Riall Lecture Series

2022 Spring Lecture

What Is Equity and Why Do All Children Deserve It?

Rodney Robinson
Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Robinson is a 21-year education veteran working with marginalized Black and Brown communities in Richmond, VA. He has received numerous awards for his accomplishments in and out of the classroom, most notably the 2019 National Teacher of the Year. His current role is as a senior policy advisor with Richmond Public Schools in charge of Teacher Pathways with a specific focus on the RVA Men Teach Program to recruit and retain male minority educators in Richmond Public Schools.

Download 2022 Event Poster (PDF)

2018 Spring Lecture

Aaron Hogan
April 26, 2018

Aaron Hogan is a husband, a dad of three, and an educator who is committed to helping those around him be their best. Since he entered the classroom, he has been trying to reimagine education to serve students best. He currently serves as the Coordinator of English, Language Arts, and Reading in College Station ISD where he previously served as a campus administrator and high school English teacher. Aaron is an author, blogger and speaker.

His book, Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth: 6 Truths Will Help You THRIVE as an Educator, highlights his passion for social emotional learning, innovation in education, and connecting educators for professional growth. Toward that end, Aaron created two weekly Twitter chats (#CSISDchat, a chat that focuses on issues important to his school district, and #TeacherMyth chat, a chat that weekly seeks to shatter the myths that are present in education and highlight the truths that will help teachers thrive in their work). Both exist to connect, encourage, and challenge educators who are tackling the hard work that our profession demands.

2017 Spring Lecture

Ashley Rhodes-Courter
April 13, 2017

Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years in foster care. She recounted the horrors she suffered — and opened the eyes of many to a broken system — in her 2008 New York Times best selling memoir Three Little Words.

Despite her ordeal, which lasted from ages 3-12, she excelled in school because she believed that “my education was the one thing nobody could take from me.” She earned Eckerd College’s full-tuition Trustee Scholarship, graduating with honors and ahead of schedule with a double major in communications and theatre before going on to complete her M.S.W. at the University of Southern California. As an undergraduate, she was selected as one of 20 students in the nation for USA Today’s All-USA Academic team and was named one of Glamour’s “Top Ten College Women,” in part due to her advocacy for children in abusive foster homes. Rhodes-Courter has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, Nightline, Nancy Grace and The Montel Williams Show, among other national media outlets. In 2009, she hosted the State of Florida-produced TV program Explore Adoption, which won an Emmy. In addition to her efforts domestically, Rhodes-Courter has spent time studying and advocating in Europe, South Africa and China. In her local community, she has served as a volunteer guardian ad litem and as a foster parent, caring for more than 25 children. Her eldest son was adopted from foster care. She chronicled many of these efforts in her second book, Three More Words, which debuted as a No. 1 bestseller in 2016.

2016 Spring Lecture

Dr. Pasi Sahlberg
March 22, 2016

Author of Finnish Lessons, an account of the dramatic and successful reform effort in Finland. Dr. Sahlberg, currently on the faculty at Harvard, played a seminal role in shaping Finland's education policies.

2015 Fall Lecture

Dr. Juli Dixon and Alex Dixon
October 13,2015

The 28th year of the Riall Lecture Series kicks off with an inspiring presentation by a mother- daughter team. Juli Dixon, PhD, is noted professor of math education at the University of Central Florida. Her daughter, Alex, is a high school student in Orlando. When she was undergoing brain surgery at age 12, Alex suffered of a debilitating stroke that left her partially paralyzed and with severe speech impairment. The story of Alex's remarkable progress is chronicled in a presentation by both mother and daughter, featuring actual videos at several stages of her recovery. Their message of hope, perseverance, determination and patience has relevance for teachers at all levels. The Riall Lecture is free and open to the public. The Dixons will be available to sign copies of the book written by Juli and Alex's sister Jessica, A Stroke of Luck: A Girl's Second Chance at Life, following the lecture.

2015 Spring Lecture

Rafe Esquith
March 31,2015

Once-in-a-lifetime educator, Rafe Esquith may be the most inspiring school teacher in America. He's been called "a modern day Thoreau" by Newsday, "a genius and a saint" by The New York Times, and "the most interesting and influential classroom teacher in the country" by The Washington Post. For the past two decades, Esquith has taught fifth graders at a public school in a Los Angeles neighborhood plagued by guns, gangs, and violence. His exceptional classroom at Hobart Elementary - known simply as Room 56 - is unlike any other in the country.

Esquith's student are mostly immigrants or children of immigrants, living in poverty and learning English as a second language. Yet under his tutelage, they voluntarily come to class at 6:30 in the morning and often stay until five in the afternoon. They learn math, reading, and science. But they also play Vivaldi, perform Shakespeare, often score in the top one percent on standardized tests, and go on to attend the best universities. For his near-heroic work, Esquith is the only teacher to be awarded the President's National Medal of the Arts. He has received the National Teacher of the Year Award and won accolades from Oprah, the Queen, and the Dalai Lama. He's also written four books, with his most recent being the critically acclaimed Real Talk for Real Teachers, published in 2013. His other books include Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, There Are No Shortcuts, and Lighting Their Fires. Esquith has also been featured, along with his students, in the PBS documentary The Hobart Shakespeareans.

2014 Fall Lecture

Freeman A. Hrabowski, III
October 8, 2014

TIME magazine has named Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

The transformational president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and chair of President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans is the next speaker in Salisbury University’s E. Pauline Riall Lecture Series in Education.

A child leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Hrabowski, a native of Birmingham, AL, earned his Ph.D. in higher education administration and statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at age 24.

He came to UMBC as vice provost in 1987, becoming president in 1992. Under his guidance for the past 22 years, the university has become one of the nation’s leading undergraduate and research institutions, lauded by U.S. News & World Report and other publications.

Hrabowski has earned the Heinz Award for his contributions in improving the “human condition.” The Washington Post and Harvard University’s Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership have named him among the seven “Top American Leaders.”

Other honors have included the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, McGraw Prize in Education, General Electric’s African-American Forum ICON Lifetime Achievement Award, and honorary degrees from more than 20 institutions, including Harvard, Princeton and Duke Universities. The Baltimore Sun has named him Marylander of the Year.

In addition to serving as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and a number of Maryland-based boards and councils, he also has co-authored two books – Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds – on parenting and high-achieving African Americans in science.

60 Minutes feature on Dr. Hrabowski that aired on CBS in 2011.

2014 Spring Lecture

Alfie Kohn
April 8, 2014

Alfie Kohn has been described by Time as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores,” he originally spoke at SU in 2001. This year, he discusses “The Standards and Testing Juggernaut: Rescuing Education from ‘School Reform.’”

Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education and parenting. His 13th book, The Myth of the Spoiled Child: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom About Children and Parenting, is scheduled for publication this spring.

Pervious works include No Contest: The Case Against Competition (1986),Punished by Rewards (1993), The Schools Our Children Deserve (1999) and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason (2005).

His criticisms of competition and rewards have helped shape the thinking of educators – as well as parents and managers – across the country and abroad. Kohn has been featured on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including Today and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He has been profiled in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, while his work has been described and debated in many other publications.

His articles on education include a dozen widely reprinted essays in Phi Delta Kappan from 1991-2008. Among them are “Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide,” “How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education,” “Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow” and “Why Self-Discipline is Overrated.”