm shift, away from building trust. populations. But hundreds of telephone informed decisions about health. ties on diverse populations. But they “blame-the-victim” and “deficit-orient- outreach calls have also convinced us Once health educators have estab- about coping. also must avoid engaging in “blame-the ed” research and toward research that that “cookbook approach” interventions, lished rapport with patients, they can victim” or “deficit-oriented” research. identifies adaptive coping with stress. focusing on content and executed in a dispel myths about colorectal cancer and “Blame-the-victim” research identi- A diverse population may become a standardized fashion, simply don’t work. screening, make sure facts are under- fies key factors producing a health source of vital information on adaptive You might think people would stood and underscore the urgency of be-

disparity as being located within the coping responses that can guide the o s respond to the facts alone. Colorectal ing tested. Only by creating such caring o s t individual — effectively neglecting creation of prevention strategies and t cancer is the third most commonly and trusting relationships can educators

factors in the social-environmental interventions within health education. p ho file diagnosed cancer among U.S. adults change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. file p ho file ) tc ) context that have helped produce Within the new paradigm I am recom- tc ) and causes about 50,000 deaths annu- We think these strategies would Barbara Wallace is Professor that disparity, both historically and in mending, those formerly studied from ally. Removing polyps detected through work well in almost any health care of Health Education and contemporary times. “Deficit-oriented” “blame-the-victim” and “deficit-orient- s e t (in o c k; screening can prevent cancer from oc- situation. Promoting them as a model Coordinator of the Program in Health research focuses on deficits attributed ed” perspectives can emerge as resilient curring. Screening also helps detect can- is what, ultimately, health education is Education, Department of Health Randi Wolf is Associate Professor of to members of the diverse group, while teachers of “what works” in coping. cer earlier, when it can often be cured. all about. and Behavior Studies. TC s hu tt er st s e t (in image s ; ge tt y Health and Behavior Studies. TC

12 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 13 BODY AND SOUL How Faith Heals

Half a century ago, Now, TC is offering a people were asking, new master’s degree program in “Is God dead?” spiritualityand psychology

By Siddhartha Mitter Photograph by Heather Van Uxem Lewis

SPIRITED AWAY Eleanor Ford, a doctoral student in TC’s clinical psychology program, is interested in teaching meditation to young children. Students in the program increasingly are involved in spiritual practices, says Lisa Miller, the program’s coordinator.

14 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 15 BODY AND SOUL

“ at Covenant House, a nonprofit charity serving homeless youth gray matter in parts of the brain that in- with a network of shelters across the Americas, where they use fluence emotion and mood. meditation and reflective techniques inspired by Buddhism to At last year’s American Psychologi- help young men and single teenage mothers. cal Association convention, Miller, All of this work, which falls under the umbrella of a new Ravi Bensal and their collaborators in venture within the department called the Spirituality and the labs of Myrna Weissman and Brad Mind/Body Institute, places the College at the confluence of Peterson of the New York State Psychi- want to highlight together how magnificent and full of awe several national trends. atric Institute presented brain imaging UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM Miller believes depression can be you are.” A growing number of Americans are engaging in mind- studies showing cortical thickening in a precursor to spiritual emergence. Lisa Miller, AssociateI Professor of Psychology and Edu- body practices such as yoga, meditation, Tai Chi and mind- people who, over the preceding five- cation and Director of Clinical Psychology, is greeting some fulness exercises. According to Yoga Journal, for instance, the year period, had attached a high de- three dozen master’s degree students on day one of her number of yoga practitioners in the United States more than gree of importance to religion or personal spirituality. The some residual effects afterward. However, in one of the course in Spirituality and Psychotherapy. She invites the tripled between 2001 and 2010. For many, the goal is fitness thickening occurred in brain regions where thinning is typi- monks – a Rinpoche, or lama-like elder, who lives in a con- class to “clear a space for yourself with your breath and in- or stress reduction. At the same time, as reported in Time cally observed in people who have strong family histories of stant state of meditation – the brain activations looked tention.” She invites them to “journal what sacred space is and on NPR, surveys by the Pew Research Center and Gal- depression. The people in Miller’s study who were religious extremely organized all the time. for you in your own life.” She asks everyone to think of a time lup describe an increase in people who say they have a per- also reported higher levels of emotional satisfaction and And in 2011, neuroscientists at Massachusetts General of spiritual awakening in their own lives, and of a person who sonal spiritual orientation that is uncoupled from organized mental stability than “controls” who were not religious. Hospital found that people with no prior meditation expe- had a spiritual influence on them. religion and that often includes a physical dimension such as Karen Froud, Director of Teachers College’s Neurocog- rience displayed changes in gray matter density after using Then, she quotes the author Marianne Williamson. a “deep connection with nature or the Earth.” nition of Language Lab, is leading a study comparing peo- a technique called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for “Your playing small does not serve the world,” she intones. Of course, the term “spirituality” can seem vague. Miller de- ple who have meditated for many years with those who just eight weeks. The positively affected brain areas influ- “As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other fines it as “a direct relationship are novices at the discipline. She was inspired to conduct ence memory, compassion, empathy and resilience to stress. people permission to do the same.” She looks around, smil- with a loving and guiding uni- this research by a visit to her lab a few years ago by three The study’s brief duration established an unmistakable ing. “So, in that spirit, I invite you to reflect and reenter a did you know? verse,” while others describe it Buddhist monks from Thailand, who underwent electro- cause-and-effect relationship between meditation and the time when you were a spiritual teacher for someone else. We simply as the relationship that encephalogram scans. The scans pinpoint, to within mil- observed brain changes. There were have asked the elephant in the room – modesty – to leave, individuals feel to something liseconds, the brain’s response to specific stimuli. Froud While such work is still mostly in the basic research phase, because this is quite naturally the reservoir from which you greater than themselves. found that brain activations in all three men became much mainstream health care clearly has recognized the impor- live out your practice as a teacher, a healer, a guide.” But there is nothing vague more coherent and organized during meditation, with tance of patients’ spiritual orientation and the value of spiri- Welcome to what The New York Times describes as the Ivy 20.1 at all about the growing body tual and mind-body therapies. League’s first master’s degree concentration in spirituality MILLION of research from top universi- Since 2001, for instance, the Joint Commission on Accred- t ion and psychology – part of a new focus within TC’s clinical psy- yoga participants ties and hospitals that is iden- itation of Healthcare Organizations has required hospitals to chology program on spirituality as a powerful force in mental in the United States tifying the physical effects, perform a “spiritual assessment” of critical-care patients. The health and well-being. in 2010, particularly on the brain, of commission’s suggested questions include: “Does the patient

Titled Spirituality and Contemplative Practices and direct- faith and spiritual practices, Ass o c ia I ndu st ry use prayer in their life? How would the patient describe their ed by Miller, the concentration offers courses in “alternative” of whom 76% and their implications for philosophy of life?” areas taught by well-known adjunct faculty such as Ted Di- were female. mental health and wellness. Meditation and yoga in cancer care, end-of-life pastoral mon, pioneer of a holistic approach to mind and body health Multiple studies – including F i t ne ss and counseling and 12-step addiction treatment are other ac- ; o s ; known as psychophysical education, and Sam Menahem, au- some on Buddhist monks – t cepted techniques that draw on patients’ spiritual resources. thor of All Your Prayers Are Answered and When Therapy Isn’t suggest that people who prac- “In leveraging spirituality for healing, other fields are file p ho file Enough, who advocates the healing power of prayer. tice a form of religious faith or it’s all in your head Miller, Bansal and colleagues have well ahead of clinical psychology,” says TC lecturer Aure- Over 8.5 MILLION of tc o p : Doctoral students who work with Miller use magnetic reso- disciplines such as Zen, vipas- found cortical thickening — associated with higher emotional lie Athan, who collaborates closely with the Spirituality and

these people did S p or ts The s our c e: w ’ nance imaging (MRI) of the brain to research the links between sana and other forms of medi- satisfaction and mental health — in the brains of people Mind/Body Institute. But now, Athan adds, that gap is start- yoga 50 or more times who consider religion or spirituality to be personally important. spiritual practices and resilience against major depression. per year. tation have a thicker prefrontal The areas of thickening are highlighted above in red. ing to close. “We have books and articles that I never had

Other students are working in field placements in Manhattan cortex and more concentrated kno you ‘did when I was starting out in my training. People are asking a M iller L i s a of c our t e s y e from t from c k w i s e c lo

16 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 17 39-chapter tome that includes contributions from more than Miller’s team of current Ph.D. students offers a form of 60 scholars. The Handbook spans spiritual development, group therapy that feels as much practical as spiritual, ad- The joyof giving Western and Eastern traditions of prayer, meditation and dressing the issues of participants who are in crisis or tran- “sacred dialogue” in treatment, connections between physi- sition, but with some use of meditative techniques and a Marla Schaefer cal health and spirituality, the neuroscience of spiritual ex- discussion emphasis on love and connectedness. Alexandra Creating a Space for Peace perience, and the history of psychology’s engagement with Jordan and Marina Mazur lead sessions for single mothers. these issues. Biaggio Mastropieri and Lorne Schussel work with young Miller’s former students have also added to the field’s lit- men transitioning to self-sufficiency. It’s a real-world setting, erature. In 2011, Randye J. Semple and Jennifer Lee, both of with clients who often carry great anger and suspicion. The whom hold doctorates from TC, published Mindfulness-Based therapy aims to help them overcome the trauma of homeless- Cognitive Therapy for Anxious Children. Integrating Buddhist ness and “nourish internal resources intended to increase meditative practices with Western cognitive therapy, the book emotional regulation and awareness.” builds on clinical trials in which Semple, who now teaches at Schussel opens each session with a mindfulness exercise, the University of Southern California, and Lee, a psychologist asking the young men to focus on the sound from a Tibetan in private practice, found that the hybrid technique they recom- singing bowl as it dissipates. Later, the men take time to vi- mend fostered greater concentration and increased attention to sualize their “best selves.” In a session with volunteers will- schoolwork among children ages 9–12. ing to let a reporter sit in, these techniques mingle with more Ultimately, Miller is interested in developing clinical ap- classic sharing of past traumas and current challenges. e can either Center is internationally proaches that aim not just to diagnose and cure disorders “Meditation is great for conflict resolution,” Schussel says lat- “ kill each other, recognized for innovation (such as anxiety or depression), but also to actively increase er. “It helps you step back, see your anger as it arises and allow W or sit down in theory, research and well-being. She has argued that depression and the emer- it to dissipate. And that’s what we’re experiencing at Covenant at a table and work out practice. Marla’s gift will gence of personal spirituality may be tightly connected, or House. Once you transform anger, you can bring in love.” our problems,” says TC provide a state-of-the- Trustee Marla L. Schaefer art space that will help even two facets of a single phenomenon in which depres- In the women’s group, Mazur reflects, “we look at the (M.A. ’03). “I vote for sit- attract new students and sion serves as a painful but necessary phase that people pass motherhood experience as a spiritual transformation, as well ting at the table.” scholars. GROUNDBREAKER Student Ariel Kor is part of the paradigm- through en route to finding a more stable kind of happiness. as other things. We are there to help them bring out their Marla recently gave a “Their offices re- changing research on psycho-physiology underlying spirituality. If so, then treating depression as a spiritual process, rather inherent strength and the knowledge that they really already $575,000 gift to reno- minded me of a rabbit’s vate just about every- warren,” says Marla with than as the result of trauma or chemical imbalances, may have.” This group is co-supervised by Aurelie Athan, whose thing at the International a laugh. “They needed benefit patients in the long term. Miller recently secured a own work with women is informed by a spiritual orientation Center for Cooperation updating. The space has how to best integrate spirituality in curricula. None of this $2.5 million grant to test this hypothesis through a five-year that frames motherhood as a growth-producing process. and Conflict Resolu- so much character, but tion (ICCCR), headed by they need a real place to was here 10 to15 years ago.” study that will look at emerging adults ages 18–22, using These doctoral students are spiritually inclined them- Peter Coleman, Associate work. It’s a privilege to Much of that progress stems from the work of Miller, who MRI, genotyping (the process of determining differences in selves, in eclectic ways – some more intensely than others. Professor of Psychology be able to help them at- joined TC’s faculty in 1999 and now serves on the governing people’s genetic makeup by examining their DNA sequenc- Mazur, for instance, simply sees a “spiritual connection to and Education. Her gift tract the best and bright- body of the American Psychological Association. At a time es) and other techniques. the universe” as a useful tool for managing daily life. Schus- will create the Marla L. est. If there is anybody Schaefer Office Suite at out there in the world when psychology saw itself as largely antithetical to religion, That same idea, of spirituality arising out of depression, sel, by contrast, embraces an array of alternative techniques the ICCCR. best equipped to work Miller, who had previously studied at the University of Penn- underlies Miller’s work at Covenant House, which is sup- such as energy healing and Holotropic Breathwork. During her time as out the world’s conflicts, sylvania with Martin Seligman, one of the founders of posi- ported by Goldman Sachs Gives at the recommendation of Perhaps the biggest change she has witnessed in teaching a student in the orga- it’s the ICCCR.” tive psychology, was investigating religiosity and spiritual Phil Armstrong, Co-Chief Operating Officer for Goldman spiritual psychology for the last 13 years, Miller says, is that nizational psychology Marla has provided program, Marla took a funding to ICCCR in the development in adolescents. She focused on the ability of Sachs’s Operations Division. each year more students arrive already curious about spiritu- weekend-long practicum past, including a 2008 positive messaging to boost self-es- ality and involved in practices of their own. that introduced her to gift that supported the teem among vulnerable groups such “They get it,” she says. “Many of them meditate, many conflict resolution. “If translation into Ara- as teen mothers. She began an ongo- pray, do spiritual journeying, some of them do a shamanic it hadn’t been for that bic of The Handbook of He’s a Partner – class, I wouldn’t have Conflict Resolution: ing involvement in a 20-year study at TC as Well as on practice. They’re already making a practice in their life of developed an interest in Theory and Practice, of women with a history of depres- spiritual awareness and spiritual values.” the field,” she says. “I edited by Deutsch and sion and their adult children, which Wall Street Miller believes that everyone’s expression of spirituality is was so impressed with Coleman. “It just made Peter and the ICCCR’s sense to also have it has found, among other things, that “I think we are just at the beginning and can aspire unique, and that holds for patients as well as therapists. In work in this area.” in Arabic — it’s one of to change the lives of thousands of homeless personal spirituality limits the recur- her master’s degree class, she asks students to explore their The ICCCR is com- the most widely spoken rence of major depression. She and youth,” says Phil Armstrong, Co-Chief Operating own spirituality, precisely so that they will be able to help mitted to developing languages in the world,” Officer for Goldman Sachs’s Operations Division. her students at TC have since pro- their patients do the same. knowledge and practice she says. At Armstrong’s recommendation, Goldman Sachs to promote construc- “If I can help push a duced more than 50 peer-reviewed Gives has made substantial grants to fund TC’s Her job as a teacher, she says, is to give students full- tive conflict resolution, door open, I would be journal articles on the protective work with Covenant House. Armstrong got in- L e w i s U xem an fledged scientific training in clinical psychology methods effective cooperation and thrilled. I think giving volved through a Goldman Sachs alumnus, Biaggio property of spirituality against men- V t her while validating their spiritual orientation. social justice. Build- should be about provid- Mastropieri, a student of Lisa Miller’s who man- ing on the foundational ing people with access. tal disorders. And this year saw the H ea y “I find that students are quickly able to work out of this

ages the Covenant House work. Adds Armstrong, b scholarship of social I feel I’ve done that with o s publication, under Miller’s editor- “I’m very fortunate that Goldman puts me in a po- t spiritual understanding,” Miller says. “And when students psychologists Kurt Lewin this new gift, as well as ship, of The Oxford Handbook of Psy- are clear within, they go into the therapy room as emerging sition where I can offer to help.” Read more about ogra p h s and Morton Deutsch, the others.” t chology and Spirituality, a 600-page, phil armstrong Armstrong at http://bit.ly/Psc1Lw p ho file healers, and then the client is naturally at home.”

Pho tc TC

18 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 19 BODY AND SOUL The Power of Positive Patients TC health educators are helping people think positively to better manage their own care

By Joe Levine Photograph by Hannah Whitaker

20 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 21 BODY AND SOUL Martin Seligman, Edward Diener and Alice Isen have long tion group than in the controls (42 percent vs. 36 percent) focused on the power of positive thinking. They have argued – a gain “consistent with some of the most effective interven- that optimism and happiness are learned skills requiring tions available,” according to the journal Cardiology. practice and that a positive outlook can change behaviors In the asthma study, a subgroup of severely asthmatic pa- ranging from making purchasing decisions to processing in- tients who received the intervention exercised more than Four years ago, Sarah McMahon (not her formation about medical risk. their counterparts in the control group. real name), then 83, suffered a heart attack In 2003, NHLBI issued a nationwide call for proposals for None of the three studies demonstrated improvement in studies to apply such findings to improving patient outcomes. patients’ health, but previous, longer studies have estab- and had surgery to implant a stent, a tiny, “Many scientists were doing excellent basic behavioral re- lished that exercise and adherence to medication create bet- search, focused on understanding why people act, think, feel as ter health outcomes. balloonlike device that expanded to they do, but they weren’t applying what they found about hu- “These studies are revolutionary,” says Czajkowski. increase bloodflow through her coronary life. But many of the critical issues man behavior to specific clinical problems,” says Czajkowski, “They show that this kind of approach can be done and we now face are related to behav- who spearheaded the Institute’s effort. “So we asked teams of that it is fruitful.” artery. Afterwards, she was told to watch ior. The key is to help people quit basic and clinical behavioral scientists to work together to tack- For Allegrante, the studies are significant because they smoking, maintain a healthy weight le pressing clinical questions in the heart/lung/blood realm.” demonstrate that positive affect enhances the power of pa- her diet, take her medications and – and diet, stay physically active and, The team that included Allegrante and Peterson – headed tient self-management. “The control group itself received a because physical activity has been shown to if they are taking medications, ad- by Mary Charlson, Chief of the Division of Clinical Epide- pretty robust intervention – it was no straw man,” he says. here to treatment.” miology and Evaluative Sciences Research at significantly reduce death rates following Doctors tell patients to do Weill Cornell – received funding to conduct a these things all the time, but en- set of studies aimed at developing and refining stent surgery – exercise regularly. suring compliance is much easier a behavioral intervention, culminating in three said than done. For example, as randomized clinical trials involving 1,000 pa- But where most patients struggle to keep to such a regi- many as half of all stent patients stop exercising within four tients. One trial focused on boosting physical men on their own, McMahon, who lives alone in Eastchester, months, and one-fifth experience a new adverse event within activity among asthma patients; another on get- New York, joined a follow-up study that evaluated ways to a year after surgery. What’s needed, then, are care managers ting African American patients with high blood get patients to exercise. She signed a “contract” to try to meet who can get inside patients’ heads – master motivators who pressure to adhere to prescribed medication (Af- certain exercise goals. She tracked her progress with a pe- are as much Phil Jackson or Vince Lombardi as they are Ben rican Americans have substantially higher rates dometer and in an interactive workbook about self-manag- Casey or House M.D. of hypertension than other ethnic groups); and ing heart disease. And, in an unusual twist, the research team “It’s not sufficient anymore for a doctor to simply dispense a third on getting stent patients like McMahon helped her identify personal associations, positive thoughts advice and prescriptions,” says John Allegrante, Professor of to exercise. and proud moments that would motivate her to exercise. Health Education and Deputy Provost at Teachers College, and In each study, a treatment group and a control Twice a month, team members called her to remind her of editor of the journal Health, Education & Behavior. Allegrante group received state-of-the-art instruction and these strategies. They also mailed her occasional small gifts. and his former TC student Janey Peterson, a health researcher tools for managing their own care. The treatment WALKING CURE Positive thinking has helped people “It was wonderful,” recalls McMahon. “When I volun- at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, were part of group also received a motivational intervention, exercise more after heart surgery. teered for the study, I was just so pleased to be alive. It was the investigative team that designed the study that Sarah Mc- delivered by phone, that included using positive gratifying to think I might be doing something useful, par- Mahon participated in. “What’s emerging is a more motivation- thoughts and recalling proud moments. Gifts ticularly at my age. And then, the girls who called me were so al, intervening type of practice, in which the physician is better were delivered by mail. The studies tested the power of both “We built the best mousetrap we could and then gave addi- lovely, and I enjoyed speaking with them.” at listening, at discussing patient preferences and approaches to “positive affect,” defined as “a state of pleasurable engage- tional positive affect and self-affirmation components to the With people 65 and older expected to constitute nearly 20 a problem, and at building pa- ment with the environment [that] reflects feelings of mild, treatment arm, so that we’d have a good test of the added percent of the population by 2030 (up from 13 percent now), tients’ confidence in their ability everyday happiness, joy, contentment and enthusiasm,” and value of focusing them on positive emotions. And the results the United States is becoming a nation of Sarah McMahons – to change how they live.” did you know? “self-affirmation,” such as using memories of past accom- were remarkable.” older people with multiple ongoing health problems. In 2005, In the tool kit wielded by plishments, to “preserve a positive image and self-integrity But can self-management techniques, including positive 133 million Americans, or nearly one in two adults, had at least this new breed of doctor, posi- when one’s self-identity is threatened.” thinking, be broadly implemented in a health care system ion: t ion: one chronic illness, and 7 in 10 deaths were due to longer-term tive emotions loom large. The results of the studies – the first clinical trials to test with a marked preference for a pound of cure rather than an conditions such as cancer, heart disease and stroke. Treatment “You can threaten patients the power of induced positive affect in patients with a seri- ounce of prevention? The evidence suggests that such tech- costs were estimated at $1.7 trillion annually. with the consequences of fail- ous medical condition – were published this past year in The niques are cost-effective. For example, in a 1999 study of the Faced with these trends, health care experts increasingly ing to take care of themselves, Participation in t ion Archives of Internal Medicine. Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP), a agree that traditional medical approaches no longer suffice. but that’s not enough,” says Pe- a structured cardiac In the trial involving stent patients, 55 percent of those well-known group program created at Stanford University’s

rehabilitation program – Ass o c ia “We’ve had enormous success with medical discoveries – terson, a former cardiothoracic including exercise – who received the motivational intervention increased their Patient Education Research Center to increase patients’ con- they’ve led to advances such as statins, beta-blockers, clot- intensive care nurse. “They improves survival by expenditure of kilocalories by at least 336 per week, versus fidence, skills and social support, health care costs for the busting drugs and continuous refinements in procedures need a positive reason, some- just 37 percent of the control patients – the equivalent of patients who received CDSMP were $820 lower (even ac- such as angioplasty [stent surgery] and coronary artery by- thing that comes from within walking 7.5 miles weekly versus walking 4.1 miles weekly, counting for the intervention’s cost) than for patients who pass surgery,” says Susan Czajkowski, a scientist at the Na- and that can be self-induced.” Cir c ula in re p or t ed Clini c , M ayo s our c e: w ’ says Peterson, who authored the angioplasty manuscript. did not, primarily due to reduced days of hospitalization. tional Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) who is an Psychologists such as Dan- 46%. In the hypertension study, adherence to medication after Health care expenditure savings for the intervention group ‘did you kno you ‘did expert on psychosocial aspects of illness. “They’ve extended iel Kahneman, Amos Tversky, H ear t A meri c an t he of J ournal 12 months was 6 percentage points higher in the interven- were roughly 10 times the cost of the intervention. y image s ge tt y

22 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 23 But David Sobel, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Patient Education atry and the cardiothoracic intensive care unit, I learned how connection to what he had a career path she traces and Health Promotion for the Permanente Medical Group and to connect on a personal level with patients and their fami- been studying. directly to her mentor. Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California region, sounds some lies at a very vulnerable time in their lives and address their “I started thinking about Peterson originally trained cautionary notes. For behavioral programs to be better inte- psychosocial, educational and health care needs,” she says. the relationships among as a nurse and worked in behavior, wealth, status and cardiothoracic intensive grated into clinical care, Sobel says, we need “good evidence of “Hospitalization created a teachable moment when many health outcomes, and about care during the 1980s. effectiveness in real-world settings and aligned financial incen- patients were more open to receiving health information the limitations of our health The waves of elderly patients tives – or at least an absence of disincentives. With medications, that could significantly affect the rest of their lives.” Today, care system.” with chronic illnesses who there is a whole industry and strong financial drivers to promote she says, when nurses can practice as clinicians, research- During the past 30 years, flooded her unit convinced their use. How can the drivers for non-pharmacological and be- ers, scholars and educators, there are greater opportunities Allegrante has coauthored her that the system an “action textbook” on wasn’t working. havioral interventions be mobilized?” to “make the world a better place for our patients.” teen health; been a frequent “If you look back at how Unlike most insurers, Kaiser Permanente does not reimburse And Kate Lorig, Director of the Stanford Patient Research guest on radio programs hospitals have managed physicians on a fee-for-service basis, Sobel says. Kaiser clients Center, believes that the move toward motivating behavioral and a contributor to journals patients with cost-driven – an employer, a university, an individual – pay a lump sum for change could take place even farther away from care centers. and lay publications; and diseases, you see that they’ll improved health outcomes, and Kaiser can use whatever evi- “People spend 99 percent of their time outside the health care collaborated extensively with monitor you for a single health education and public condition, like diabetes,” dence-based approaches it believes will work best. system, and it’s what they do there that determines their health health researchers in Iceland. Peterson says. “But if you “If we can better manage high blood pressure through a and their quality of life,” Lorig says. “In lots of parts of the coun- “We have a lot to learn have, for example, diabetes, body-mind program, we’ll do it, whereas a doctor in a fee- try, community organizations teach self-management. Your doc- from the Nordic countries heart disease, a cellulitis on for-service practice has to bill an insurance company for an tor says, ‘There’s a Jewish community center a few blocks from that have come to a your leg, and depression or office visit, which might be the least effective thing for con- your house. You’re not interested? We’ll contact you when we political consensus about cognitive issues – which is the morality and practical a really common scenario trolling high blood pressure,” says Sobel, a practicing physi- learn of something more to your liking.’” economic value of making – there’s no one who will cian who helped develop and evaluate CDSMP in real-world Meanwhile, in 2009, NHLBI issued another research so- health care a basic human manage everything together, care within the Kaiser Permanente system. licitation for behavioral intervention studies, this time fo- service, available to all,” he and the caregivers aren’t Sobel believes more traditional insurance companies cusing on obesity and obesity-related behaviors. A second says. “The investments they talking to each other. The would be receptive to self-management approaches sup- effort, taking in a wider range of health-related behaviors have made are making a reimbursement system isn’t huge difference.” set up for it.” Allegrante (left) set ported by good evidence for quality of care and improved and involving several organizations within the National In- BEHAVIORAL STRATEGISTS As editor for the past But it wasn’t until she Peterson on a path to empowering patients outcomes. Right now, though, “there are very few evidence- stitutes of Health, is getting under way. two years of the journal became involved in a study based self-management programs that have been evaluated,” “We really need to keep increasing the pool of efficacious in- Health, Education & led by Allegrante, teaching he says. “It’s one thing to do an evaluation in a clinical trial terventions for behavioral health problems,” says Czajkowski. Behavior, Allegrante has patients with arthritis to under specialized circumstances and another to replicate the “It’s like drug development – even when we have drugs that also published a number of manage their own care, that A Different studies and commentaries Peterson began to see the program in a real world care system. Often, you can’t just ex- work, pharmaceutical companies continue to use findings from focused on patient self- glimmer of an answer. basic biological science to make better ones. Kind of management. “John was a role model Behavioral scientists should be doing the Meanwhile, at TC, since for me, and he really “You can induce positive same.” 1998 he has led a yearly stimulated me to learn Peterson finds the analogy with phar- Health Insurance delegation of students to more about working with affect as easily as Capitol Hill to lobby Congress people and their behaviors,” maceuticals particularly resonant. John Allegrante was a Times about the injustices for additional federal Peterson says. “Because by telling a joke or smelling “A few months ago, one of the attend- 26-year-old Ph.D. student of a society in which funding for the U.S. Centers of him, I began thinking ing physicians in the class I teach told me at the University of Illinois hardworking people could for Disease Control. And since about questions like, How some nice perfume.” that he dispenses written prescriptions for Urbana-Champaign when his find themselves unable to becoming the College’s do people take charge? physical activity,” she says. “That’s incred- father was diagnosed with pay for medical care. To his Deputy Provost in 2009, Particularly people who are — Janey Peterson serious heart disease. But surprise, the Times printed Allegrante has founded and used to a doctor telling them ibly powerful, because that’s what physical the real shocker came a few an edited version of the hosted a new what to do?” activity is – it’s medicine, and often it’s as days later, when Allegrante piece on its opinion page, colloquium called “Health, Fifteen years passed trapolate from clinical trial data to ‘This will achieve a reduc- least as strong, if not more so, than many pills people take.” Mo- walked into his father’s under the headline “Well, Behavior and Society,” in before Peterson enrolled tion of X number of days in the hospital.’” tivating people can be “so delightfully simple and easy. Instead hospital room back home in Who Needs Life Savings?” which guest speakers as Allegrante’s doctoral Costs, though, are only one piece of the puzzle. How to of asking people to sit through weeks of therapy or classes, you Poughkeepsie, New York. President Jimmy Carter read examine the interconnections student at TC. Now they’ve “He said, ‘Get me out it and invited Allegrante among biology, behavior worked together on a study change the operating style of doctors and other care-givers can induce positive affect as easily as by telling a joke, or smell- of here, I can’t afford to Washington to talk with and environment in relation that represents some of working on the front lines? ing some nice perfume, or keeping pictures of your grandchil- this,’” recalls Allegrante, his special health adviser. to health. the most advanced thinking Allegrante believes the effort must begin in medical schools. dren by your bed.” now Professor of Health A hospital on Long Island Above all, he has in their field. “To date, we prepare doctors largely to be biomedical scien- Sarah McMahon, the patient in the positive affect study, Education and Deputy offered Allegrante, Sr. free influenced generations of “Health educators find tists, not applied behavioral scientists, which are what’s really agrees. “When you get to be this age, your children have their Provost at TC. “He was a medical care. students to think about ways to operationalize self-employed barber, and Even before his father’s health education issues. behavioral strategies,” needed in an era when behavioral management of chronic dis- own lives, and you’ve really got to find ways to take care of L e w i s U xem an it turned out he had no illness, Allegrante had One of those students, Allegrante says. “That’s ease is critical,” he says. “If we’re going to get the outcomes we yourself. When the people from the study would call, they’d her V t her health insurance.” resolved to pursue a career Janey Peterson, is now a what we do. It’s especially want, and that insurers demand, we need both.” always ask me about the staircases in my house. It took me Allegrante was so upset in health education. Still, clinical epidemiologist and satisfying when you have a y H ea y Janey Peterson believes nurses could be key change agents a while to catch on, but what they were really saying when that he fired off a long his father’s revelation gave behavioral scientist at Weill chance to prove that they in making behavioral interventions a bigger part of medicine. they’d ask me about them was ‘Use those stairs. They can letter to The New York him a different kind of Cornell Medical College – can work.” — jl h b ogra p h “In the 1980’s when I worked as a bedside nurse in psychi- help you.’ And they were right.” t

TC Pho

24 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 25 SOUND mind, SOUND body

Welcome to “the New Gym,” where kids hold group discussions and use iPads, and teachers ponder the role of race, gender and body type

By Siddhartha Mitter

Photographs by Heather Van Uxem Lewis

mental gymnastics At The School at Columbia, the emphasis is on lifelong learning of physical skills.

26 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 27 SOUND mind, SOUND body

CRITICAL THINKING Students use iPads to critique one another’s form. BALANCE OF POWERS Martial arts class is very much a thinking person’s game.

n a Friday morning in games,” one boy announces seriously, “are traditionally a ings point P.E. away from the traditional gym class model – competent students, while others go through the motions, the gym at The School at Columbia University, Doug LeBlanc part of the culture of New York.” competition as motivator; the jocks rule – toward learning, chitchat or just stand around – dies hard. (M.A., ’01, ’03) has asked his third graders to prepare to exer- Later, while the kids work in groups across the gym, LeB- enjoyment and lifelong skills development. That’s no surprise, says Walrath’s mentor, Stephen Silver- cise their bodies by warming up their minds. In a moment the lanc, their “Wellness” teacher, asks them to photograph one The School champions the new approach, but it has not man, who chairs TC’s Department of Biobehavioral Sciences children will grab jump ropes and work individually, then in another on their iPads while they jump rope. The images will cast team sports aside. Seventh graders still do a soccer unit, and coordinates the College’s Physical Education program. small groups,O at double Dutch. But first they sit in a circle and be used back in the classroom as subject matter for writing for example, but it’s linked to a teaching theme. The students After all, most P.E. teachers are athletic types themselves. discuss how street games came to be invented amid the special time, and possibly on the class blog as well. form a league modeled on the one organized by Nelson “One problem is that most of us who were undergraduate conditions of big-city life. Carlos Jamieson, a Teachers College master’s degree stu- Mandela and other prisoners in the Robben Island peniten- P.E. majors were successful doing motor skills, so we’re not “City” is, in fact, a third-grade curriculum theme across dis- dent in physical education, looks on. He’s just started his stu- tiary. They write letters arguing for the league’s recognition thinking about those other kids,” says Silverman, himself a ciplines at The School. The kids call out ideas they’ve stud- dent-teaching placement at The School, leading warm-ups and demanding equipment, as the prisoners did, and their scuba instructor and diving enthusiast. “And those other kids ied in the classroom: how jump rope, stickball and other pas- and assisting LeBlanc and his Wellness colleagues, many of teachers evaluate their efforts for persuasiveness. are a lot of the kids, if not most of them.” times were the product of limited space and materials; the whom are also TC graduates. “Is this the first time you’ve The students study cricket as well, to supplement classes on Why are so many kids either inhibited about being physi- way buildings and sidewalks substituted for fields. “Street seen iPads in a phys ed class?” Jamieson whispers to a fellow India and British colonial rule. Along with how to bowl and bat, cally active or else simply unmotivated? Some of the most observer. “Me, too.” they learn the sport’s history, rules, scoring and etiquette. “You important reasons originate outside the school setting, be- This tight integration of gym and catch the kids who consider themselves bookish that way,” says ginning with images of physical competence and body stan- classroom is part of an emerging Laura Walrath (M.A. ’07), The School’s athletic director, who dards that pervade society through media and language. “If you feel your body doesn’t teaching approach that proponents played Division I soccer in college. “They can teach it to the “If you feel your body doesn’t mirror particular dominant hope could revolutionize the physi- other kids, and the kids who are better at the physical skills will ideals, it impacts your physical education engagement,” says

mirror particular dominant cal education (P.E.) field. The new L e w i s U xem an help them play. You have to reach all types.” Laura Azzarito, Associate Professor of Physical Education,

ideals, it impacts your physical method grows out of research by V t her Reaching all types – kids who think of themselves as ath- who joined TC’s faculty in 2011. “The body, and learning

experts at TC and elsewhere who H ea y letically competent, and others who, for a variety of reasons, how to move, matter a great deal to young people, and find- education engagement.” are discovering connections among b do not – is a challenge for every P.E. teacher. Not all choose ing a self that fits and is comfortable in sports, health and attitude, motor skills, knowledge to address it. The roll-out-the-ball gym class stereotype – physical education can be very difficult for them.” ogra p h s — Laura Azzarito and fitness outcomes. Their find- t where the teacher sets up competitive activities for the most Gender, race and class affect “embodiment” – how one sees Pho

28 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 29 dents of both genders lose interest as an educator so that everybody is learning within their ac- Back at The School, Wal- and enthusiasm for P.E. as they get tivity and at their own pace?” did you know? rath operates in precisely this older, particularly around seventh The integrated curriculum at The School at Columbia fashion with a group of sev- grade, and that the decline is faster University offers one answer: giving students the histori- Nearly enth graders who are work- and steeper for girls. cal or political context about different sports (e.g., colo- ing on a fitness unit, practic- That finding, which holds broad- nialism as a backdrop for cricket) to lend physical activity ing curl-ups and push-ups. ly across ethnic groups and regions, greater meaning. The School also employs the Sport Edu- She moves from pair to pair, came to light thanks to a survey in- cation Model, an approach to teaching team sports that gives tips on form, offers en- strument, titled Student Attitude rotates students through all the relevant roles – player, couragement and stops to Toward Physical Education, that coach, referee, scorekeeper, equipment manager – so that 2/3 work more closely with a few Steve Silverman codeveloped with everyone’s involved. of the nation’s high students who need help. Raj Subramaniam, a professor at But it’s equally important to tailor physical activities as school students do In the end, Silverman says, Ithaca College. closely as possible to individual skill levels, so that students not meet one teachers must play the key First published in 2000, and are motivated to rise to challenges instead of avoiding them. recommended level of role in making physical edu- participation in physical based on Subramaniam’s doc- And that, says Silverman, would ideally mean taking the activity. cation effective and enjoy- toral research, which Silverman most radical step of all: dropping team sports entirely from able for all students. There’s supervised when the two were physical education classes. no question that at an inde- at the University of Illinois, the “With team sports, not everyone is playing, and so they’re pendent institution like The School, which is blessed with survey is now widely used in the not learning,” he says. “And the teachers can’t possibly spend curricular freedom and resources, the teachers are more field. It has produced a wealth enough time with them.” likely to accept the hours and workload that interdisci- of research data, both on overall Instead, Silverman says, students should work to achieve plinary teaching entails. But Silverman hopes that as the trends in student attitude and on personal targets through individual and small-group activi- new gospel spreads, newer teachers coming up are going REACHING ALL TYPES Walrath offers some advice on the art of throwing. the attitudinal impact of curricu- ties, enabling teachers to roam the gym offering individual- to get on board. lum and teaching methods. ized instruction. Or to put it another way: Forget the old- “It boils down to whether the teachers want to do it,” he “With team sports, This research on attitude has fashioned gym teacher, barking out commands. Instead, says. “Where there are a lot of young teachers together, you helped to substantiate insights think yoga instructor or personal trainer. tend to see changes happening.” TC not everyone is playing, and so they’re that seem intuitively obvious: For example, physical education activi- not learning. And the teachers ties based on competition have an adverse effect on the motivation can’t possibly spend enough time of kids with lower skills. But it has also supported some unexpected with them.”— Stephen Silverman conclusions: For example, de-em- phasizing competition doesn’t turn off students with higher skills. oneself in relation to physical participation and enjoyment “Sometimes P.E. teachers will say to me, ‘If I do what you -- says Azzarito, who is Italian-born and earned her Ph.D. suggest, the high-skills kids will get bored,’” Silverman says. Giving P.E. a Second Wind at Louisiana State University before teaching at Britain’s “But our research suggests there’s nothing they can do to o s

t “Physical activity can be a the country from cutting ing wind and could use a Loughborough University. In her own research, she says, she mess up the high-skills kids. That’s not the problem we have really good tool to help en- gym hours. In 2011, only substitution. Or to be more has given digital cameras to young people and asked them to in kids learning and enjoying P.E.” gage kids, help them attend 52 percent of high school specific: Physical education create visual diaries to express how they feel in their bodies. In fact, the really good news from the new attitude re- p ho file better and behave better in students attended a P.E. isn’t worth the investment

“Many of the boys showed themselves performing sports, search is that skill level, high or low, is not the defining factor tc t h; the classroom,” says Carol class, according to the U.S. because too many kids look very centered in the photos. Many girls were completely ab- in whether students engage in and benefit from physical edu- Ewing Garber, TC Associ- Centers for Disease Control at gym simply as something ate Professor of Movement and Prevention. Meanwhile, to be ducked. sent; they took pictures of other people and never wanted to cation. What really tips the scales, so to speak, is the quality Sciences, who this past year America is getting flabbier: That’s why the new ap- be in their own photo.” of instruction; there is no inherent reason why a less athletic led an American College of 36 percent of adults and 17 proaches being advanced at Research on body perception, while certainly extensive in student would be less likely to enjoy P.E. “We found that the Sports Medicine panel that percent of children qualified TC and elsewhere are genu- psychology, is still quite new as applied to physical education, teacher and the curriculum were the primary factors that af- issued new guidelines on as obese in 2010. ine cause for excitement. Azzarito says. “With the methods I use, I’m trying, first, to em- fected attitude,” Subramaniam says. physical activity. “And kids Certainly lawmakers are The new thinking could give hool H eal S c hool of J ournal Ba sc h, sometimes learn concepts under pressure to slash P.E. the fresh legs it needs power young people to tell their own stories about their experi- Jennifer Rasmussen (Ed.D. ’06), a lecturer who coordi-

L e w i s U xem an by using their bodies – for spending – and schools to because it holds the po- ences and struggles in physical activity. Second, I try to assist nates TC’s master’s degree program in physical education example, math and science redirect time and resources tential to get all kids to be them in understanding the role of the media in the development and supervises student field placements, calls that finding V t her concepts by moving.” to meet testing targets. But active – not only in gym, but of their identities and their bodies. And third, I try to help teach- “breakthrough stuff” because it changes the goals of P.E. H ea y Yet, even that case for there may also be a sense for life. So listen up, Coach: b ers to see and address inequalities that inform young people’s “Now teachers have to design their lessons to target the s Charle s our c e: w ’ physical education isn’t that – to use a sports meta- Maybe it’s time to put the Carol ewing Garber stopping districts across phor – P.E. itself is suck- new kid in the game. — sm experiences and physical education.” low-skilled and the advanced,” Rasmussen says. “So what are ogra p h s t

All researchers in the field agree that, across cultures, stu- you going to do? What modifications are you going to make Pho kno you ‘did

30 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 31 SOUND mind, SOUND body

Taking Student Health to Scale

Chuck Basch says we won’t close the achievement gap until we attend to student health. He has a plan

By Joe Levine Illustrations by Jillian Tamaki

CHANGING VENUE Some kids can’t get to school early enough for breakfast in the cafeteria. One solution: let them eat in first-period class.

32 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 33 SOUND mind, SOUND body To Basch, who gave the keynote address at Colorado’s an- profit that works closely with the public schools, agrees nual statewide education summit last spring, insufficient break- with that assessment. fast is just one facet of a much more complex and challenging “Chuck Basch is really flipping the traditional school health problem: the inferior health status and health care received by model on its head,” Wasserman says. “There have been many many low-income and minority children in the United States. In school-based attempts to improve students’ health, but they 2010, in work originally commissioned by TC’s Campaign for haven’t been very connected with academic outcomes. Chuck’s Educational Equity, Basch documented the scope of these “ed- approach makes it very clear why educators should care.” ucationally relevant health disparities” in a meta-analysis that Basch himself is partnering with the New York City De- filled an entire issue of the Journal of School Health. Incorporat- partment of Education and New York City Department of ing information from hundreds of previous studies by other re- Health to seek funding to test his approach in nearly 60 of searchers, he showed unequivocally that poorer students suffer New York City’s lowest-performing elementary schools. His disproportionately from a group of interrelated health problems team at TC consists of his longtime colleagues Randi Wolf, – poor vision, asthma, teen pregnancy, aggression and violence, Professor of Nutrition and Education, and Patricia Zybert, inadequate physical activity, insufficient breakfast, and inatten- a research scientist and statistician in the Department of Last year, when tion and hyperactivity – that directly hinder their achievement Health and Behavior Studies. Other TC faculty in his group in school. The publication included a preface by one of Basch’s include Eric Nadelstern, Professor of Practice and former Colorado began former students at TC, Howell Wechsler, Director of the Divi- Deputy Chancellor of New York City’s public schools; Mi- sion of Adolescent Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Con- chael Rebell, an expert on comprehensive services for stu- offering a new public trol. Wechsler wrote that “the articles by Basch…represent the dents from poverty backgrounds and school finance; Henry most comprehensive, authoritative, and compelling summary of Levin, the noted education economist; Aaron Pallas, an au- why addressing health-related barriers to learning needs to be a thority on standardized testing; Lucy Calkins, the literacy school program fundamental component of school reform efforts.” guru who is founding Director of the TC Reading and Writ- Perhaps just as important, Basch called attention to pre- ing Project; and Ernest Morrell, a nationally recognized that enables kids to cisely how and why each health issue affects school perfor- English educator who directs the College’s Institute for Ur- mance. For example, he reiterated findings that a sense of ban and Minority Education. Their goal is to compare the HEARD IN HIGH PLACES grab breakfast off a “school connectedness” fosters a desire to achieve. He also Basch (left) met with Duncan last spring. standardized test scores (and mediators, including school at- cited evidence that exercise stimulates the production of tendance and school connectedness) of students in schools lobby cart and chow brain-derived growth hormones, oxygen saturation and oth- receiving Basch’s intervention with those in a control group er chemical reactions in the brain that that facilitate learning. resentatives of private foundations, school boards, teach- of schools that did not. “If you can’t see, if you’re not getting a good night’s sleep ers, parents and concerned citizens. Meanwhile, a number of states and districts, including down during their because you can’t breathe, if you’re not thinking clearly be- “What’s needed now is to put into practice what we know in Tennessee, Ohio, Idaho, Colorado and the Boston and Den- cause you haven’t eaten breakfast or if you’re afraid to come a way that is scalable to reach thousands of schools – especially ver public schools, are instituting all or parts of Basch’s pro- first-period classes, to school because you live in fear of getting hassled and bul- the 5,000 lowest-performing schools in the nation,” he says. posal on their own. lied, there’s no way you’re going to be able to learn, and cer- Working closely with the Chicago-based Healthy Schools The Basch model has three major components. some teachers tainly not at the level of other students who don’t face these Campaign, Basch has framed a blueprint for change that would First, it targets health issues that are prevalent and dis- issues,” Basch said recently in his office in TC’s Thorndike put schools themselves at the center of a coordinated network proportionately affect low-income and minority youth, have and administrators Hall. He is a lean, intense man who talks rapidly when he of players – parents, teachers, state and city agencies, schools a direct impact on educational outcomes, and can be effec- gets on the topic that has occupied most of his time for the of education – all focused on student tively addressed through school health past several years. “Eighty to ninety percent of school turn- health. “What I’m proposing is going to programs. raised concerns. around efforts have failed, and I believe that a big reason is require a real social change in the way “We need the Second, the Basch model uses a True, schools have been offering free breakfast for years in that we haven’t addressed these health barriers. Until we do, we think of the mission of schools, and education group of proven, evidence-based pro- their cafeterias, prior to the first bell. But wouldn’t eating in our efforts to close the nation’s achievement gap by academic in the connections among schools, com- grams that have improved health and class be a major distraction? What about the mess? means – improving teacher and leader effectiveness, improv- munities and families,” he says. “Schools goals of the nation educational outcomes for thousands The fact is, breakfast programs nationwide are significantly ing curriculum, strengthening learning standards and assess- have resisted taking on health problems to recognize and sometimes millions of students, underused because parents have difficulty getting their kids ment – are going to be greatly compromised.” as part of their fundamental goals in the but which have never been collectively to school early, and also because, for many older students in Similar positions have been endorsed by organizations past because they haven’t seen that as the importance evaluated for their impact on academic particular, there is a stigma about eating “charity food.” such as the National Education Association, the Ameri- their primary mission. But they’ll be of addressing performance. These programs include To the state’s administrators, though, there was a bigger can Association of School Administrators, the American much more receptive if they realize that Breakfast in the Classroom; Vision for reason for making the change: Eating breakfast can help im- Association of State Boards of Education, the American focusing on health can have a substan- educationally Success, a program designed by Basch prove academic outcomes. School Boards Association and the Association for Super- tive impact on educational outcomes, relevant health and a former doctoral student, Danna “Neuroscience research has identified the processes by vision and Curriculum Development. Since publishing his and that failure to do so will jeopardize Ethan, together with New York City which dietary behavior influences neuronal activity and syn- report, Basch has been sharing his findings and propos- their other educational efforts.” problems.” health officials, which has doubled aptic plasticity, both of which influence cognitive functions,” als with audiences across the country, ranging from U.S. Stephanie Wasserman, who directs the in-class use of eyeglasses; and writes Charles Basch, Teachers College’s Richard March Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and state and city health and wellness initiatives for the — Chuck Basch Open Airways in Schools, an asthma

Hoe Professor of Health and Education. education commissioners, to advocacy group leaders, rep- b a sc h c hu k of c our t e s y Colorado Legacy Foundation, a non- education program developed by the

34 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 35 choosing to focus on certain priori- and practices to see which ones are supporting student ties,” says Jill Carter, Executive Di- health and which ones are impeding it. How are they taking did you know? rector of the Boston Public Schools attendance? Do they know why students are absent? Can (BPS) Health and Wellness Depart- they get that information? If a lot of their kids have diabe- Births per 1,000 among U.S. 15-17 year-olds ment. Basch was the keynote speak- tes, do they know whether absences are occurring because by race/ethnicity: er in December 2011, when BPS of that? And if so, are there interventions they could put in Superintendent Carol Johnson, who place? Ultimately, each school writes a change plan that re- has made improving student well- flects an analysis of their policies, practices, leadership initia- ness a critical part of her Academic tives and school climate.” Acceleration Agenda, presented In a final step, the schools link their change strategies to the plan to city officials. their districts’ overall school improvement plan, “so that 11.8 36.1 47.9 The BPS plan incorporates all the health measures are not looked at as being separate from white black hispanic key features that Basch recommends. school performance,” Rooney says. These include a physical activity pro- Basch emphasized this last point during a meeting with gram that incorporates in-class move- Arne Duncan last spring. The meeting was arranged by ment breaks, physical education and Rochelle Davis of the Healthy Schools Campaign, and it even staff wellness; an in-class break- included Davis, Basch and the leaders of the W.K. Kellogg could appeal to Republicans as well as Democrats because it fast program; and a vision program Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. Basch had all comes down to getting more bang for the taxpayers’ buck that issues two pairs of glasses to each just a few minutes to summarize his plan, and when Duncan and using existing resources more wisely. As another col- qualifying student. Carter and her team asked why many features of it weren’t already happening in league, Aaron Pallas, puts it, “this is one of those ideas that’s recently received grants that will enable schools, he had an answer ready. so obvious that you wonder why it hasn’t been tried before.” them to launch a pregnancy prevention “I said, ‘Because we need the education goals of the na- Right now, though, state legislatures are strapped for cash, program in middle schools. tion to recognize the importance of addressing education- and only the most dramatic kind of evidence is going to con- “The idea of coordinated school ally relevant health problems, especially for youth living in vince them to embrace a change of this magnitude. To that health has been around for 25 years, poverty,’” Basch recalls. “ ‘We need changes in accountability end, Basch is betting that the lowest-achieving New York and we were working on a lot of these structures to ultimately promote change. Because if schools City elementary schools would achieve increases of 20 scale issues before Chuck published his aren’t held accountable for it, if no one’s measuring it, then points (versus a 10-point increase in controls) on both Eng- paper,” Carter says. “But part of what it’s not important.’” lish language arts and mathematics standardized tests, rais- he’s done is to provide the data analy- Basch, along with Davis and the meeting’s other attend- ing the percent of students proficient at grade level from 34 American Lung Association, which aims to reduce poorly sis to support the idea that all of this really matters. It’s hard ees, urged Duncan to empower an Office of Safe and Healthy percent to 68 percent in the former and from 42 percent to controlled asthma and improve school attendance. Other to be an expert in your own district, but if someone from Students, run by a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education, 70 percent in the latter. initiatives recommended by Basch focus on improving stu- Teachers College is saying it, and it’s in the news – well, it to provide strategic leadership to fully integrate health and “Test scores alone are clearly an imperfect metric for judg- dents’ social and emotional skills, decreasing behavioral must be good, because they’re talking about it.” wellness into the Department’s policy and practice. They ing the extent to which schools are succeeding, but that’s the problems and building character, and increasing in-class In Ohio, Basch’s ideas constitute the foundation of a pi- also recommended that student health criteria be incor- metric widely used in states as well as nationally,” Basch says. physical activity. lot partnership between the State Department of Health porated into the federal government’s various professional “For many people, parents included, improving problems like Third, the Basch model applies a “scaling mechanism” for and the State Department of Education to improve student development and human capital programs for schools, such children’s vision, school connectedness and absenteeism are implementing all of these programs together. The scaling health and school performance. as Investing in Innovation, School Improvement Grants and worthy goals in themselves. Nevertheless, this work won’t con- mechanism consists of a full-time school health coordinator “Chuck’s article came out at a perfect time for us,” says Laura Blue Ribbon Schools. vince thousands of school leaders to adopt school health as a position in each school, professional development for teach- Rooney, Adolescent Health Program Manager in Ohio’s De- In a subsequent speech, delivered early in May at the fundamental mission of their schools if we can’t influence aca- ers and school personnel, and roving coaches who would partment of Health. “We had received funding for coordinated National Press Club in Washington, demic achievement. But if we do succeed, it provide assistance to teachers, staff and administrators. school health from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and D.C., Duncan spoke about the impor- will be judged revolutionary and could cre-

Along perhaps with an assistant principal for school health, Prevention and were trying to link health outcomes to school t h tance of school health and vowed to “What I’m ate a transformative change in the ways we these new positions ultimately would become the focus of a improvement, and his work does precisely that. promote change. proposing is educate the next generation of Americans.” new professional track developed by schools of education. “As Ohio is restructuring school report cards and teacher “I think [Duncan] gets it. But the U.S. is In Colorado, it’s still far too early to know “Chuck’s proposal is the only one I’ve ever seen that accountability, we wanted to find a mechanism that supports unique in having such a decentralized edu- going to require whether Basch’s proposed reforms will presents a comprehensive approach to student wellness, the district’s ability to look at the whole child for student suc- cation system,” Basch says. “The govern- a real social achieve that kind of impact. But in Octo- from nutrition to health screening to behavioral modifica- cess and go beyond test scores and curriculum.” ment is incredibly influential, but it also has ber, Wasserman of the Legacy Foundation tion to classroom performance,” Nadelstern says. “Other Ohio schools placed on academic watch or academic emer- limitations. And the politics are intense.” change in the reported hearing from teachers that, since efforts have used aspects of this, but he’s saying, ‘If we can gency status are recruited to participate in a Healthy Schools H eal S c hool of J ournal Ba sc h, Indeed, politics are a major reason why way we think of the launch of the new school breakfast pro- have resources and incentivize all the schools to focus on Leadership Institute that helps them to identify health mea- Basch, who is no great fan of standardized gram, “kids are way more focused. all of these issues, we can have a profound impact.’ And I sures that can aid students. testing, has made a dramatic improve- the mission “In Boulder, one kindergarten teacher

think he’s right.” “We ask schools to look at their students’ behavior and Tamaki J illian y ment in standardized test scores the key told us that she has a little girl in her class

s Charle s our c e: w ’ of schools.” Many other education leaders agree. health outcomes, and then to line those up with overall endpoint of his proposed study. It may be, who had never spoken,” Wasserman says. ion b t ion “We started work on our strategic plan in 2010 using school performance, so that they are the ones making infer- as his TC colleague Michael Rebell sug- — Chuck Basch “When they began serving breakfast, she

Chuck’s article to set the tone and reference why we were ences,” Rooney explains. “Then, they look at their policies I llu st ra kno you ‘did gests, that comprehensive school health spoke for the first time.” TC

36 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 37 SOUND mind, SOUND body

c u t t i n g

t h r o u g h

Students in TC’s Deaf/Hard of Hearing program t h e wrestle with the big questions about assistive technology

By Barbara Finkelstein

“I don’t understand, Dad,” rages the narrator of Raymond Luczak’s poem “Practice” and smashes his hearing aid with the telephone receiver. The poet himself, who lost most of his hearing after being stricken with double pneumonia as an infant, has passed a similar verdict on audio tech-

o c k nology, declaring that it renders sound “noisy and meaningless.” Michael Sagum, a first-year student in TC’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) program, takes a somewhat different view. Born profoundly deaf n o i s e s hu tt er st

38 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 39 ing world? How long does it take an FM receiver that may or may not include implants and tend to place too much to become a fluent signer? What a hearing aid interface. FM systems improve faith in technology. I worry about the is the impact on the child of the the speech-to-noise ratio, an assigned num- kids whose family members, teachers, parents’ approach to language? ber value that boosts the voice speaking into coaches and friends assume that the The deaf and hearing worlds the microphone over background noise such kids are doing very well when, in fact, have been debating these ques- as scraping chairs, air conditioners and stu- deaf children miss some pretty signifi- tions, in one form or another, dents. The focus on the microphone wearer’s “ cant elements of classroom instruction since the prototypes for modern voice can be further heightened by a cochlear h earing and after-school life.” assistive technology emerged late implant. But there are drawbacks: The FM Atkins says that in mainstream class- in the 19th century. signal quality may be hampered by unknown is not the rooms, “most kids who are deaf or hard In one camp, many deaf individ- interference, and the system may be too com- of hearing sit in front of the class so that uals and organizations that speak plex for young children to use without help. only means of they can see the board and teacher. But for them have described deafness And then there are cochlear implants them- obtaining what happens when a student behind as a unique culture, with its own selves, which have stirred the greatest hopes – them says something? The deaf child language and modes of social in- and controversies. Unlike hearing aids, which information may miss all or part of what was said, teraction, rather than as something rely on inner ear hair cells to convert vibra- whether she has a cochlear implant, a to be cured. The National Asso- tions into nerve signals, cochlear implants and hearing aid or use of an FM system.”

TO HEAR OR NOT TO HEAR? Rosen (left) and Kretschmer pose questions ciation of the Deaf has yet to fully transmit directly to the auditory nerve, which communicating Atkins says she has addressed this issue that go to the heart of cognition and identity. endorse cochlear implants, a tech- then sends information to the brain. Some im- by asking students to repeat what they nology introduced in the 1970s. plant recipients, such as TC’s Michael Sagum, with said – a benefit for all concerned. But in The Association says CIs are not praise the device for enabling them to learn to people.” a fast-moving classroom, lunchroom or in both ears, Sagum, as a mainstreamed student in Seattle, appropriate for all deaf and hard of hearing children and adults speak and interact with hearing people. Oth- social situation, such instant replay isn’t relied on hearing aids and FM listening systems. He had au- and not a cure for deafness, and that success stories with im- ers who are deaf or hard of hearing argue that, — Russell Rosen always possible. ditory and speech therapy from the time that his hearing loss plants should not be overgeneralized. In the other camp, most at best, implants, can only approximate an Will technology ever elevate deaf or was diagnosed at the age of 10 months. of the hearing world, as well as some schools for the deaf, did ability they will never fully have. hard-of-hearing students to the status At 15, Sagum elected to receive a cochlear implant (CI). not approve ASL as a legitimate language until the mid-1990s. “What’s the point of using a CI if it does not do anything of equal players in a hearing world? He still gets emotional when he remembers the moment the Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, for me except make me aware of environmental noises?” Rusty Rosen is skeptical. implant was activated and he heard birds chirping. Sagum deaf children – like all children with disabilities, and not unlike says Russell (“Rusty”) Rosen, a lecturer in the D/HH program “Every generation has a ‘true believer’ faith in a particu- says that hearing his own speech is a “source of pride” but their typically developing counterparts – are now accorded a at TC who is deaf. “Hearing is not the only means of obtain- lar technology,” he says. “In the late 1960s, when I was a is careful to emphasize that he respects all ways of commu- “free and appropriate education” at schools in their own neigh- ing information and communicating with people.” student at the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, nication for the deaf. He feels that the years of auditory and borhoods. And, according to a directive that proponents of deaf Graduates of TC’s D/HH program must accommodate to people thought hearing aids were a cure-all. Chairs were speech therapy that he has had are a critical component for culture view as being comparable to policy regarding English all these views when they work in schools and other settings. arranged in a semicircle. The students wore headphones the success of the cochlear implant. He’s also chosen to learn Language Learners, public schools must “consider the com- “The children I work with are cochlear implant and hear- and the teacher spoke into a microphone. But what I American Sign Language (ASL), which he calls “a very im- munications needs” of D/HH children and provide “opportuni- ing aid users, and most rely on FM systems in school,” says heard through my hearing aids were mechanical sounds, portant part of my life.” ties for direct instruction in the Dana Selznick (M.A., M.Ed ’10), who is a hearing educa- not organic human voices. So, even though the technology To hear or not to hear? child’s language and communi- tion teacher for the New York City Department of Educa- was focused on auditory intake, the classroom was really As technology improves, that’s increasingly the question cation mode.” did you know? tion. “What you learn right away is that you have to integrate only set up for visual learning.” More recently, Rosen re- for many people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and it But which mode? the technology based on knowing the child’s unique needs. calls a school board member – a physician, no less – who speaks to the very nature of identity and cognition. Hearing aids, which evolved In the United States, Each child responds to new assistive technology differently, rejected tenure for an ASL teacher on the grounds that “Does language map out what you already know, does lan- in part from the work of Alex- roughly which is why it is so important to understand the learner as cochlear implants had made deafness obsolete. “We’re guage dictate thought or does language add to the cognitive ander Graham Bell and were a whole. For example, teachers have to train the kids to un- just not there,” he says. map?” Robert Kretschmer, Associate Professor of Education first marketed in behind-the- 42,600 derstand the difference between voice qualities when using Atkins believes technology plays a vital role, particularly for and Psychology, asks students in his first-year course, Lan- ear form in the 1950s, amplify the FM system.” those who have some hearing. “Signing is an important part of guage Development and Rehabilitation. “As educators and sound but do not separate out Dale Atkins (M.A. ’72), a TV and radio personality who deaf communication for a large segment of the D/HH popula- e INst i t u e t ional researchers, we are obligated to ask how children process the speech from ambient noise. adults graduated from the College’s deaf education program and tion, but it doesn’t do anything for people who are basically world if they do so without the sense of hearing.” Nor can they adequately am- has worked extensively with D/HH children, their families auditory learners.” Still, she says, the ultimate role of deaf-

Kretschmer, who assigns readings on the language devel- plify high pitches, particularly N a s our c e: w ’ and professionals in the United States and abroad, says education specialists and other experts is to help the deaf and opment theories of linguists such as Benjamin Whorf Lee high female voices. 28,400 D i s order t ion that assistive technologies have not changed the basic hard of hearing cut through the noise around the technology- and psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, Personal FM systems have equation facing children with hearing issues. “The cogni- versus-signing debate and find the best individual solutions raises a host of issues related to the cognition and educa- proved somewhat more effec- tive and learning issues that existed before the era of co- for themselves and their families. ; ‘did you kno you ‘did o s ; tion of D/HH children. Is signing an absolute equivalent of tive, especially in the class- children t chlear implants haven’t really disappeared,” Atkins says. “People are starting to understand that the conversation spoken language? Will a child whose deafness goes undi- room. The teacher speaks into “Certainly, the earlier a child is implanted, the earlier he’ll about deafness can’t exclusively be about technology,” At- her Communi c a her Ot and have received p ho file agnosed past the age of three experience lifelong learning a microphone, usually a lava- o c k have access to language and good speech patterns, and kins says. “It’s about celebrating children for the unique and cochlear implants. tc : and thinking deficits? With the use of assistive technologies, lier. The student receives the the better off he’ll be. The problem, though, is that hear- precious people they are. Realizing that is a human advance, L ef t on D eafne ss on will a deaf child identify more with the hearing or the sign- signal, via radio waves, through p To ing people have very high expectations for the cochlear not a technological one.”

s hu tt er st TC

40 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 41 Eating Smarter

BEFORE SWALLOWING THERAPY AFTER 8 WEEKS OF SWALLOWING THERAPY The brain of a right hemisphere stroke patient with a swallowing disorder. There is Significantly increased brain activity of the same patient during swallowing. This change almost no neural activity associated with his swallowing. was accompanied by functional improvements in swallowing.

When patients relearn the seemingly innate act of swallowing, their brains change – and their lives can, too By Patricia Lamiell

One afternoon this past August, Joseph Forrester underwent Now, after four weeks of trial therapy, Forrester was nounced his progress good. They swabbed different fla- apy program, says that Forrester and four other patients in testing at the Dysphagia Research Clinic at Teachers College’s being reevaluated by Amy Ishkanian and Carly Wein- vors – sweet, salty, sour and bitter – on his tongue, and he a pilot project at Mysak have all “improved remarkably” in

Edward D. Mysak Clinic for Communication Disorders. reb, master’s degree students in TC’s Speech-Language R o bb in s . A nne identified each. They checked his gag reflex and air flow their ability to swallow. But it’s what may be going on in their ed s ed u (2011), J ohn s on & Since suffering a stroke the previous January, Forrester Pathology program, which runs the Mysak Clinic. After – again, all signs positive. They asked him to repeat the brains that she finds truly exciting. had been unable to swallow food or drink without choking performing some other tests, Ishkanian and Weinreb gave J o D r. y word buttercup as quickly as he could, and he complied, In the small, utilitarian space on the ninth floor of (the condition called dysphagia). He was being fed through Forrester a few sips of water. He sputtered a little but got until they all broke into giggles. Thorndike Hall that she established last year as TC’s a tube in his stomach, but he missed eating, especially jerk it down. They used a small, balloonlike device on the end Georgia Malandraki, Assistant Professor of Speech-Lan- Swallowing, Voice and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Malan- chicken and fish, specialties of his native Jamaica. of a tube to test Forrester’s tongue strength, and they pro- guage Pathology, who spearheads TC’s new swallowing ther- draki has been analyzing functional magnetic resonance ed s ed Ba I n c . Son s , & Wiley J ohn from p ermi ss ion w i t h b led st udy a on R o bb in s M alandraki, I n:

42 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 43 Swallowing disorders are on the rise, patients were transferring func- and the demand for therapy is growing did you know? tion to new brain regions. rapidly. In recent years, a range of As advances in health care and nutri- Approximately technologies have made it pos- tion enable people to live longer, rates of sible to pinpoint which neurons At the Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other dis- come into play under different orders that disproportionately affect the 10 conditions and in response to elderly have risen dramatically, and many MILLION different stimuli, enabling re- Mysak Clinic, of these conditions trigger dysphagia. Americans are evaluated searchers to correlate observed Indeed, of all patients seen by speech- each year with behavior with brain function A Growing language pathologists in hospitals, nurs- swallowing difficulties. and development. The Dyspha- ing homes and rehabilitation centers last gia Research Clinic in the Mysak Emphasis on year, more than half received swallow- However, studies Clinic is newly equipped with ing therapy, according to the American indicate prevalence many of these technologies, in- Speech-Language-Hearing Association. of swallowing cluding high-quality fiber-optic the Brain In New York City alone, up to 90 per- disorders may be as endoscopes, which are used for cent of patients seen by speech-language high as the evaluation and diagnosis pathologists in acute-care facilities have of swallowing physiology; elec- TC’s clinic for communi- particularly as more has cation disorders opened become known about swallowing disorders. tromyography (EMG), which in the 1940s and was the role of the brain in Many dysphagia patients lose their is used for evaluation of the BACK AT THE TABLE Forrester can eat solid food again 22% later named for speech speech and swallowing. after weeks of therapy at TC’s Mysak Clinic. Elana Winters, a student cough reflex, putting them in danger of electrical activity produced by in adults over 50. pathologist Edward D. Georgia Malandraki was in Speech-Language Pathology, looks on. aspirating food or liquid into the lungs swallowing muscles; respira- Mysak. Today, under the hired at TC by John Sax- and developing pneumonia or dying. tory biofeedback and muscle- direction of Dr. Kathleen man, who will step down Youse and her assistant in 2013 as Speech-Lan- While feeding tubes offer an alternative, strengthening devices; and sensory stimulation equipment director, Elise Wagner, the guage Pathology program they are expensive and inconvenient and raise the risk of in- and materials. Mysak Clinic spans a wide coordinator, because of “Nobody has ever shown fection. Moreover, eating is one of the few remaining pleasures Currently, Malandraki is working with doctors and therapists range of areas, of which her ability to introduce before that swallowing for the frail elderly, and Malandraki and other experts say that at Columbia Medical Center who treat patients with dysphagia swallowing – a func- scientific methods and many of those who lose the ability to eat lose their appetite and caused by head and neck cancer. Using fMRI technology, she tion that employs many swallowing research into of the same muscles as a mostly linguistically strengthening therapy can lead their will to go on living, as well. evaluates candidates for trans-oral robotic surgery, which can speech – is the newest oriented program. More than 35 muscle pairs are involved in swallow- remove the tumors without an incision to the neck or throat, and and smallest. At the same time, to neuroplasticity.” ing, including most of those involved in speech. Like all measures how the tumors have affected swallowing physiology The clinic provides di- however, Malandraki says agnostic and therapeutic she likes the interdisci- — Georgia Malandraki muscles above the neck, they are connected directly to the and brain function before and after surgery. Malandraki started brain stem by cranial nerves that bypass the spine. Un- the project in 2011 with Salvatore Caruana, Chief of Head and services for a sliding- plinary environment at scale fee for children and TC, especially within the til the 1970s, doctors believed that the swallowing reflex Neck Surgery at Columbia Medical Center, backed by a grant adults with disorders of Biobehavioral Sciences images (fMRIs) of the brains of dysphagia patients who is innate and governed largely by the autonomic nervous from TC’s Provost’s Investment Fund. The team, which includes language, articulation, Department, where An- participated in a postdoctoral research project she con- system. They believed that, although swallowing can be Robert De La Paz, Columbia’s Director of Neuroradiology, and voice and fluency, as well drew Gordon, Peter Gor- ducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under intentional, the throat muscles mostly work like the heart, TC alumnus Winston Cheng, Chief Speech Pathologist, is at- as the problems associ- don, Tara McIsaac, Carol the direction of swallowing researcher JoAnne Robbins. which beats continuously without conscious direction tempting to raise more money to establish a swallowing and ated with cleft palate, Ewing Garber and other cerebral palsy, hearing faculty work at the nexus Like Joseph Forrester, some of the patients in that project from the brain. It was thought that someone who had lost neuroimaging center at Columbia. loss, aphasia and other of the brain and body. performed regular tongue exercises over an eight-week the ability to swallow could never recover it. Meanwhile, Joseph Forrester has continued to come regu- handicaps. Malandraki also appre- period in order to restore tongue strength diminished by By the early 1980s, Martin larly to the clinic and to do his assigned tongue and neck Under the close ciates the opportunities stroke or other brain injury. W. Donner at Johns Hop- t ion exercises at home. By early October, he had made further supervision of faculty to mine neurocognitive Initial images taken before the patients began their exercise kins and, later, Jerilynn A. progress in swallowing and tongue strength and had re- members, every student research being conducted in TC’s Speech-Language at TC, most notably by regimen showed large brain areas where there was little to no Logemann at Northwestern sumed eating many of his favorite foods. He had even gone, Pathology program, which the incoming Speech- neural activity. But images retaken halfway through the trial, University (who has been unescorted, to a friend’s house and eaten his beloved jerk earing Ass o c ia H earing includes those who par- Pathology program and again at the conclusion, showed increasingly large multi- Malandraki’s collaborator) chicken. The swallowing therapy at the Dysphagia Research ticipate in the new Dys- coordinator, Karen Froud, colored splotches, indicating more brain activity (see images on and other researchers began Clinic “has given him his independence back,” says his son, phagia Research Clinic, who runs the College’s pages 42 and 43). Malandraki says the results, which have been to understand swallowing L anguage/ Jason Forrester. does some clinical work Neurocognition of Lan- at Mysak with clients guage Lab. submitted for publication at the 2013 International Stroke as a more complex, coordi- LE W I S As of this writing, the elder Forrester was still using the referred by physicians or “This is a great place Conference, appear to offer the field’s first true confirmation nated activity performed by feeding tube in his stomach to ingest water, a challenging UXEM word of mouth. to be,” Malandraki says,

of what has long been suspected and hoped: Muscle exercises muscles in the mouth, throat VAN substance for patients with dysphagia, but there was hope The fields of both “because there are so

not only improve muscular function, but also can stimulate and esophagus that activates T HER that the tube could be taken out in a few months. “When my speech-language pa- many tools at your dis-

HEA thology and swallowing posal and so many great neuroplasticity – the actual rebuilding of injured areas of the different parts of the brain. Y father first had his stroke, the initial concern was the length an S p ee c h/ A meri c an s our c e: w ’ B research have become minds at work on related brain or the transfer of brain functions to healthy areas. Their research led to a new of time, efficacy and danger of infection using the feeding more scientifically-based, problems.” — PL “Nobody has ever shown before that swallowing strengthen- hypothesis: By exercising tube,” Jason Forrester says. “That’s not something we’re even OGRA P Hs georgia malandraki T ing therapy can lead to neuroplasticity,” Malandraki says. these swallowing muscles, kno you ‘did speaking about now.”

P HO TC

44 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 45 By Jonathan Sapers south sudan

democratic republic of the congo uganda kenya

IT TAKES A VILLAGE Verdeli recruited community members who were not psychology professionals.

rwanda y of of c our t e s y verdeli lena

46 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday Lettering and map by MarÍa Sanoja www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 47 assessment of mental-health needs by Johns Hopkins Universi- ian development agencies. ty showed that many adults were so paralyzed by yo’kwekyawa Following the success of IPT in southern and okwekubazida – self-hatred and self-pity – that they were Uganda, Verdeli and Clougherty were asked neglecting their families and cutting themselves off from by another NGO, War Child, to adapt IPT for community resources. children in internally displaced persons camps Verdeli, Director of TC’s Global Mental Health Lab, in northern Uganda. Many of the children thought these states of mind sounded strikingly like depres- had previously been abducted by rebels in the sion, but she worried about “medicalizing” extreme suffer- Lord’s Resistance Army, a militant cult accused ing. After all, who wouldn’t be depressed living under such of widespread human rights abuses. There were adverse conditions? Still, she was encouraged by a field re- important differences in these populations. For port from her colleague, Paul Bolton, a Johns Hopkins public example, unlike the adults in the south, many of health researcher, indicating that Ugandans themselves rec- the children had interpersonal deficits as a re- ognized they had a problem and were eagerly seeking help. sult of their traumatic developmental histories. With few doctors available and no funds to provide medica- “The kids had grown up without attachments, tion, Bolton had recruited Verdeli to collaborate in a clinical trial and sometimes with very limited language,” of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), a time-limited treatment Verdeli says. “Sometimes their objects of at- for depression, with standardized steps and inclusion criteria, tachment were the rebels themselves. The kids rriving in codeveloped by her mentor, Columbia University psychologist THE GOOD NEWS Even depression resulting from were very confused because some of the rebels and epidemiologist Myrna Weissman. Under an agreement physical disaster can be treated. were actually affectionate with them.” An IPT southern with the nongovernmental organization World Vision, Verdeli adaptation for these children was compared and a colleague, Kathleen Clougherty, would train African men- with an existing, play-therapy intervention and Uganda in tal health professionals employed by World Vision to lead group “They basically told us, ‘We don’t have that problem here, was shown to be more effective in improving depression. therapy sessions among the villagers. because we do everything in groups,’” Verdeli says. Verdeli has applied lessons learned from Uganda to her work 2002, Teachers College Yet, almost as soon as they stepped off the plane, Verdeli The trainees also provided valuable insights in conducting elsewhere. For example, in order to ensure sustainability, her psychologist Lena Verdeli and Clougherty learned from Bolton that World Vision had role-play exercises designed to help people explore accept- projects in Goa and Haiti are built around partnerships with decided it could not spare its personnel. Instead, Verdeli and able ways of becoming “unstuck” from oppressive situations. local health care centers, government agencies and universi- knew she had her work cut Clougherty would be working with the mental health work- Sometimes they described solutions that might have eluded ties. Meanwhile, she and others are building the case globally ers’ younger brothers and sisters – people who had no psy- or even alienated someone with Western values. for improving the treatment of depression in under-resourced out for her. The country had chological training at all. For example, when a woman in Uganda discovers she can- areas. That’s important, because as infectious diseases are in- “Kathy and I just looked at each other and said, ‘Now we not conceive, an acceptable option might be to ask a friend or creasingly brought under control, depression is emerging as the endured a brutal civil war are here, why not?’” Verdeli says. a relative to marry her husband and give one of the resulting condition with the greatest impact worldwide, as measured by and was still in the midst of a In the end, the raw recruits turned out to be a blessing in dis- children to her to parent as her own. Or, when a man with AIDS financial cost, death and other factors. The World Health Orga- guise. Since they came from the same communities as the study insists that his wife have unprotected sex with him, she might nization reports that 75 percent of the world’s neuropsychiatric devastating AIDS epidemic. participants, they gave valuable input about the local culture, ask an older member of her husband’s family to act as her ad- disorders occur in lower-income countries. where people seemed to view themselves primarily as commu- vocate, and thereby avoid the “International donors and agencies have known for a long Vast numbers of people in nity and family members rather than as individuals. ostracism that will follow from time that depression is incredibly disabling,” Verdeli says,

“There is an old African saying, ‘People are people within resisting and being sent back to did you know? but they’ve focused on poverty, disease and other conditions T H the northern regions were people,’” Verdeli says. “It means that people are defined by her parents’ home. that breed it. “Since our team and others showed through HEAL other people, by a mutual and endless reflection of them- A randomized, controlled Depression affects studies that distress can be significantly alleviated even in living in internally displaced 121 million selves in their community and group that constantly shapes trial of Verdeli’s IPT program people worldwide. the context of extreme poverty, international agencies have persons camps. A qualitative and reshapes individual identity.” in southern Uganda was con- started paying more attention.”

Tossing aside their training guides, ORLD W S OUR C E : W” ducted. Participants who re- Teachers College and Columbia are capitalizing on this mo-

Verdeli and Clougherty asked their train- KNO ceived the treatment reported mentum, collaborating with the New York State Psychiatric

ees open-ended questions in order to de- YOU an 80 percent reduction in Institute and Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health to T IVE 15% velop a culturally relevant context for un- prevalence of depression at of the population from create a Global Mental Health program that offers two different derstanding Uganda’s malaise. INI T IA the end of the trial. World Vi- high-income countries master’s degree programs – one based at Mailman that empha- For example, Verdeli says, IPT theory “ DID VERDELI ; sion hired the trainees, who and sizes epidemiology and policy, and one at TC that emphasizes ) S URVEY ) identifies four categories of depression LENA went on to treat – and train mental health assessment and treatment. OF MH (W

triggers: the death of a loved one; covert T H others to treat – some 6,000 “Global mental health is going to be a major source of in-

and overt disputes; life transitions such HEAL people. Ironically, World Vi- novation, because people in under-resourced areas have to as job loss or divorce; and interpersonal AL sion ultimately closed the pro- 11% think out of the box to deal with the shortages,” Verdeli says.

MEN T

deficits such as longstanding difficulties in OUR T E S Y C RIGH T: O P gram precisely because it was from low/middle-income For example, in Haiti, community health workers do regular initiating and maintaining relationships. T so successful (passing it on countries are likely to checkups with people afflicted with a number of health con- W ORLD get depression over their

However, during the discussions the train- T ION to volunteers) and turned its ditions – an approach Verdeli would love to see adopted in T AND LEF T lifetimes.

ees gave them examples that fit into the OM attention elsewhere – a com- the United States: “Let’s not forget we have a lot of under- Lena Verdeli TT ORGANI Z A first three categories but not the fourth. B O mon occurrence in humanitar- resourced communities in our own backyard.” TC

48 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 49 As Nurses go, So Goes Health care

Current TC faculty and legendary alumnae weigh in on why nursing education is more important than ever

By David McKay Wilson

“If you want to improve the health care system, nurses have to be at the table,” says Margaret McClure (M.A. ’65, Ed.D. ’72), Professor and retired Chief Nursing Officer at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. “But those nurses need to be educated.” Claire Fagin (M.A. ’51), former Dean of the University of Penn- sylvania’s College of Nursing (and subsequently Interim President of Penn itself), calls nursing “the application of science in an artistic way” that requires its practitioners to be “very knowledgeable— about science, about humanity, about patient care.” The vision of nurses as professionals who, like physicians, teach- ers and others in highly technical fields, must pursue lifelong learn- ing, was born at Teachers College. Since Mary Adelaide Nutting launched the nation’s first nursing education program more than a century ago, the College has produced thousands of nurse educa- tors. TC now serves the field through its Diabetes Education and Management and nurse executive programs. “Today, we approach the education of nurses across the breadth

of TC’s programs,” says Kathleen O’Connell, TC’s Isabel Maitland o c k Stewart Professor of Nursing Education, and founding Director of the Diabetes Education and Management program, which was s hu tt er st

50 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 51 launched with a gift from TC Trustee Marla Schaefer (M.A. uate baccalaureate program to equip nurses as “primary prac- seeking a four-year degree. She says nursing faculty ’03). “Diabetes is a classic example of an area where the nursing titioners” who conducted initial patient workups. Fagin later positions have become increasingly difficult to fill. “Nurses need more field is making a huge impact, because diabetes is a disorder was a pioneer in shaping gerontological care and in “retirement” Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, knowledge to give more care in where most of the management occurs in the patients’ homes. has helped create scholarships for nurse educators to conduct Joel is devising new ways to attract nurses with ad- Education by diabetes educators is critical for success.” research. She believes the profession needs more people with vanced degrees to the professoriate. a complex world.”— Margaret McClure Elaine La Monica Rigolosi, Professor of Education and Di- doctorates who can build the discipline and research national “The salary scale in academia is much below the scale rector of the College’s Executive Program in Nursing, sees policy issues – skills TC helped her to acquire. in the practice arena,” says Joel, recipient of TC’s Distin- nurses as “leaders who are shaping health care” through their “It was an atmosphere of intellectualism that I had never ex- guished Alumni Award in 2012, “so it’s a big challenge to get On the other end of the life spectrum, Ruth Lubic, (B.S. ’59, management and coordination of patient care and their grow- perienced before,” Fagin says. “I felt truly educated.” faculty to stay in academic practice.” M.A. ’61, Ed.D. ’79), has championed personalized care dur- ing executive function in many medical organizations. She McClure, who taught at TC from 1972 to 1981 and received Laura Jannone (Ed.D. ’06), recipient of the New Jersey ing labor and childbirth, particularly for women in low-income says that now more than ever, all of these functions require the the College’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999, has led in League 2010 Nurse Recognition Award, is Associate Profes- neighborhoods. Lubic – the first nurse to win a MacArthur kind of interdisciplinary preparation found at institutions such encouraging more nurses to obtain four-year bachelor’s degrees. sor in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Monmouth “genius” award – is a leader in creating opportunities for nurse- as Teachers College. “Our society is increasingly diverse, and She helped develop nurse-education standards for “magnet University, where she developed and directs a program to train midwives to deliver newborns in nurse-run settings. She found- nurses need to be able to respond as well as to use skills in lead- hospitals,” a designation increasingly sought by top institutions school nurses. Jannone says school nurses play an increasingly ed New York City’s Childbearing Center on East 92nd Street in ership, management, psychology and other fields. At TC, we’ve across the country. In recent years, McClure also has developed important role as schools mainstream children who depend 1975 and co-founded the National Association of Childbearing been pacesetters in the field.” seamless protocols for nursing students transferring from New on medical technologies, such as insulin pumps for diabetics, Centers. She also has helped establish 230 free-standing birth McClure and Fagin – both lionized as “Living Legends” by York City community colleges to four-year state institutions. She which require daily monitoring. centers across the country – work that earned her the Fore- the American Academy of Nursing – and several other promi- obtained funding for a pilot program at Queensborough Commu- More broadly, school nurses are typically the only on-site mother Award for Lifetime Achievements from the National nent TC alumnae have adapted and re-adapted nursing science nity College and Hunter College, which is now being replicated at health professionals serving thousands of students and faculty. Research Center for Women and Families. and practice to the challenges of new eras. Their work cuts Lehmann Community College and Bronx Community College. “Our role becomes like a community-health position,” says Her most recent project – the D.C. Developing Families Cen- Jannone, who has testified before ter, which she founded in 2000 in the nation’s capital – provides New Jersey officials to oppose efforts comprehensive care to low-income, predominantly African Educating the Field to eliminate nurses from schools. American patients. The family health and birth center, which is “You serve a high school with 1,500 run on a nurse-midwifery model, has delivered improved out- kids, and it becomes quite complex.” comes, with fewer pre-term births, low-birth-weight newborns Complexity also challenges nurs- and deliveries by cesarean section. es who practice in nursing homes, “When I was in nursing school in the 1950s, the treatment of where patients have physical, cogni- women giving birth was almost barbaric,” Lubic recalls. “They’d tive and functional disabilities. Ma- be put under general anesthesia and cuffed to the table. They thy Mezey (Ed.M. ’73, Ed.D. ’77), weren’t allowed to touch the baby. How could women mother Professor Emerita, Senior Research after such an experience?” Scientist and Associate Director of She’s now raising funds to implement the D.C. Develop- the Hartford Institute for Geriatric ing Families Center model across the country. “There are so claire fagin Laura Jannone lucille joel ruth lubic Margaret mcclure mathy mezey Nursing at NYU’s College of Nurs- many places that want to replicate what we’ve done,” she ing, recently developed placement says. “We need to carry it further, to make sure all families for nursing students in nursing have the best chance to raise healthy children who can suc- across hospitals, nursing homes, birthing centers, homes and “Nurses need more knowledge to give care in a more complex homes and is working on protocols to encourage more nurses ceed in their educational efforts.” TC

schools and has helped shaped the careers of nursing profes- world,” says McClure. “We’ve raised the ceiling – you can now oel; to specialize in geriatric care. j sionals in advanced practice and those of nurse practitioners, get a Ph.D. in nursing – but we haven’t raised the floor.” “Nursing homes are great places to learn how to interview

nurse midwives and nurse specialists. Indeed, while more than 300 universities offer programs that ure and interact with people,” says Mezey, co-editor of The Ency- t u All agree that today, when nurses constitute the largest occu- lead to a doctorate in nursing practice, tens of thousands of F clopedia of Elder Care. “The patients you see on Monday and did you know? esy of lucille lucille of esy pational sector in American health care and the defining chal- nurses continue to earn their R.N. credential from community t Tuesday will still be there when you come back a week later, so hy mezey hy

ursing’s ursing’s There were Their number is projected t lenge they face is the management of chronic disease, education colleges and a few remaining hospital-based diploma schools. N student nurses see that their actions are making a difference.” to rise to is especially important. Lucille Joel (Ed.D. ’70), Professor at Rutgers College of Nurs- Nursing, like other helping professions, including social 2,618,700 annone; cour annone; j esy of ma of esy

Fagin, at 17, attended an undergraduate nursing program at ing, says the push to boost the entry-level credential for nursing t work and medicine, suffers from a dearth of professionals who nurses in the 3,200,000 ampaign for for ampaign Wagner College after being advised that colleges, rather than has had ramifications for the latter group. C choose to specialize in the care of the elderly, Mezey says. She United States in by cour hospitals, represented the future of the profession. At Lehman “It’s a shabby market for those nurses without a B.S.,” says has worked with the American Association of Colleges of Nurs- esy of laura laura of esy College, she subsequently founded the nation’s first undergrad- Joel, a past President of the American Nurses Association who t ing both to develop curriculum materials for geriatric studies mcclure; t 2008 2018 is active in TC’s Nursing Education cour and to encourage nursing schools to require courses in geriat- os; Alumni Association. “Hospitals have t ric nursing. On the graduate level, Mezey has worked with the “Diabetes is a classic example of where come to expect it.” AACN to develop web-based resources and cases studies to file pho file esy of margare of esy c t t

Joel, whose textbooks, Kelly’s Di- help faculty introduce mandated changes that will require nurs- : nursing is making a huge impact, t mensions of Nursing and Advanced cour ing schools to merge their adult and gerontological programs righ os; o t t

Nursing Practice Nursing, are widely into combined advanced practice programs. because most of the management occurs t constituting the largest segment of the health used on the collegiate level, teaches “This should markedly increase the numbers of advanced care industry. file pho file ‘did you know’ source: Johnson & Johnson, The The Johnson, & Johnson source: know’ you ‘did — Kathleen O’Connell an online course at Rutgers for R.N.s c practice nurses who can care for older adults,” she says. in patients’ homes.” lef from t

52 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 53

E. John Rosenwald Jr. ack in 2009, E. John Rosenwald could build a new major called Save the World. Wouldn’t that Jr. brought a proposal for a new have been great?” is not only a master academic concentration to the Rosenwald shakes his head. “I’m a disciple of [legendary Not Very fundraiser, new president of Dartmouth Col- advertising guru] David Ogilvy, and one of his favorite say- but also a fount of lege, Jim Yong Kim. ings that I’ve adopted is, ‘You don’t sell the steak, you sell the “[Kim] was a biomedical re- sizzle.’ If I say ‘steak,’ you picture cold, red-and-white pieces wisdom and a force of searcher who spent his life sav- of meat at the butcher’s. But if I say ‘sizzling steak,’ your Tall, nature who can prod ing the world – working on mouth waters. And that’s really the major challenge in philan- drug-resistant tuberculosis, HIV/ thropy, because people are getting sick and tired of routine institutions to AIDS and river blindness,” says asks – a new tennis court or swimming pool, or to endow reinvent themselves Rosenwald, alumnus and Chair- money for financial aid. Those are all very good things, but But Bigger man Emeritus of Dartmouth’s Board of Trustees. “So my idea the trick is to come up with something really compelling and By Joe Levine was that we’d have a central building, with wings for the study different. How do I make potential donors’ mouths water?” Bof terrorism, the environment, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, develop- At 82, Rosenwald is an indefatigable five-foot-five dynamo ing seeds to grow food in areas without water, and so forth. We who puts in full days as Vice Chairman Emeritus of JPMor- Than Life gan Chase. He then heads off to the many business meetings, galas, dinners and other events that fill the calendar of a man whose valued advice, support and leadership have landed him on boards – and frequently at the head of capital cam- paigns – of an astonishing number of major organizations. These range from the Central Park Conservancy and the En- vironmental Defense Fund to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and NYU Langone Medical Center, to Teachers College. Rosenwald likes to joke that the grueling pace has worn him down. A slate in his office that is engraved with his say- ings proclaims, “When I started out in this business, I was six-foot-three with long blond hair.” Yet he seems clearly en- ergized by all of his nonprofit board work, which has prompt- ed fellow board members to regard him as a fount of wisdom, an impact player and a primal force of nature. “He’s not very tall, but he’s larger than life,” says Sue Ann Weinberg, a friend since the two were teenagers and his fel- low trustee on TC’s board, where Rosenwald, who joined in 2002, oversees the committee on development. “Having him on your team says to anyone who knows him that you’re go- did you know? ing to be successful. And a lot of people know him.” Rosenwald is widely recognized as a master fundraiser. In Fundraisers for schools, colleges and 2000, The New York Times reported that he had generated universities in the more than $2 billion for good causes, using the 10 principles United States he calls “Rosie’s Rules.” (A sampling: “Nobody is insulted by estimate that giving to being asked for too much.” Another: “The sale begins when education grew the customer says no.”) At the same time, Rosenwald also possesses a skill per- haps even more valued when money is tight and the com-

il for for c il Coun s our c e: w ’ 4.9% petition for philanthropic dollars is fierce: the ability to prod last academic year. institutions to think differently about what they do. “I’ve been with John on numerous occasions when he’s spoken They predict further to boards, and when they say, ‘Well, we need more money,’ he typ- t ion growth of ically asks them, ‘Why? What are you going to do with it? What’s the end route?’” says fellow TC board member Jim Benkard, who of E du c a of . ‘did you kno you ‘did L e w i s . U xem an is a senior partner at the law firm Davis, Polk & Wardwell. “He’s an investment banker, so he thinks in that linear way. And more her V t her 5.9% often than not, he ends up telling his board colleagues, ‘You’re y H ea y and Su pp or t and for the current academic year that not shooting high enough,’ because he believes that you should

h b ogra p h began July 1. always be in capital campaign mode. You never stop.” t selling the sizzle For Rosenwald, it’s about making donors’ mouths water. c emen t A dvan Pho Rosenwald himself puts the matter in starker terms. “I was

54 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 55 once quoted in a special issue of Forbes magazine, next to you’re forced to look back and say, ‘I must credit my college Disraeli, saying that the difference between the for-profit and in some part for my success.’ On top of that, I tell people, non-profit worlds is that in business, everything is dog-eat- ‘Even paying full tuition covered only a quarter of the cost dog, and in philanthropy, it’s just the opposite.” of your education. The rest comes from annual giving and He grins. “Change is constant, and you need to be flexible. the endowment, and goddammit, you have a responsibility The most dangerous words are ‘We’ve been doing business to take care of those who come after you.’” this way for many years, so there’s no need to change.’ That Rosenwald has been hugely successful in business. He mindset is cancer in both the nonprofit and business worlds, capped his 54 years at Bear, Sterns & Company by serving Alumni because sooner or later, economics are going to get you. Take as Co-president and Vice Chairman of the firm. Now Vice the automobile industry. Chairmen come and go, boards of Chairman Emeritus of JPMorgan, he always has made phi- directors come and go, but the United Auto Workers – the lanthropy an equal priority. news tenured faculty of General Motors – is always there. Man- “So many of my colleagues say, ‘I don’t mind giving money, agement and unions sometimes don’t get along very well, but don’t ask me to ask someone else to give,’” he says. “I’m good but every three years they have had to sit down in a room at that, and I started early. Hey, someone has to do this stuff.” together and draw up a new contract. Sometimes there was He served as class agent for his Dartmouth cohort and a strike, sometimes not, but eventually a deal was cut, and headed the alumni fund, a number of capital campaigns and immediately thereafter the board of directors – let’s call them then the Board of Trustees. He joined the board of NYU the board of trustees – got together and raised the tuition, Medical Center at the invitation of billionaire philanthropist or in this case the price of cars, to cover the cost of the new Laurence Tisch. From there, the demand for his services contract. And that was the way business was done until the grew, and his dance card became so full that when Teachers late ’80s, when an alarm went off: ‘Hey, imports have taken College first came asking, he said no. 55 percent of the American auto market.’” “One of my closest friends is [former New York State Sen- Rosenwald sees an analogous trend in American higher ator] Roy Goodman, whose wife, Barbara, was then Chair of education, where the Ivy League institutions keep raising the board of TC. She invited me to lunch and breakfast with their tuition year after year. [then-TC President] Arthur Levine, I don’t know how many “For years the Ivies have said, ‘Hey, we get 10 applicants times. I kept saying, ‘I have too many things on my plate.’ for every available opening, our kids get into the best gradu- “Finally one day, I said to Arthur, ‘I’m angry at the state- ate schools – we’ve been doing business this way for many ment you keep making that no major urban public school system in the U.S. has ever been fixed.’ And I promised him that “Philanthropy is with the first board I retired from, I’d join TC’s.” the rent we pay for the space Indeed, Rosenwald believes that the College’s ability to lead the way in we occupy.”— E. John Rosenwald Jr. fixing urban schools is the “sizzle” that will make it an inevitable choice for philanthropists who care about the years and there’s no need to change,’” he says. “But they can’t nation’s future. He served on the search committee that chose keep doing that, because there’s new competition out there. Levine’s successor, Susan Fuhrman, and is a huge admirer of When you read about Nobels being given out, the Univer- Fuhrman for her work in launching a public elementary school sity of Texas and the University of Washington are right up under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania when she there with Harvard, Yale and Princeton. And there’s distance was dean of Penn’s Graduate School of Education. Recently, he learning, too. So, standing still just doesn’t work.” gave $1 million in support of the new Teachers College Com- Rosenwald himself was educated at elite private institu- munity School created under Fuhrman’s leadership. In doing so, At GRADUATION ONCE MORE Members of the Alumni Council, from left: Marion Boultbee Ed.D. ’96, Fred Brodzinski Ed.D. ’91, Tara Niraula Ed.D. ’02, Adam Vane M.A. ’01, Peter Moock Ph.D. ’73, David Hoff M.Ed. ’73, Kathy Morin Ed.D. ’85, tions – Deerfield Academy, Dartmouth, and then Dartmouth’s he was enacting the first and most important of Rosie’s Rules Patrick McGuire Ed.D. ’94, Diane Sunshine M.A. ’66 Amos Tuck School of Business. His passion for philanthropy – “Don’t ask anyone to do anything you haven’t done yourself.” stems first and foremost from a clear-eyed recognition of just Yet Rosenwald was clearly engaged on a broader level, as well. how much these educational institutions have contributed to “Giving our students real experience, on the ground, where they his own success. can learn the goods, the bads and the uglies of teaching, is so “My father never had a lot of money – it was a struggle for important,” he says. “When I visited there, I saw a teacher ask Your Alumni Council Wants You! him to get us through school and college – but both my par- a six-year-old, ‘How much is eight plus seven?’ And when the merha b . ents were involved in charity work,” he says. “I saw the joy my kid said ‘fifteen,’ the teacher, instead of just congratulating him, (Re)Connect Alumni to Teachers College. Nominate yourself or a mom got from serving on the board of Mount Sinai, or that said, ‘How do you know?’ And he said, ‘Well, I know that eight fellow alum who is passionate about TC and would like to serve y alejandra t alejandra y my dad got at the 92nd Street Y. So my philosophy – philan- plus eight equals sixteen, so eight plus seven is one less.’ So the a three-year term as a volunteer on the Alumni Council to shape thropy is the rent we pay for the space we occupy – comes whole business of learning how kids learn, in addition to how to h b ogra p h from them. But if you attend an institution like Dartmouth, teach, is very exciting.” t future alumni programming. www.tc.edu/alumni/GetInvolved

TC p ho

56 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 57 teachers college alumni news ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE alumni association

The Teachers College Alumni Association is led by the Alumni Dear Fellow Alumni, Council, which consists of 35 members who represent all 90,000 At TC, fall is all about new beginnings. A new academic year brings new students, new graduates. The Council partners with classes and a fresh slate of plans for the year the Department of Development Distinguished ahead. This year your Alumni Association’s and External Affairs to advance the Council is gearing up to celebrate 125 years goals of the College by providing Alumni & of Teachers College and hoping this milestone alumni with opportunities to remain will further connect you to the TC community. Early Career We hope you reflect upon your time at TC with involved in the life of the College nostalgia and that you will share your fondest through social activities, volunteer Awards memories with us. Join us at one of the many efforts and financial support. events scheduled for the coming months to TC alumni have a long-standing

continue the learning process you began as a TC student and to ex- history of making their mark pand your network of like-minded peers. on the world. Do you know a EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE graduate who has made an I also invite you to join us in shaping the programming for this mile- impact in his or her community president stone year and future years. You can participate by applying to join the and is worthy of this distinction? Alumni Council or by volunteering to serve as an Affiliate Member. If Adam Vane Awards are presented annually you are interested in learning more about either of these roles, visit at Academic Festival by the www.tc.edu/alumni or contact the Office of Alumni Relations at president-elect Alumni Association. For more [email protected] or 212-678-3215. Patrick McGuire 2012 AWARD WINNERS Shown with TC President Susan Fuhrman (second from right) are, information or to nominate from left: Lucille Joel (Ed.D. ’70), Professor, Rutgers College of Nursing; Betty Perez-Rivera Stay tuned as we roll out an exciting lineup of events that will ex- someone today for the 2014 (Ed.D. ’03), Director of the East Harlem Asthma Center of Excellence; John King Distinguished Alumni and Early tend across the country. Academic Festival 2013 – on April 13 – will (Ed.D. ’08), New York State Commissioner of Education; the internationally recognized of course be the marquee celebration for alumni and the greater TC STANDING COMMITTEE consultant Robert Schaffer (Ed.D. ’52); Harold Noah (Ph.D. ’64), TC Professor Emeritus and Career Awards, visit community. So mark your calendars to be back on campus for Festival, CO-CHAIRS former Dean; and Kevin Jennings (M.A. ’94), CEO of the non-profit Be the Change. www.tc.edu/alumni/ when the Alumni Association will also honor our Distinguished Alumni DAANominationForm as part of the festivities. You can find more information about how to nominate someone for 2014 on page 59. awards & recognition committee We will be asking you – the Alumni Association – to play a large role in Diana Newman the coming year’s events because, after all, you are such a large part of Mitchell Thompson Events what makes Teachers College great. We hope that throughout 2013, you will connect virtually by sharing your stories and memories from international outreach committee TC either online or via social media. We also hope to launch a yearlong service project, for which we will track all of your volunteer efforts on Marion Boultbee, Fred Brodzinski the alumni website to showcase TC’s impact in communities across A Technology the globe. nominating committee Show-And-Tell Susan Diamond, Patrick McGuire Please send any suggestions you have to Rosella Garcia, Director of Current TC student Michael Ticknor (right) Alumni Relations, at [email protected]. and adjunct faculty member Nabeel programs & resources committee Ahmad (Ed.D. ’09) demonstrated IBM’s Thanks for all of your contributions. I look forward to connecting with Peter Dillon, Jeffrey Putman learning analytics system at an event held you at one of our events this year. this past July at the company’s offices in midtown Manhattan. Sincerely, members-at-large Maritza Macdonald, A Screening for Maryalice Mazzara, Tara Niraula “The 99” historian Cosponsored by TC’s Maxine Greene Adam Vane, James J. Shields Society and the Office of Alumni Relations, President, Teachers College Alumni Association Isaac Solotaroff screened his documentary

oyo furlong; furlong; p oyo annemarie : Wham! Bam! Islam!, in California in Meet the full Alumni Council September. The film is about the making of lef t c ia gar ro s ella LE W I S; www.tc.edu/alumni/councilmembers o p the comic book series “The 99,” created by TC alumnus Naif Al-Mutawa (who was UXEM also on hand). Below: Solotaroff with VAN Elizabeth Pouso-Jorgenson (M.A. ’98) T HER y adam vane adam c our t e s y t from c k w i s e c lo HEA

58 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 59 class notes

ARTS AND their son, Etienne, on May writing a series of elemen- tion in July 2012 at Barry HUMANITIES 4, 2012. He weighed 7 lbs. tary school textbooks for University in Miami Shores, 14 oz. and was 20.5 inches Behrman House Publishers. FL. Alschuler has ac- SAVE THE DATE: applied linguistics long. The Estradas are cur- The books are Our Commu- cepted a position at Virginia Mirta Martes-Rivera rently living in Columbia, nity http://www.behrman- Intermont College as BSW (M.A. ’87) teaches as a MD. house.com/sample-pages/ Program Coordinator seasonal instructor at building-jewish-identity-1 & Assistant Professor of APRIL 13 the University of Puerto tesol and Sacred Time http://www. Social Work. Rico-Rio Piedras campus. Diana Berkowitz (M.A. behrmanhouse.com/sample- Celebrating a Tradition After her time at TC, she ’76, M.E. ’80, M. Phil. ’86, pages/building-jewish- Ara Brown (M.E. ’02, Visit www.tc.edu/festival attended the Harvard Ph.D. ‘86) has been Direc- identity-2. M.A. ’03) recently earned for Tomorrow for more information about the Graduate School of Educa- tor of the CUNY Language his Doctorate of Education speakers and sessions tion, where she took a Immersion Program at in Education Leadership course with Noam Chom- Queensborough Commu- BEHAVIORAL from the University of Penn- Our fifth annual signature homecoming event will Stay tuned for the sky. She has taught in both nity College (CUNY) since SCIENCES sylvania. anchor the 125th anniversary celebration on campus. announcement of this year’s the higher education sys- 1999. She was recently Academic Festival will explore the many trailblazing Keynote Speaker! tem and the public schools named Director of the new neuroscience & Alan Gurman (M.A. “firsts” that constitute the College’s legacy and continue in several states. She also CUNY Start Program at education ’70, Ph.D. ’71) retired as to shape its future. writes for Puerto Rico’s the College. Diana also Evelyn Arana (M.S. ’09) Emeritus Professor from leading newspapers. oversees the coordination began a Ph.D. program in the Department of Psychia- The day will include: of the college’s ESL and Public Health at Drexel try, University of Wiscon- art and art education GED programs for Con- University in September sin Medical School. He is • Breakout Sessions Betty Kipniss MacDon- tinuing Education. 2012. now Clinical Professor of featuring alumni, students ald (M.A. ’60) writes art Psychology in the Clini- and faculty who represent reviews for The Journal of the Kent Doehr McLeod physiology cal Psychology Doctoral all 10 of the College’s Print World about exhibits at (M.A. ’00) began the next Robert Cavalier (Ph.D. Program at the university academic departments the National Gallery of Art, phase in his ESL/EFL ca- ’61) has constructed a new and Clinical Professor of • Distinguished Alumni and the National Portrait Gallery reer at EARTH University evidenced-based method Psychology/Teaching Fac- Early Career Awards and other major venues in in Costa Rica in July 2012. for faculty development and ulty at The Family Institute the Washington, D.C. area. evaluation. This innova- at Northwestern Univer- • Fun for learners of all ages She is also a printmaker who Robert Fredericks (M.A. tive system supports local sity in Evanston, IL. This creates etchings, monotypes, ’89) has lived and worked faculty culture in allowing coming academic year, he and watercolors. Her work in Oaxaca de Juarez, instructors to test their as- will also serve as a Visit- is included in collections Mexico for the past 20 sumptions about teaching ing Professor of Psychiatry around the world. years. He provides transla- and write their own survey at the Harvard Medical tions for the publication items for student feedback. School/Cambridge Health Richard Risio (M.A. ’99) is Horizontes. His article For more information, Alliance. CALLING ALL ALUMNI teaching Art, LGBT Studies Ciudades Inteligentes y visit www.instructorperfor- and Urban Agriculture at el Destino Humano was mance.com. guidance City-As-School High School featured in the most recent Robert Harcourt (M.A. Connect to TC Alumni in New York City’s West issue of Boletin Horizontes ’61) has been at the Insti- www.tc.edu/alumni/connect Village. (http://horizontes18.com/ COUNSELING & tute of American Indian boletin/boletin-horizontes- CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY Arts (IAIA) for 47 years. teaching of english numero-8/). The Institute celebrated its Update your information and share your story. Karen (Booker) Estrada counseling psychology 50th Anniversary over the o s www.tc.edu/alumni/update t (M.A. ’08) and her hus- social studies Mari Alschuler (M.A. ’87, summer. Harcourt serves band, Erick, are delighted education M.E. ’88) completed a Ph.D. on the IAIA Foundation file p ho file

tc to announce the birth of Judy Dick (M.E. ’09) is in Leadership & Educa- Board of Directors.

60 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 61 class notes

Education Worldwide. School. He spends much of York City’s Chinatown and to attended at the same time authored Unveiling Secrets CURRICULUM & She serves as a consultant his time in Montreal, where overseas students via Skype. she was studying at TC. of War in the Peruvian Andes TEACHING with Credo Higher Educa- his family is located, but (University of Chicago tion, Ann Duffield and also works with families special education Press, 2011). early childhood Colleagues, and the Amer- around the globe. He writes: Joan (Mulcahy) Thom- Human education ican Bilingual Preschools “It’s a very exciting time!” spon (M.A. ’59) mar- Development Lorna Edmundson in Nanjing, China. At the ried Colonel John Carl Mathematics, (M.E. ’71, Ed.D. ’75) is United Nations, Edmund- Margaret Terry Orr (M.A. Thompson on Valentine’s developmental Science and drawing on her 40 years of son represents the Geor- ’77, M.E. ’77, M.Phil. ’79, Day 2011. She served the psychology Technology experience in leadership gian Women’s Business Ph.D. ’79) co-authored United States in Japan Jacqueline Esmez (M.A. roles at six colleges and Association. She remains Preparing Principals for a and Germany, setting up ’90) is in the process of writ- computing in universities in her new active in the International Changing World: Lessons special education and ing a children’s book. education work as a consultant, as- Women’s Forum and Delta From Effective School Leader- speech therapy classes for Mary Larkin (M.A. ’84) has sisting college presidents Kappa Gamma Society ship Programs. the dependent children of Richard DiCecio (M.E. ’80, been awarded the Southern in solving strategic prob- International. She writes: the military. She also es- M.A. ’66) is Treasurer and Indiana Review’s Mary C. lems and internationaliz- “Teachers College gave me tablished hearing testing at Past President of the Co- Mohr Editor’s Prize for Fic- ing campuses. Edmundson a great education.” Health and base hospitals. While over- lumbia University-Teachers tion. Larkin has been nomi- recently returned from Behavior Studies seas, Thompson hosted her College chapter of Phi Delta nated for the Pushcart Prize Hong Kong and Nanjing, educational own radio and TV shows Kappa. and the AWP Intro Journals China, where she made administration applied educational and acted in and directed Award. She is the recipient of presentations on campus Edward de Villafranca psychology plays. She has written the Edith S. Marks (M.A. ’70) Hollins University’s Andrew internationalization at (M.A. ’03) has started his Caroline A. Carroll (M.A. story of her training days entered the Board of Educa- James Purdy Award for two universities and at the own business after more ’73) teaches English privately at the Lexington School tion as a teacher and retired outstanding fiction and is a conference of Women’s than 17 years at the Peddie to Chinese children in New for the Deaf, which she 17 years later, having risen Fellow of the Virginia Center to the position of Supervisor for the Creative Arts. of Trainers in Special Edu- Need we say more? cation. Upon retiring, she science education wrote Coping with Glaucoma Ngozi N. Osuagwu (Ed.D. Supporting our students and providing and two years later followed ’87) just concluded a Presi- financial aid is Teachers College’s highest with Glaucoma: Patient to Pa- dential Visitation Panel on funding priority. At a time of rising tient. Marks is known world- Repositioning Colleges of academic costs, decreasing access to student “ I am so proud to be able to support the legacy of wide as a patient-expert on Education in Nigeria (with glaucoma, having appeared a view to improve cur- loans and a heightened need for exceptional the Genishi Family Scholarship Fund because I educators in our communities, scholarship relied on scholarships from my college days onward. on radio and television. She riculum and instruction). She also writes fiction, including would like to collaborate on support is essential. I know how important such support is. My estate the novel Ground Cover. She improving teacher skills “to plans include a gift to the Family Fund.” has served on the Board of cope with the 21st Century With your help, the very best the West Side Community learner.” students can continue to attend — Prof. Celia Genishi, Curriculum & Teaching Garden in Manhattan. At Genishi Family Scholarship Fund and Teachers College and make a Grace Dodge Society member since 2001 88, Marks is still active and serving as Co-chair of the Organization and positive difference in the world. Glaucoma Support and Leadership Education Group. Make your gift to the TC Fund today. adult education guided intensive study Please make a secure donation online at International & Douglas Scherer (Ed.D. www.tc.edu/donate or contact Colleen Tabor, For more information on gift annuities, Associate Director of the TC Fund, at bequests or other planned gifts, Transcultural ’10) has written Using Reflec- please contact: Studies tive Learning in Information 212-876-4067. Louis Lo Ré Technology Crisis Resolution, Director of Planned Giving anthropology a chapter that will appear in 212-678-3037 or email: [email protected] Olga González (M.A. Contemporary Perspectives on ’96, M.Phil. ’96, Ph.D. ’06) Technological Innovation, Man-

62 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 63 class notes in memoriam agement and Policy, Volume 2. Core: Accelerating Achieve- The work echoes his latest ment (Heinemann 2012) research interest in mindful- (http://www.amazon.com/ ness and reflective learning in Pathways-Common-Core- real-time crisis management. Accelerating-Achievement/ He presented his dissertation- dp/0325043558/ref=sr). based paper, Doing the Right Thing: Executive Mentors and higher and Caring Leader Development, postsecondary at the 2010 Academy of education Management annual meeting. Huda Bibi (Ed.D. ’90) es- Ernst Z. Shirley S. Carroll F. Irvin Jane Seymour Ulysses In 2011, he launched the tablished a non-profit, non- Rothkopf Passow Johnson Faust Franck Rigrodsky Byas voicesofthecliff.com podcast, governmental organization an ongoing series of inter- whose mission is to develop Ernst Z. Rothkopf, Shirley S. Passow, TC alumnus and TC alumnus Irvin Jane Franck, director Professor Emeritus Ulysses Byas (M.A. views about the leadership the abilities of children and Cleveland E. Dodge wife of the late TC former faculty Faust, a highly for 25 years of Seymour Rigrodsky, ’52), a nationally journey, with an emphasis on youth so they may succeed. Professor of Emeritus Professor member Carroll accomplished what was then TC’s who served as chair recognized authentic, sustainable, and For more information, visit Education Emeritus, A. Harry Passow and F. Johnson, who novelist and short Milbank Memorial of TC’s Department champion for black socially conscious leadership. www.taaheel.net. died in July at age mother of two TC presided over the story writer who Library, died in May of Speech schools, passed 87. Rothkopf, who graduates, died in integration of the also served as an at age 91. Franck Pathology, Language away in early August Scherer is in the process of had fled Nazi- May. Shirley Passow White Plains, New influential college significantly added and Audiology, at age 88. Byas finding a broader venue to (M.A. Anne Pruitt-Logan occupied Austria briefly taught York, school district guidance counselor to the library’s passed away earlier twice dropped out distribute and share these ’50, Ed.D. ’64) has pub- as a boy, worked at English in Erie – the first U.S. in Long Island’s depth and influence, this year. He was of high school interviews. Meanwhile, he is lished, Faithful to the Task at the U.S. Air Force County, New York, school system to schools, passed purchasing 82. Rigrodsky, in Georgia but completing his eighth year as Hand: The Life of Lucy Diggs Personnel and and subsequently voluntarily institute a away in July at the resources for who received his eventually earned a a Vice President at Citigroup, Slowe (State University of Training Research became an racial desegregation age of 88. Among the library’s art bachelor’s and master’s degree at where he leads a technology New York Press, 2012). Center, where urban planner and plan – died in Faust’s best-known collection and master’s degrees TC and a doctorate team for a global clientele. he helped invent then an attorney October at age 99. works are his establishing its from Brooklyn from the University Scherer welcomes discus- inquiry in education teaching machines who rose to become Johnson, who 1965 short story Special Collections College and of Massachusetts– sion on all of these topics at administrative and programmed Deputy Attorney attended a one- collection, Roar Lion Department. his Ph.D. from Amherst. In 1957, [email protected]. practice instruction. He General of New room school in Roar (which drew its Franck presided Purdue University, as principal of an Roger Wayne Keller subsequently Jersey. Passow, who Georgia, was a title from Columbia over the installation was steadfastly all-black school in education leadership (Ed.D. ’07) was featured in headed the Learning with her husband nationally revered University’s fight of the library’s first committed Gainseville, Georgia, Christopher Lehman the October 2012 issue of and Instructional was dedicated to figure whose 1964 song), and the computers in 1985, to helping he convinced the (M.E. ’07) co-authored Architect magazine under Research improving race integration plan novels The Steagle led the first inventory developmentally white public that Pathways to the Common the AIA Voices section. Department at relations, generously served as a model (1966), Willy of the library’s entire disabled children black schools

; ; Bell Labs, studying supported TC’s for desegregation Remembers (1971) collection, and and adults. He needed more

au st “mathagenic” Annual Fund and efforts nationwide. and John Dandy forged a partnership served as a funding and better

on activities that a scholarship As an adviser to (1994). Faust that established consultant to several resources. Later, as t a promoted students’ established in her school districts loved working with seven Internet institutions and superintendent in ability to process husband’s honor. across the country, students and said information centers veterans hospitals Macon, Georgia, he a st eri c a y instructive stimuli. With her son, Johnson devised that the experience in Kosovo. in New York City. was among the first ean F J ean of c our t e s y o s ;

t At TC, Rothkopf alumnus Michael a process that had a great impact In 1994, Franck Prior to joining TC’s African-Americans h b ogra p h t explored the ways Passow, she was ensured community on his writing. He established the faculty, he taught to head a racially

file p ho file that people learn also a member of members a voice earned two master’s Julie Louise Franck at the Vineland mixed district. He from written text the College’s Grace in superintendent degrees and a Fellowship, an Training School in later served as ; tc o s ; t and championed the Dodge Society. hiring decisions. doctorate from TC. endowed fellowship New Jersey and superintendent Tight-knit in Tokyo TC alumni gathered in Tokyo in idea of a national During the 1960s in special education the University of of schools in

October to meet Thomas James, Provost and Dean of the College. p ho file Alumni Relations is partnering with James to launch a Provost on the programming and ’70s, he also named for her Connecticut at Roosevelt, New York, ; tc o s ;

Road Series this year. Alumni pictured here prove the bonds to t language, with a spoke widely on how daughter, a TC Storrs. where a school was TC and each other are quite strong – even from half a world away. uniform interface to handle student alumna who had named for him. (Left to Right) Stacey Vye (M.A. ’02), Arthur Nguyen (M.A. ’11), file p ho file for different data, unrest, particularly passed away the year ky family; Pho family; rigrod s ky of c our t e s y o s ;

t — Rebecca Chad and Jennie Roloff Rothman (M.A. ’10), Mayu Kate (M.A. ’12), tc : for teachers of core in response to racial before at age 37. Eddie Sanchez (M.A. ’12), Linamaria Arroyave Valdivia (M.A. ’12), Heather Smitelli subjects. issues.

Robert Morel (M.A. ’12) and Jennifer Toyoshima (M.A. ’11). p ho file lejandra T. M erhe b T. A lejandra tc from lef t from

64 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 65 alumni focus alumni focus Putting Her Best A Very Patient Advocate Foot Forward

By the time her fifth child, lead to the passage of the Edu- Last year, moments performance. Yet these Joseph, was born in 1963, Ruth cation for All Handicapped Chil- before the first big show of trials only fanned the Christ Sullivan (M.A. ’53) was dren Act (Public Law 94-142) in their recent monthlong tour group’s creative spark. an experienced public health 1975, but children with autism of Central Asia, the dancers In Kyrgyzstan, for in- nurse who’d run children’s health were not protected under the of New York’s Seán Curran stance, the company met workshops in rural Louisiana. Act. Sullivan continued to lobby, Company received an omi- a local troupe who gave She knew what kids were like organizing parents to go to D.C. nous warning. them a stirring perfor- – enough to know that Joseph “We had a breakfast one time “We were told that the mance, accompanied by was different. where we invited all the legisla- future of modern perform- traditional instruments, An extremely agile and bright tors on important committees,” ing arts in Turkmenistan that moved them to tears child, he began rocking at 18 she recalls, “and we made sure was on our shoulders,” – and to start planning a months old. He also stopped to seat them all next to kids says Elizabeth Coker Girón future collaboration be- talking, screamed all night long and their mothers, so they could (M.A. ’10), the company’s tween the two groups. and avoided eye contact. “I had see what autism was.” Finally, associate artistic director “This kind of tour is seen just about any disability you in 1991, the Individuals with and a current TC doctoral what makes us work,” can think of,” Sullivan explains. Disabilities Education Act was student in Motor Learning Girón says. She cites the “What I was seeing didn’t fit with passed, specifically guaranteeing and Control. great German choreog- anything I had ever seen or heard children with autism the right to The caution, from U.S. rapher Pina Bausch, who of.” When none of the doctors an education. embassy staff hosting the would sketch new pieces in her area could enlighten her, Still, it wasn’t until the movie company in Ashgabat, sparked by locations where Sullivan took her son to a monthly Rain Man came out in 1988, star- Turkmenistan’s capital, was her company toured. “It’s clinic held by an out-of-town psy- ring Dustin Hoffman, that autism no exaggeration. the most inspiring experi- chiatrist who was up on current really penetrated the national In 2001, the country’s ence.” research. He spoke the words that consciousness. Hoffman inter- eccentric dictator, Sapar- At TC, Girón’s doctoral changed her life: viewed Ruth and Joseph Sullivan murat Niyazov, had banned encore! Seán Curran takes his bows in Turkmenistan, research in motor learn- “Your child is autistic.” Raising a child with autism as he prepared for his role as an ballet, opera and other acknowledging Girón (in green). ing concerns another way The term “parent activist” adult with the disorder. Sullivan, arts deemed inconsis- in which the imagination didn’t yet exist, but Sullivan was hard, but getting ever alert to opportunity, sug- tent with national values. shapes movement and quickly became one. As she met gested that the movie open in Though Niyazov died in dance – this time at the with psychiatrists and read the the nation to understand the Huntington, and Hoffman agreed. 2006, there had not been As both a dancer and microscopic level of motor literature, she discovered that disorder really required Huntington’s Autism Services a single modern dance a scientist, neurons. medical wisdom blamed autism Center, which Sullivan founded, performance in the country Working with Assistant on “refrigerator” mothers who used proceeds from the opening prior to the Seán Curran Professor of Movement did not love their children. Infu- Ruth Christ Sullivan to purchase the first of 13 group Company’s State Depart- Elizabeth Coker Girón Sciences and Learning riated, she reached out to other to take the long view homes for autistic adults. ment–sponsored tour. explores the ties between imagination Tara McIsaac, Girón stud- parents of autistic children, in Joseph Sullivan now lives in Raising the stakes ies motor imagery – the 1965 cofounding the Autism one of those homes and holds a further, the current presi- and movement process through which hu- Society of America (now known By Emily Rosenbaum part-time job. Ruth Sullivan, now dent would be watching mans visualize themselves as the National Society for Au- 88, retired five years ago after a the show via a live feed. By Siddhartha Mitter making a movement tistic Children/Autism Society of America). career that included founding several local and state chapters A massive portrait of him without actually making it. Her efforts were sorely needed. Children with autism gener- of the National Society for Autistic Children as well as the would hang behind the It’s an important subject ally were not welcome in the public schools, which balked at organization’s National Information and Referral Service. She dancers as they performed. in sports research, Girón the expense of providing one-on-one attention. “They stayed also led the creation of the National Association of Residen- “Of course, that wasn’t in our stage set!” says Girón. says, with relevance to dance as well. at home, and they were hidden,” Sullivan says. “Either they tial Providers for Adults With Autism and assisted in found- Yet despite the pressure and the odd setting, the perfor- “I’m interested in how motor imagery changes the way were in an institution, or the family took care of them – mean- ing the National Autism Society of Argentina. Somehow, she mance turned out a greater success than Girón had allowed people actually move,” she says. ing the women, of course, for the most part.” In fact, place- also found time to launch and direct the center in Huntington, herself to hope for. While many of her colleagues form their research questions ments were so scarce that when the Sullivans found a school providing three counties with an increasingly broad range of “After the show people were screaming and crying,” she says. by working with clinical populations, Girón says she finds her in Huntington, West Virginia, offering classes for kids with educational and support services. “They were asking for autographs. People were asking us to sign ideas in the studio, interviewing numerous dancers to better autism, they moved there from upstate New York. Two years ago, Sullivan received TC’s Distinguished their bodies!” understand how motor imagery feeds back into performance in Finding a program for her son only made Sullivan more Alumna Award – the latest in a series of well-deserved honors. The response, from a public starved for new performance, the dance setting. aware of the vast unmet need nationwide. “There was nothing She takes walks, goes to movies and tries to sleep late when- was testament to the power of dance to spark emotions. It “Dancers are so smart,” she says. “They have a very sys- in the law that said schools had to take kids with autism. I ever she isn’t fielding calls from worried parents or interested underscored the ties between movement and imagination – a tematic way of thinking. I think it comes from the way they are knew I had to start at the federal law level.” journalists. “There were a lot of hard times and very little relationship that Girón explores as both a dancer and a scientist. trained.” When Sullivan began lobbying with the Autism Society of sleep. I’ve been trying to make up for it,” she says. That, and s ullivan ri c hard y In Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the Seán For Girón, who once thought she’d become a physical America, the organization had so little money that she once straightening up around the house. “Most people my age have Curran Company faced an arduous travel schedule and poor therapist, the emerging field of dance science is allowing her h b ogra p h

camped out at the airport until she could hitch a ride on a already done their 25 years of cleaning closets, but I’m just t working conditions. Theaters were old, and some stages were to fulfill her dream: “I get to be an academic and still be in

private plane headed east to Washington. Her work helped getting to it.” TC Pho G irón Coker E li z a b e t h of c our t e s y even pocked with holes. One dancer broke his foot in the final the studio.” TC

66 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 67 alumni focus alumni focus

A Fencer with an Edge Running the Numbers

For many Olympic athletes, the young and less battle-tested than As a marathon enthusiast to health issues. Her adviser and toughest challenge is to avoid being many other teams, having won only – she’s completed six – Sonali mentor at TC, Charles Basch, intimidated by the competition. a couple of medals in international Rajan (Ed.D. ’10) can personally Richard March Hoe Professor of Maya Lawrence (M.A. ’05) competition during the run-up to attest that she focuses better at Health Education, has worked had to fight her impulse to go the Olympics. Lawrence – at 32, the work after a solid morning run. for years to coordinate efforts make friends. second-oldest member of the team But as a behavioral scientist with to improve students’ health as a “I found myself wanting to float – was a steadying influence. a particular interest in helping means of overcoming the minor- around and meet as many people “There are some athletes out at-risk youth, Rajan, a TC alumna ity achievement gap (see the from different countries as pos- there, in fencing specifically, who who recently returned to the Col- story on page 32). sible, but I had to remember to keep don’t handle the bad times as well lege as Assistant Professor in the “My research interests really my focus,” recalls Lawrence, who as she has,” says Michael Aufrich- Department of Health and Be- emerged in working with Chuck,” helped lead the U.S. women’s tig, the head men’s and women’s havior Sciences, is in constant says Rajan. “We have programs fencing team to a first-ever bronze fencing coach at Columbia and search of harder evidence con- that target so many issues in medal in London this past summer. Chairman of the New York Athletic necting the physiological and schools, but the question of how Education may partly explain that Club. “When something goes the behavioral. to do it feasibly, which is some- cosmopolitan outlook. Lawrence, wrong, she doesn’t complain, and “I like statistics,” says Rajan, thing he has focused on, is just who fences épée, grew up in she doesn’t find excuses. She just who uses numbers to help deter- as important as the programs ethnically diverse Teaneck, New tackles it.” mine which kinds of health and themselves.” Jersey, the daughter of a father As it turned out, Lawrence behavioral interventions are most Following her student days at who was a sports referee and needed to summon all her internal likely to succeed. “We have many TC, Rajan completed a postdoc- a mother who was an art teach- resources. During the individual school-based programs and toral fellowship at the National er (and also a TC alumna). After competition, she drew a first- services – very good programs Development and Research majoring in political science round bye and won her first match and services – that only target, Institutes. There she began at Princeton and receiving her in the second round against Mara for example, drug prevention. working with Noelle Leonard, a master’s degree in TESOL (the Navarria of Italy, but then lost to There’s nothing wrong with senior research scientist at the teaching of English to speakers Her familiarity another Italian, Rossella Fiamingo. that, but realistically we can’t be Center for Drug Use and HIV of other languages) from TC, “It was hard to bounce back from implementing 12 programs in New TC faculty member Research at New York Univer- she worked as a language as- with other that,” she admits. “I had to con- a day. We need to be address- sity’s College of Nursing, using sistant in a high school and taught vince myself that, even though I ing the overall quality of health specially designed wristbands to English to businesspeople. cultures helped Olympian wasn’t happy, it was still the best among our kids in a very syner- Sonali Rajan monitor stress levels in adoles- Around that time, Lawrence, who result I had ever achieved.” gistic way.” cent mothers at risk for a range didn’t start fencing until she was Maya Lawrence Then came the team competi- Rajan coauthored the middle employs statistics to identify of parenting issues. When the 15 – significantly later than most tion, and after losing to Korea, the school curriculum for Girls programs that address wearer sweats, the wristband Olympians – was also rising rapidly in London eventual silver medalist, the Ameri- on the Run International, an collects data and sends it to a in the women’s épée rankings, cans found themselves facing Rus- after-school program that uses overall health in a synergistic way smartphone that then forwards and she needed to train at least By Jeanne Jackson-DeVoe sia, a perennial power. Motivated by this kind of synergistic model. it both to the researchers and four hours a day. With a sponsorship their presumptive underdog status, Volunteer coaches guide young By Emily Rosenbaum to the mothers themselves. from the U.S. Lawrence and her teammates pulled girls, ages 8-13, through a This immediate feedback about Fencing Association and the New York Athletic Club, she moved out a victory. “No one expected us to get a medal, so it was really series of lessons about health- their stress levels is intended to to Paris, where her coach, Daniel Levavasseur, runs an organiza- great to come out and show them we could do it,” she says. “Up related issues such as nutri- prompt the young mothers to tion called Escrime Sans Frontières, or Fencing on the podium, I felt it was just as special for us as it was for the tion and bullying, while also getting their feet moving. In use stress-reduction techniques they’ve previously learned Without Borders. other two teams.” designing the curriculum, Rajan also developed a formative in 10-week group sessions. Lawrence says her TC degree has helped her not only support After a vacation in the south of France, Lawrence was back evaluation to help predict instructor adherence to different Rajan explains that she and Leonard’s research team are

herself as an English teacher abroad but also make the jump to training by September. Still, she took a break to visit the White Commi tt ee lessons, then used those results to improve the curriculum looking to employ interventions that are even more immedi- living in a foreign country. House, where, with other Olympic athletes, she met President for the following year. She sees this kind of data-driven re- ate. “We’re testing out a series of them – a text message “If you’re not used to being in a foreign environment, it can Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President search as essential to designing curricula and improving the that has a calming message, a video with a peer saying be quite overwhelming,” she says. “I wasn’t scared to go, and the Joseph Biden. efficacy of health education programs and other behavioral something encouraging, a picture of their baby sleeping to fact that I had previously been surrounded by people from many Might another Olympics be in store? All Lawrence knows is p i c O lym U .S. ) interventions. remind them that this will pass.” countries of the world is one reason why.” that she would like to compete internationally for at least another “We have all these programs, but we’re not making Much of Rajan’s future work will focus on evaluating the In Paris, Lawrence trained with top fencers from Brazil, year. Her goal is to achieve a solid result at the 2013 World enough headway” against the societal issues they’re de- feasibility and efficacy of school-based programs that educate Venezuela, Tunisia, Australia, Italy and Cameroon. In the sum- Championships in Budapest next summer. signed to address, she says. By using statistical data to teens on noncognitive skills, such as making choices. “The pa- s e t (in F en c ing; mers, Levavasseur also invites international teams, including the “I feel that all fencers, and probably all athletes, can’t really let inform the development of programs that will address key thologies underlying risky decisions that youth make each day

Swedes, the Chinese (who took gold in London), the Koreans and go until they’ve accomplished a lot of the things they want to,” U S A / noncognitive skills (such as decision-making or social and – and how they make them –are very similar across the board,” the Russians, to take part in his training camps. Lawrence says. “I feel like I could keep going until my body gives a s emotional coping mechanisms) in a variety of contexts, Rajan she explains, “whether they choose to overeat or undereat or That experience, along with having twice recovered from out. You have to be kind of obsessive and manic to be an athlete. hopes to increase the quality of health, particularly among engage in substance use or to not use condoms. At the end anterior cruciate ligament injuries, gave Lawrence an extra tough- Letting that go and doing something else can be difficult because children and early adolescent youth. of the day, they’re learning to make decisions, and they’re ness that served her well in London. The American team was you have to find out how to replace it.” TC J oman t N i c ole R ajan Sonali of Cour t e s y It’s no accident that Rajan takes a synergistic approach learning how to navigate their world.” TC

68 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 69 alumni focus alumni focus Helping All Women to Have It All Up on the Roof

People considering new program that emphasizes lead- Just behind the security “Yesterday we came out jobs often look for clues that ership and college preparation. desk at the Alfred E. Smith and harvested the lettuce,” their prospective employer In the latter job, which she public school campus in Wight says, pointing to a shares their values. held for a decade, Lee says the South Bronx, a doorway row of vegetable planters. For Danielle Moss Lee she learned the importance of opens onto a vivid expanse “We ate salad from the roof (Ed. D. ’06), who recently young people organizing their of well-tended plants. for our last staff meeting.” became Chief Executive Officer own events, such as college or It’s a green roof, a Nearby sat a water of the YWCA of the City of green career fairs, as a way of feature of environmentally pump, a solar panel New York, the writing was developing leadership skills. friendly design that offers charging its battery. A literally on the wall. “Danielle is someone who natural cooling to the weather station measured That would be the motto of really has the management low-lying building below. solar radiation, tempera- the 154-year-old institution, skills and understanding and The roof provides a host ture, humidity and wind which is the country’s oldest the connections and networks,” of educational benefits speed. Another device YWCA: “Eliminating racism and says Marcia Sells, Chair of the for Nathaniel Wight compared water runoff empowering women.” YWCA Board. (M.S. ’05) and his students from the main area, with “For some people empower- Lee, who has a 16-year- in the year-old Bronx De- its 27 varieties of sedum ing women means only helping old daughter, says her goal at sign and Construction – a plant adept at retain- disadvantaged women, but I the YWCA is to reach out to Academy (BDCA), one of ing water – with runoff think there are so many areas women “from all walks of life” three high schools at the from a control zone. where women are underrepre- to address issues like fair pay Smith campus. “In this city, if it rains sented, despite the fact that and access to health care. She One hot afternoon this more than one-tenth of an girls are going to college more,” cites a recent, much-debated past June, Wight and Noel inch, there’s sewer over- Lee says. “There are still salary article in The Atlantic, “Why Cruz, who had just finished flow,” Wight says. “All that disparities, there are still op- Women Still Can’t Have It All,” his freshman year, showed gray water gets dumped in portunity disparities.” by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a off a research project that the river. Here, 95 percent Lee, 43, comes naturally to political scientist at Princeton. Cruz and his classmate Alumnus of the water hitting this her sense of mission. Her “I think what we’ve failed to do Elton Hollingsworth had roof is being retained.” grandmother grew up in as a country is to ask the ques- presented with Wight the Nate Wight Working with nature poverty and worked as a tion of who defines what ‘it all’ previous month at the comes naturally to Wight, domestic at the age of eight. is,” she says. “Any time women World Renewable Energy and his students are creating an who grew up in the Pacific Later, she worked three jobs start talking about work-life Forum in Denver. Both 14 environmental literacy lab Northwest on one of the to support her children and balance, people hear ‘weak- at the time, Cruz and Hol- San Juan Islands, where buy her own home. ness,’ ‘lack of professionalism,’ lingsworth were the only atop their school in the South Bronx there was a one-room pri- Lee herself is the daugh- As the new leader ‘not ambitious enough.’” high school students at the mary school and no paved ter of a photographer and a The YWCA offers after- meeting, which included roads. Island residents of the nation’s oldest YWCA, By Siddhartha Mitter research librarian who once school programs for children scientists from 54 coun- participated in sustainable taught in the New York City and high school students and a tries and was keynoted agriculture and aquacul- schools. She attended Swarth- Danielle Moss Lee variety of programs for women, by U.S. Energy Secretary ture practices. Initially more College and earned such as computer training, child Steven Chu. Cruz had never been in an airplane before. they used diesel generators, but later solar panels and wind her doctorate in Educational is reaching out to care and workforce develop- “Noel and Elton did the whole presentation,” says Wight, turbines, to meet energy demand. Leadership at Teachers College, overcome disparities for women ment. Lee also wants to involve who earned his TC degree in speech/language pathology and “We lived off the land,” Wight says. “Now people always where she recently joined the more young women in leader- then a master’s degree in engineering from Columbia. “They’re laugh – ‘What are you doing here in the big city?’ Part of the College’s 125th Anniversary at all levels ship and to encourage girls to the primary investigators.” excitement is to bring awareness of ecological systems to Steering Committee. She cred- pursue STEM careers. She For their presentation project, Cruz and Hollingsworth built the city.” its the College with making By Jeanne Jackson-DeVoe believes that any effort to four scale models of rooftops, two of them green and two Cruz, who was born and raised amid the urban bustle of her a “huge advocate of public connect with young people with gravel alone. One of each type also featured solar panels. the Bronx, says his parents taught him from childhood to think education,” adding that “just must employ social media such The boys were comparing the different setups, alone and in environmentally. getting to see the systemic as Facebook, and that the combination, which Cruz says have different consequences for “My parents have shown me a lot about technology, challenges in public education was really eye-opening.” She creation of youth councils or youth advisory groups can help cooling, the efficiency of the solar panels, and the biodiversity taught me a lot about being green. I told them I want to be

believes teachers, and public education in general, are the with outreach, both to parents and children. lee and health of the vegetation on the green roof. an architect and aerospace engineer, and they’re guiding current focus of an attack that is “just a distraction that pre- “When I was at HEAF, we worked with an immigrant family Along with the full-size green roof and the scale models, me in that direction. They told me the thing now is vents us from looking at systemic inequality.” that was reluctant to let their daughter leave home and go to Wight and his students have created an entire program of sustainable building.”

After beginning her career as an assistant principal at the Yale,” she recalls. “We spent a lot of time talking with the fam- Wigh t t e experiments and installations at the site. Their work has been BDCA is a new kind of building trades school, where stu- Grace Lutheran School in the Bronx, Lee held a number of ily, and finally they decided to let her go. She graduated with supported by grants from several organizations, including a dents prepare not only for the best jobs in their field, but also leadership positions at nonprofits, including Assistant Executive honors and went on to medical school. So making a difference Jaffe Service Learning Grant that Wight, who served as a for higher education. Wight, who is leading development of the Director of the Morningside Alliance and President and CEO of requires learning to listen as much as you talk, and to strike a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic, obtained science curriculum, gestures at the roof. “The two shouldn’t the Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF), an after-school balance. It’s a dialogue, not a monologue.” TC mo ss danielle of c our t e s y N a of Cour t e s y through TC’s Peace Corps Fellows program. be exclusive.” TC

70 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday fall/winter 2012 71 alumni focus Looking Kids in the Eye, Every Day

“Imagine a loud rap at your Defense Fund before moving to door at five a.m., and an un- Arizona to live with Betty in 1985. abashed woman saying, ‘Wake up, “I was involved in cases to dis- I’m driving you to school today so mantle state segregation of public you stop ditching class!’” education,” Jean Fairfax says. “But Speaking at a memorial service Betty was a counselor, dealing with in 2010, Tiffany Griego Crowe was specific students. Betty had to look recalling her former teacher the kids in the eye every day.” Betty Fairfax. In encouraging students to A pioneering African American achieve in the face of inequity, educator and counselor in the Betty Fairfax could point to her Phoenix, Arizona, public schools own example. The daughter of from the segregated 1950s until a social worker and a Cleveland her retirement in 2006, Fairfax got water department employee, involved in the small details of her she excelled in high school in students’ lives. the 1930s, athletically as well as “Betty believed in home visits,” academically. says her sister, Jean Fairfax, a At Washburn University in Kan- longtime civil rights activist. “She sas, she was not allowed to eat in would spend nights, weekends, the cafeteria with white students. holidays going to see students in She finished her undergraduate troubled areas. Her goal was to degree back in Ohio, at Kent State, make students responsible for the and started teaching in 1940 in preparation of their own careers, the Cleveland public schools. She and she expected accountability moved to Arizona when Phoenix’s from them – as well as from school black schools recruited for teachers and district officials.” with master’s degrees. Fairfax was a celebrated figure By supporting the professional in Phoenix, where she began as development of students who work a science and physical educa- Educator, counselor and on minority education issues, the tion teacher at all-black Carver Fairfax Fund at TC – initially set up High School in 1950 and, after philanthropist as a challenge grant, with a 3-to-1 desegregation, became counselor match by the college – has been and Dean of Students at Central Betty Fairfax doing its part to foster greater High School. She earned numer- student accountability. ous civic awards, and in 2007 the believed in involving herself TC doctoral candidate Travis Phoenix school district named a Bristol, who has received two new high school after her, the first in students’ lives Fairfax grants in the last three time it had ever so honored one years, says he used one grant to of its employees. By Siddhartha Mitter cover transportation and sup- Fairfax was also a philanthropist plies for a research project at who offered grants to encourage the jail on Rikers Island, studying students to persevere. In 1987 the strategies teachers use to engage two Fairfax sisters promised 92 eighth-graders $1,000 for each incarcerated youth and help them learn. “That experience stays year of college if they finished high school. They made the same with me to this day,” Bristol says. “It makes me realize the commitment to the 500-strong first class at theBetty H. Fairfax urgency of my work.” High School. The second grant covered part of Bristol’s costs to attend And at TC, where Betty Fairfax came for additional stud- and present at the 2011 meeting of the American Educational ies in the 1940s after earning her master’s in education from Research Association in New Orleans, as it did for others. That’s Western Reserve University in Ohio, the Betty Fairfax Profes- a benefit Jean Fairfax believes is especially important. “When sional Development Fund has, since 2003, made several several TC students are able to attend these important meetings

hundred small grants, typically around $500 each. The grants and then come back to campus fresh from that experience, it has airfax help minority students and others cover such things as re- to make a real impact on the College,” she says. search costs and dissemination. Through the fund, scores of TC students also have received Equity in education was a life mission for both sisters, says some of the motivational strength that Betty Fairfax gave to so Jean Fairfax, who spent many years as an organizer with the many students in Arizona over the years – a gift that she distilled

American Friends Service Committee and the NAACP Legal in her trademark phrase: “Now make me proud!” TC F J ean of Cour t e s y

72 fall/winter 2012 www.tc.edu/tctoday Non-Profit Org 525 West 120th Street | Box 306 | New York, NY 10027 | www.tc.edu US Postage PAID Teachers College

Old Doors, New Era To coincide with its 125th anniversary celebration, TC is restoring the 80-year-old exterior entrance doors to Russell Hall. The work has ex- posed a medallion and shield that says “Teachers College – Incorporated 1892. (Founded in 1887, TC reincorporated under its current name five years later.) The medallion is inlaid with a tree – perhaps the tree of life, a symbol of in- terconnection and knowledge. LE W I S UXEM VAN T HER HEA Y B OGRA P H T P HO