Penn GSE Faculty Earn National Recognition for Research, Leadership, and Innovation

Several Penn GSE faculty members have received prestigious awards and honors for their research, leadership, and impact across education, policy, and interdisciplinary innovation. Recognitions this year include multiple honors from the American Educational Research Association (AERA), a university-wide artificial intelligence award, and national distinctions in medical education leadership and alumni engagement.

These accolades reflect Penn GSE’s strategic vision, Together for Good, and its ongoing commitment to advancing knowledge, shaping educational practice, and supporting communities through research, collaboration, and public scholarship.

'This year’s faculty honors include:

MRMJJ Presidential Professor of Education Sigal Ben-Porath 

Sigal Ben-Porath will receive the 2026 Faculty Award of Merit from Penn Alumni, which recognizes faculty who make outstanding contributions to alumni lifelong learning and engagement by sharing their scholarship with the broader Penn community. The award will be presented to her at a gala on Nov. 13. 

Ben-Porath, who also serves as faculty director of the SNF Paideia Program for Civic Dialogue, studies schools and universities as democratic institutions, with a focus on free speech, civic engagement, and higher education policy. Her work extends beyond the classroom through public scholarship and engagement with alumni and academic communities, helping to foster dialogue and intellectual connection across the University.

Associate Professor Ed Brockenbrough

Ed Brockenbrough was awarded a Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Grant for his study, "Online Content as Sexuality Education Curricula for LGBTQ+ Youth of Color,” which explores the online sexuality education experiences of LGBTQ+ youth of color. He also recently appeared on the Teach the Babies podcast, where he talked about queerly responsive pedagogy and sex education, and the Ratchet Roundtable podcast, where he talked about Black queerness, safe spaces, and a pedagogy of the closet.

Brockenbrough’s research focuses on negotiations of identity, pedagogy, and power in urban educational contexts, particularly through the lenses of Black masculinity studies and queer of color critique. 

Professor H. Gerald Campano 

H. Gerald Campano has been named a 2026 Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, one of the field’s highest honors recognizing scholars for their exceptional contributions to education research. He was inducted at the AERA’s annual meeting in Los Angeles. In addition, Campano, alongside collaborator Marìa Paula Ghiso, GRD’09, received the AERA Division G Luis Moll Creative Work/Book Award, which recognizes outstanding scholarship on the social contexts of education, for their Methods for Community-Based Research.

Campano’s work spans elementary literacy, critical ethnic studies, immigrant education, and participatory research methodologies. His scholarship emphasizes community-based inquiry and positions research as an epistemic right, advancing approaches to education grounded in care, interdependence, and collaboration, with a strong commitment to equity and justice.

Director for the Project for Mental Health and Optimal Development Andy Danilchick 

Andy Danilchick was awarded $1 million in funding from two Public Schools Opioid Recovery Trust three-year grants: half in partnership with the Chester Upland School District in Pennsylvania and half with the Red Clay Consolidated School District in Delaware. The grants support membership in the Consortium for Mental Health and Optimal and the development of opioid and addiction toolkits for students, educators, and the community.

Professor Nelson Flores 

Nelson Flores has been appointed to the American Educational Research Association Minority Fellowship Program Selection Committee, which supports the development of scholars from historically underrepresented backgrounds in education research.

Flores’s scholarship examines how race and language have been historically constructed in the U.S. and how those dynamics continue to shape education policy and practice. His work has been central to advancing a raciolinguistic perspective, which explores the intersection of language, power, and racialization in schooling.

William T. Carter Professor Emerita of Child Development and Education Vivian L. Gadsden 

Vivian L. Gadsden has received two of AERA’s highest honors: the 2026 Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award and the inaugural Dr. Felice J. Levine Distinguished Contributions to Mentoring in Research and Leadership Award, recognizing her profound impact on both scholarship and the development of future scholars.

Gadsden’s research has significantly advanced understanding of families, literacy, and early childhood development, while her mentorship has shaped generations of students and education leaders. Her career spans leadership roles in national research centers, federal and foundation advisory boards, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she has contributed extensively to academic governance and the field of education research. In the fall, she was elected vice president of the National Academy of Education. 

Associate Professor Seiji Isotani

Seiji Isotani has received a Discovering the Future of AI Award from Penn AI for leading the Penn AI Pedagogy Initiative, a university-wide effort to support the responsible and effective integration of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning.

The initiative brings together interdisciplinary student and faculty teams to co-design, test, and refine AI-supported instructional strategies across courses at Penn. By focusing on real classroom challenges, the project aims to develop scalable, evidence-based approaches to AI in education while preserving the human elements of teaching. An outcome of the work will be the Penn AI Pedagogy Repository, a shared digital library of tools and models that can be adopted across institutions.

Isotani is an internationally recognized leader in artificial intelligence in education whose work bridges computer science, the learning sciences, and public policy, with a focus on expanding access to personalized learning in diverse contexts.

Adjunct Associate Professor James P. Orlando, GED’09 

James P. Orlando has received both the Ethel Weinberg MD Medical Education Leadership Award from the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers and the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Lead Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which recognizes designated institutional officials who demonstrate excellence in leading graduate medical education programs.

Orlando, associate dean for graduate medical education at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, has spent his career advancing leadership development and innovation in medical education. His work emphasizes a “learning leader” approach, supporting students, residents, and faculty in developing their skills while aligning training programs with institutional and community needs.