Category: Alumni Profiles

A Talent for Making Connections

Nancy Golden

Nancy Golden, MS ‘74 Special Education, PhD ‘87 Curriculum and Instruction, has had a profound impact on education in the state of Oregon over her many years as a teacher, superintendent, and policy maker. Known for her ability to make connections between communities, schools, researchers, and legislators, she is currently using her talents at the College of Education as the leader of the Oregon Schools Research Network (ORSN). 

Nancy was first inspired to become a special education teacher when she witnessed the struggles that a family member with a disability encountered while seeking support in their education. She decided to pursue a degree at the University of Oregon because of the program’s emphasis on training.  

“I attribute a lot of my success to the special education department. What you learn there is that training matters. A child’s success is directly aligned with the teacher’s training. You can do great things for kids, if you have a high level of training.”  

As Nancy grew in her career as an educator, she was recognized for her leadership abilities, which led her to pursue a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction. Eventually, she became superintendent of Springfield schools and was in that position when Governor Kitzhaber recruited her to be his Education Policy Director and to assist in the passage of Senate Bill 909, which created a seamless system of education from kindergarten through postsecondary. The bill was designed to increase the number of Oregonians who pursue postsecondary education. The bill passed, leading to the creation of the Oregon Education Investment Board, where Nancy served before becoming the state’s Chief Education Officer. 

 In 2018, Dean Randy Kamphaus, PhD, originated ORSN, a new initiative modeled after agricultural extension programs in which university researchers work in the field with farmers to solve problems on their farms. He saw the potential to adapt this model to use the COE’s research expertise to assist schools statewide, and in turn provide valuable implementation experience to researchers, creating a feedback loop that results in better outcomes for students.   

When deciding who to hire as the director, the dean couldn’t think of a better candidate than Nancy. “We were indeed fortunate to recruit Nancy Golden back to the college as our first professor of practice – a distinction awarded to professionals with an esteemed record of practice leadership and change. These qualifications are a perfect match for leading ORSN.”  

ORSN is guided by Oregon’s Equity Lens and currently focused on providing training for educators and instructional assistants in schools statewide. For example, Associate Professor Jeff Todahl from the COE’s Center for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect (CPAN) is providing trauma-informed school systems in partnership with the   South Coast ESD and the 10 districts they serve. Special education faculty member, Chris Knowles, is working with Lane ESD and Intermountain ESD to provide professional development to educational assistants. A signature piece of these trainings is the creation of specific video-based micro-professional development modules (micro-PD). These are short videos where UO faculty train staff on evidence-based skills using state-of-the-art technology.  According to Dean Kamphaus, “Nancy, through ORSN, is leveraging the research eminence of the COE to drive positive change in practice around the state, in rural, coastal, and urban centers alike.”  

On the horizon, Nancy is looking forward to being able to provide ORSN’s trainings to more schools and developing meaningful partnerships statewide. She’s excited to see how they can further leverage their networks to make sure that children and educators are getting the resources they need. Nancy Says, “ORSN is committed to working side-by-side with ESDs, districts and schools to ensure that all students are graduates prepared for a bright and successful future and our partnerships have created the synergy to make this happen.” 

A Labor of Love

Diane Bricker

While an undergraduate at Ohio State University in Speech and Drama, UO alumna Diane Bricker, PhD visited Columbus State Hospital to volunteer. Horrified by the conditions there, Diane began a lifelong career, working to better understand the needs of children with disabilities and develop interventions that could improve their quality of life.  Her research has resulted in two of the most widely used screening and assessment tools worldwide, leading to earlier interventions and improved outcomes for millions of children.  

Coming to Eugene in 1960 after earning her degree in speech pathology, Diane earned her master’s in education at the University of Oregon. After graduating, she returned to Eugene in 1978, when she was offered a position as director of the early education program at the Center on Human Development, which serves infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children to this day. Having earned her PhD at Vanderbilt, Diane had been developing a child-centered approach there that she further developed in her time at the UO, known as Activity-Based Intervention.  

A chance breakfast meeting with peer researchers at the Kansas City Airport in 1972 led Diane, together with a team of researchers from across the country, to develop the Assessment Evaluation Programming System (AEPS), a comprehensive assessment tool still in use today. Diane recalls, “It seemed that everyone concerned with young children within earshot was feeling a strong and urgent need for alternatives to using standardized, norm-referenced tests.” The third edition of the AEPS is currently in development and is used in the state of Oregon for most of its Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) programs. Even Diane’s granddaughter, a speech pathologist working in Multnomah County, uses the AEPS with her clients. Diane says, “40 years later, my granddaughter is using something that we developed in 1972.” When asked how it felt to have that kind of legacy, Diane says, “it feels pretty good!”  

In 1984, Diane and her collaborator, Jane Squires, along with a cadre of students and fellow researchers, developed the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), now the most widely used screening tool in the world. Diane is proud of its low cost and ease of use, and that parents participate in their child’s screening. ”It puts power in the hands of parents because they begin to understand what they should be looking for in children.”  

Now retired, instead of relaxing or traveling, Diane is busy researching and updating both the AEPS and ASQ. She also recently completed writing a history of special education, EI/ECSE: A History of Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education in the United States. When asked if she wouldn’t rather be pursuing less rigorous hobbies, Diane says that she considers her work a “labor of love.” 

An Honor and an Opportunity

DC Dorham-Kelly

Recently named CEO of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Rubicon Programs, Carole Dorham-Kelly, MS ’03, PhD ’05, (who goes by “DC”) credits her time as a Counseling Psychology student with helping to develop her holistic approach to helping others. With the support of mentors in the program as well other students of color in her cohort, she was able to realize her dream of serving communities striving to overcome systemic barriers to success. DC says of the program, “the teachings, mentoring, and sisterhood I experienced there really set me up for success.”

Reflecting on how her doctoral program started, she says, “I knew I wanted to be in community-based services, I knew that I wanted to address resiliency, trauma, and mental health stigma in black and brown communities.” It was a seminar in her first year that introduced her to the work of Dr. Barbara Staggers at Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, CA. Dr. Staggers’ practice combined medical and social services to address the underlying causes of physical and mental health challenges in teens, an approach that has been inspirational to DC. In her post-doctoral internship, DC had the opportunity to train at CHRCO and subsequently worked closely with Dr. Staggers, which led to her career in integrated social and mental health care in the Bay Area. Over more than a decade, she has worked in Community Based Mental Health and program management, landing her back in her hometown of Richmond, California at Rubicon Programs in 2016.

About the organization, DC says, “Rubicon is primarily a workforce service agency. We work with adults to connect them to training, employment, and career opportunities, and we do critical work around barrier removal, to increase equitable access to economic mobility. If there are legal barriers or wellness barriers, we have coaches that engage in those services so that folks are more ready to access employment opportunities and career opportunities.”

In 2016, Rubicon Programs assessed and took steps to put into practice an anti-racist stance within their organization and in their relationship with the community, a process that DC is happy to shepherd in her tenure as CEO. She considers developing and implementing an anti-racist stance an ongoing and continually evolving process that must be nurtured and prioritized. First, she emphasized creating safe spaces for the kind of dialogue usually avoided in workplaces – discussions of race, politics, and trauma. Rubicon Programs referred to these dialogues as “courageous conversations.”

DC says that these conversations can cause pain, but that it’s important that we persist, even if some might leave. But that’s not the last step. She says, “it’s not enough to just have a stance. Once you have a stance, then what does it mean? What is the action that follows?” For Rubicon Programs and DC, that next step means confronting systemic racism and advocating for change.

“We have a mission of alleviating poverty in the East Bay. It’s very easy to slip into focusing on the individual and trying to fix the individual. Even as a direct service agency, we know we cannot just coach or case manage folks out of poverty. Poverty is a systemic issue not the fault of an individual navigating it. The anti-racism stance was a key milestone in Rubicon’s journey towards becoming an anti-racist organization. We’re not [an advocacy] organization but we’re committed to being great partners to advocacy and mobilizing organizations in the joint effort to dismantle racist systems perpetuating inequity.”

Earning her new title and recognition as a leader has been gratifying, but DC also feels pressure. “I do feel like I am under the magnifying glass in many ways, but I also feel the honor of the opportunity, and the importance and the magnitude of representation.”

A Passion for Leadership

Joseph Stevenson

For Joseph Stevenson, MS ’86, PhD ‘86, being the first black man to graduate from the Educational Policy and Management doctoral program (now Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership) didn’t come without challenges. But Joseph persevered with the support of important mentors at the University of Oregon, and has gone on to a varied career in educational leadership as a provost, superintendent, and educator.

When Joseph began his doctoral career at the College of Education, he realized that in order to be an effective administrator, he needed to have a thorough understanding of teaching. “To me, a good administrator needed to know at the minimum sound practices for curriculum and instruction.” He concurrently earned a master’s in Curriculum and Instruction and a PhD in EDPM, adding to the two master’s degrees he already completed at California State University, Sacramento.

The support of the first Black Dean of the School of Law, Derrick Bell, and his wife Jewel, was crucial to Joseph’s success, as well as the support of professor Richard Schmuck, who served on his dissertation committee. Schmuck helped Joseph gain an assistant professor position as well, teaching a new multicultural education course. But support from the president of the university at the time, renowned physicist Paul Olum, was the most surprising. As Joseph walked across the commencement stage, Olum whispered that he would see him later that day. As promised, Olum showed up later to Joseph’s celebratory barbecue. Joseph was touched at his show of support. “Paul was a very private man. It was just so warming to have him take a day out of his schedule, and come to try out my barbecued lamb,” Joseph recalled, laughing.

While Joseph had crucial mentorship during his time at the COE, it wasn’t without tension. He says, “there were instances of microaggression and implicit bias from faculty, but I have deep gratitude and I continue to be very thankful for the kind of educational experiences I had.” His experiences have led him to be an advocate for Black student recruitment and success in universities nationwide, and he hopes to help with the COE’s efforts to increase diversity in faculty hiring and student recruitment.

“I think that Oregon is a good experience [for students]. But you do need to get more people of color on the faculty if you want to recruit more students [of color]. I would love to come back and share some of my stories, and help with recruiting more people of color. I would love to see as many African American students in the COE as you have on the football team.”

Above picture: Joseph Stevenson teaches his son to make the Oregon “O.”

When Andrew Greenblatt, BS ’17, met Mckenzie Sachs, BS ’15, MS ’18, for their first date at the Off the Waffle in downtown Eugene, there was an instant attraction. Amid the sugary sweetness of breakfast foods, they talked about everything under the sun, from their shared love for travel to a passion for taking advantage of all of Oregon’s natural beauty.  

Both undergraduate students at the time—Andrew seeking a degree in journalism and Mckenzie pursuing one in communication disorders and sciences—the two were very focused on their academic futures. What they did not know, however, is that that future would include them tying the knot nearly five years later.

Sha Reilly, MS ’78 ; PHD ’81 (Australia) and Terry Reilly, MS ’78 ; PHD ’81 (Australia) are COE alumni.

Sha shares how she and Terry first met: “We met at our first teaching job in an elementary school. I arrived in a taxi looking sensible and he arrived by public transport looking like a hippie! But we hit it off from day one.”

Reflections in Education

Marty Pérez

Growing up in Klamath Falls, Marty Pérez didn’t see his bicultural family reflected in the teachers that served in his schools. His father is Mexican, and his mother is Modoc of the Klamath Tribes. After transferring to the University of Oregon, he declared a business administration major before realizing that “almost nobody looked like me in business school.” That realization prompted his switch to a Spanish Literature major and set him on the path towards becoming a teacher.

He decided to go into the Sapsik’ʷałá program because as he says, “during my K-12 experience, I never had anybody that looked like me and that was of the same background as me. I never had that experience of having somebody that was culturally and linguistically diverse, that was able to, just by their mere existence, reflect me. And I knew after hearing about the Sapsik’ʷałá program, that it was a program that was going to make monumental changes here in Oregon and across the nation. And I wanted to be part of that. I’m full of gratitude for the program and how there were not only financial supports, but also a structure in place for me to be a strong Indigenous educator. I’m committed to the Sapsik’ʷałá vision and mission that I accepted way back in 2008. And here it is 2020, and I’m still very committed to giving back to Indigenous populations.”

Marty has since spent over ten years teaching Spanish language and literature in Alaska and Portland. During that time, he served on the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC) in 2014 and on the Governor’s Council on Educator Advancement in 2016-2017. He began to think about pursuing an administrator license, “I definitely need to be at the discussion table where they’re discussing systemic changes. And that was part of the fuel to seek an administrative career. I just knew that being in the classroom, I only had impact on my caseload. And sometimes I wanted to think, not only on the micro level, but the macro level of how do I, or how can I, progress in this career to make those macro systemic changes?” He earned his Administrator License in 2019 and is now the Assistant Principal of Sam Case Elementary in Newport, Oregon.

He’s excited to serve his new community in Newport, which is near the tribal lands of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and the Grand Ronde, and speaks as well to his Latino background, “ We have a lot of Indigenous youth in this school district as well, and an Indigenous Guatemalan population that I feel are our Indigenous brothers and sisters.” During the pandemic, the school has taken a growth mindset that remote education has given them opportunities to be creative and invest time in making their curriculum even stronger. Looking to the future, Marty hopes to grow into a role as a principal or superintendent. He hopes he can be an inspiration to young Indigenous students. “I think, you know, the world has this way of sending you as a soldier to places that need you and I’ve felt like every place I’ve been at, every school that I’ve taught at, every person that I’ve met during my career needed me and I needed them. They have impact and influence on the person I am today. And I think it’s interesting to know that we have Sapsik’ʷałá graduates that have been uniquely placed throughout the nation. I think it’s because we needed them just as much as they needed us.”

“And who knows, maybe somebody that sees this story goes back to school to become an educator, because I think now is the time, more than any other time, for us to have educators of color in the classroom.”

Entering a Conversation

Roshelle Wieser-Nieto

Roshelle Weiser-Nieto, who is Modoc and Yahooskin Paiute of the Klamath Tribes, always knew she wanted to pursue a doctoral degree someday. A professor recently shared that research is “entering into a conversation” that includes many contributions and perspectives. She wants to make sure, however, that those conversations include members of the community, and that research is driving change outside of academia as well as within.

Roshelle earned her bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies at University of Oregon. While she knew she wanted to teach, and even took a few Education Foundations courses, she was drawn to Ethnic Studies, saying “if I’m going to be the best teacher I can be for communities of color, I’m going to spend my time and focus learning what it means to be well-versed in ethnic studies. I feel if I have a good understanding of other cultures’ experiences, then I can be a better teacher for all students.” She wrote her senior thesis on the effect of forced boarding schools on Indigenous oral traditions. “If we understand the value of oral tradition, and we recognize the impacts of boarding schools, and the historical trauma that that’s led to, how can we move toward a place of historical healing? I really see that as my life’s work.”

It was a natural transition from Ethnic Studies to the Sapsik’ʷałá program, where she graduated in 2010. She said, “during my second year of Sapsik’ʷałá, I was in the largest cohort that we’ve ever had, there were seventeen of us. And it was just so spiritually powerful to walk into our classes and have seventeen Indigenous people strong, to feel like we weren’t alone. It felt magical. If it wasn’t for Sapsik’ʷałá I probably wouldn’t have become a teacher and I certainly wouldn’t be in my PhD program.”

Roshelle is now in her second year of the Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education PhD program, and working as a Graduate Employee for the Sapsik’ʷałá program, coming full circle. She says, “part of my job working for Sapsik’ʷałá is to attend the seminars. We’re with the students in the current cohort, students who we get to serve as mentors. It’s really interesting to hear the things that they’re thinking about, because I’ve been out of Sapsik’ʷałá for ten years. These future teachers think about things in different ways than we did and they’re just so innovative and inspiring. And so those mentoring conversations go both ways. They teach me just as much, if not more. When you’re talking about education you need to understand the importance of relationships, and you need to understand the importance of reciprocity in those relationships.”

“The thing about being Indigenous is we’re relational, and there is no word for ‘I’ in a lot of our tribal languages. It’s always ‘we’, or the word for what we call our people. That really resonated with me in thinking about my work. It’s a whole movement, and I’m blessed to be able to contribute to the conversation.”

“Raises Good Children”

Sunny Day Real Bird

At age nine, Sunny Day Real Bird’s Indian name was bestowed by her community’s elders – Akbaaiiwishe-Itchish, a Crow Apsaalooké name that means “raises good children.” It’s clear that Sunny Day has lived up to that name, dedicating her life’s work to improving educational outcomes for Native students as both a teacher and administrator.

While an elementary teacher on the Crow Apsaalooké reservation in Montana, Sunny Day learned of the Sapsik’ʷałá program for Indigenous teacher education at the University of Oregon College of Education. Though the move far away from her family in Montana with a young son was a difficult transition, she credits her Sapsik’ʷałá cohort “family” with making it possible to complete the program. The COE’s emphasis on data-driven education, together with what she learned in the Sapsik’ʷałá program about Indigenous education, equipped her to serve in leadership positions later in her career. While teaching math, she also joined the Bureau of Native Education, consulting to make policy and funding recommendations to improve Indigenous student retention and performance.

Based on her experience with evaluating and crafting data-driven education policy and feedback from her colleagues, she decided to pursue a career in administration, earning a second master’s degree in the Indian Leadership Education and Development program at Montana State University, Billings.

After graduating, Sunny Day served as the Director of Indian Education in Ronan School District before attaining her current position as the director of the Native American Achievement Center at MSU Billings. She is excited to be able to use her position to be an advocate for Native American students at MSU, working strategically to recruit and retain them. “I see my current role and my education as tools to help make a difference for Native American students,” she said. “We need more Native representation at the table when we’re discussing the future of our children’s education.”

Telling Students’ Stories

Nicole Butler-Hooton

When Nicole Butler-Hooton was named Oregon Teacher of the Year 2021, it came as no surprise to her colleagues at Irving Elementary in Eugene, where she has taught for fifteen years. Nicole is known among the teachers and families in her community as a teacher dedicated to a learning experience that embraces her students’ cultures and brings their unique stories into the classroom.

Nicole always knew she wanted to be a teacher, saying “Education has always felt truly empowering and something that I was taught as a young age to really value and that was something that was instilled by my parents and my grandparents.” Part of both the Apache and Siletz nations, her family’s experiences shaped her perspective, emphasizing the power of building trusting relationships within their community. When Nicole found out about the Sapsik’ʷałá program, she was excited about the opportunity to explore her cultural identity and give back to Indigenous communities.

She credits the Sapsik’ʷałá program with helping her learn how to be a culturally responsive teacher. “I know that having those roots in the Sapsik’ʷałá program, and having it based around our culture and our heritage made me feel safe, and it created a space for me. And that is what I hope to do with my students.”

As a second-grade teacher at Irving Elementary, she’s been a leader in her school, her district, and beyond, serving on the equity team at Irving Elementary, the Bethel Teacher Leadership Committee, and as the representative for the Eugene/Springfield area to the Oregon Indian Educators Association. As Nicole navigates distance learning during the COVID-19 epidemic, she sees the time she can devote to teacher training and creating a more culturally responsive curriculum as an unexpected boon. Speaking about the power of culturally responsive teaching, she says, “Bringing in the stories that our kids are telling is our mission. That’s our work as teacher leaders.”