NLU Alumni Magazine
LEADERSHIP CONNECTIONS ™ The 15th annual national leadership conference of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University gives attendees the opportunity to build specialized leadership skills and to dialogue with peers and thought leaders in early childhood education. This year seven of the early childhood education leaders featured at the conference are NLU alumni. (Not included below: Alumni Association Board member Georgia Bozeday)
LOOKING BEYOND THE LIST By Nicholas A. Love
Barbara Doyle ‘92, M.S. in Human Resource Management and Development, learned American Sign Language at nine years old, thanks to a deaf friend who lived on her street. Doyle’s father, president of a retail chain in Chicagoland for over 30 years, regularly employed adults with disabilities and started an endowment to ensure special services for a Catholic high school in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. Doyle’s husband is blind and hard of hearing, and a fantastic blues piano player.
people with disabilities are seen as fully human and integrated into everyday communities.
“Separate is not equal. Separate is not the same. Separate does not promote a society of harmony,” she says. Doyle strongly believes that quality of education makes a huge difference in a person’s life. As she tells it, her master’s degree from NLU was essential to all of the work she has done over the years. Her thesis work gave her the confidence to present herself to service providers as an informed and competent expert. And Doyle had quite a bit of fun getting to know the diverse students in her cohort, but the work was no joke. “It was a lot of work, it wasn’t easy. I spent every Saturday or Sunday working.“
It’s no wonder that Doyle works to promote inclusivity for people who have disabilities.
As a clinical consultant, Doyle specializes in autism spectrum disorder. She has a simple mantra that guides her consulting work: “see a competent human.” Her strategy is found in “the old ripple effect” as she works to educate those without a disability to see a whole person behind a list of disabilities. The goal for Doyle is a more inclusive world, where
She’s still working, tirelessly, to promote a better world for people living with disabilities.
“They haven’t signed a waiver saying, ‘it’s OK for me to have a crummy life,’” she observes.
Heidi Kay ’97 Library Media Specialist,
Rob Bowe ’96 // ‘10 Technology Director, Brookfield/LaGrange Park School District 95 M.Ed. in Technology in Education, Ed.D. in Curriculum and Social Inquiry
Schaumburg School District 54 M.Ed. in Technology in Education
Kay is a Library Media Teacher in Schaumburg, Illinois, where she develops lessons and activities that integrate multimedia and Web 2.0 tools in her classroom. She also offers
ongoing assistance to teachers, principals and others in the school to develop effective technology integration strategies to support their curriculum goals.
Bowe is the Director of Technology at Brookfield LaGrange Park School District 95 in Illinois. He past experience includes 12 years as a technology director in Chicago area schools and an additional 13 years serving as the Technology Coordinator at the National College of Education.
Molly Branson Thayer ’12 Director of National P-3 Center, University of Washington Ed.D. in Reading and Language
Branson Thayer is an expert in early literacy, teacher training, and theories of teaching and learning. She led development and implementation of a PreK-3rd literacy assessment, professional development and data management system now used around the country.
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