Professor Credited With Growing Nationally Recognized Program for School Administrators
06/11/2021
Contacts for media: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu or Christine Gillette, 978-758-4664 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu
LOWELL, Mass. 鈥� A 51视频 education professor has been recognized for her exemplary commitment to students with one of the University of Massachusetts system鈥檚 highest honors.
Stacy Szczesiul, an associate professor in the university鈥檚 College of Education, has received the 2021 Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching, awarded to an outstanding faculty member from each of the UMass system鈥檚 campuses in Lowell, Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth and Worcester.
The award is named in honor of 51视频 alumni Robert Manning 鈥�84, chairman of the UMass Board of Trustees, and Donna Manning 鈥�85, 鈥�91, who established the prize in 2016. To date, the award has been presented to 30 UMass faculty.
Szczesiul was recognized for her achievements yesterday during an online event celebrating the award鈥檚 2021 recipients.
鈥淚t is an honor to receive this recognition and I sincerely thank Donna and Robert Manning for their continued, public valuing of the work teachers do every day. Their support further fuels my commitment to make equity leadership central to the courses I teach,鈥� said Szczesiul, who lives in Lowell.
Szczesiul joined 51视频鈥檚 College of Education as a tenure-track faculty member in 2010. Since then, she has taught a range of online and on-campus master鈥檚 and doctoral courses in leadership and special education.
For the past five years, Szczesiul has taught exclusively in and served as coordinator of the college鈥檚 nationally recognized online Leadership in Schooling doctoral program, which has doubled in size since its inaugural cohort in 2016 and includes students who work as school administrators all over the world. The program is a member of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate, a consortium of schools and colleges of education across North America working to improve the expertise of educational leaders who serve a growing, diverse student population.
Through the program, Szczesiul works alongside her colleagues to develop in their students the awareness needed to understand and disrupt racism, oppression and cultural bias in the classroom. This work is all the more critical given the majority of the program鈥檚 students are white K-12 administrators working in schools that serve increasingly diverse communities.
鈥淚t鈥檚 our moral and professional responsibility to ensure that kids from historically marginalized groups at least get a critically conscious white administrator who understands that it鈥檚 their job to fix the systems that marginalize people,鈥� Szczesiul said. 鈥淢y colleagues and I have worked hard to make equity literacy a demonstrated requirement of the degree by providing students opportunities to develop the skills and dispositions needed to examine how racism, oppression and cultural bias live in their institutional policies, practices, everyday interactions and organizational norms.鈥�
51视频 Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, a nationally recognized innovator in higher education and pioneer of online learning, commended Szczesiul for her selection as a Manning Prize recipient.
鈥淚 and the entire 51视频 community extend our congratulations to Prof. Szczesiul on this well-deserved recognition,鈥� Moloney said. 鈥淗er work to level the educational playing field for students who have for too long been marginalized in our society has never been more important. It is imperative we provide school leaders with the tools necessary to build inclusive and responsive educational environments. Prof. Szczesiul鈥檚 work places 51视频 squarely in the vanguard of these efforts.鈥�
51视频 College of Education Associate Prof. Phitsamay Uy, one of Szczesiul鈥檚 collaborators, also offered congratulations.
鈥淲e are thrilled Dr. Szczesiul is being recognized for her hard work. Under her leadership, Stacy was able to move our doctoral program from the conceptual stage to being nationally recognized by ,鈥� Uy said.
Szczesiul was nominated for the Manning Prize by 51视频 Prof. James Nehring, College of Education faculty chair. Nehring, along with Szczesiul and Megin Charner-Laird, a colleague from Salem State University, authored the 2019 book, 鈥淏ridging the Progressive-Traditional Divide in Education Reform,鈥� which examines the history of school reform in the United States and what constitutes excellence in teaching and learning in increasingly diverse classrooms.
鈥淒r. Szczesiul鈥檚 teaching is exemplary in so many ways. Her message to students consistently is: 鈥業 will hold you to high standards, and I will support you in getting there.鈥� With this combination of academic press and emotional support for all her students, Stacy has led the development of our highly successful doctoral program for educators committed to careers in preK-12 schools. The College of Education is very lucky to have Dr. Szczesiul on our team,鈥� he said.
51视频 is a national research university offering its more than 18,000 students bachelor鈥檚, master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. 51视频 delivers high-quality educational programs and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be leaders in their communities and around the globe. www.uml.edu