Paul Thayer
BU Wheelock Celebrates Four Retiring Faculty Members
Four long-time faculty members who have made a lasting mark on BU Wheelock and its community are retiring at the end of this academic year. Linda Banks-Santilli, Ellen Faszewski, Lisa Ijiri, and Paul Thayer have each made significant contributions to their fields and to the college through their leadership, scholarship, and service. “These four members […]
Partnering with Parents in Education
Clinical associate professor Paul Thayer is the coauthor of a new book, Family Engagement in Education: Inclusive Approaches for Creating Collaborative and Equitable School Communities (Routledge, 2026). Thayer, a faculty member in the Child Life & Family-Centered Care program at BU Wheelock, hopes this new book will help educators reframe their relationships with parents and other caregivers and […]
Scholarly Accomplishments, March 2026
BU Wheelock presents the following faculty publications, presentations, and research grant awards for March 2026 Books Passi, J., Thayer, P., Littlebear, J., & Parker-Katz, M. (2026). Family engagement in education: Inclusive approaches for creating collaborative and equitable school communities. Routledge. Book Chapters Shernoff, D.J & Bempechat, J. (2025). Sociocultural influences on flow as student engagement. In […]
Child Life at 50
Through the mid-20th century, children recovering from everything from a routine tonsillectomy to more serious diseases such as polio languished in their hospital beds without games or activities to help pass the time. Family visits were often heavily restricted, and child hospitalizations were long and particularly unpleasant. A movement in the early 1960s, in part […]