2007 Cohort – Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

Alumni Accolades, June 2026

Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 and Savita Maharaj, IRT ’21
Leislie and Savita attended the play Lifted by Mfoniso Udofia, a graduate of Wellesley College, who has written the UFOT Family Cycle of 9 plays in May 2026 at the Wellesley College Alumnae Hall Auditorium. Lifted addresses Toyima Ufot’s path in academia, which was constructed upon her father’s previous academic research. When she is accused of plagiarism, she travels to Nigeria to uncover her familial history and to find healing. This play spoke to Savita and Leislie deeply, and they will attend the next play titled In Old Age in late June.

Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 and Kevin Olusola
In mid-May, Leislie had the opportunity to reconnect with Kevin Olusola, Phillips Academy alum ’06 of Pentatonix fame, who was a student Leislie mentored when he first came to Andover as an 11^th grader. Kevin and Leislie shared a commonality -they both lived in Kentucky; Leislie lived in Bowling Green, and Kevin grew up in Owensboro, Kentucky. Kevin performed at Andover’s Cochran Chapel, sharing his unique style of beatboxing and cello musicianship, performing pieces from his new album titled Dawn of a Misfit.

(L-R) Kevin Olusola, Pat Davison, a former Phillips Academy colleague, and Leislie Godo-Solo

Aroutis Foster, IRT ’02
Foster was named Dean of the Baker School of Education at American University. Congratulations!

Alumni Accolades, October 2025

Ricardo Valencia, IRT ’06
The Santa Maria-Bonita School District‘s school board and superintendent have been awarded the 2025 LEAD Award at the California Latino School Board’s Association Unity Conference in San Diego. Valencia is one of the school board members who was recognized for our leadership work.

Ricardo Valencia, IRT ’06 (second in from left)

Gabriel Peoples, IRT ’07
Gabriel’s new book, Goin’ Viral: Uncontrollable Black Performance, was published in the University of Illinois Press’ prestigious New Black Studies series in July. In it, Gabriel grapples with how Black people (as well as Black representations) have been going viral since before the Internet and after it. In each chapter, Gabriel focuses on a performance, considering its past, present, and future, and offers insight into how it went viral and continues to do so.

Alumni Reunite for Summer Workshop Experience

The IRT is thrilled to have Heather Moore Roberson, IRT ’07, ’10 Ryan Sermon, IRT ’10, and Renée Wilmot, IRT ’12, ’17 return as Summer Workshop Co-Curriculum Coordinators. They took a few moments to share what brings them back and their expectations for this year’s workshop.

Heather Moore Roberson is the Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Allegheny College. Heather received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the American Studies program at Purdue University.

What motivates you to return as a Co-Curriculum Coordinator?

I have had the honor and privilege to serve as a member of the faculty since 2016. After I received my Ph.D., it was vital for me to get reconnected with the next generation of teacher scholars who will transform higher education. I would not be a faculty member/administrator if it wasn’t for the IRT Summer Workshop. IRT continues to be an integral part of my village. As a curriculum coordinator, I get to share my experiences and insights that will help scholars thrive in K-16 environments.

Debut Book Provides Intersections of Passing and Psychoanalysis by Donavan Ramon, IRT ’07

Donavan Ramon, IRT ’07 shares commentary on his first book, Striking Features: Psychoanalysis and Racial Passing Narratives published by Mercer University Press. He is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

How does psychoanalysis animate racial passing and how does racial passing inspire psychoanalysis? Despite long-held beliefs that the two have nothing in common, I assert that psychoanalysis is relevant for understanding the reasons behind jumping the color line. Beginning with the premise that Sigmund Freud created psychoanalysis to contend with his own anxieties about race, I explore canonical and non-canonical passing narratives using psychoanalytic perspectives. By closely reading narratives by Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Jessie Fauset, Anita Reynolds, Danzy Senna, Vera Caspary, Anatole Broyard, and Philip Roth, I advance several provocative claims about the intersections of passing and psychoanalysis. Chief among them are the youthful trauma and psychological consequences of racial passing. For instance, while the death drive motivates fictional racial passers to hasten their own deaths, those who pass in real life often seek their own immortality through print despite hiding their Blackness. This interdisciplinary work threads psychoanalysis and other theoretical perspectives through persuasive close readings of twentieth and twenty-first-century racial passing narratives, concluding with a meditation on today’s ineffective language of race. Scholars of race, African American Literature, American Literature, and psychoanalysis will find my book compelling.

Alumni Accolades, January 2023

Brittney Yancy, IRT ’03
Brittney holds a masters degree in U.S. History and earned a Ph.D. in U.S. History last year from the University of Connecticut. Brittney is currently an Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at Illinois College.