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Supporting Scholarly Practitioners within Communities of Practice: A Residency & Research Symposium Model
Friday, April 17, 2026, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT
Category: Events

CPED Challenge Friday

Supporting Scholarly Practitioners within Communities of Practice: A Residency & Research Symposium Model

Date: Friday, April 17, 2026

Time: 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET 

The presenters will focus on Sacred Heart’s annual summer Residency & Research Symposium as a unique program feature that provides our students time to learn from educational leaders and each other. Through shared narratives of strategies for navigating a turbulent political climate related to social emotional learning, our program’s specialization, to candid conversations about problems of practice, the program enhances community, collaboration, and collective efficacy. Annually, doctoral cohorts convene at our main campus for three days and focus on cohort-specific needs (IRB, artificial intelligence, writing workshop). Additionally, we explore current, relevant topics, hear dissertation proposal defenses, engage with invited speakers, and network during research presentations.The Residency & Research Symposium guarantees our program community an intentional space for networking, learning exchanges, highlighting post-doc successes and challenges, and showcasing research in its various stages. As a program focused on social, emotional and academic leadership (SEAL), candidates’ dissertations address problems of practice centered in the SEAL space. Our symposium intentionally provides doctoral candidates and alumni the opportunity to amplify the voices of teachers and students experiencing trauma, inequities resulting from race, gender, socio-economic status, disparate outcomes resulting from systemic structures, and more.

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Presenters:

Kathleen Wallace

Kathleen Wallace, Ed.D. is Assistant Clinical Professor Educational & Literacy Leadership at Sacred Heart University. Dr. Wallace has taught at the collegiate, high school and grade school levels. Her early career focused on serving as a literacy coach and reading specialist for both students and faculty. She also served as an intermediate school principal for eight years. 
Her research interests include domestic and international teacher preparation programs, culturally sustaining pedagogy. Dr. Wallace received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Loyola University in Maryland and doctoral degree the University of Bridgeport in Educational Leadership with an international concentration. 

Maureen Ruby

Maureen F. Ruby, DMD, PhD is the Isabelle Farrington Endowed Chair of Social, Emotional, & Academic Learning, the Director of The Center of Excellence for Belonging & Leadership, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational and Literacy Leadership at the Farrington College of Education and Human Development at Sacred Heart University.

A dentist-turned-educator, Maureen served in the U.S. Public Health Service as a Commisioned Officer and was stationed in under-resourced communities. Maureen is a 2000 Connecticut State Teacher of the Year semifinalist. She has worked at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels as a classroom teacher and reading consultant. She holds Connecticut certifications in elementary education (113), special education (165), remedial reading (102), literacy consultancy (097), and leadership at the 092 and 093 levels. Upon receiving her PhD in special education with a focus on literacy (UConn), she served as program coordinator of the Graduate Reading Program at Eastern Connecticut State University (102 and 097 reading certifications). Maureen completed a two year Ashoka-Changemaker Fellowship at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence in May 2019, and served as a thought partner/advisor for the School Leader Think Tank at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

As an administrator, Maureen served in the New London Public Schools as Supervisor of Professional Learning and Staff Development and in the Norwalk Public Schools as Literacy Supervisor and interim Director of Pupil Services and Special Education. She served as assistant superintendent of the Brookfield Public Schools for seven years where her portfolio included curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional learning, grants, and human resources. She was the Farrington College of Education Alumni Outstanding Administrator for 2018, and the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education Outstanding Administrator for 2019 (opens in a new window).

Maureen has served as author and principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants totaling $5,362,088 and grant consultant on grants totaling $3,277,488. This work includes serving as co-principal investigator for a $3.9 million federal Early Reading First grant, Community Partners for Early Literacy (CEPL). Inspiring Lessons (opens in a new window) is a 30-minute video that shares some of the important lessons learned during the CEPL project. 

Her work in the field of artificial intelligence this year includes numerous conference and school presentations on assessment development in the context of AI. Maureen was a faculty team that developed Sacred Heart University’s interdisciplinary minor in Artificial Intelligence for non-computer science majors (https://www.sacredheart.edu/news-room/news-listing/new-ai-minor-designed-for-non-computer-majors/). Other current research activities focus on educational neuroscience, application of storyboard methodology, curriculum development, SEL, literacy, and parent support.

Maureen is a member of the UNESCO Global Alliance on the Science of Learning, the Director of the Center of Excellence for Belonging and Leadership, and the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Excellence in Ethicas inTeaching, Learning, and Leadership. She presents regularly at international, national, and regional conferences. She serves on the board of directors of the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council, Encore at Sacred Heart University, the Advisory Board of The Language Comprehension Institute, as well as several education committees in state and national organizations. 

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