For the Record, March 20, 2026

For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent presentations, publications, honors and memorials include the following:

Presentations

On March 3, 2026, Margaret Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, was an invited participant in an online discussion organized by the British Association of Decadence Studies (based at Goldsmiths, University of London) for academics in the U.K. and abroad. The subject was an1893 volume of feminist short stories, Keynotes, by the Anglo-Irish author "George Egerton" (Mary Chavelita Dunne). Stetz has long been recognized as an authority on Egerton's writings and provided the invited "Afterword: The Future of Egerton Studies" for the volume George Egerton: Terra Incognitas (Routledge, 2025). Her most recent public lecture related to Egerton's fiction - in this case, its relationship to Oscar Wilde's work - was at UCLA's William Andrews Clark Library on Feb. 21, 2026. That talk is now archived on the Clark Library's YouTube channel and available for viewing.

Amish Trivedi, assistant professor of English and creative writing and a poet who has published three books previously, read from his newest work at Stay Gold Books in Pittsburgh on Feb. 7, 2026, and again at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual conference in Baltimore on March 6, 2026.

Publications

Roderick L. Carey, associate professor the College of Education and Human Development's (CEHD) Department of Human Development and Family Sciences and CEHD Faculty Scholar, published "Strategic Avoidance and the Perceived Mattering of Black Adolescent Boys in Schools Amid Societal Upheaval" in AERA Open with coauthors C. Polanco, S. S. Vilceus, M. X. Miller, L. Marianno, H. Blackman, K. A. Daughtry, H. R. Abrams, W. Woelki and S. Shekhar. Carey's interdisciplinary research seeks to make sense of the school experiences of Black and Latinx adolescents in urban contexts, drawing upon critical theories, sociological tools and constructs from developmental and social psychology.

Jennifer Gallo-Fox, associate professor in CEHD's Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, published "One Preschool's Adaptations and Modifications to Maintain Nature-based Programming During COVID-19" in the International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education with coauthors A. Pic and E. Novikova. Gallo-Fox's research in early childhood education focuses on the development and study of programs designed to strengthen teacher learning and practice. She works to understand the ways that teachers learn and practice within their classroom contexts and designs programs to leverage local resources that can increase teachers' learning potential.

Sanford Student, assistant professor in CEHD's School of Education, published "Causal parameter moderation: Applying moderated nonlinear factor analysis to causal inference with latent outcomes" in the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics. Student specializes in measurement, psychometrics and quantitative methods. He contributes to applied research in educational assessment, early literacy, child language development, cognitive decline in older adults, student motivation and more.

Honors

Five students from the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration placed in the 2026 Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) Policy Simulation Competition, held virtually on March 7 and 14, 2026. The annual event presents aspiring public service professionals with real-world challenges to tackle in real time, connecting classroom theory with practice and encouraging skill development. Josselyn Reader, a sophomore Honors student majoring in civic leadership and policy studies, and Irene Rodiguez, a student in the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, took home first place for their team. Master of Public Policy students Sasha Altman and Kylie Tugend also won for their team. Both teams will advance to the final round of the overall competition. Additionally, MPA student Gema Otheliansyah and his team placed second in their site competition.

Salil Lachke, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Biology, was recognized by the National Foundation for Eye Research. He received the Henry Fukui Travel Award, presented by the National Foundation for Eye Research (NFER), a nonprofit organization that encourages research to find the cause and to develop a non-surgical treatment for cataracts. The award is presented to one senior lens research investigator across the United States. Lachke was nominated for this award by Michael L. Robinson, a professor of biology with Miami University. The award supported Lachke's participation in the International Conference on the Lens, held in Kona, Hawaii, in December, where he organized a session on "Fiber cell differentiation" and presented the latest research findings from his laboratory on diverse mechanisms of gene expression control coordinately regulate fiber cell differentiation. Lachke was also voted to become a trustee member of the NFER at the conference.

The University's Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies has been named the 2026 Community Partner of the Year by Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County. The award recognizes more than a decade of impactful collaboration focused on sustainability and community engagement. Faculty members, including Kelly Cobb and Huantian Cao of fashion and apparel studies, as well as Kedron Thomas of anthropology, have partnered with Goodwill on innovative textile recycling and reuse projects designed to create a hyper-local circular economy. The award will be formally presented at the organization's 2026 Inspiration Awards Luncheon on May 8, 2026.

In Memoriam

Hedley Davis, UD alumnus and adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, passed away on March 9, 2026.

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