Below are awards and honors University of Maryland College of Education faculty and students have earned between mid-February and mid-April 2026:
Department Abbreviations
CHSE | Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education
HDQM | Human Development and Quantitative Methodology
TLPL | Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
Patricia Alexander Ph.D. ’81, Distinguished University Professor; Kathryn R. Wentzel, professor emerita; and Allan Wigfield, professor emeritus (HDQM), were ranked among the most productive educational psychologists from 2017 to 2022 in a recent article in Frontiers in Psychology.
Nine College of Education students were chosen as Maryland State Department of Education Teachers of Promise. Colleges and universities in Maryland nominate their top students who are majoring in education and are in their final year. The students are then matched with Maryland’s Teachers of the Year and other award-winning educators as mentors. The 2026 Teachers of Promise from UMD are Brooke Bailey ’23, M.Ed. ’26, a master of education with certification student specializing in secondary mathematics education (TLPL); Nicholas Bentley ’26, an early childhood and early childhood special education major (CHSE/HDQM); Alvaro Diaz ’26, an elementary education major (TLPL); Tatum Kirk ’26, an elementary/middle special education major (CHSE); Isaac Matthew ’26, a secondary social studies education major (TLPL); Sydney McGovern M.Ed. ’26, a master of education with certification student specializing in secondary world languages education (TLPL); Alanna Reeves M.Ed. ’26, a master of education with certification student specializing in art education (TLPL); Angelica Reyes ’26, a middle school math and science major (TLPL); and Aspacia Vlangas ’25, M.Ed. 26, a master of education with certification student specializing in physical education (TLPL).
Nicholas Bentley ’26, an early childhood and early childhood special education major (CHSE/HDQM), along with Cindy Wang ’27, forms one of 15 teams selected as semifinalists in the UMD Do Good Institute’s annual Do Good Challenge. Bentley is executive director of Terp Thon, UMD’s largest student-run philanthropic organization. Terp Thon hosts events throughout the year, culminating in an eight-hour dance marathon, to support patients and families at Children’s National Hospital.
The Ed.D. in School System Leadership program (Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement/TLPL) was selected as a finalist for the Carnegie Project for the Education Doctorate Program of the Year for the second year in a row. The award honors education doctorate programs that have developed innovative initiatives that have been impactful for their population and community. In addition, EdDPrograms.org ranked the program No. 11 in its 2026 guide to the nation’s best Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) programs.
Marley Forbes, a Ph.D. student in human development (HDQM), was the recipient of this year’s Lee Thornton Dissertation Fellowship from the UMD Graduate School. Awarded to just one student each year, the fellowship was established to support the writing of dissertations at UMD that serve the public good. Forbes’ dissertation investigates children’s and adolescents’ moral judgments, predictions and reasoning about their own and others’ decisions to confront gender bias in a science context.
Kimberly Griffin M.A. ’01, dean and professor (CHSE), was recently elected to a three-year term as a member-at-large of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Council. This national leadership role reflects her outstanding scholarship, commitment to equity and impact on the field of education research.
Veronica Kang, assistant professor of special education (CHSE), has been elected to serve a two-year term as chair of the Family, School, Community Partnerships Special Interest Group (SIG) #43 of AERA.
Melanie Killen, Distinguished University Professor and Human Development Honors Program director (HDQM), received the 2026 Winston Family Honors Faculty Award from the UMD Honors College. This award is given each year in recognition of outstanding faculty advising, mentorship and supervision of UMD Honors students.
Jing Lin, professor of international education (CHSE), received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Comparative and International Education Society Peace Education SIG.
Doug Lombardi, professor and associate dean for faculty affairs and graduate studies (HDQM), received the Founders Service Award from the National Consortium of Instruction and Cognition (NCIC), the organization’s highest honor. Lombardi earned this recognition through more than a decade of sustained leadership on the NCIC Board (2011-25). Through multiple roles, including as newsletter editor, research program chair and board chair, he helped shape NCIC’s research programming, strengthened its outreach and communications, and guided its strategic direction.
Sarah McGrew, associate professor (TLPL), was recognized for exemplifying research excellence at UMD’s 2026 Maryland Research Excellence Celebration.
Two College of Education students were named among the 20 finalists in the UMD Graduate School’s Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition: Bridget Moran, a doctoral student in school psychology, and M Pease, a doctoral student in counseling psychology (CHSE). The competition challenges graduate students to communicate the significance of their research projects to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes.
Christine Neumerski, senior research fellow (Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement), received the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships’ Youth Voice 4 RPPs award, in recognition of her work involving and centering youth in a research-practice-partnership.
Jennifer D. Turner, professor of literacy education (TLPL), and her co-editors, Angela M. Wiseman and Marva Cappello, received the 2026 Outstanding Book Award from AERA Semiotics in Education: Signs, Meanings, and Multimodality SIG #110 for their book “Critical Visual Methods to Advance Racial Justice in Educational Research: The Seen and Unseen,” published by Routledge.
Gulnoza Yakubova, associate professor of special education; Yewon Lee, associate clinical professor of special education; and Ph.D. candidates in special education Melissa Defayette and Stuti Gupta (CHSE), along with Anthony L. Proulx of the School of Public Policy, were recognized with the Research Article of the Year award from the Journal of Special Education Technology. Their article, “Using Virtual Video Modeling Multicomponent Intervention to Improve Mathematical Skills of an Autistic High School Student : Findings from a Two-Experiment Study,” was selected from more than 40 empirical articles published in the journal last year.
