1. Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on animal behavior and the learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for modern educational psychology. He also worked on solving industrial problems, such as employee exams and testing. He was a member of the board of the Psychological Corporation, and served as president of the American Psychological Association in 1912. In 1937 Thorndike became the second President of the Psychometric Society. [Wikipedia]

2. James Earl Russell (1864-1945) taught preparatory Latin and Greek for three years and became headmaster of the Cascadilla School, a private academy in Ithaca, New York. While in Ithaca he became review editor of the School Review, an educational journal established by Schurman. His first contribution as editor was a summary of an article from the London Journal of Education on the education of teachers in Germany. As a result of this publication and other similar work on the Review, Russell began to be recognized as an authority on European education. In 1897 Russell accepted an invitation to join the faculty of Teachers College in New York City as head of the Department of Psychology. He developed Teachers College into the nation's leader in the advanced training of elementary and secondary school teachers, administrators, and supervisors. [encyclopedia.com]

3. John Dewey (1859-1952) is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in the USA. Although Dewey is known best for his publications concerning education, he also wrote about many other topics, including experience and nature, art and experience, logic and inquiry, democracy, and ethics. In his advocacy of democracy, Dewey considered two fundamental elements—schools and civil society—as being major topics needing attention and reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality. Dewey asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights but also by ensuring that there exists a fully-formed public opinion, accomplished by effective communication among citizens, experts, and politicians, with the latter being accountable for the policies they adopt. [Wikipedia]

4. Grace Hoadley Dodge (1856-1914) was an American philanthropist. She was involved in forming the Kitchen Garden Association, which became the Industrial Education Association. She was the main source of funds for the New York College for the Training of Teachers, which became Teachers College, and subsequently a school of Columbia University. Dodge helped to organize a society for working women that evolved into the Association of Working Girls' Societies. She negotiated the merger of two opposing young women's groups into the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) of the United States. She also organized the New York Travelers' Aid Society to protect migrants and immigrant women. She was a leader in the organization of the National Travelers' Aid Society, and she was a major force in the foundation of the international Travelers' Aid movement. The Grace H. Dodge Vocational High School, named in her honor, is located in the Bronx, New York. [Wikipedia]

5. Leta Hollingworth (1886-1939) was a psychologist who conducted pioneering work on the psychology of women as well as on the education of exceptional children. In 1911, she began graduate work in educational psychology at Columbia under the supervision of Edward Lee Thorndike. Having experienced impediments to personal achievements as a result of her sex, Hollingworth was moved to empirically investigate the factors that were thought to make women inferior to men. Consequently, Hollingworth was a leading figure in the development of the psychology of women. Along with the anthropologist Robert Lowie, Hollingworth published a review of literature from anatomical, physiological, and cross-cultural studies, in which no objective evidence was found to support the idea of innate female inferiority. In 1916 Hollingworth accepted a position at Teachers College where she continued research into the psychology of exceptional children began by her predecessor at the college, Naomi Norsworthy. [Wikipedia]

6. Naif al-Mutawa (MA, 2000) is the creator of THE 99-the first group of superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. THE 99, has received positive attention from the international media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, Wired, Elle, The Washington Post and The Guardian. Recently, Forbes named THE 99 as one of the top 20 trends sweeping the globe. He has seen first hand the cancer that intolerance can bring to any society. His direct contact with the horrors of prisons and with people tortured because of their religious and political beliefs, led to his writing a timeless children’s tale that won a UNESCO prize for literature in the service of tolerance. He is also the recipient of The Festival Internacional de Humour e Quadrinhos Comics Award presented at Cartoons & Comics Festival in Brazil, The Ecademy Award from Columbia University School of Business, The Eliot-Pearson Award for Excellence in Children's Media from Tufts University, The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations “ Marketplace of Ideas” Award and ‘The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award’, 2009 presented at the World Economic Forum on The Middle East, Dead Sea, Jordan. [www.al-mutawa.com]

7. Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She lectured at Teachers College. She was both a popularizer of the insights of anthropology into modern American and Western culture, and also a respected, if controversial, academic anthropologist. Her reports about the purportedly healthy attitude towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures amply informed the 1960s sexual revolution. Mead was a champion of broadened sexual mores within a context of traditional western religious life. A committed Anglican Christian, she took a considerable part in the drafting of the 1979 American Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. She was a recognizable figure in academia, usually wearing a distinctive cape and carrying a tall, forked walking stick. [Wikipedia]

8. Shirley Chisholm (PDIPLM, 1961) served in the New York General Assembly from 1964 to 1968. During her tenure in the legislature, she proposed a bill to provide state aid to day-care centers and voted to increase funding for schools on a per-pupil basis. In 1968, after finishing her term in the legislature, Chisholm campaigned to represent New York's Twelfth Congressional District. Her campaign slogan was "Fighting Shirley Chisholm--Unbought and Unbossed." She won the election and became the first African American woman elected to Congress. [essortment.com]

9. Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommon Professor of Education at Stanford University, where she launched the School Redesign Network, the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute, and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Darling-Hammond, who taught for many years at Teachers College, is author or editor of more than a dozen books and more than 300 articles on education policy and practice. Her work focuses on school restructuring, teacher education, and educational equity. She was education advisor to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and in that role debated at TC in 2008 with Linda Graham Keegan, advisor to Republican candidate John McCain. [Wikipedia]

10. Paul Monroe Ph.D., LL.D. (1869 – 1947) was an American educator, born at North Madison, Ind. He graduated at Franklin College, Franklin, Indiana in 1890 and took his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1897. He became professor at Columbia in 1899. Professor Monroe received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Peking in 1913. His contributions to the study of education gave Dr. Monroe an international reputation, and his textbooks have helped to give the subject a position of great importance in the United States. He was the President of Robert College of Istanbul between 1932-1935. His greatest contribution was as editor in chief of the Cyclopedia of Education (five volumes, 1910-13). [Wikipedia]

11. Edmund Gordon (ED.D., 1957) is the Richard March Hoe Professor, Emeritus of Psychology and Education Emeritus at Teachers College, and Founding Director of the College’s Institute of Urban and Minority Education (IUME). He also is John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Yale University, From July 2000 until August, 2001 he was Vice President of Academic Affairs and Interim Dean at Teachers College, Columbia University. He held appointments at several of the nation’s leading universities including Howard, Yeshiva, Columbia, City University of New York, Yale, and the Educational Testing Service. He has served as visiting professor at City College of New York and Harvard. As Senior Scholar and Advisor to the President of the College Board, he developed and co-chaired the Taskforce on Minority High Achievement. [gse.uci.edu]

12. Thomas Sobol (ED.D., 1969) is an Adjunct Professor of Education at Teachers College and former Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Practice. During the 1990s, as New York State's Commissioner of Education, Sobol allied himself with parents and community advocates suing the state for more resources for poorer schools. Yet Tom's greatest legacy is not that historic moment, but his continuing insistence-'"to his students, his colleagues and himself-'"on an alignment between professional and personal morality and his belief that, in legislating school conditions for all children, we give them nothing less than what we'd wish for our own. Tom honors TC with the role he has played in our own history and with his continuing presence in our classrooms. [tc.columbia.edu]

13. Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) was an American painter, printmaker, photographer, and influential arts educator. Dow taught at major American arts training institutions for 30 years including Teachers College, Columbia University; the Art Students League of New York; Pratt Institute; and his own Ipswich Summer School of Art. His ideas were quite revolutionary for the period, he taught that rather than copying nature, art should be created by elements of the composition, like line, mass and color. His ideas were published in the 1899 book Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers. He taught many of America's leading artists and craftspeople, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles J. Martin, two of the Overbeck Sisters and the Byrdcliffe Colony. [Wikipedia]

14. Isabel Maitland Stewart (1878-1963), associated with Teachers College, Columbia University from 1908 until her death in 1963, was the pre-eminent international leader in education for nurses. Her outstanding contribution was to promote open debates and consensus-building behavior among nurses with the goal of democratizing the occupation in order to move it nearer to professional status. As a scholar of nursing history, Stewart understood that nurses had been controlled primarily by other professions, and despite Nightingale's reforms, nurses continued to function under the male hierarchical model. Because of her education, Stewart realized that nurses must learn to assume responsibility for their own affairs, if nursing was to be recognized as a true profession. She taught that nursing must embrace the goals and aspirations of many different individuals and cultures in order to move away from the authoritarian model. [openlibrary.org]

15. William Rueckert is Co-Chair of the Board of Teachers College, Columbia University, has served as a TC Trustee since 1997, and is a descendant of Grace Hoadley Dodge, one of the college’s co-founders. Mr. Rueckert is Managing Member of Oyster Management Group, LLC, a fund that invests in community banks. He also serves on the Boards of Chelsea Therapeutics, Inc., Novogen, Ltd. And of Glycotex, Inc. Among his other non-profit activities, Mr. Rueckert is President and a Director of the Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation; Trustee and Chairman of the Executive Committee of International House; a Director of the YMCA of Greater New York; Director of Wave Hill; and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Fairfield Country Day School. Mr. Rueckert’s grandfather, Cleveland E. dodge, served as a TC Trustee for 67 years, beginning with his election to the board in 1915.

16. Hamden Forkner (1897-1975) was an American educator and writer who created Future Business Leaders of America, an educational organization for high school and college students, and developed the Forkner shorthand system for taking dictation. Forkner, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, was the head of the business and vocational education department at Teachers College, Columbia University from 1937 to 1958. During his career, he was also president and permanent honorary vice president of the International Society for Business and Economic Education, and directed technical education surveys for the governments of the Dominican Republic and Mexico. As an author, Forkner wrote the books “20th Century Bookkeeping & Accounting” (1940, co-authored with Alva Leroy Prickett), “Correlated Dictation and Transcription: Pitman Edition” (1946, co-authored with Agnes E. Osborne and James E. O’Brien), “Developing a Curriculum for Modern Living (1954, co-authored with Florence B. Stratmeyer), and “Study Guide for Forkner Shorthand” (1965, co-authored with Jean G. Hanna and published by his Forkner Publishing Company). [Wikipedia]

17. Zhang Boling (1876-1951) was one of a remarkable group of Chinese students who enrolled at Teachers College during the early part of the 20^th century and returned home to dramatically re-shape education in China. He organized funding for a private college preparatory school, Nankai High School, in Tianjin in 1904. In 1917 he briefly studied at the Teachers College at Columbia University in the United States, where he was influenced by the American educator and reformer John Dewey. Afterwards, he expanded his school into a full university, Nankai University in 1919. Under Zhang Boling's leadership, Nankai University continued to expand for the next few years and became one of the most prestigious universities in China. Zhang Boling was noted for his emphasis on athletics. He established a number of annual national athletic meets and the forerunner to the modern Chinese Olympic Committee, as well as several smaller institutions, including a girls middle school (1923), experimental primary school (1928), institute of economics (1927), and of chemistry (1932). In 1938, Nankai University joined with Peking University and Tsinghua University to form the National Southwest Associated University which continued to educate the top students in China until the war ended in 1945. Afterwards, Nankai University returned to Tianjin. [Wikipedia]

18. Morton Deutsch is considered the founder of modern conflict resolution theory and practice. He has written and researched areas which pioneered current efforts in conflict resolution and diplomacy. His books include: Interracial Housing (1951); Distributive Justice (1985); and the Handbook of Conflict Resolution; Theory and Practice (2000). In 1986, he founded the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Columbia University, where he still holds emeritus professor status. Deutsch has been recognized for lifetime achievement by many associations including the American Psychological Association (APA) which awarded him both the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, and the Distinguished Research Scientist Award. He has also been awarded the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award, the G.W. Allport Prize, and the Carl Hovland Memorial Award. He has served as president of several professional associations including the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the International Society of Political Psychology, and several Divisions of the APA. [Wikipedia]

19. Charles Alston (MA, 1931), (1907-1977) was an American artist, muralist, and teacher. He was influenced by Mexican muralists, Diego Rivera, in particular, who tied their murals into early twentieth century social movements. Alston painted murals throughout Harlem, including depression-era murals as part of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. The best known of his mural works is one of a series of murals created by Alston and other Harlem artists for the Harlem Hospital Center. Alston was the first African-American instructor at the Art Students League of New York (1950-1971) and the Museum of Modern Art (1956). He became a full professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1973. In addition to the murals, some of his paintings, sculptures, and illustrations are held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. [Wikipedia]

20. Albert Ellis (PhD, 1947) started a part-time private practice in family and sex counseling soon after he received his master's degree in 1943. In the late 1940s he taught at Rutgers and New York University, and was the senior clinical psychologist at the Northern New Jersey Mental Hygiene Clinic. He also became the chief psychologist at the New Jersey Diagnostic Center and then at the New Jersey Department of Institutions and Agencies. By 1955 Ellis had given up psychoanalysis entirely, and instead was concentrating on changing people's behavior by confronting them with their irrational beliefs and persuading them to adopt rational ones. He published his first book on REBT, How to Live with a Neurotic, in 1957. Two years later he organized the Institute for Rational Living, where he held workshops to teach his principles to other therapists. The Art and Science of Love, his first really successful book, appeared in 1960, and he has now published 54 books and over 600 articles on REBT, sex and marriage. [rebtinstitute.org]

21. Harold Rugg (1886-1960), a longtime professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, was one of the best-known educators during the era of Progressive education in the United States. He produced the first-ever series of school textbooks from 1929 until the early 1940s. Rugg was a cofounder of the National Council for the Social Studies and edited yearbooks for a number of respected educational organizations. In 1922 Rugg assembled a team to create his Social Science Pamphlets, a series of booklets that comprised the social studies materials for junior high school (grades six to eight). These materials were adapted and published by Ginn and Company starting in 1929. Over the course of the next fifteen years Rugg and Ginn and Company would sell over 5 million textbooks, and the pattern of creating textbook series became a model in publishing still used in the early twenty-first century. In 1928 Rugg cowrote his first major work, The Child-Centered School, which described the historical and contemporary basis for "child-centered" education. This work had a major impact on Progressive educators and remains an excellent explanation and critique of this topic. It also was one of the first treatises on the two major emphases within Progressive education–child centeredness and social reconstruction. [education.stateuniversity.com]

22. William Heard Kilpatrick (1871-1965), a stellar and long-time faculty member during the early days of Teachers College was a US American pedagogue and a pupil, a colleague and a successor of John Dewey. He was at Mercer University, 1897–1906, taught mathematics, was vice-president, 1900, and acting president, 1904–06. He taught summers at the University of Georgia, 1906, 1908, and 1909; the University of the South (Knoxville), 1907; was visiting professor, Northwestern University, 1937–38, and taught summer sessions there, 1939, 1940, 1941; taught summer sessions, Stanford University, 1938; University of Kentucky, 1942; University of North Carolina, 1942; and University of Minnesota, 1946. His trips abroad included school visits, lectures, and meetings with prominent educators in Italy, Switzerland, and France, May–June 1912; Europe and Asia, August 1926-June 1927; and round the world, August–December 1929. He received honorary LL.D. degrees from Mercer University, 1926; Columbia University, 1929; and Bennington College, 1938 (which he helped found in 1923 and where he was president of the board of trustees, 1931–38); the honorary D.H.L. degree from the College of Jewish Studies, 1952; and the Brandeis Award for humanitarian service, 1953. After retiring from TCCU, 1937, he was president of the New York Urban League, 1941–51; chairman of American Youth for World Youth, 1946–51; chairman of the Bureau of International Education, 1940–51; and on the board of directors of the League for Industrial Democracy. [Wikipedia]

23. Lawrence Cremin (PhD, 1949), one of the great American education historians and President of Teachers College from 1974 to 1984, broadened the study of American educational history beyond the school-centered analysis dominant in the 1940s by advocating a more comprehensive approach: examining the other agencies and institutions that educate children, integrating the study of education with other historical subfields, and comparing education across international boundaries. This interest led to his major work, a three-volume comparative history of education in the United States entitled American Education. The second volume, covering the period from 1783 to 1876, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1981. In addition to scores of articles, Cremin wrote seven other books, including The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876–1957, which won the 1962 Bancroft Prize in American history, and Popular Education and Its Discontents (1990). He also played a leading role in many professional, governmental, and philanthropic organizations, including the National Academy of Education, the U.S. Office of Education's Curriculum Improvement Panel, and the Carnegie Commission on the Education of Educators. [c250.columbia.edu]

24. Mary Adelaide Nutting (1858 - 1948) graduated from the first class of the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing in 1891. After graduating, she was a head nurse in the hospital for two years and then assistant superintendent of nurses for a year. In 1894 she became superintendent of nurses and principal of the school. She also began a professional nursing library at Johns Hopkins, from which developed her later four-volume History of Nursing (1907–12, with Lavinia L. Dock). She was an early member of the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses of the United States and Canada (later the National League for Nursing Education; now the National League for Nursing) and twice served as president.. In 1907 Mary Adelaide Nutting joined the faculty of Teachers College, Columbia University and became the world's first professor of nursing. Nutting led the Department of Nursing and Health at Teachers College from 1910 until her retirement in 1925. [Wikipedia and biography.com]

25. Ruth Westheimer (ED.D., 1970) is a pioneer in spreading what she has labeled "sexual literacy." She has been twice named "College Lecturer of the Year." Her television show aired on Lifetime "The Dr. Ruth Show" has been syndicated nationally and internationally. The National Mother's Day Committee has honored Dr. Ruth as "Mother of the Year." In recent years, Westheimer has made regular appearances on the PBS Television children's show Between the Lions as "Dr. Ruth Wordheimer" in a parody of her therapist role, in which she helps anxious readers and spellers overcome their fear of long words. [Wikipedia and wic.org]

26. Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) was an American philosopher, diplomat, and educator. In the fall of 1885, Butler joined the staff of Columbia's philosophy department. In 1887, he co-founded, and became president of, the New York School for the Training of Teachers, which later affiliated with Columbia University and was renamed Teachers College, Columbia University, and from which a co-educational experimental and developmental unit became Horace Mann School. In 1901, Butler became acting president of Columbia University, and in 1902 formally became president. Among the many dignitaries in attendance at his investiture was President Roosevelt. Butler was president of Columbia for 43 years, the longest tenure in the university's history, retiring in 1945. As president, Butler carried out a major expansion of the campus, adding many new buildings, schools, and departments. These additions included Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, the first academic medical center in the world. [Wikipedia]

27. Cory Booker (a member of the Teachers College Board of Trustees) is the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. He earned a B.A. in political science at Stanford University in 1991, as well as an M.A. in sociology the following year. After Stanford, Booker won a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at The Queen's College, Oxford, where he was awarded an honors degree in modern history in 1994. While at Oxford he became President of the L'Chaim Society, the local chapter of Chabad, and brought together a diverse community there. Booker obtained a J.D. in 1997 from Yale Law School, where he started and operated free legal clinics for low-income residents of New Haven. He was also a Big Brother, and was active in the Black Law Students Association. Booker lived in Newark during his final year at Yale and following graduation served as Staff Attorney for the Urban Justice Center in New York and Program Coordinator of the Newark Youth Project. Booker was elected Mayor in 2006, becoming the 36th mayor of Newark. [Wikipedia]

28. William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, musician and activist who has made repeated visits to speak at Teachers College, where his late son, Ennis, was a student at the time of his death. A veteran stand-up performer, Bill Cosby got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, The Bill Cosby Show, in 1969. He was one of the major characters on the children's television show, The Electric Company, for its first two seasons, and created the humorous educational cartoon series, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. In 1976, Cosby earned a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts. For his doctoral research, he wrote a dissertation entitled, "An Integration of the Visual Media Via 'Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids' Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning". During the 1980s, Cosby produced and starred in what is considered to be one of the decade's defining sitcoms, The Cosby Show, which aired eight seasons from 1984 to 1992 and highlighted the experiences and growth of an upper-middle-class African American family. He also produced the hit sitcom, A Different World. In the 1990s, he starred in Cosby, which aired from 1996 to 2000, and during the show's last two seasons, hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things. His good-natured, fatherly image has made him a popular personality and garnered him the nickname of "America's Dad". He received Kennedy Center Honors in 1998, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002, won the 2003 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, and was presented with the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2009. [Wikipedia]

29. Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna the current President of the Dominican Republic, visited Teachers College in 2007 and cemented an alliance with the College that has helping to establish a new model of schooling in the Dominican. He came to office vowing to end political corruption, and toward this end one of his first acts as president was to increase the salaries of elected officials, including his own. Fernández maintained that public employees would be less inclined to accept bribes if they were properly paid. He also planned closer oversight of the judiciary, police, and military, and he promised greater scrutiny of state-owned firms and reforms to strengthen manufacturing and agriculture. In 1999 he announced an initiative to broaden the country’s economic base by attracting high-technology firms to the Dominican Republic. He attempted to improve the nation’s image abroad and in August 1998 served as host of a regional summit of Caribbean nations. In April 1998 he restored diplomatic relations with Cuba. Constitutionally barred from running for reelection, Fernández left office in 2000. In 2004 he was easily elected president, defeating President Hipólito Mejía Domínguez, whose Dominican Revolutionary Party had altered the constitution to allow the president to run for reelection. Fernández was reelected to a third term in 2008. [britannica.com]

30. Hafizullah Amin (1929-1979) was the second President of Afghanistan during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He attended Teachers College and worked on a doctorate here. Amin tried to broaden his internal base of support and to bring the interest of Pakistan and the United States in Afghan security. During the 104 days of his rule, except for one failed military rebellion, no major uprising took place. Amin also pursued the policy of Pashtunization of the country. On December 27, 1979, members of the Russian KGB OSNAZ (Alpha Group) killed him and Babrak Karmal became President. [Wikipedia]

31. Mary Swartz Rose (BS, 1906) (1874-1941) was a former president of the Institute of Nutrition. Two years as student and assistant at Teachers College, with further study of food and nutrition in the Columbia department of chemistry, resulted in her decision to make the science and teaching of nutrition her life work. To perfect her preparation for such a career she studied two years with Professor Mendel at Yale, receiving its Ph.D. degree in 1909. Directly upon the completion of her work with Doctor Mendel she was appointed instructor in Teachers College, Columbia University, and became its first faculty member to devote full time to the teaching of nutrition and dietetics. Her public lectures and her writings combine interest, practicality, and scientific soundness, and linked the findings of the nutrition laboratory with the daily lives of the people. She carried the message of what nutrition can mean for health and welfare into the public schools and the nursing and health centers of her community; she was long a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Nutrition, and was president of the Institute of Nutrition in 1937-1938; she served as a member of the Council on Foods and Nutrition of the American Medical Association; and of the nutrition committee of the League of Nations. She was chosen by the international quarterly "Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews" to write a comprehensive account and interpretation of the college and university teaching of nutrition and dietetics in the United States. She served as deputy director of the bureau of conservation of the Food Administration in 1918-1919; and in 1940 was chosen one of a national group of five to serve as advisors on nutrition to the Council of National Defense, and consultants to the committee on food and nutrition of the National Research Council. [jn.nutrition.org]

32. Solon Kimball was Professor of Anthropology and Education at TC from 1953 until 1966. Kimball did groundbreaking anthropology work concerning family and community in rural Ireland (with Conrad Arensberg) and on the Navajo reservation in the American Southwest. Over the years, he was on the faculty of a number of universities, including the University of California, Columbia University (GSAS and Teachers College), the University of Alabama, and the University of Florida. He served as an Advisor for The Anthropology Curriculum Study Project, which intended to integrate Anthropology in high school classrooms. The project was undertaken from 1962-1969 by a Personnel Project Committee headed by Malcolm Collier with the partnership of the American Anthropological Association Advisory Committee, Associates, Consultants and Authors.

33. Susan Fuhrman (PhD, 1977) is President of Teachers College, Columbia University, and President of the National Academy of Education. She previously served as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, as well as the school’s George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education. She is founding director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) and is also a former Vice President of the American Educational Research Association. Dr. Fuhrman received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Northwestern University in Chicago, and a Ph.D. in political science and education from Columbia University.

She has written widely on education policy and finance; among her edited books are The State of Education Policy Research (with David K. Cohen and Fritz Mosher, 2007); The Public Schools (The Institutions of American Democracy Series, with Marvin Lazerson, 2005); Redesigning Accountability Systems for Education (with Richard Elmore, 2004); From the Capitol to the Classroom: Standards-Based Reform in the States (2001); and Rewards and Reform: Creating Educational Incentives that Work (with Jennifer O’Day, 1996).

Her many professional involvements include membership on the Board of

Trustees of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and as a

non-executive Director of Pearson plc, the international education and publishing company.

34. Patty Smith Hill (1868-1946) was an American nursery school and kindergarten teacher, one of the leaders of the Kindergarten Movement in the United States. In 1910, Hill became head of the Columbia University Teachers College’s Department of Kindergarten Education and a full professor in 1922. In 1924, she helped create the Institute of Child Welfare Research at Teachers College. Hill followed John Dewey’s principles of education, especially theories of progressive schools and moral education. She believed that children needed free play and socialization to develop their full potential. She introduced the "Patty Hill blocks," building blocks large enough for children to construct a structure and enter inside it to play. In her classroom, children played with cars, trucks, money, pots and pans, everything that is used in everyday life, helping them to learn about life in society. Together with psychologist Agnes Rogers, Hill developed a “Tentative Inventory of Habits,” which consisted of 84 kindergarten habits toward which instruction should be directed. The Inventory was successfully used first at the Horace Mann School at Teachers College, and then at the University of Chicago and other schools around the United States. Hill also visited Russia and helped establish kindergarten education there. Hill continued to serve in the International Kindergarten Union and write on the topics of early education. During the Great Depression, she became involved with the Federal Emergency Nursery Schools, and started to work on her Manhattanville Project. The project was a joint plan by Teachers College, Union Theological Seminary, Jewish Theological Seminary, and Julliard School of Music, to revive the Manhattanville area of the New York City. One part of the project was the establishment of a nursery school, called Hilltop, which ran from 1932 until 1938. [newworldencyclopedia.org]

35. Rollo May (PhD, 1949) is the best known American existential psychologist.  In 1958, he edited, with Ernest Angel and Henri Ellenberger, the book Existence, which introduced existential psychology to the US. Much of his thinking can be understood by reading about existentialism in general, and the overlap between his ideas and the ideas of Ludwig Binswanger is great. He also discusses certain “stages” (not in the strict Freudian sense, of course) of development. May’s books include The Meaning of Anxiety (1950), Man’s Search for Himself (1953), Psychology and the Human Dilemma (1967), The Discovery of Being (1983), Love and Will (1969), and The Cry for Myth (1991). [Wikipedia]

36. Donna Edna Shalala has served as president of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida, since 2001. Prior to her appointment as University of Miami President, Shalala became a professor of politics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, a job she held from 1972 until 1979. Concurrently, from 1977 to 1980, she served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Carter administration. Shalala's first experience with academic administration came in 1980 when she became the 10th President of Hunter College, serving in this capacity until 1988. She next served as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Shalala served for eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President George W. Bush in June 2008. [Wikipedia]

37. Thomas Kean (MA, 1963, and a recipient of TC’s Medal for Distinguished Service to Education), chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is former governor of New Jersey (1982-1990) and, since 1990, the president of Drew University. Kean also served for ten years in the New Jersey Assembly, rising to the positions of majority leader, minority leader, and speaker. As governor, he served on the President's Education Policy Advisory Committee and as chair of the Education Commission of the States and the National Governor's Association Task Force on Teaching. While president of Drew, Kean has served on several national committees and commissions. He headed the American delegation to the UN Conference on Youth in Thailand, served as vice chairman of the American delegation to the World Conference on Women in Beijing; and served as a member of the President's Initiative on Race. He also served on the National Endowment for Democracy. He is chair of the Newark Alliance and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and former chair of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Educate America, and the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. Kean is on the board of a number of organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund. [9-11commission.gov]

38. Raphael Ortiz (82 ED.D., 75 ME). Co-Founder of New York City’s El Museo Del Barrio. In the late 1950s, Ortiz was a central figure in the international art movement of Destructivism, producing significant “destroyed” works in recycled cinema, performance, and sculpture. Ortiz also co-founded El Museo del Barrio (1969), the first Latino art museum in the United States, and was an active member of the Artist Worker’s Coalition (1970-71). In the 1980s, Ortiz turned to digital art. His work has been exhibited around the world, including a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1996.

39. 41. Maxine Greene (PhD, 1955) explores living in awareness and "wide awakeness" in order to advance social justice. Her thinking about existence and the power of imagination have been brought to life through her study, academic appointments, essays and books. In her teaching, she desires to educate those who speak, write, and resist in their own voices, rather than mimic her ideas and language. She is currently the William F. Russell Professor in the Foundations of Education (emerita) at Teachers College. In 2004, the Teachers College Trustees created the Maxine Greene Chair for Distinguished Contributions to Education. She has been Philosopher-in-Residence of the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education (LCI) since 1976 and founded the Maxine Greene Foundation for Social Imagination, the Arts, and Education in 2003. She is also past President of the American Educational Research Association (AREA), Philosophy of Education Society, American Educational Studies Association (AESA), and the Middle Atlantic States Philosophy of Education Society. She is the recipient of numerous, Honorary Degrees, was awarded the Medal of Honor from Teachers College and Barnard College; Educator of the Year Award from Phi Delta Kappa; the Scholarly Achievement Award from Barnard College; AERA's Lifetime Achievement Award; and received a Fulbright fellowship, which took her to New Zealand. [maxinegreene.org]

40. Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986) was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920s. She studied at Teachers College under Arthur Wesley Dow. She received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style. She is chiefly known for paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes in which she synthesized abstraction and representation. Her paintings present crisply contoured forms that are replete with subtle tonal transitions of varying colors. She often transformed her subject matter into powerful abstract images. O'Keeffe played a central role in bringing an American art style to Europe at a time when the majority of influence flowed in the opposite direction. This feat enhanced her art-historical importance given that she was one of few women to have gained entry to this level of professional influence. She found artistic inspiration in the rural Southwest, particularly in New Mexico, where she settled late in life. [Wikipedia]

42. Marion Thompson Wright (BS, 1916), (1902 - 1962), was among the nation's first professionally trained female historians and a pioneer in African- American historical scholarship in New Jersey. During the Great Depression, she was a social worker for the Newark welfare department. During that time, she also was a doctoral student at Columbia University Teachers College where she studied under intellectual historian Merle Curti. Her most significant achievement during that time was her doctoral dissertation, "The Education of Negroes in New Jersey," completed in 1941, which is among the most important studies of New Jersey race relations and African-American history. The first black historian to receive a doctorate at Columbia, she was a pioneer in the study of race relations in the state, laying the foundation for future study that influenced two generations of scholarship on democratic rights and race relations. [tc.columbia.edu]

43. James Comer M.D., M.P.H. , ( a member of the Board of Trustees of Teachers College) is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine's Child Study Center, and has been a Yale medical faculty member since 1968. During these years, he has concentrated his career on promoting a focus on child development as a way of improving schools. His efforts in support of healthy development of young people are known internationally. Dr. Comer, perhaps, is best known for the founding of the Comer School Development Program in 1968, which promotes the collaboration of parents, educators, and community to improve social, emotional, and academic outcomes for children that, in turn, helps them achieve greater school success. His concept of teamwork has improved the educational environment in more than 500 schools throughout America. In addition to his writing, teaching and research activities, Dr. Comer has served as a consultant to several educational committees and associations. He has also chaired the Roundtable on Child and Adolescent Development Research and Teacher Education, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). He served on the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's Commission on the Whole Child and contributed to the 2007 report, The Learning Compact Redefined: A Call to Action: A Report of the Commission on the Whole Child. Dr. Comer has served as Director or Trustee for several Boards, including Teachers College, Columbia University since 1999. For his work and his scholarship, Dr. Comer has been awarded 46 honorary degrees and has been recognized by many organizations. [med.yale.edu]

44. Marcia Lyles (ED.D., 1992) served as an educator in New York City for 30 years. She began her career as an English teacher at Curtis High School in Staten Island, and then moved on to positions as Assistant Principal, Principal, Deputy Superintendent, and Instructional Superintendent. In 2004, Dr. Lyles was named Regional Superintendent for Brooklyn’s Region 8, and in June 2007, she was selected to replace Dr. Andres Alonso as Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning. In May 2009, Dr. Marcia V. Lyles was announced to be leaving the New York City Department of Education to become the Superintendent of Christina School District, which encompasses the cities of Wilmington and Newark, and is the largest public school district in Delaware. [http://schools.nyc.gov]

45. Gyaltshen Penjor. In 1999, he was awarded a scholarship to study economic policy management at Columbia University, and he also took classes at Teachers College – with which his country, the Republic of Bhutan, now maintains an educational alliance, thanks to his efforts. While there, he deepened his understanding of policy analysis, development and administration, he says, opening the way to an influential role on education policy in his home country of Bhutan. Given the small size of his country—it has a population of less than one million—such specialized learning experiences are not available at home. Penjor is now Director of the Royal Education Council in Bhutan, and attributes his role as “a decision-maker entrusted with formulating public policy” to a scholarship he earned through the JJ/WBGSP. Mr. Penjor spoke about his experience at a recent conference of scholarship alumni. He noted that the graduate degree, while critical, is not the only advantage he gained. “The contacts I have maintained with Columbia faculty, staff of the World Bank, and fellow PEPM students have been most helpful,” he said. [wbi.worldbank.org]

Published Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009