SPRING/SUMMER 2016 TC Today THE MAGAZINE of TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY USING THE ARTS TO EMPOWER AT-RISK KIDS: ANDREA KERZNER (M.A.’87) CELEBRATING TC’S MINORITY POSTDOCTORAL PROGRAM A GIFT BRINGS DANCE EDUCATION BACK TO TC The Art of the Possible Applying technology to creativity — and vice versa { spring + summer 2016} Table of Contents Features A Portrait of the Artist in Launching Careers and 10 the Digital Age 22 Widening the Discourse A new TC program grapples with the nature TC’s Minority Postdoctoral Program of creativity in the 21st century, attempting to encourages scholars who don’t check their find meaning amid technical innovation identities at the door and enhance artistic traditions developed throughout human history 30 Art = Power Through the arts, Andrea Kerzner . Technology Center From its Games Research Lab to its (M.A. ’87) is bringing hope to youth Gottesman Libraries, the College is a hub in South Africa, Uganda and the for digital innovation in education South Bronx Photographs: Deborah Feingold departments TC 3 PRESIDENT’S LETTER Celebrating TC’s creativity and diversity Today The magazine of Teachers College is produced by the Office of Development 5 NEWS @TC and External Affairs at Teachers On page Honors at AERA, New York’s Education College, Columbia University. Commissioner speaks at TC, celebrating Suzanne M. Murphy the Cowin Financial Literacy Program VICE PRESIDENT, DEVELOPMENT & EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (ED.M. ’99, M.A. ’96) James L. Gardner 34 UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, 10DIGITAL DETRITUS Paradigm-changing work on spatial EXTERNAL AFFAIRS TC’s new program thinking, evaluating colleges, navigating Sara Clough in Creative Technologies information overload, youth gun violence, SENIOR DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC marries the old and COMMUNICATIONS new. New tools such as math identity, organizational change Arduinos, maKey-maKeys and the new education philanthropy TC TODAY STAFF and invent-ablers can Joe Levine be used to animate old EDITOR but interesting junk 40 EARLY RISERS like that pictured here, Heather Donohue Younger alumni in psychology BUSINESS OPERATIONS & MARKETING from old-time cameras INITIATIVES MANAGER, EXTERNAL AFFAIRS to outdated robots to 64 FUTURE LEADERS CONTRIBUTORS boom-boxes and TV Paul Acquaro, Linda Colquhoun, parts. The goal is for The Last Word How teaching led Rebecca Donaldson, Harriet students to embrace an TC Student Senate President Chelsey Jackson, Patricia Lamiell, Mindy Liss, Nikki Marenbach, expanded notion of Saunders to study education policy materials, make things Urania Mylonas, Scott Rubin, move, light up and Class Acts Arab-Israeli tennis star and Kat Stephens-Mothudi, Sally Sweeney, Matthew Vincent, make noise, and say, peace-builder Fahoum Fahoum Hua-Chu Yen “I’m not intimidated.” Nina Ovryn ART DIRECTOR alumni news TC Today Spring/Summer 2016 Volume 40, Number 2, 52 INBOX Copyright 2016 by Teachers College, Reflectionsfrom TC’s 2016 Columbia University Distinguished Alumni Award winners Articles may be reprinted with the permission of the Office of External Affairs. Please send NEWS, PROFILES & NOTES alumni class notes, letters to 53 the editor, address changes and News Parenting advice; eating by other correspondence to: reheating; celebrating TC and China TC Today Campaign Update: ProfilesOlivia Hooker (M.A. ’47), Nick 525 W. 120th St., Box 306 New York, NY 10027 46 Once More, With Feeling Sousanis (Ed.D. ’14), Tomoko Takahashi 212-678-3412 Our Campaign donors fund their (Ed.D. ’84), Brenda LaGrange Johnson [email protected] www.tc.edu/tctoday passions, including student (M.A. ’65) scholarships and a new dance education doctoral program 56 CLASS NOTES ON THE COVER TC SPRING/SUMMER 2016 On Board Today THE MAGAZINE of IN MEMORIAM TEACHERS COLLEGE, 62 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 51 The Matchmaker: Leslie USING THE ARTS TO EMPOWER Antoinette Gentile, Robert L. Crain, AT-RISK KIDS: ANDREA KERZNER Nelson has a gift for identify- (M.A.’87) CELEBRATING TC’S MINORITY POSTDOCTORAL Susan G. Gordon, Bill Campbell (M.A. PROGRAM A GIFT BRINGS ing needs and finding the DANCE EDUCATION ’64), Mattiwilda Dobbs (M.A. ’48) BACK TO TC people to address them The Art of the Possible Applying technology to creativity — and vice versa Cover_v3.indd 1 5/27/16 2:49 PM Digital Illustration: Jim Lucas; Photograph: iStock by Getty Images Photograph: Nikki Marenbach Smart Planning Dorothy del Bueno makes plans that work. So do we. Dr. del Bueno (Ed.D., R.N.) created the Performance Based Development System used by over 400 health care centers in 48 states. She also has created two Charitable Gift Annuities (CGA) with Teachers College. A noted art collector, Dr. del Bueno, a past TC Alumni Council member and Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, attended TC through a Nursing Traineeship Scholarship: “The doctoral program under Dr. Mary Alice White’s expert guidance began my rewarding career in the business of competency evaluation.” Geer. Tara artist by “Creating a gift annuity with a reputable “bilateral” non-profit is one of the smartest ways to prepare for retirement,” she says. “It provides a fixed income for life, with substantial tax benefits. There are no outside legal fees, and most important, it provides for the future of an institution close to one’s heart.” Special thanks to Macy Art Gallery at Teachers College, College, Art Gallery Teachers Macy at Special thanks to | Based on the ACGA rates of 2015, a gift annuity created at age 70 provides a 5.1% return. A deferred annuity created at age 45, which begins paying out at age 65, earns 8.9% income annually for life—most Alumna Dorothy del Bueno, Ed.D., R.N. of which is tax-free. Teachers College Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient © JD CLOSSER PHOTOGRAPH For more information, please contact us today: Louis Lo Ré Director of Planned Giving [email protected] 212-678-3037 Teachers College, Columbia University | EIN: 13-1624202 { president’s letter} Hope Springs Eternal cademic Festival at Teachers reflective — to learn openly and flexibly — you can College is a joyous celebration ultimately do almost anything.” of the richly diverse creativity Speaking of people who can do almost anything, of our faculty, staff, students another powerful moment at Academic Festival was and alumni. This year’s Festival, provided — in absentia — by Dr. Olivia Hooker (M.A. themed “Full STEAM Ahead,” ’47), a 101-year-old survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race was an exuberant call to add the riots who became the first African-American woman arts to the nationwide educational focus on science, to serve in active duty in the Coast Guard and then a Atechnology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). pioneering advocate for the disabled. Feel- The Festival’s keynote, composer Theodore ing a bit under the weather, Dr. Hooker, Wiprud, Vice President for Education at the New who was to receive the Teachers College York Philharmonic, described his efforts to make the Distinguished Alumni Award, sent a video- Philharmonic’s famed Young People’s Concert series taped message expressing her gratitude more interactive for our multimedia era. for being honored and her delight in “The core of our mission is to bring great perfor- “what Teachers College is like today — how mances to all kinds of people,” Dr. Wiprud said. “Our diverse, how many people’s aims have techniques are rooted in Leonard Bernstein’s legacy, been raised.” but also in Maxine Greene’s and John Dewey’s.” We at TC take great delight and It was a gracious nod to TC’s history and to our pride in our unique Minority Postdoctoral continuing belief in what Dewey called “the audacity Fellowship program, also featured in this We are harnessing of imagination.” We approach arts education, which issue. Former Fellows have become univer- “technology in all subject began at the College, as a means of nurturing imagin- sity deans, chaired professors, global non- areas to revitalize the ideas ative audacity in all fields. Indeed, in this issue’s cover profit leaders and business entrepreneurs. of Dewey, Greene and story, on the College’s new Creative Technologies pro- They have celebrated their unique iden- others for our times. gram, Professor Judith Burton argues that the arts tities while making societal inequities their must be taught with other subjects “in such a way that collective focus. As Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Direc- ” they extend and inform each other, making thinking tor of New York City’s Schomburg Center for Research more multidimensional, layered, flexible and complex.” in Black Culture, suggested at the Fellowship’s 20th The Creative Technologies program builds on anniversary celebration in March, such “creative dis- artistic traditions forged by TC alumni ranging from sent” benefits us all. Georgia O’Keeffe to Raphael Montañez Ortiz. The Our world faces difficult and unprecedented program also reflects how we are harnessing tech- challenges. Creativity and diversity are among our nology in all subject areas to revitalize the ideas of most valuable assets in meeting these challenges. Dewey, Greene and others for our times. This issue That Teachers College thrives by celebrating and also provides a rundown of some striking examples advancing these ideals every day makes me proud of those efforts. and optimistic about our future. As Dr. Burton says, “It’s not just that we are learning techniques and technologies. If you know how to play and explore and experiment and be SUSAN FUHRMAN (PH.D. ’77) 4 If you weren’t among this year’s more than 1,200 attendees at Academic Festival, visit http://bit.ly/1TNnKo5 to get caught up. Photograph: Lofi Studios tc today spring + summer 2016 3 INTRODUCING Monthly Giving at Teachers College Monthly giving to the TC Fund is a convenient, a ordable and e cient way to make a lasting di erence at Teachers College. Give a monthly gi of any amount charged to your major credit card.