Student & Alumni Accomplishments

Student & Alumni Accomplishments from the School of Education
Student or Alumni	Accomplishment
Dr. Riley Drake, COUN'11	Co-authored a book titled Abolition in School Counseling: Practicing Liberation and Community in PK-12 Schools, published spring 2026.
Dr. Qi Shi, GR '09	Has been appointed as Director of Loyola University Maryland's new Center for Equity Leadership and Social Justice in Education.Dr. Qi Shi graduated from Drake's counseling program.
Sarah Hamilton, JO, '02, GR '07, '15	Was presented with the 2021 High School Teacher of Excellence Award from the Iowa Council of Teachers of English. Hamilton teaches English and serves as the journalism advisor at Hoover High School in the metro of Des Moines.
Sydnei Washington	School of Education student Sydnei Washington received the Presidents’ Student Leadership Award from the Iowa Campus Compact. This award "recognizes an individual student or a student organization that models a deep commitment to civic responsibility and leadership, evidenced by initiative, innovative and collaborative approaches to addressing public issues, effective community building, and integration of civic engagement into the college experience."
Hallie Edgerly, GR '19	As part of her dissertation work, co-published an article with Drake faculty member Jerrid Kruse, Associate Professor of Science Education and Jesse Wilcox. The article, Quantitatively Investigating Inservice Elementary Teachers' Nature of Science Views was published in Research in Science Education, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11165-021-09993-7.
Joleen Henning and Neal Patel, ED '15, GR '18, along with Colin Seebach, ED '15, and Katherine Carmen, ED '15, GR '18	Published an article with faculty member Jerrid Kruse, Associate Professor of Science Education. The article, Investigating the Correlation Between Preservice Elementary Teachers' Self-Efficacy and Science Teaching Practices can be found in the Journal of Science Teacher Education, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1046560X.2020.1861767
Dau Jok, GR '21	Earned national recognition for SEL Leadership for his work at Des Moines Public Schools. SEL stands for social and emotional learning and Jok was recently named to the first group of members to the SEL Fellows Academy by CASEL, the national non-profit organization which founded the field of SEL.
Flor Soto Contreras	Clinical Mental Health Counseling student and Drake Head Start employee, received the Iowa Mental Health Counselors Association Foundation scholarship. Flor plans to provide bilingual (Spanish and English) counseling services. In particular, she hopes to provide advocacy and education to break stigmas about mental health concerns, especially for Spanish speaking communities. Flor is planning to work with Spanish-speaking and other immigrant communities to normalize help-seeking for mental illness. This is an area in need of attention and advocacy from professional counselors.
Noreen Colbeck-Busck, GR '05	Honored with the National Female Superintendent Award. AASA, the School Superintendents Association indicated that the awards pays "tribute to the talent, creativity and vision of outstanding women educational administrators in the nation’s public schools." Noreen is the superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District.
Molly Shepard, GR '19 and Chad Cardani-Trollinger, GR '20	Along with colleagues Tara Widner, Iowa State University, and Matthew Yates, University of Connecticut, presented at the 22nd Annual ILA Global Conference: Leadership at the Edge. Their presentation, "Getting there and back: Designing leadership-based cultural development experiences," discussed the various pieces that come together to develop effective leadership based short-term international programming.
Amanda Clark, GR '05, '19	Congratulations to Amanda Clark, GR '05, '19, who is a co-author of the recently-published book by Routledge entitled: Implementing Project-Based Learning in Early Childhood: Overcoming Misconceptions and Reaching Success.
Russ Adams, GR '93	Named the 2020-21 Iowa Superintendent of the Year. Adams is the Superintendent of the MOC-Floyd Valley Community School District. The nomination came from his peers and a committee of Iowa superintendents selected the award recipient.
Sarah Voss, GR '20	At the annual meeting of the North Central region of the Association for Science Teacher Education held in October, Sarah Voss, GR '20, was awarded the Davis-Foster Graduate Student Paper Award for the paper titled, " Comparing Student Responses to Convergent, Divergent, and Evaluative Nature of Science Questions.” Sarah’s award includes funding to attend the national Association for Science Teacher Education meeting in January, 2021.
Anthony Ferguson, GR '17, '20	Anthony Ferguson, GR '17, '20, was recently appointed as Executive director of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity for West Des Moines Community Schools (WDMCS). WDMCS has committed to actionable steps to create equity in their schools and ensure that all voices are heard. Dr. Ferguson takes his mindset of equity to this role and will build a collaborative culture through data driven solutions to support the real-life challenges facing communities of color.
Erin Lain, GR '16, and Stephanie Oppel, GR '19	Erin Lain, GR '16, and Stephanie Oppel, GR '19, are members of the prestigious Forty under 40 metro area recognition for people who are young movers and shakers. These 40 local business leaders, who were chosen by past award winners, are under the age of 40 and have demonstrated impressive career achievements and unparalleled community involvement.