Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development welcomed alumni of the K-12 and Higher Education Leadership and Policy doctorate of education programs for reunion from February 26 to 28. One hundred five alumni attended, along with current students and faculty members, making it the best-attended reunion in program history.
Attendees heard from 14 Peabody faculty members who discussed salient issues facing education leaders, including the role of AI in learning systems, the future of K-12 education and navigating new demands on schools, and the impacts of competing funding priorities on universities.
Since 2007, the Education Leadership and Policy programs have offered working professionals the opportunity to complete courses during weekends to earn their degrees. At least two alumni from every cohort registered for reunion this year.
"We have an amazing group of alumni who are key leaders in universities, school districts, charter management organizations, government and schools," said Marisa Cannata, professor of the practice and director of the Education Leadership and Policy program. "They came to Vanderbilt to become scholar-practitioners who use deep understanding of educational issues to improve outcomes and experiences for the students they serve. Bringing them together again provided an opportunity to deepen that knowledge and focus on current issues facing our educational system."
In addition to faculty presentations and panel discussions, several alumni also gave talks and led sessions, including Tara Nattrass, EdD'13, chief innovation strategist at Lenovo; Brittaney Baker, EdD'24, a Fellow at NashvillePeer; and Ryan Etheridge, EdD'24, a principal with Cleveland County Schools who helped organize the reunion and led a networking event.
"The networking sessions were designed to help alumni quickly reconnect across cohorts and around topics," Etheridge said. "What stood out to me was how eager people were to learn from each other by discussing current research, exploring real leadership challenges, and sharing innovation and growth in their fields. It showed how powerful this alumni network can be when we intentionally bring leaders together to learn from one another and tackle the biggest challenges in education."
