Faculty Presentations

Over the past few months, NCE faculty have shared their expertise at conferences and events across local, national, and international stages. The following presentations highlight their contributions to advancing research, fostering collaboration, and shaping conversations in education.

• NCE faculty and partners presented research at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference in Los Angeles, California.
  • Fostering Instructionally Focused Mentorship:Designing and Testing Mentoring Conversation Cards Kavita Matsko (Northwestern University), Eun Kyung Ko, and Lisa Mozer
  • First-Year Teachers Navigating Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Culturally Responsive Teaching Perspective Eun Kyung Ko and Vishodana Thamotharan 
  • Scaffolding AI Pedagogical Integration: Supporting Early Childhood Teacher Candidates in Culturally Responsive Teaching Eun Kyung Ko, Xiaoning Chen. Vishodana Thamotharan, and Julie Sidarous
  • Implementing Critical Visual Literacy in Teacher Education to Promote Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices for All Students Hyeju Han and Xiaoning Chen
  • John Dewey: From Industrialization to the Viral Era Todd Price
  • The Pernicious Whiteness of Coloniality: Genealogizing to Locate the "Nowhere" of Global Curricula Todd Price
  • Verbal Protocol Analysis for Investigating Online Multimodal Reading Hyeju Han
• Professor Xiaoli Wen participated in the international panel “Leading with Vision and Integrity: Transforming Early Childhood Education for a Sustainable Future” at the 2026 World Forum on Early Care and Education in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• Professor Seema Imam co-chaired and presented preliminary findings from her study, “Muslim Women in Institutional Leadership of Islamic Schools,” at the Islamic Schools League of America’s Second Global Virtual Research Symposium.
• Associate Professor Gloria McDaniel-Hall presented on creating spaces of belonging and ensuring every student feels seen at Carthage College’s Celebration of Teachers 2026 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
• Associate Professor Leslie Katch presented “An I/ECMH Framework: Seven Foundational Practices for Building a Stronger Early Childhood Workforce” at the Annual Symposium for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (I/ECMH) Consultants in Naperville, Illinois.
• Associate Professor Julie Sidarous and Associate Professor Ben Lathrop presented preliminary findings from their research on NLU teacher candidates at TEACHx 2026 at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
• Assistant Professor Matt Adams presented “Examining Elementary Pre-Service Teacher Learning of Science Content through Learning Progression-based Models” at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) 2026 Annual International Conference in Seattle, Washington.
• Associate Professor Leslie Katch presented “Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health: What Teachers and Leaders Need to Know” and Associate Professor Lee Tate presented “Leading and Learning Through SEL: Insights from Early Childhood Research to Strengthen Academic Achievement” at the Leadership Connections Conference in Schaumburg, Illinois.
• Associate Professor Dana Hagerman and Associate Professor Tracee Farmer presented “Oral Language Acquisition” at the 2026 Teacher Leader Institute in San Francisco, California. Dr. Farmer also presented “Recent Research in Reading Recovery: Improvement Science” at the 2026 Teacher Leader Institute in San Francisco, California.
• NCE Dean Carolyn Theard-Griggs and NLU Executive Director of Enrollment Marisa Buscaglia presented “Lead Cultivation in Action @ NLU” at the Summer Retreat of the Deans and Directors of Teacher Education Professional Learning Community (DDTEPLC), hosted by Grow Your Own Teachers Illinois in Chicago on June 1, 2026.
• Center for Literacy Excellence Teacher Leader Connie Obrochta presented “Set for Variability: Flexible Word Solving” at the 2026 Teacher Leader Institute in San Francisco, California, June 9–11, 2026.
• Assistant Professor Blanca Gamez-Djokic presented “Designing for Affective Equity in Partnerships” at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), held during the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Annual Meeting, June 15–19, 2026, in Irvine, California. 
• Associate Professor Angela Elkordy delivered two presentations at ISTELive 26, hosted by the International Society for Technology in Education, June 28–July 1, 2026, in Orlando, Florida: "What You Don't Know Can Hurt Your Community: Critical AI Literacy & Leadership" and "Seeing Thinking with AI: Making Cognition Visible."
• NCE faculty and partners presented research at the Early Childhood Research Alliance of Chicago (EC*REACH) Conference, held June 25, 2026, at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.
  • "Supporting Immigrant Families: Legal, Policy, and Community Approaches" Adjunct faculty Letty Ramirez and Nina Duenas from El Valor.
  • "Leadership and Administration Quality: A National Study of Center-Based Child Care Programs Using the Program Administration Scale" Professor Xiaoli Wen, and the McCormick Instutite's Robyn Kelton, Jill Bella, and Teri Talan
  • "From Survival to Sustainability: Evidence of Business and Professional Development Gains in Family Child Care" Robyn Kelton, Xiaoli Wen, Nudrat Hassan, Lisa Downey, and Adrian Rivera-Rodriguez
• Karen Tardrew presented “Bridging Educator Boundaries of Care” at the 21st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, held July 15–17, 2026, in Galway, Ireland.
• NCE faculty presented at the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) 2026 Summer Conference in Seattle, Washington.
  • "Scaling What Works: Outcomes and Innovations from a High-Impact Residency Program" with Kavita Venkatesh, Nicole Trackman, and Julie Sidarous
  • "Hidden in Plain Sight: The Role of Belonging in Shaping Pre-Service Teachers' Motivations and Practices in a Paraprofessional-to-Teacher Pathway" with Julie Sidarous and Douglas van Dyke
• Professor Xiaoli Wen and colleagues from the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood contributed six presentations at the National Research Conference on Early Childhood (NRCEC) 2026 in Arlington, Virginia, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  • "Leadership and Administrative Quality: A National Study of Center-Based Child Care Programs Using the Program Administration Scale" Poster presentation: Xiaoli Wen, Robyn Kelton, Jill Bella, and Teri Talan
  • "Listening to Leaders: What Early Childhood Program Directors Want from Professional Development: Poster presentation: Xiaoli Wen, Lisa Downey, and Robyn Kelton
  • "From Survival to Sustainability: Evidence of Business and Professional Development Gains in Family Child Care" Poster presentation: Robyn Kelton, Xiaoli Wen, Nudrat Hassan, Lisa Downey, and Adrian Rivera-Rodriguez
  • "From Coaching to Impact: Advancing Leadership and Organizational Climate in Early Childhood Programs" Poster presentation: W. Connell, Xiaoli Wen, and Leslie Layman
  • "The Business of Quality: A National Study of Family Child Care Programs Using the Business Administration Scale" Poster presentation: Robyn Kelton, Xiaoli Wen, and Teri Talan
  • "The State of the Early Childhood Workplace: A National Study of Organizational Climate and Workforce Commitment" Jill Bella, Robyn Kelton, and Xiaoli Wen