The Doctorate in Educational Leadership program, which admits a new group of students each summer, began its eleventh cohort this past June with 18 enthusiastic and excited individuals.  Reflecting the demographics in education, the cohort has 15 women and 3 men. The largest percentage of students (61%) work in K-12 schools, but the program is attracting an increasing number of administrators from higher education and other educational settings. The average age of the new cohort members is 38 years old, and 44% are students of color, primarily African-American. The students work in quite varied institutional settings in diverse roles. For example, the students are employed in such settings as the University of California at Berkeley, the Modesto Unified School District, Fresno Community College, Alameda Unified School District, and Coalinga State Hospital. In these settings, the students serve in a variety of functions such as school principal, director of admissions, academic counselor, resource specialists, adjunct faculty member, and independent consultant for gifted children. The Ed.D. faculty members are very excited to have attracted such an accomplished group of doctoral students.

Recent Accomplishments by our Ed.D. Students

During the past several months, our students and faculty have been busy in a variety of ways. To learn more about their accomplishments, please read about their achievements below:

• Catherine Cook, Cohort 6 student, was recently hired as a Professional Development Specialist  for the Alameda County Office of Education.
• Lizette Dolan, Cohort 10 student, has spoken in the following conferences:
• California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) Regional Conference (Feb. 14, 2011). Presenter: Recruiting and Retaining People of Color: Best Practices Shared
• White Privilege Conference Youth Action Project (Minneapolis: Minnesota; April, 2011). Presenter: See-Name-Act-Proceed
• Northern California People of Color in Independent Schools (POCIS) Admission’s Directors Workshop (Sept. 23, 2011). Presenter: Beyond Checking “the Box”
• Shelese Douglas, Cohort 9 student, was selected as a graduate intern for the Arts Education Partnership Fall 2011 Forum that took place in San Francisco, Sept. 15-16.  The forum, "Transforming Urban School Systems Through the Arts" featured Milton Chen as the plenary guest speaker and brought together educational leaders, artists and arts organizations from across the nation.
• Dean Elias, Ed.D. faculty, was the keynote speaker at the Antioch Seattle Convocation (October, 2011), addressing the topic of What is the Past, Present and Future of Transformative Education for Adult Learners?
• Shirley J. Everett, Cohort 10 student, has led seminars and achieved accomplishments as follows:
• Received Stanford Leadership Academy Certificate of Completion: for senior level leaders by invitation only of the Stanford President.
• Received Letter of Commendation from Stanford President John L. Hennessy for 20 years of meritorious service to Stanford citing “Residential & Dining Enterprises has thrived under your leadership and is recognized nationally for its innovation and commitment to excellence. You have transformed the student residence and dining experience. Your leadership extends beyond the Stanford campus and brings honor to the university”.
• Conducted the following seminars for Residential & Dining Enterprises senior cabinet and key leaders: Session 1: Leading by Example; Session 2: Procurement Workshop; Session 3: Emotional Intelligence
• Vicki Eversole, Cohort 6 graduate, reports that her school, Highlands Elementary in Concord, has met the rigorous eligibility criteria for the 2012 California Distinguished School Award.  Her school is the one elementary school in Mt. Diablo Unified School District and one of ten schools in Contra Costa County to meet the eligibility requirements. Vicki took on the principal role during the 2010-11school year and has led the school to this distinction.
• Heather French, Cohort 11 student, was recently hired as the Associate Dean of Students at Holy Names University (HNU) in Oakland.  In her role at HNU, she oversees Campus Housing, Campus Activities, and Judicial Affairs. 
• Anthony Johnson, Cohort 8 student, was showcased in an article in the Merced Sun-Star, discussing the progress that Merced High School has recently made in achieving exemplary school status in California. As the Associate Principal in charge of accountability and assessment, Anthony deserves a great deal of credit for the turnaround. In brief, his philosophy is: “Relationships enable relevance and relevance enables rigor. “
• Dr. Debbra Lindo, Cohort 1 graduate, was hired this fall as the Superintendent of Schools for Emery Unified School District.
• Jenny Maguire, Cohort 7 graduate, received the 2011 Outstanding Dissertation Award for her dissertation entitled Math Camp: Co-Constructing Problem-Solving in a Summer Mathematics Program.
• A’Kilah Moore, Cohort 7 graduate, was recently elected as the president for the Academic Senate at Los Medanos Community College.
• Roque Neto, Cohort 10 student, has two recent publications.
• In conjunction with Mary True, a SMC faculty member, Roque has published an article entitled The development and treatment of impulsivity in PSICOLOGIA, Jan/Mar, 2011.
• Has published a novel, entitled PORQUE EU AMEI (For I've Loved), which has just arrived in the bookstores in Brazil.
• Janith Norman, Cohort 6 student, is serving as the Communications Director on the Board of Directors for the Research on Women and Education Special Interest Group American Educational Research Association.
• Rebecca Proehl, Ed.D. faculty, has received confirmation that her article, “Protecting our elders: An interfaith coalition to address elder abuse” has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging.
• Nancy Sorenson, Ed.D. faculty and her colleague Julie Swanson from The College of Charleston, SC presented a paper entitled Teacher performance assessment tools: Are we preparing teachers of gifted and talented students?  at the 19^th  Biennial World Conference of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children.  Prague, CZ.  August 2011.
• Jeffrey Smith’s, Cohort 8 student, has two recent accomplishments:
• His research paper entitled Screen-capture instructional technology: A cognitive tool for blended multimedia learning was selected as the best research paper by the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). He will present the paper at the research symposium held at the ACTE convention Nov. 17-19 at St. Louis, MO.  
• Jeffrey was quoted heavily in the recent Education Week article on the “flipped classroom model” in which teachers introduce lectures online for students to access at home and then use class time for group practice and projects normally relegated to homework.
• Sawako Suzuki, Ed.D. faculty has the following accomplishments:
• Suzuki, S., Holloway, S. D., Yamamoto, Y., & Behrens, K. Y. (2011). Perceived social support and parenting beliefs in Japan: A person-oriented approach. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1(11), 62-76.
• Daoust, C., & Suzuki, S. (2011, March). The public Montessori elementary teacher research project: Preliminary findings. Poster presented at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Montessori Society, Chicago, Illinois.
• Kathleen Taylor, Ed.D faculty, has been quite busy lately:
• Taylor, K and Lamoreaux, A. (2011). Prior learning assessment and the developmental journey, In. Hoare, C. (Ed.).  Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning.  New York: Oxford University Press.
• Taylor, K and Elias, D. (2011). Transforming learning and leading.  Proceedings of 9th International Transformative Learning Conference, Athens, Greece.
• Keynote Plenary Presenter: Developing the Lifelong Learner. De La Salle University Educational Congress, Manila, Philippines, Sept 29, 2011.
• North American Perspectives on Transformative Learning Theory. Taylor, Kathleen (Opening Plenary Moderator).  9th International Transformative Learning Conference (Greece) (May 2011)
• Eight students from Cohort 10 and Dr. Sawako Suzuki, Ed.D. faculty, made a presentation on their community-based research projects at the Bay Area Leadership & Social Justice Conference (at UC Berkeley campus) on October 16, 2011.

• From left to right: Roque Neto, Andria Mullan, Shirley Everett, Jennifer Levine, Ivy Summers, Margaret Coughlan, Christina Morales, and Joe Heffernan