Social, Emotional and Academic Leadership Thrives at SHU

Students and alumni share research that is bringing about positive change in schools

Through social and emotional learning (SEL), people can develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve goals, show empathy, maintain supportive relationships and make responsible decisions. That’s how the renowned nonprofit Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) explains SEL.

Many view SEL as essential in education, but Sacred Heart University is the only U.S. university grounding its Ed.D. in educational leadership in social-emotional and academic learning (SEAL). On July 22, dozens of Doctor of Education students and alumni met on campus to mingle and share research.

While students at Ed.D. programs elsewhere can focus on social-emotional learning, “You only come here if this is what you want to study,” said Maureen Ruby, the Isabelle Farrington Endowed Chair of Social, Emotional & Academic Leadership.

Mike McLaughlin, doctorate candidate and a high school English teacher in Wilton, attended the event to support his peers. “I’ve always been a very student-centered teacher. Thinking back to my own education, the classes I felt most successful in had teachers who were really invested in us as individuals,” he said. “It seemed natural to apply to a program that had a social-emotional learning component.”

Ruby and Ed.D. SEAL program director Kathleen Wallace led the event, titled “Sacred Hearts, Sacred Futures: Leadership in Action.” It began with remarks from Christina Cipriano, an associate professor at Yale University and author of the book Be Unapologetically Impatient: The Mindset Required to Change the Way We Do Things.

In a keynote address, David Adams, a CASEL board member and CEO of the Urban Assembly, an organization that aims to advance students’ economic and social mobility by improving public education, spoke about SEL as an “engine of democratic flourishing.” He said educational leaders must “embody that engine and defend it,” adding that “the backlash is real” and “people will tell you schools don’t have time to teach this.” Lessons in managing conflict and stress aren’t political, he said. “If you believe politics is about believing in the common good, it becomes a civic act.” He urged the audience to “speak clearly, speak courageously and speak as if the next generation depends on it.”

Ruby hopes to continue working with Adams and Cipriano. “We’re building partnerships so that we can open other opportunities to our students,” she said.

The event featured research posters from alumni and students. One participating alum thanked Wallace, also an assistant teaching professor at SHU, saying, “I needed this: I needed to be back here.” Wallace envisions alumni sponsoring current students’ work in the future to give back.

The doctoral dissertation journey can feel lonely, said Wesley Henry, a SHU associate professor and educational & literacy leadership department chair. “But then sharing what’s happening with your dissertation offers sort of a magical opportunity to see inside that box.” The event made it possible for students to communicate about their work with those who are interested yet lack “the same background knowledge or the depth of knowledge.”

Dissertations in progress

Doctoral student Julianna Calapai, a middle-school psychologist in Irvington, NY, presented her approved dissertation proposal on methods to address burnout in school mental health professionals. “All of the work I’ve done over the last three years is finally coming to this culmination,” she said, adding that she learns from the educators in her program cohort every day.

Another of the six students presenting was Vae Champagne, who directs teacher professional development and training at the nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise. A former high school teacher in Bridgeport, Champagne noticed students’ connectedness to teachers decreases as they advance through the K-12 system. How can educators become “better trusted adults?” One idea Champagne developed is called Portrait of a Trusted Adult, through which high school employees can fill out and display a form, enabling students to learn things they have in common. “I’m building a blueprint bundle of items that will bolster the trusted adult message and presence and boost the adults’ social-emotional learning skills,” she said.

Alumni stories

Alumni presenting research included Kimberly Atkinson, who analyzed the effects of self-regulation breathing techniques on kindergartners to help with inattention and phonemic segmentation. Atkinson’s former principal encouraged her to enroll in the Ed.D. program because “he knew I was working on my own time to explore SEL and mindfulness as a way to help students,” she shared. Currently a first-grade teacher, she uses the mindset and pedagogy she learned from the doctoral program in her own classroom and when working with other educators.

Alum Greg C. Hatzis, head principal of Fairfield Ludlowe High School, had been noticing a clear rise in student anxiety levels, even before COVID. Reflecting on SEL and what he learned in SHU’s program, he said, “I absolutely, 100% bring it into my practice, fully and truly—when I give professional development, when I talk to parents, [when I make speeches] at graduation.” His dissertation explored using dialectical behavior therapy skills training to support adolescent emotional problem solving.

SHU graduate Christa Chodkowski’s research also had a high school focus—an SEL intervention to improve climate in an urban Catholic elementary school. She is principal at Catholic Academy of Waterbury. She described her philosophy of education as “bringing back the humanity, as opposed to looking at people as numbers or a time slot.” With her Ed.D. credential and a completed research study, Chodkowski said, “I can’t wait to go on to the next step and literally use my human petri dish to see what other impacts can be made.”

Visit SHU’s Doctor of Education in educational leadership program webpage to learn more.