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March 10, 2026
Dear Colleagues,
It is my sincere hope that you will join our research community from April 8 to 12 in Los Angeles, California, where we will engage with the theme, “Unforgetting Histories. Imagining Futures: Constructing a New Vision for Education Research.” It has been inspiring to see how you interpreted this theme and made it your own, as evidenced by the rich posters, roundtables, and symposia we will learn from at our Annual Meeting. As we gather during a time of continued uncertainty, I hope we will find purpose and joy in coming together with one another.
I wish to thank the entire AERA staff and our new executive director, Dr. Tabbye Chavous, for their incredible support in organizing this year’s meeting. Dr. Chavous began her new role in August 2025, and I am in awe of how quickly and confidently she leaned into this leadership. She has already contributed powerfully and compellingly to the conversation about the value and role of education research. Our association is in excellent hands under her leadership.
One of the greatest honors of my career has been curating a vision for this annual meeting alongside my program co-chairs, Professors Keisha Green (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Patrick Camangian (University of San Francisco), and Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (University of Southern California). I am grateful to them for saying “yes” and to their institutions for supporting them throughout this process. They represent a range of methodological perspectives, and you will see their imprint throughout the presidential program.
Together, we sought to highlight the importance of history and appreciate how many of our panels include education historians and/or address the historical context for their work. We also wanted to ensure that educators could locate sessions examining research in the disciplines of mathematics, science, and literacy. Finally, we are proud that our presidential sessions include youth, educators, policymakers, and practitioners alongside education researchers.
The 2026 Annual Meeting promises to be an exciting gathering. I hope you will attend the Opening Plenary, “Holding Fast to Histories. Holding Fast to Dreams,” on Wednesday, April 8, where we will set the tone for why history matters in education research and discuss what is at stake in how we remember the past. Our esteemed panelists include Stacey J. Lee (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Jarvis Givens (Harvard University), Amanda Tachini (University of Oregon), Daniel Solorzáno (University of California, Los Angeles), and Veronica Terriquez (University of California, Los Angeles). My program co-chairs and I have had the privilege of learning from this remarkable community of scholars, and we look forward to bringing these conversations to you on opening night.
Bryan Brayboy, Dean and Carlos Montezuma Professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, will deliver the AERA Distinguished Lecture on Thursday, April 9. My presidential address, “The Future Is Here: Historical Signals in Education Research,” will take place on Friday, April 10. On Saturday, April 11, Professor Bianca Baldridge (Harvard University) will give the Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture. I hope you can join us for all three.
Please visit the exhibition hall in the Los Angeles Convention Center and be sure to follow the red carpet to AERA’s booth. While you are there, we invite you to share, in a brief video recording, how AERA has made a difference in your professional journey and how your work seeks to make an impact beyond academe—shaping practice, policy, and the communities you serve.
We also invite you to join us in honoring the legacies of two scholars we have lost. On Saturday, April 11, we will remember AERA past president Lee Shulman in a session titled “The Art of the Possible: Remembering Lee Shulman.” On Sunday, April 12, we will honor AERA Fellow Ernest Morrell in “The Life and Legacy of Dr. Ernest Morrell: A Call to Embrace Our Collective Oaths.”
It has been an honor and a gift to serve as your 2025–2026 president. I still remember my first annual meeting in Seattle, Washington. I was a graduate student trying to navigate the large, printed program book (remember those?). While I quickly learned the importance of doing some pre-planning, what stayed with me most was the sense of community I began to build during those early meetings. I could not have imagined that more than two decades later I would have the privilege of shaping the vision for this gathering. I look forward to continuing this journey together in Los Angeles.