NACCTEP Now

This episode brings listeners to New Jersey where Raritan Valley Community College Professor of Education and Education Program Coordinator Dr. Kathy Suk and Mr. Edward Gordon II, CEO of the Gordon Leadership Academy and founder of the Gordon Leadership Foundation, discuss guiding teacher candidates through RVCC's Associate of Arts in Education K-12 program. During a sabbatical a few years ago...

In this episode we hear from Gracy Obuchowicz whose background in self-care and wellness extends to teachers and school leaders through her work at Empower Ed. She discusses how burnout can be a demoralization or moral injury and suggests making small changes, or kaizens, to help counteract that feeling. Simple things like getting enough sleep, giving yourself five extra minutes in the morning, en...

In this episode of NACCTEP Now, Julie Ferin sits down with the incredible Dr. Tina Boogren for a conversation that every educator and leader needs right now. Drawing from her work as an award-winning educator, bestselling author, and national speaker, Dr. Boogren brings both research and real-life experience to the forefront. She shares powerful insights on educator burnout, the difference between...

Dr. Mary Olvera is the State Director of Teacher Education, Public Services, and Perkins Special Populations for the North Carolina Community College System. In this episode she shares the unique structure of community colleges in NC, that there are 58 that all use a singular curriculum and none are more than 30 miles from their students across 100 counties. They operate in service areas, and if t...

In this episode we hear from Dr. Jennifer Gresko of Rio Salado College and Heather Merrill of Glendale Community College discuss the joint bachelor of elementary education and special education program they share with Paradise Valley Community College in the Maricopa County Community College District, MCCCD. When state legislation passed to allow community colleges to offer bachelor degrees in 202...

As we continue the conversation with Kim Eckert, Craft Education's head of Instructional Innovation and Apprenticeship Design and former Louisiana Teacher of the Year in this second half of our two-part series, we learn about how to start small while aiming for larger scale implementation. By gathering all the constituents a program will need, such as higher education faculty, district leaders...

In this first half of our two-part series with Craft Education's  head of Instructional Innovation and Apprenticeship Design, Kim Eckert, we learn why teacher apprenticeships are vitally important to the future of teacher education. As part of that importance, we also hear how community colleges are ideally positioned to lead this work that endeavors to break down the financial barriers that t...

In this episode we here from Dr. Kevin Spooner, Associate Dean of Education at Warner Pacific University, Tanya Mead, Chair of the Education Department at Portland Community College, Uma Joshi-Garcia from the Multnomah Service District Grow Your Own Program, and Andreina Velasco a Grow Your Own Pathway Navigator from the David Douglas School District. Listen as this collaborative team discusses th...

Ken Spero is the founder and President of SchoolSims. In this episode he discusses how the choose-your-own-adventure style of the scenarios that make up the simulations, or sims, can help to deisolate, improve self-confidence, and allow for self-reflection for teachers and school leaders across the spectrum from pre-pre-service to long established teachers and leaders. His favorite quote from Vikt...

As we prepare to meet in New Orleans next week NACCTEP is checking in with Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, President and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, AACTE. During this discussion we hear how her first year in the position has advocated for the reinstatement of grant funding for educator preparation, how she has traveled to 32 states to learn more about their polici...

Listen in as assistant professors Theresa Robinson and Melissa Lebowitz from the Community College of Baltimore County share the latest updates on their programs. From receiving a Feds2Eds grant to develop programming for displaced government workers to enter the teaching workforce to the Degrees to Succeed partnerships with nine institutions, CCBC is making great strides throughout educator prepa...

In this first episode of 2026 NACCTEP chats with Rebecca Saiz - Executive Director of Lone Star College Educator Preparation Program, Dr. Christina Puente - Department Chair, and Dr. JeQuila Broussard - Lead Field Supervisor from Lone Star College about how they've transitioned from a checklist driven evaluation system for teacher candidates to a reflective system. This new method allows the c...

In this episode we hear from Starr Sackstein of Educators Rising. Ms. Sackstein is a National Board Certified teacher with over 20 years experience in education. In addition to numerous books which you can find in the NACCTEP Book List, Ms. Sackstein also writes a column for the Kappan Magazine called Career Confidential. Ms. Sackstein shares the extensive ways that Educators Rising introduces pot...

Dr. Scott Bailey, Assistant Provost of Education Programs at the American College of Education (ACE) joins us to discuss the partnership between ACE and Rio Salado College, specifically in regards to educator preparation students. Dr. Bailey praises the enthusiasm that Rio Salado has for their partnership and how that is reinforced by the collaborative and seamless nature of what ACE offers studen...

In this episode we hear from Dr. Melodie Baker of Impact Stats on how community colleges can use data to adapt and continuously improve educator preparation programs. Of particular interest is the teaching of math. With many candidates unable to pass the math portion of licensing exams, even if they've taken developmental math courses, there is clear evidence that focusing on a co-requisite mo...

Stacy Wilson and Dr. Alex Arreguin, both of whom are English faculty at Mesa Community College in Arizona, created the Literacy Partners Project out of a sense of curiosity for what their English 101 and 102 students were learning in other courses. Specifically, if their students were able to use the concepts they were teaching to complete coursework in history, science, math, and other courses. A...

We welcome the perspectives of Dezi Lynn, Educator Initiative Manager for the National Indian Education Association - NIEA, Dr. Donna Brown, Vice President of Sponsored Programs for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium - AIHEC, and Dr. Danny Luecke, Secondary Math Education Faculty at Turtle Mountain College, on the nuances of Indigenous Teacher Preparation. Each of our guests share the...

For the Borough of Manhattan Community College episode in NACCTEP Now's CUNY series we talk with President Dr. Anthony E. Munroe. As the largest undergraduate school in the CUNY system as well as one of the largest Hispanic Serving Institutions in the Northeast, BMCC is situated in lower Manhattan near Wall Street, the United Nations, and where the World Trade Center once stood. The location i...

This special CUNY series episode features Dr. Cocco De Filippis, President of Hostos Community College in the South Bronx sharing how Hostos' Associate of Arts, AA, and Associate of Applied Science, AAS, degrees help local students enter and advance in the teaching field. While AAS degrees allow students to directly enter the workforce or advance in their field, AA degrees lead to transferring...

Dr. Christine Mangino, President of Queensborough Community College, and Dr. Anita Ferdenzi, leader of Queensborough's Education Academy, talk about the seamless pathway between Queensborough and Queens College for students in the education pathway. A grant from the Heckscher Foundation ensures that courses are transferred as courses rather than as a blanket transfer of credit hours. Curriculum an...

In this episode, LaGuardia Community College President Kenneth Adams discusses the many successes at LaGuardia with rebounding enrollment in their teacher preparation programs. Chief among these successes is the linguistic and cultural diversity of the students in the programs that is reflective of the borough of Queens, New York. With roughly 125 different countries and 50 heritage languages in t...

Kicking off this special series featuring the community colleges of CUNY is Dr. Larry Johnson, President of Bronx Community College. Dr. Johnson is also the Presidential Representative on the NACCTEP Executive Board. Listen in as he describes his passion for community colleges and the vital role they play in shaping the future of teacher education. Dr. Johnson's first exposure to the value of comm...

As the fall semester begins, we look forward to our annual chat with the IRIS Center.  This year we talk with Darcie Peterson from the IRIS Center Technical Assistance team.  Ms. Peterson relates her background in using the IRIS Center resources before joining their staff and training others to use those resources.  In addition to discussing the new functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and behav...

In this episode we hear from Sabrina Baptiste of the Pathways Alliance. She and Julie Ferin discuss the collaborative and supportive nature of the monthly Pathways Alliance video meetings where different partner organizations can share innovative ideas. On their website, thepathwaysalliance.org , there are numerous resources as well as the opportunity to sign up for email updates and their newslet...

Season 4 of NACCTEP Now kicks off with a discussion between NACCTEP Executive Director Julie Ferin and NACCTEP President Dr. R. Lennon Audrain. In this episode NACCTEP's plans for the 2025-26 academic year are shared. These plans include a special week of NACCTEP Now episodes with the presidents of the CUNY community colleges set for a September 8th launch. Also, NACCTEP's annual Fall Inst...