College of Education Associate Dean and Professor of Multilingual Education Pamela Wesely and Professor of Special Education Allison Bruhn were inducted into the Iowa Academy of Education.

Bruhn and Wesely were the only new inductees this October from the University of Iowa, but the Iowa Academy of Education also welcomed Scott Ellison and David Hernandez from the University of Northern Iowa and Ann Gansemer-Topf from Iowa State University.

The Iowa Academy of Education is composed of outstanding Iowa scholars whose work has earned respect and recognition among peers for making a significant contribution to the broad field of educational studies. Scholars are drawn from multiple fields of inquiry, including educational psychology, educational measurement, special education, instructional design, educational policy, gifted and talented education, curriculum theory and development, educational technology, science education and more. Their mission is to enhance the application of educational research to inform policy and practice within Iowa and beyond.

Membership to the Iowa Academy of Education is granted to those who show rigor and creativity in their scholarship. Inductees have outstanding scholarship related to teaching and learning.

“The Iowa Academy of Education is fostering a community of scholarly minds from Iowa's Regents Institutions, dedicated to illuminating educational research that profoundly influences the fabric of PreK-12 schooling across the state," says Iowa Academy of Education Executive Director and College of Education Educational Leadership Professor Liz Hollingworth.

Bruhn’s research focuses on practical interventions and assessments for students with challenging behavior and the educators who serve them. She has developed two mobile apps to improve students’ self-management of their behavior. In addition to working as a professor of special education, she also is the executive director of the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health.

Wesely’s scholarship examines the attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of teachers, students, and parents in world language educational contexts in K-12 schools in the United States.  She is a co-author of "Words and Actions: Teaching Language Through the Lens of Social Justice" (ACTFL, 2018) and the author of the upcoming book "The Beliefs and Experiences of World Language Teachers in the U.S." (Multilingual Matters, 2024). She also serves as the UI College of Education’s Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs.

UI College of Education faculty inducted in previous years include the following:

• Mary Louise Petersen Chair in Higher Education and Director of the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education, Nicholas Bowman;
• UI College of Education Dean and Counseling Psychology Professor, Daniel L. Clay;
• Belin-Blank Center Director and Myron and Jacqueline N. Blank Endowed Chair in Gifted Education, Megan Foley Nicpon;
• Iowa Academy of Education Executive Director and Educational Leadership Professor, Liz Hollingworth;
• Departmental Executive Officer of the Department of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Multilingual Education, Lia Plakans;
• Associate Research Dean and Counseling Psychology Professor Saba Rasheed Ali;
• Associate Provost for Graduate and Professional Education and Dean of the Graduate College and Professor of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, Amanda Haertling Thein;
• and Higher Education and Student Affairs Professor and Director, Multicultural Initiatives Research Team, Sherry Watt.