Reunions 2024 events will be published here in the early spring — stay tuned!
A record of 2023 events is below.

Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Alumni-Faculty Forum: Changing Perceptions on Education in the United States

May 26, 2023 @ 2:30 pm - 3:45 pm

Changing Perceptions on Education in the United States

Location:  McCosh Hall, Room 10

 

Moderator:

Todd W. Kent 83
Director, Program in Teacher Preparation, Princeton University

Panelists:

Georgia Nugent ’73
President, Illinois Wesleyan University

Dan Gecker ’78
President, Virginia Board of Education

Anju Reejhsinghani ’93
Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Chief Diversity Officer, University of California Santa Cruz

Anna Hall ’03
CEO, Northeast Charter Schools Network

Kit Tollerson ’08
Partner, TNTP

 


Moderator

Todd W. Kent ’83
Todd Kent is the Director of the Program in Teacher Preparation, which allows undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni to earn both a Princeton University certificate and state licensure for teaching in middle or secondary schools. He teaches the program’s introductory course and supervises students in the areas of math, science and social studies.  Kent has published scholarly work in the areas of educational technology, pedagogical content knowledge, and case-based teaching methods.  Kent joined the Program in Teacher Preparation in 1997 after a successful career at the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, where he taught science at the middle and high school levels, chaired the science department and served as high school principal.  He earned a doctorate in educational evaluation and a master’s degree in the social foundations of education from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.

 

Panelists

Georgia Nugent ’73
After graduation from Princeton, Georgia went on to earn a Ph.D. in classics from Cornell University. She has been a professor on the faculties of Swarthmore, Brown, Cornell and Kenyon, as well as Princeton. In 1991, she transitioned from the professoriate to academic administration. At Princeton, she served as assistant to President Harold Shapiro *64, associate provost and founding dean of the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. Over the past twenty years, she has been president of Kenyon College, the College of Wooster, and (currently) Illinois Wesleyan University. In each case, she has been the first woman to hold the position. Georgia is nationally recognized as an advocate for liberal arts education, and continues to write and speak both on classical literature and on issues in higher education. For thirty-two years, she has had the great good fortune to be married to Tom Scherer, Class of ‘84.

Dan Gecker ’78
Dan Gecker served in elected and appointed positions in Chesterfield County, Virginia, for 20 years. When he left local elected office at the end of 2015, Dan was appointed to the Virginia Board of Education, the body that has primary responsibility for education policy in Virginia. He has been president of the board since July 1, 2017. Political changes in Virginia and an increased presence of education issues in the media have put the work of the board in the spotlight. Dan’s role has been to help the board navigate the new education landscape, trying to maintain focus on long-term education goals while dealing with the politics of the day.

Anju Reejhsinghani ’93
Anju Reejhsinghani’s research intersects with Latin American, Latinx, African American, and Asian American studies and with race, gender, diaspora, and sport. Prior to joining the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2022, she served as assistant vice provost for strategic diversity, equity, and inclusion administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and as executive director of the UW-Madison Institute for Regional and International Studies. Before entering higher education administration, she was a tenured associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean history at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a four-year regional public campus. She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin and a diploma in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Anna Hall ’03
Anna Hall serves as the CEO for the Northeast Charter Schools Network (NECSN), the umbrella organization for both the New York and Connecticut Charter Schools Associations. These state charter associations provide school support and advocacy to almost 400 charter schools serving over 200,000 students in primarily underserved communities. Before coming to NECSN, Anna served for almost a decade as the chief operating officer for Uncommon Schools in Boston, Rochester, and Troy. In this capacity, Anna led operations across 13 high-performing charter schools, serving over 5,000 students. Anna began her career in education as a Teach for America corps member in Eastern North Carolina as a 7th-grade teacher. She holds a B.A. in Politics from Princeton University, and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Anna’s master’s thesis examining education funding policy in Massachusetts was awarded the Fischer Prize and was published by the Rappaport Institute.

Kit Tollerson ’08
Kit is a partner at TNTP, a national education non-profit. He leads projects across New York State building capacity and providing support for PK-12 schools and school systems, universities and education-focused nonprofits. Prior to TNTP, he was a teacher and a principal, and worked in senior leadership roles at an ed tech startup. He has also worked as an advisor to education companies and organizations. Tollerson lives in New York City, where he grew up, with his wife Alanna, their daughter Sonoma and son Rylan. He is actively involved in his community, currently serving as the co-chair of Manhattan Community Board 4’s Arts, Education and Culture Committee, as well as sitting on the board’s Executive and Chelsea Land Use committees. He is also a trustee at Saint Ann’s, an independent school in Brooklyn.

Details

Date:
May 26, 2023
Time:
2:30 pm - 3:45 pm
Event Category:
Event Tags:
, , , , ,

Venue

McCosh 10
NJ United States + Google Map