Boston University Holmes Scholars Ayana Bass (Wheelock’27) (left), a Wheelock doctoral student, and Azaria Cunningham a Wheelock postdoctoral researcher.

Higher Education

Wheelock Program Aims to Broaden Who Stands in Front of Classrooms

BU’s Holmes Scholars chapter is part of a national effort to create a more representative educational workforce

For the past decade, Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development has been home to a chapter of a national scholars program that is working to broaden who stands at the front of classrooms. 

The Holmes Scholars Program was created by the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) in 1991. The program provides professional development support to master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral education students at almost 70 AACTE partner institutions across the country, with the goal of creating a more diverse higher-education workforce that represents all students. Since its founding, the program “has built a pipeline of education leaders and scholars, reflecting the richness of America’s student population,” according to the AACTE website.

This year, AACTE chose BU to host the 2025 Holmes Research and Dissertation Retreat (known as the R&D retreat), an annual conference for Holmes Scholars across the United States, on November 7 and 8.

“We were so pleased to be selected to host this year’s Research and Dissertation Retreat,” says Wheelock Dean Penny Bishop. “The Holmes program connects our graduate students and postdocs with a powerful national cohort of researchers. The opportunity complements the work they do here at BU and strengthens the leadership and advocacy skills of our next generation of education and human development scholars.”

An evolving program

Since its inception in 2015, 12 master’s, 7 doctoral, and 4 postdoctoral scholars have gone through Wheelock’s Holmes program. The current cohort of Holmes Scholars comprises five PhD students and one postdoc.

The program has undergone several evolutions over the years, says Holmes program coordinator Michael Dennehy (CAS’92, Wheelock’01), executive director of Wheelock’s College Access & Student Success program. 

When BU launched its Holmes Scholars chapter, only PhD students could apply. Not long after, AACTE piloted a Holmes master’s student program, and Wheelock quickly became part of it. Notably, in 2018, the college launched the first postdoctoral Holmes program in the country, at the behest of Catherine O’Connor, then Wheelock dean ad interim. Wheelock decided to pause the Holmes master’s student program in 2023 to grow the PhD and postdoc programs. 

An additional change: historically, the Holmes program was for scholars of color. Public schools are becoming more diverse across the country. “Doctoral students are the ones who are going to go on to graduate, complete their PhD, and then teach in higher ed,” Dennehy explains. “The rationale was that if we expect K-12 schools to make an effort to hire teachers that reflect a diverse student population, colleges of education should also have [diverse] faculty who can prepare students to become those teachers and do a more culturally competent job of preparing educators.” 

Wheelock opened its Holmes program to all doctoral students in 2023, following Supreme Court decisions on university admissions practices. The program now prioritizes first-generation students, Dennehy says.

One important distinction: it’s a scholars program, not a scholarship program. Holmes Scholars receive career development support, such as paid travel and board for Holmes and AACTE conferences and preconference events (scholars are required to attend at least one Holmes R&D retreat during their tenure). 

“This provides our scholars with opportunities to present their research at these forums and build their CVs,” Dennehy says. “It provides them with opportunities to get mentorship and advice on preparing their dissertation, all of which is an add-on to the supports they already get as Wheelock PhD students.”

Community is another key aspect of the program, according to Dennehy. The BU Holmes cohort has regular meetings and outings as well as attending AACTE events.

The program “is really designed to help create that community within the college, but then also connect folks to a national community of scholars who share similar research interests, similar life goals, and maybe similar life stories,” he says.

The program is “life-changing” 

Postdoc researcher Azaria Cunningham is indebted to that community. 

A three-time Holmes Scholar, Cunningham first participated in a master’s student program at William Paterson University in New Jersey. Then she became a Holmes’ doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University. Now, as a Holmes postdoctoral associate at BU, her program experience has been life-changing, she says.

Cunningham is a former middle school science educator. At Wheelock, her research centers on how teacher-educators create learning experiences for student teachers. As a Holmes postdoc, she says, one of her favorite features is the built-in mentorship from her faculty mentor, Davena Jackson, a Wheelock assistant professor of urban education. And after almost a decade as a Holmes Scholar, the people she met at Holmes conferences years ago are still her friends—and now article coauthors and copresenters at academic events.

Cunningham hopes to work as a professor once her postdoc position wraps up. “The AACTE Holmes Scholars program has served as a conduit, a community, and a platform where I have discovered my academic voice and place in academia,” she says. “I knew the statistics—how few scholars of color advance through the pipeline to tenure-track positions. But in Holmes, I found a network of mentors, peers, and advocates who not only understood these challenges, but were actively working to change them. 

“Many times you hear that academia has a hidden curriculum, and it does; without community spaces such as Holmes, I believe I would have failed to consider entering the profession of higher education.”

The American education system—especially the public education system—is highly dependent on individuals who care enough to make it better. And that’s where Holmes Scholars can help.

Ayana Bass (Wheelock’27) has spent her academic career studying education policy and special and individualized education. Prior to Wheelock, she earned a master’s degree in urban education policy and leadership from Brown University. She came to BU to pursue a doctoral degree—recruited under a multi-university, special education/school psychology grant—and continue her research on policy, educator development and retention, and national literacy initiatives.

Bass became part of the Holmes cohort during her first semester, in fall 2022. Three years in, the experience is very meaningful, she says. Education is in a critical moment, she notes. (The teaching profession is currently experiencing the lowest levels of employment in 50 years, while test scores plummet across the nation.) America’s students need educators and administrators dedicated to ensuring that every student has access to the support they need to succeed.

And that’s exactly who she’s met at Holmes conferences, according to Bass. As a Holmes Scholar, she’s had the opportunity “to learn and grow as an academic through presenting my own research on different platforms and receiving meaningful feedback from a wide range of scholars in the field. I’ve also been able to connect with a network of really dope, brilliant scholars across different fields, who I know I can collaborate with along my future career and research journey.”

(Another cool opportunity: Bass had the chance to attend a Washington, DC, policy week, during which Holmes Scholars go to Capitol Hill and engage with politicians around education policy initiatives.) 

Her dissertation examines how schools support students receiving intensive literacy interventions. Going forward, she hopes to leverage the connections and skills garnered as a Holmes Scholar to continue advocating for learners of all abilities.

“The Holmes program seeks to foster and support advocacy, professional development, and networking for the educator preparation community, and that is what I have received during my journey,” Bass says. 

“It’s been a great experience.”

Interested in applying for a Holmes Scholar position for the 2026-2027 academic year? Find more information here, and email Michael Dennehy at mdennehy@bu.edu to start an application.