College of Education and Human Development

Dennis Nolasco’s parents immigrated to the United States from El Salvador. His father reached the 4th grade before dropping out to work on the family farm. His mother had never seen a school until she came to the U.S. Years later, Nolasco used his family’s experience as inspiration to get his license to teach English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). Read more...

Leading scholars and education policy practitioners from George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and the Schar School of Policy and Government will help students understand how education policy is debated, created, and implemented in a new master's level program this fall. The graduate-level emphasis area, Education Policy, is offered in the Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree program and is spearheaded by CEHD associate professor Spiros Protopsaltis, a former deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Education and senior Senate aide, and former Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton, now a visiting professor at CEHD and the Schar School. Read more...

Every morning, Mason alumnus Dan Reichard starts his fifth-grade class at Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School in Stafford, Va., with a secret handshake—27 of them, to be exact, one for each of his students. Reichard said it took about two weeks to memorize the handshakes he asked his students to invent at the beginning of the school year. And the students cut Reichard little slack if he forgets even the tiniest nuance. Read more...

On April 4, Andy Jacks was sitting in a meeting with the associate superintendent of Prince William County Public Schools when his secretary called and said there was an emergency in the cafeteria. Jacks had been discussing the power of good leadership with the associate superintendent. Later, Jacks realized that his colleague was engaging in a bit of creative deception. Read more...

George Mason University’s Kate Dunn had just begun high school when she first realized that coaching football was what she was always meant to do. Her passion for the game runs deep. “I love the teamwork and the dedication that is required,” she said, “and that you never know everything. You can always get better.” Dunn joined a panel of accomplished women who coached men in sports during the “Breaking Gender Roles: Women Coaching Men” Symposium on April 18, hosted by Mason’s Division of Sport, Recreation and Tourism and the Center for Sport Management. Read more...

In a career focused on learning design that has spanned decades, Shahron Williams van Rooij, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development’s Instructional Design and Technology program, has come to a realization: professionals in the world of education who want to make the jump to business often struggle. Read more...

Pablo Ramirez Uribe, a master’s student at George Mason University studying secondary education and English, said it was quite a revelation when he learned how to really be successful as teacher. More than planning, more than constructing assignments, is the ability to connect with students. “It’s go into a school and help these people grow,” Ramirez Uribe said. That was Ramirez Uribe’s takeaway from a program called “Through Students Eyes,” developed by George Mason education professor Kristien Zenkov. Read more...

Senior Brian Negron (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) and graduate student Johnny Gomez (Indialantic, Fla.) represent George Mason on the 2018 EIVA All-Academic team and mark the third time in the last four years the Patriots have had multiple players on the list. The list has 19 players and the Patriots are one of five teams to have multiple players selected. Read more...

In March several faculty members from the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at George Mason University had the opportunity to travel to a rural area of Puerto Rico with a small team from Counselors Without Borders. Among the people they met was a 25-year-old who had begun withdrawing from society before Hurricane Maria hit the island last September. After the storm wreaked its devastation, his condition worsened. Read more...

One of the College of Education and Human Development’s youngest programs has completed the accreditation process, providing further proof that the new classes are equipping students with the tools they need to succeed in the field of athletic training. The Master of Science in Athletic Training (MSAT) program at Mason, housed on the Science and Technology campus, recently received accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education, or CAATE. Read more...