News, alumni notes and updates from the Northern Illinois University College of Education
Danae Miesbauer is not a graduate of the University of Illinois Chicago, but her trip there Oct. 1 to attend the Fall Advising Summit seemed like a class reunion nonetheless. Miesbauer, academic counselor in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education, was
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Congratulations to these alumni of the NIU College of Education! George Abbott, M.S.Ed. Special Education-Vision Studies, ’93, was appointed to the Braille Institute of America Board of Directors. Abbott’s decades of experience in the field span vision rehabilitation, accessible education, workforce development
Read moreLast fall’s Morgridge Endowed Chair Office-produced documentary, “A Teacher’s Shoes,” showed a day-in-the-life of three seasoned NIU College of Education alumnae at various stages of their school careers. Now a new podcast will keep tabs on May 2026 graduates as they enter
Read moreTwenty employees of Westside Children’s Therapy have added NIU’s M.S.Ed. in Special Education: Behavior Analysis to their résumés. Students completed their master’s degrees in May, along with classmates from Turning Pointe Autism Foundation, and now are prepared (and eligible after completion of
Read moreCelebrating success is routine procedure for Ginger Murphy. Part of one wall in her Eisenhower Middle School language arts classroom resembles a beaded door curtain gleaming with magenta, yellow, orange and blue dots that form vertical ribbons sprouting from the top of
Read moreWhy does Noemi Hernandez teach? “The real reason? I’m just bossy,” laughs the double-alumna of the NIU College of Education, “so it naturally comes. I remember always helping my siblings with school, and I remember always thinking that if I could be
Read moreCongratulations to these alumni of the NIU College of Education! Kendra Asbury, Ed.S. Educational Administration, ’24, and M.S.Ed. Educational Administration, ’11, is the new assistant superintendent of human resources for Freeport School District 145. Asbury most recently served as director of human
Read moreMany teachers talk of playing school in their childhood basements as kids. Dana Freedlund did that, too. A chalkboard. A magnetic board. Desks. Worksheets that she handed out to her friends. She had it all. That’s not what drove her to a
Read moreLyndon, Illinois, is a small village in Whiteside County, barely a 15-mile drive southwest from Sterling and hugging the Rock River. Agriculture powers the economy of “The Crow Capitol of the World,” where the population hovered around 650 during the 1950s and
Read moreWhen the 24th season of “American Idol” debuted Jan. 26, Steve Pohl wasn’t watching. But that certainly wasn’t the case in the spring of 2019 during Season 17, when the NIU College of Education graduate played a pivotal role in the story
Read moreCongratulations to our newest NIU College of Education alumni! Two of our graduates were featured in videos shown during the ceremony. First, meet Jocelyn Campos Diaz, who earned her B.S.Ed. in Physical Education. Next, meet Emerson Baptist, who completed his M.S. in
Read moreGraham Davis felt ready to become a teacher. His NIU College of Education curriculum. His clinicals. His student-teaching. He was prepared. But then came job interviews, followed by an unexpected thought: “I don’t know what I’m doing.” “After that third interview, I
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