College Convocation ceremonies are being held May 16-18. For event details and other information, click here.

At its 2016 Convocation ceremonies, Teachers College will present its Medal for Distinguished Service to an educator who has shaped a dynamic new role for museums and other public art institutions; a globally recognized leader in public health; a scholar who has championed teaching to the strengths of learners from marginalized communities; and one of the world’s most influential psychologists. The four medalists, each of whom will address TC’s graduating students, are Sandra Jackson-Dumont, the Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Chairman of Education at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art;  Thomas Frieden, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Kris D. Gutiérrez, Professor of Language, Literacy and Culture at the University of California at Berkeley; and Susan Fiske, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology & Professor of Public Affairs at Princeton University.

Jackson-Dumont, who will be honored at the College’s first Master’s Degree ceremony on Monday, May 16^th, is known for championing a vision of museum-going that viscerally engages, disrupts, inspires and challenges the
public. She believes museums should be places where “people can experience the range of emotions, from quiet reflection to dancing in the galleries.” Prior to assuming her current post at the Met in May 2014, Jackson-Dumont was the Kayla Skinner Deputy Director for Education and Public Programs at the Seattle Art Museum, as well as the Museum’s Adjunct Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art. Earlier in her career, she worked at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.  

Frieden, who will be honored at TC’s second Master’s Degree ceremony on Tuesday morning, May 17^th, has been called “the most influential leader in American public health since C. Everett Koop” by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whom Frieden served from 2002-2009 as Commissioner of the New York City Health Department. Named by Time magazine as one of the nation's 100 most influential people, Frieden is known for reducing cases of multi drug-resistant tuberculosis in New York City by 80 percent; for reducing the number of smokers in the city by 350,000 and the number of teen smokers by half; and, at CDC, leading calm, successful responses to H1N1 and Ebola. His guiding philosophy: “When a wildfire breaks out we don’t fence it off – we go in to extinguish it before one of the random sparks sets off another outbreak somewhere else.”

Gutiérrez , who will be honored at the third Master’s Degree ceremony on Tuesday afternoon, May 17^th, has articulated a vision of “teaching toward possibility” for English language learners and those from other non-dominant communities by enabling them to occupy an educational “Third Space” that provides opportunities to think creatively and develop new meanings. Her studies have demonstrated that these students do not require remedial approaches; that, rather, they thrive in rigorous learning environments supported by rich literacy practices, tools and targeted assistance. Gutiérrez is a member of the National Academy of Education and is past President of both the American Educational Research Association and the National Conference on Research on Language and Literacy. Prior to assuming her current position, she was Professor of Learning Sciences/Literacy and held the Inaugural Provost’s Chair at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is also Professor Emerita of Social Research Methodology at GSE&IS at UCLA.

Fiske, who will receive the TC Medal at the College’s Doctoral Hooding ceremony on Wednesday, May 18^th, investigates emotional prejudices at the cultural, interpersonal and neural levels. She has redefined the vocabulary of social psychology, introducing concepts such as “ambivalent sexism,” “cognitive miser,” “stereotype content model” and “power-as-control theory.” Her books include the landmark text Social Cognition, now in its fourth edition; The Human Brand: How We Relate to People, Products and Companies; and Envy Up, Scorn Down: How Status Divides Us. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Fiske was the first social psychologist to testify before the U.S. Supreme Court in a gender discrimination case. 

Published Friday, Mar 4, 2016