TC FALL/WINTER 2018 Today FINDING THE MAGAZINE OF TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY President TC TODAY FALL / WINTER 2018 FALL TODAY TC PATHS Thomas Bailey wants to make education enriching for all comers VOLUME 43, NUMBER 1 VOLUME INSIDE: Rethinking American Higher Education Driven: Genocide Scholar-Activist Sam Totten (Ed.D. ’85) TC’s Staunchest Supporter: The Late John Klingenstein Contents Features The Pathfinder TC Heroes 10 TC’s new President, Thomas Bailey, wants 32 Driven: Why Samuel Totten to enrich education for all comers (Ed.D. ’85) risks his life to truck food to people in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains A Matter of Degree Fixing U.S. higher education 22 How the Future Was Won • Staying the Course 44 Where the Future Comes First raised Getting undergrads to the finish line $345 million. Our top donors set the table, but ultimately this was a • Rewriting the Instruction Manual Teaching professors to teach broad-based People’s Campaign. • What to Expect When You’re Accepting An app to demystify college PHOTOGRAPHS: ARTOLUTION; INSET, ARSHIA KAHN; ILLUSTRATION: RICHIE POPE [ FALL + WINTER 2018] Departments TC 3 PRESIDENT’S LETTER ON PAGE Taking TC’s impact to scale requires Today working together — with practitioners The magazine of Teachers College and each other is produced by the Office of Develop- ment & External Affairs at Teachers College, Columbia University. 5 SHORT TAKES: NEWS @TC Suzanne M. Murphy VICE PRESIDENT, DEVELOPMENT The new Abby M. O’Neill Fellows; six & EXTERNAL AFFAIRS 8 new faculty members; an immersive (M.ED. ’99, M.A. ’96) summer at the Hollingworth Science James L. Gardner HOPEFUL FACES IN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLIC SPACES Camp; second-language teaching EXTERNAL AFFAIRS for real-life interactions; and more Sara Clough The nonprofit Artolution SENIOR DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS works with street youth, refugees, the incarcerated 40 UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM and others from margin- A family-centered approach to TC TODAY STAFF alized groups to create preventing teen suicide; surveying Joe Levine murals in countries around EDITOR the public on education, health and the world. Led by TC Heather Donohue Art & Art Education doctoral psychology; managing gluten and MANAGING EDITOR student Max Levi Frieder guilt in celiac disease; getting school CONTRIBUTORS and his collaborator, Joel Alyssa Bean, Kirsten Burch, Linda Bergner, Artolution has leaders to embrace data Colquhoun, Rosella Garcia, Edy Getz, Steve Giegerich, Emily Kobel, brought one such effort Harriet Jackson, Patricia Lamiell, to New York City: a mural, Nikki Marenbach, Kalena Rosario, 64 FUTURE LEADERS now hanging in the Scott Rubin, Susan Scherman, The Last Word Oculus Building (adjacent Wenimo Okoya on Lori Strauss, Matthew Vincent, Hua-Chu Yen, Dasheng Zhang to the memorial site for preparing teachers to recognize the 9/11 terrorist attacks) students’ personal struggles Nina Ovryn that they and eight ART DIRECTOR Class Acts Oni Nicolarakis believes Rohingya artists created Ali Silva with Rohingya children writing is key to the success of deaf COPY EDITOR in the Balukhali Refugee students like her Camp in Bangladesh. TC Today Fall/Winter 2018 Volume 43, Number 1, Copyright 2018 by Teachers College, Alumni News Columbia University Articles may be reprinted with the permission of the Office of External NEWS, PROFILES & NOTES Affairs. Please send alumni class notes, 51 letters to the editor, address changes News Toasting to the success of and other correspondence to: TC’s Annual Fund TC Today ProfilesAmy Fabrikant (M.A. ’02); 525 W. 120th St., Box 306 New York, NY 10027 On Board Kathryn Bassett Hill (Ph.D. ’18); 212-678-3412 49 Welcoming Charles Desmond; [email protected] Claudia Schrader (Ed.D. ’02) www.tc.edu/tctoday Jay Urwitz returns; Emeritus honors for E. John Rosenwald Jr. 53 THE FINE PRINT ON THE COVER Spotlighting alumni authors Enormous Generosity TC FALL/WINTER 2018 Today FINDING THE MAGAZINE OF TEACHERS COLLEGE, with Very Little Fanfare 54 CLASS NOTES COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY President 63 / WINTER 2018 FALL TODAY TC 43, NUMBER 1 VOLUME PATHS Thomas Bailey wants to make education Trustee Emeritus John Klingenstein enriching for all comers was a visionary philanthropist and 61 IN MEMORIAM INSIDE: Rethinking TC’s staunchest supporter Jane Smisor Bastien (M.A. ’58), American Higher Education Driven: Genocide Scholar-Activist Sam Totten L. Lee Knefelkamp, María (Ed.D. ’85) TC’s Staunchest Supporter: The Late Torres-Guzmán, Frances John Klingenstein Front Cover & Spine_v4 REV.indd 1 11/28/18 5:36 PM Walker-Slocum (Ph.D. ’72) PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN EMERSON You Can Fight City Hall. Zachariah Hennessey (M.A. ’06) Vice President, Neighborhood Health, Public Health Solutions Career At nonprofits, hospitals and in volunteer public service, advocating and partnering with government and philanthropy to help New York’s most vulnerable and disenfran- chised communities. Proudest Accomplishment The city is close to ending its HIV/AIDS epidem- ic. Prevention and treatment have resulted in remarkable declines in new cases, because of activism and a very forward-thinking city government. What I learned at TC What families and neighborhoods need to fos- ter health and resilience in children and teens. At Public Health Solutions we improve the social determinants of health, support optimal birth and early child development outcomes, strengthen families, and better coordinate neighborhood resources. Philosophy Creating a more level playing field in an increasingly segregated city by ensuring that communities have the right resources to support health and the ability of parents to be fully present in their children’s lives. TC Gifts TC Annual Fund contributor. Dewey Circle member. Why I Give As a professional who’s constantly raising funds myself, I know unrestricted funding’s importance to achieving institutional goals. Leadership needs that flexibility to truly achieve their mission. SUPPORT our STUDENTS You, too, can support TC’s students. Contact Susan Scherman at 212 678-8176 or visit tc.edu/supportstudents Photo: Bruce Gilbert [ PRESIDENT’S LETTER ] As you can also read in this issue, we’re applying just such a comprehen- sive approach to helping American colleges and universities better serve Working Together students from poor, minority and Taking TC’s impact to scale immigrant backgrounds. With the United States on pace to become a majority non-white nation by 2045, these students literally represent the future of our country. “They” are us, and — as visionaries at TC have ince being named Teachers College’s president, I’ve always understood — if we fail them, been repeatedly asked two questions. The answer to we fail ourselves. S And speaking of visionaries, the first — “Why did you want this job?” — is that we produce TC has lost three in recent months: Trustee Emeritus John Klingenstein, graduates like Sam Totten, whose story launches the new creator of our Klingenstein Center “TC Heroes” section in these pages. An internationally re- for Independent School Leadership and the most generous donor in our nowned genocide scholar, Sam has immeasurably enhanced history; Professor Emerita María Torres-Guzmán, a pioneer understanding of why and how regimes in multilingual and mul- perpetrate this most horrific of mass ticultural education; and crimes. But beyond bearing witness, Professor Emerita L. Lee Sam also risks his life to truck food into Knefelkamp, a prime lead- Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, where the gov- er in student development ernment is waging a scorched-earth theory and 21st-century campaign against indigenous villagers. liberal arts curricula. Peo- That kind of commitment to helping ple like John, María and others is part of TC’s DNA. Like all great Lee can’t be replaced, but universities and colleges, we are home their passing offers us a to brilliant people doing fascinating moment to reflect on their work. But what truly sets us apart is legacies and redouble our that — from shaping more effective teaching to getting entire efforts to build on their work. As we communities to embrace healthier lifestyles — we directly begin a new era at TC, their ideas, apply our knowledge to building a better world. their commitment to excellence, and The answer to the second question — “So, what are you their passion for teaching and learn- planning to do?” — is on one level simple: everything I possibly ing have never been more relevant. can to increase our impact. In reality, of course, that’s a complex challenge. To meet it we must ensure that we attract and support the best students, increase our research funding, and assure the coherence of our programs and course offerings. Ultimately, we must work with each other and with practitioners to create solutions broad enough to address major societal issues yet sufficiently nuanced to work in different cultures and contexts. THOMAS BAILEY PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN EMERSON TC TODAY FALL + WINTER 2018 3 Here to Serve. Katie Embree & Marie Volpe Careers Katie: Vice Provost Marie: Adjunct Assistant Professor of Adult Learning & Leadership What They Really Do Katie: Go-to resource for community members navigating personal emergencies – or just about anything else. Marie: Go-to resource for students navigating doctoral dissertations. Together: Making people laugh. (See M. Volpe, “Engaging Students in the Classroom: What Educators Can Learn from Comedians”) Philosophy Katie: The world is very small so be sure to always do the right thing – and channel Marie Volpe in work and in life. Marie: I’m a big, big John Dewey fan. I used to date him, you know. TC Gifts Katie: The Wendy M. Dressel Student Emergency Fund, commemorating her mom; the Morton T. Embree Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, honoring her dad. Marie: The Carmela and Marie F. Volpe Fellowship for International Service in Education; including TC in her estate plans. Together: The Marie Volpe-Katie Embree Endowed Scholarship, for doctoral students in financial need. Why They Give Because that’s how they roll.