After admitting our newest class and graduating our most recent, the IRT is thrilled to launch our newest summer workshop. This workshop will continue to build on our previous virtual delivery with curriculum delivery, Chalk Talks, Recruiters Weekend, and opportunities for scholars to demonstrate their learning. I am excited to see how our Summer faculty will continue to develop ways to support scholars through these shifts in higher education and greater society.
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 2026at 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 11th 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
Ben Vinson III, IRT ’92 Dr. Vinson was named a Harvard Hutchins Center fellow at the Afro-Latin American Research Institute. Congratulations!
Stephen Zrike, IRT’01 Congratulations to Dr. Zrike, who was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey as Secretary of Education. Read the official press release on this appointment.
Karina Fernández Montilla, IRT ’06 Karina received theDiversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Award by the ACE Women’s Network in Massachusetts. The award honors a champion of change whose vision and contributions are focused on changing structural systems for the advancement of women in Massachusetts colleges and universities. Read more about the award and Karina’s work.
Karina also received a staff recognition award at the Black History Month Showcase that recognizes staff and faculty at Hampshire College who often work behind the scenes without enough appreciation. Congratulations!
I am honored to have been nominated and to be recognized alongside colleagues who are so dedicated to supporting transformative educational spaces like Hampshire College.
Wilson Okello, Ph.D., IRT ’08, ’14 is a tenured professor at Pennsylvania State University.
To linger, or tarry, in my work has allowed me to think otherwise – to consider more deeply what I am doing and why. Slowing down, for me, has been an invitation to grapple with the entirety of my relationship to my subject matter, to academia, and with it: precarity, terror, refusals, hopes, rebellions, and dreams.
In this moment of shifting national and state policies – policies that call into question how we know and remember, how we live and be – pursuing lines of inquiry that seek to lift the collective “we” higher are often met with suspicion and ire. It takes work to remember, and resolve to do so intently. My hope is that we will remember the way water remembers, as the ancestor Toni Morrison reminded us – always trying to “get back” to valleys, banks, light, and the route of “our original place.”
We are so proud of all of our alumni accomplishments! If you are an IRT alum and would like to share your news in an upcoming post or if you are an alumni author and would like to have your book posted on our alumni publications page, please reach out!
Omar Galárraga, IRT ’00 Congratulations to Omar recently awarded tenure and is the Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice, and Director of the International Health Institute at Brown University.
Institute for Recruitment of Teachers 
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