Wake Forest University Department of Education

04/28/2026

Dr. Leah McCoy is retiring on June 30, 2026, after 36 years as a teacher-scholar at Wake Forest University.

For many years, Dr. McCoy has served the Department of Education as mathematics education program coordinator, director of graduate education, and director of assessment and accreditation.

We are excited to announce that later this summer the Department of Education will present the first annual Leah P. McCoy Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Education in recognition of Dr. McCoy's many years of leadership and service in support of graduate student research.

The department is also putting together a tribute album for Dr. McCoy, and we invite you to contribute by filling out the brief form below with the option of sharing a memory and/or writing a message directly to Dr. McCoy.

We hope you will take a few minutes to participate. Please feel free to share this invitation with classmates and colleagues who were Dr. McCoy's students. Former faculty and staff colleagues are also invited to participate.

Congratulations to Dr. McCoy on her well-earned retirement.

Form Link: https://forms.gle/Vh8XgXTvdpt3mLUS8

04/22/2026

Congratulations to Sydney Branch, Margaret Ripsteen, and Betsy George, three Department of Education students who are recipients of the third annual Linda B. and Howard S. Stern Family Foundation Award for Outstanding Seniors in Education. These awards were presented to two elementary education majors (Sydney Branch and Margaret Ripsteen) and one Schools, Education, and Society minor (Betsy George). Seniors were nominated by faculty, staff, and students and selected by a committee of the faculty. These students are pictured below at our recent end-of-year celebration. Congratulations, Sydney, Margaret, and Betsy!

04/16/2026

For educators looking for CEU credit as summer approaches, we have five remaining courses being offered by the Wake Forest Center for Literacy Education, including two this weekend. Please share with interested colleagues.

Teacher Professional Learning Program Overview The Wake Forest Center for Literacy Education sponsors professional learning for K-12 educators. These courses are intended to bring literacy to life for local public school teachers and school leaders and to help educators apply what they have learned....

03/18/2026

The Wake Forest Center for Literacy Education's 2026 Visiting Scholars Speaker Series & Community Networking Conference will take place on Monday, March 23, 2026, from 4:30 to 8:00 pm at the Byrum Welcome Center on the campus of Wake Forest University. The event is free and open to the public. The theme of this year’s conference is “Hold the Phone: Exploring the Intersections of Screen Time, Brain Health, and Learning.” For more information and to register: https://go.wfu.edu/CLECON26

03/17/2026

Please join us for our annual Leadership in Education Speaker Series on Wednesday, March 25, at 4:00 pm, in ZSR Library Auditorium. Bryan Christopher will give an author talk called "When Policies Collide: Immigration, Education, and the Power of Student Voices." His author talk will last for 30 minutes, then he will be joined in conversation by Marilyn Antuñez, Founder of Fuerza Triad NC, before a brief Q&A. The event will end at 5:00, and a brief reception will follow. The first 40 students in attendance will receive a free copy of the book.

01/28/2026

edCamp336 will take place on Saturday, February 28, 2026, from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm at Wake Forest University. Registration is free and open to all K-12 educators and university students. Join us for a morning of professional learning done in a truly organic manner. Learn more and register at https://bit.ly/edcamp336wfu.

01/27/2026

The Wake Forest Center for Literacy Education is offering Teacher Professional Learning. Learn more and register at https://go.wfu.edu/TPL.

09/02/2025

The Teacher Professional Learning course entitled "Teaching Information Literacy in Secondary Schools" is accepting registration applications. The course is free for public school teachers and will take place on Friday, September 12, from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm at Wake Downtown. This course will focus on integrating research skills into the high school curriculum across content areas. It is intended to help teachers navigate the continued need for traditional research instruction (e.g., topic development, developing a search strategy, source evaluation, plagiarism and citation) with modern developments and challenges such as artificial intelligence tools, personal algorithms, and social media-based pseudoscience. This teacher professional development course will focus on preparing students for research after high school, whether that involves college-level writing, research in the workforce, or personal inquiry in their daily lives. Learn more and register at https://literacy.wfu.edu/teacher-professional-learning/ -section-1 https://literacy.wfu.edu/teacher-professional-learning/ -section-1

08/29/2025

Dr. Ann Cunningham was a beloved professor in the Department of Education for more than 20 years. Her pedagogical expertise was educational technology and instructional design. Later in her career, she pursued a number of endeavors connected to global education, including popular study abroad trips with students to New Zealand. Alumni will remember her as a driving force behind the Emerging Teacher Leaders Network (ETLN) conference for many years in the Department of Education. Dr. Cunningham passed away last week after living for the past few years with early onset frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia. She will be greatly missed. You can read more about Ann's life here: https://affordablecremationswsnc.com/obituaries/ann-cunningham/

07/24/2025

The Center for Literacy Education is now sponsoring teacher professional learning that is free for public school educators. Information about future courses will be added in the coming weeks. Learn more at https://literacy.wfu.edu/teacher-professional-learning/.

Program Overview The Center for Literacy Education sponsors professional learning for K-12 educators. We hope you will join us for these engaging learning experiences intended to bring literacy to life for students and teachers alike. Using a lifelong learning approach through short enrichment cours...