Alumni News
Alumni Magazine “@SED” wins 2012 CASE District I Communications Silver Award for Newspapers/Newsletters Category.
The Boston University School of Education alumni magazine, @SED, recently won a communications award from the Council for Advancement & Support of Education (CASE) District I. This year, 2012, @SED won a silver award in the category of “Newsletters/Newspapers” for its full-color print publications. The award was accepted on behalf of the @SED team by Patrick Kennedy, Editor, Garyfallia Pagonis, Art Director, and Ray Billings, Development and Alumni Relations Officer.
Neely Steinberg (SED ’03) host of The Dating Marketplace with Nic and Neely.
Part advisor, part cheerleader, Steinberg, 33, is one half of the voice, brains, and style behind The Dating Marketplace with Nic and Neely, a new weekly internet radio show about dating, relationships, and sex, which she cohosts with personal dating coach Nic Johnson, 36, founder of Personal Edge Consulting. Click here to read Neely’s story on BU Today.
Rachel McCormack (SED ’95) Promoted to full Professor at Roger Williams University
Rachel McCormack was recently promoted to Full Professor and Department Chair. Rachel has been at Roger Williams as an Associate Professor in the Literacy Education dept. She will now chair that dept., as well as teach Literacy Education and Children’s Literature.
Christine Baron (SED’10) wins two prestigious awards
This year, Christine Baron won both the National Council on Public History’s Excellence in Consulting Award and the American Association for State and Local History’s Leadership in History Award of Merit for her work directing the development of educational and interpretation programs at Boston’s Old North Church. Christine received her EdD from the School of Education this past May.
SED’s prolific publishing profiles: Fiction
Americans in Space (Thomas Dunne Books) | Mary E. Mitchell (SED’83)
“Somewhere in the cocoon of sadness of the last two years, I misplaced all of my niceness,” says Kate Cavanaugh, the grieving widow and mother of two at the center of Mitchell’s third novel. That may explain her decreasing tolerance for her rebellious teenage daughter, her overly maternal (but childless) next-door neighbor, her four-year-old son, who won’t stop hoarding ketchup bottles, and just about every other person who floats in and out of her half-lived life. Still trapped in her emotional bubble two years after her husband’s death, Kate struggles to reconnect with those closest to her without projecting her sorrow onto them.
Kate may not be particularly pleasant, but Mitchell gives her protagonist just the right amount of caustic wit and human weakness to draw the reader into her chaotic world. The book is full of tragedies both small (Kate’s awkward first dates with a soccer dad) and large (the suicide of one of the students she counsels at the local high school). But Mitchell’s deft handling of the final stages of grief — that light at the end of the tunnel that sometimes seems like an oncoming train — rarely wavers in this account of a woman trying to put her family, and her own life, back together. ~Katie
Additional News
Margaret Nally (SMG’48, SED’64) of Newton, N.H., a World War II Navy veteran and retired teacher, was honored at an informational fair for women veterans sponsored by the New Hampshire chapter of Women Veterans of America. She has served as the state director, vice president, or president of the Granite State WAVES Unit 33 for the past 22 years and has been a member of the state’s Veterans Council for 12 years.
Irving J. Heller (SED’50,’51) of West Palm Beach, Fla., was honored by the Boston University Athletics Hall of Fame board of directors, which voted to name its scholarship fund the Irving J. Heller Athletic Hall of Fame Scholarship. Irving, a former BU football player and coach of the freshman team, is a member of the Hall of Fame.
Charles Mitsakos (SED’63,’77) of Chelmsford, Mass., received an award for more than 30 years of outstanding service from the Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies at the Northeast Regional Conference on the Social Studies in Boston. In June, he was recognized internationally with the Irving Morrissett Award for Excellence in Social Science Education in Boulder, Colo. Charles, a former superintendent of schools in Winchester, Mass., has written 20 books on history and social studies for elementary, middle, and high school students. He retired last year as a professor of education at Rivier College in Nashua, N.H. E-mail him at charles@charlesmitsakos.com.
Gloria Burkin (CAS’65, SED’73, SSW’91) of Chilmark, Mass., has been busy landscape painting on Martha’s Vineyard since her retirement. Check out her Web site at www.gloriaburkin.com.
Ellen G. Makofsky (DGE’64, SED’66) of Sands Point, N.Y., a founding partner of the law firm Raskin & Makofsky, was recently named a 2009 Super Lawyer in the elder law practice area by the organization Law and Politics. She is the treasurer of the Estate Planning Council of Nassau County, Inc., and a member-at-large of the executive committee of the New York State Bar Association.
Audry McKenna Lynch (SED’68) of Saratoga, Calif., published The Rebel Figure in American Literature and Film: The Interconnectedness of John Steinbeck and James Dean (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), which examines the educational, professional, and social similarities in the backgrounds of Steinbeck and Dean.
Ronna Flaschner (SED’69,’70) of Rye, N.H., published her first novel, Templates (Osiail Publishing, 2009). Visit www.osiail.com/books.html for more information.
Marcia Prosco Daunis (SED’74) of Lowell, Mass., published Miller’s Ben (PublishAmerica, 2008), a story of two orphans at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The novel follows Ben and his little sister, who “start as street urchins and change as their circumstances dictate,” Marcia writes.
Frederica Dunn (SED’78) of Alexandria, Va., recently published two travel articles in The Post-Journal, the local paper in Jamestown, N.Y.
Val Williams (SED’79) of Edison, N.J., published her sixth book, The Influence Puzzle: 6 Aspects of Powerful Executive Presence (Shadowbrook Publishing, 2008). Val’s executive leadership consulting business, which she established in 1994, specializes in enabling senior executives to “up their game when it comes to creating value,” she writes. Val presents seminars for teams and individual leaders globally, both in person and virtually. Visit www.valwilliams.com, or e-mail her at valwins@aol.com.
Marcie (Poller) Babyatsky (SED’80) of Tenafly, N.J., was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the New York City Department of Education for outstanding service as a cooperating teacher. Contact Marcie at marbelle52@aol.com.
Helene (Prushan) Rosen (SED’82) of Conshohocken, Pa., a sales consultant at Health Advocate in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., is working on a new program called Health Proponent. “The program provides advocates who assist individuals and families in navigating the intricacies of the health-care system,” Helene writes. E-mail her at hrosen@healthadvocate.com.
Todd D. Flaherty (SED’84) of Wakefield, R.I., is the interim president and CEO of the College Crusade of Rhode Island, a college readiness and scholarship program for middle and high school students in low-income urban school districts.
William Lytle (SED’84) of Lincoln, Mass., published The Essential Organizer: An Ongoing Record of Your Estate & Personal Information (William O. Lytle, 2009). The book provides a place for people to record essential information for handling legal, financial, health, and practical matters.
Santo Joseph Aurelio (SED’89) of Arlington, Mass., appears five times a year on The Jordan Rich Show on Boston’s WBZ radio. Listeners of the show call in with English grammar questions for Joseph, an English professor. E-mail Joseph at sjaurelio@aol.com.
Jodi Zeramby (CAS’93, SED’93) of Tucson, Ariz., published her first book, Castles Built on Clouds (Lightarian Institute, 2009). After graduating from BU, Jodi became a Massachusetts attorney and an English teacher. She is the founding chair of Phoenix Charter Academy, a charter school in Chelsea, Mass. Four years ago she moved to Arizona and has since taught various law-related courses and has become an escrow officer. Jodi is married and is in the process of adopting two children.
Robin (Haley) Bulleri (SED’99,’01) and Michael Bulleri (CAS’00) of Durham, N.C., announce the birth of their daughter, Maeve Eliza, on October 25, 2008. Robin is a teacher, and Michael is an attorney. E-mail Robin at mrsbulleri@hotmail.com.
Jonathan White (SED’07) of Somerville, Mass., was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarship to the Czech Republic to teach English as a foreign language for the 2009–2010 academic year.
