Teachers College faculty, students and alumni are making a difference around the world every day, but each year, TC Impact Day offers us the opportunity to come together in purposeful action as we recommit to our shared work. As part of the global celebration, which is uniting us in giving and action for the fifth consecutive year, the TC Impact Spotlight recognizes one student and one alumnus who make an impact in their communities and exemplify our mission to create a more equitable world. 

Learn more about the transformative work of this year’s finalists, vote below through Impact Day (March 4) at 12 pm ET, discover ways that you too can make an impact, and stay tuned for the College’s announcement of the honorees.

Student Finalists

Trevor Baisden (Ph.D. ’26, Education Policy) 

Meet Trevor, a student in TC’s Education Policy program who studies how different forms of school organization and governance shape educational opportunity and improvement.

How Trevor makes an impact:

• Serving as Teaching Assistant for TC’s Washington, D.C.-based Federal Policy Institute, where he has supported more than 100 TC students in learning how to influence federal education policy since 2021.
• Building research communities on campus and around the country through leadership in professional organizations, including as a student co-chair of AERA’s Organizational Theory SIG and AEFP’s LGBTQ+ Community Group.
• Translating research insights into practice through consulting projects focused on school design, innovation, and improvement in over 50 school systems across more than a dozen states, including local schools in Harlem.
• Developing cross-cultural connections and international communities of practice as a board member and volunteer with Forum for Youth Advocacy Uganda, a nonprofit that supports community-led education and gender equity projects in rural and urban Ugandan schools.

Emily Nguyen (M.S. ’27, Communication Sciences and Disorders)

Meet Emily, a student in the Communications Sciences and Disorders program with a passion for literacy, multilingual support and special education.

How Emily makes an impact:

• Providing individual and group therapy for people with aphasia and autism, and creating weekly session plans as a Student Clinician at the Edward D. Mysak Clinic for Communication Disorders.
• Helping students in Harlem at risk of reading failure become stronger readers as a Literacy Tutor for The Reading Team.
• Addressing speech-language pathology resource gaps in an educational setting for bilingual and multicultural children.
• Providing speech, language, and social support for community members with aphasia as a Volunteer Co-Leader of Spanish Saturday Aphasia Group at TC.

RJ Wicks (M.A. ’26, Education Policy)

Meet RJ, a student in the Education Policy program passionate about improving student experiences through research and policy.

• How RJ makes an impact:
  Leading curriculum design and implementation for the School Board and Youth Engagement Lab’s “Making Democracy Real” initiative — which promotes civic engagement among middle and high school students in Harlem — as part of his Zankel Fellowship.
• Strengthening the College community by supporting his fellow students as a Community Assistant in Whittier Hall in addition to advising student organizations and creating inclusive programming as an Administrative Fellow for Graduate Student Life & Development (GSLD) community.
• Examining equity-centered educational reforms and international education policy as a Graduate Research Assistant with the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST).

Alumni Finalists

Delmy Lendof (Ed.D. ’13, Higher and Postsecondary Ed)

Meet Delmy, a dedicated mentor and practitioner committed to enhancing the student experience in higher education.

How Delmy makes an impact:

• Leveraging her 25 years of experience to improve student success as the Vice President for Student Affairs at Pratt Institute and a Pillar of the Profession recognized by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA).
• Supporting undocumented students at SUNY Old Westbury through the DREAM BIG Endowment campaign as well as migrant communities staying in shelters in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood.
• Preparing future educators to adequately support their students’ development as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.
• Strengthening TC’s alumni community on the local, regional and international levels through her leadership on the TC Alumni Council.
• Supporting students and young professionals, particularly those from underrepresented groups, along their career paths as a mentor and guide.

Brandon Martin (M.A. '16, EPSA)

Meet Brandon, founder of a non-profit organization that is creating new generations of Black leaders

How Brandon makes an impact:

• Leading Close Ties Leadership Program, serving more than 175 boys in Atlanta through a long-term leadership pipeline that walks with the same cohorts from fifth grade through high school graduation.
• Showcasing pathways to college and career for Black boys beyond athletics through sustained mentorship, college tours, and corporate exposure experiences.
• Equipping students with the social-emotional skills, leadership development, and identity-affirming support they need to navigate academic and life challenges with confidence.
• Connecting students to scholarship and postsecondary opportunities, contributing to participants earning more than $11 million in scholarships.
• Building and scaling a comprehensive, relationship-centered model that increases representation of Black men in higher education and leadership pathways.

Srishti Meera Sardana (Ph.D. ’23, M.A. ’16 Clinical Psychology)

Meet Srishti, a psychologist improving access to affordable, high-quality mental health care particularly for vulnerable populations.

How Srishti makes an impact:

• Preparing the next generation of psychologists through her appointments as Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin Systems and Adjunct Assistant Professor at TC.
• Leading a multi-site study to develop mental health infrastructure for displaced peoples and refugees in the U.S. and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Founding the mhSEVA Lab, where Sardana and her team develop culturally-relevant and context-appropriating mental health interventions to decrease suffering for vulnerable and high-risk populations around the world.
• Creating a first-of-its-kind global mental health course that focuses on humanitarian and low-resource settings as a visiting faculty member at Ashoka University, India and in parallel at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to increase access to such training for underrepresented and first-generation students.