This is the season for giving thanks, and today I extend my gratitude to our students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends for all that you do for the Feinstein College of Education.

As a premiere College of Education, we are committed to preparing students to become education professions in diverse settings, while ensuring equitable opportunities for all learners. We are also steadfast in our approach to providing real world applications to our students and education community.

With that in mind, we invited a panel of R.I. State Teachers of the Year to share their insights and experiences with the issues and challenges of teaching in today’s educational settings. You can read the full article of this interesting and timely discussion in this issue of Educators & Innovators.

As we learn from those who have been recognized for their work as educators, we also wanted to hear from those intending to enter the profession, so we established the College’s first Student Advisory Board to act as a voice for our students. Their commentaries have shed new light on the experiences we provide students. You can read more about what is most meaningful to them in that article.

Also in this edition of Educators & Innovators, we feature the research of our esteemed faculty in our new THEORY IN PRACTICE section, and we highlight the continuing work of our own Sara Sweetman, who is an educational consultant for a variety of popular children’s television shows.

You will also read how our alumni continue to make us proud. Meredith Stanley Caswell ’75 was recently inducted into the Pawtucket Hall of Fame, and Wilson Okello MS ’12 has published a new book that is changing ideas about humanity that underline the field of student development.

I am so proud of the strides we are making as a college, as a community, and as a role model for the profession.

Danielle V. Dennis
Dean