Penn Graduate School of Education

Alyssa D’Alconzo Thomas, GED’04, GRD’11, isn't just a Penn GSE alum; she's also University employee who serves the entire alumni community.

"As Director of Penn Alumni Lifelong Learning, I design and produce personal and professional development experiences that make Penn an intellectual home for more than 310,000 alumni worldwide," said Alyssa. "By connecting alumni with world-renowned faculty and subject matter experts through online courses, seminars, webinars, and faculty-led travel experiences, my team creates opportunities for alumni to reconnect with the ideas, people, and spirit of curiosity and discovery that make Penn so special."

Alyssa earned both her master's and EdD in higher education at GSE, "deepening my understanding that meaningful learning doesn't happen at a single point in time; it evolves through relationships, reflection, and interdisciplinary exploration. The program also taught me how to build connections and foster partnerships across complex institutions, skills that have been essential throughout my career."

The pedagogical lessons and research and analytical skills she developed in her doctoral program continue to inform her approach to program design, assessment, and strategic decision-making.

"Having learned so much at Penn GSE, where I built my own lifelong network of classmates, colleagues, and friends, it's especially meaningful to help other Penn alumni connect with new ideas and with one another," she said.

Please join us in congratulating Professor Michael Gottfried on the grant from the Brady Education Foundation for his project, "Bridging Research and Practice: Which Existing Programs Are Most Effective at Improving Attendance?"

This research project, which runs for a year, starting Sept. 1, will be a systematic review of student absenteeism interventions to learn which ones have been effective at improving attendance since the pandemic and if the effectiveness varies by grade, age, race, ethnicity, economic situation, or rural/urban location.

Says Gottfried: "With chronic absenteeism at crisis levels and receiving so much attention in policy and media, schools can't afford to guess which interventions work. My research will give them the evidence to invest wisely in getting kids back in the classroom."

Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence master’s student Hyejin Park took the global stage in South Korea as one of only nine researchers selected to present at at the Practitioners, Industry, and Policy track of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) 2026.

Her research on South Korea's AI Digital Textbooks (AIDTs) explores a critical question in AI-powered education: how much agency do students and teachers actually have within systems marketed as personalized learning tools? Her paper introduces a framework called Decision-Intervenability to analyze how AIDT interfaces distribute control among students, teachers, and the system itself.

Learn more about Hyejin’s achievement and the impact of her work:

Hyejin Park Shares Research on AI and Student Agency at AIED 2026 LAAI master's student Hyejin Park at the AIED conference in South Korea. Hyejin Park, a master's student in the

Today, in an op/ed in The Washington Post, Associate Professor Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and her co-author argue that children don't need more digital training, they need more face-to-face learning:

Opinion | What elementary schools are slowly learning about screens Technology came to “optimize” education. Young children pay a heavy price.

From Shanghai to Beijing to Changsha, Penn GSE PhD student Catherine Zhang (left, pic 1) spent six weeks in China this summer conducting international field research on student leadership development.

A rising fourth-year PhD student in the Higher Education program, Zhang interviewed student leaders at universities across the three different cities in China.

Supported by funding from Penn GSE's Higher Ed program and the Penn Wharton China Center, Zhang's trip also included a public talk hosted by the Penn Wharton China Center in Beijing. During the livestreamed event, "Leadership and Learning Development: Insights from Higher Education Research in the U.S. and China," she shared preliminary findings from her cross-cultural research and joined Dr. Yuhao Cen, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University, in a conversation about how universities can foster student growth, development, and leadership across different institutional partnerships and contexts.

"Being able to conduct research internationally and engage directly with students, faculty, and university partners was incredibly meaningful," Zhang said. "It deepened my understanding of leadership development while opening new opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration."

Strong school partnerships don't happen overnight. They are built through trust, shared goals, and a commitment to students and communities.

How is Penn GSE partnering with Philadelphia schools to turn research into real-world impact?

Explore the stories, people, and partnerships shaping education across the city: https://publications.gse.upenn.edu/issue/spring-summer-2026/philly-stakes-when-partnership-becomes-practice/

Philly Stakes: When Partnership Becomes Practice How Penn GSE and the School District of Philadelphia are co-creating solutions--in areas from algebra to AI--by listening first, aligning priorities, and turning research into real-time change across an urban school system.

What happens when teachers are given time to be learners again?

At the Philadelphia Writing Project's 2026 Invitational Summer Institute, educators spent two weeks writing, questioning, collaborating, and exploring inquiry-based learning alongside peers from across the region.

The result? New ideas, stronger connections, and renewed purpose.

Read more:

PhilWP Summer Institute Gives Teachers Space to Write, Reflect, and Reimagine Learning In an era of AI-assisted assignments, scripted curricula, and relentless pressure to do more with less, a group of educators gathered at Penn GSE this summer to do something increasingly rare: slow down.

The second year of our Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management program kicks off with a two-week international experience to learn about higher ed in different contexts. From Manchester to Glasgow and Edinburgh, this year’s trip was packed with learning, leadership, and new perspectives.

Through conversations with university leaders across the UK, our cohort explored higher education strategy, AI, internationalization, civic engagement, financial sustainability, and the future of higher education.

“At the Manchester Metropolitan University, they were focused on growth yet unwilling to compromise their strong financial position to achieve it,” said Luke Fulp, vice president for finance and CFO at the University of Alaska System. “With zero debt and a strong balance sheet, their plans were ambitious and future-focused. Various capital infrastructure projects were in the planning, design, and construction phases to support the student experience, and leadership was driving efficiency across all areas of operations. As a higher-education CFO, I found this type of disciplined approach to growth really inspiring.”

It was a memorable week of big ideas, global insights, and lasting connections.

“The UK trip brought coursework theory to life by showing how higher education leaders apply complex ideas in real institutional settings,” said Joshua Lustig, director of graduate and online admission at Belmont University. “Conversations at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh connected classroom discussions about leadership, funding, enrollment pressures, and institutional strategy to the daily decisions that senior administrators face. At Glasgow Caledonian University, learning about its collaboration with the University of Edinburgh on an AI platform illustrated how innovation, ethics, and student learning intersect in practice. The visits to the University of Manchester and the University of Salford highlighted how universities serve as civic partners through education, research, and community engagement. At the Royal Northern College of Music, hearing an opera student sing a ca****la in the classroom offered a powerful reminder that learning is not only theoretical but also experiential, immediate, and deeply human. Together, these moments made the coursework more tangible and meaningful in ways that classroom discussion alone could not replicate.”

Did you know that hundreds of Penn GSE alums work across the University? Our summer series continues, shining its spotlight on Jillian Emory, GED'17, GRD'26, director of Student Programs at the Wharton Impact, Value, and Sustainable Business Initiative.

"In this role, I oversee a suite of experiential learning programs for Penn and Wharton students who are interested in the intersections of business, social impact, sustainability, and more," said Jillian, who started her career as a high school teacher and then worked across the University at Penn Abroad and Penn Career Services after finishing her master's at GSE. "I owe my entire career in higher education to the people I met and the skills I learned at Penn GSE. Most notably, GSE strongly encourages a sense of curiosity and lifelong learning, both inside and outside of the classroom."

"While I am just about to finish up my Ed.D. in Higher Education from GSE, I have also taken this sense of curiosity to my professional roles here at Penn. My professors and peers at GSE taught me the power of networking, asking questions, and being open to learning new skills. Working at a large institution such as Penn could easily feel isolating, but I’ve tried to apply this attitude by meeting people, attending events, and staying up-to-date with what’s going on outside of my day-to-day work. It’s made my experience at Penn so much richer, and it’s thanks to the foundation built while I was first a master’s student here ten years ago."