Three honored at 2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony

The UNC School of Education honored three alumni at its 22nd annual Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony held Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus.

Danielle Parker Moore (’15 Ph.D.), a faculty member at Wake Forest University and founding executive director of WFU’s Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School, received the Alumni Achievement Award. Parker Moore was introduced by Alumni Council member and 2022 Distinguished Leadership Award recipient Kristal Moore Clemons (’09 Ph.D.), national director of the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools and an assistant professor at Virginia State University.

Michael D. Priddy (’70 B.A., ’75M.Ed., ’81 Ed.D.), a North Carolina education leader for nearly five decades who served as superintendent for Pitt County Schools from 2000-2005 and who recently completed a four-year term as chairman of the board of directors of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, received the Distinguished Leadership Award. He was introduced by Tom Williams, Ed.D., former Granville County Schools superintendent.

Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Ph.D., provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who led the UNC School of Education as dean from 2016-2024, was recognized with the Peabody Award for extraordinary contributions to the field of education and commitment to improving education in North Carolina and across the U.S. He was introduced by Jill Hamm, interim dean of the UNC School of Education.

Recipients are chosen by committee members of the School’s Alumni Council.

Amy Rickard (’94 A.B.Ed., ’00 M.S.A.), Alumni Council president and principal of Morris Grove Elementary in Chapel Hill, emceed the event, and Hamm delivered remarks on behalf of the School in addition to introducing Abd-El-Khalick.

“The Alumni Awards is one of the most visible and special ways our Alumni Council celebrates the School’s extraordinary alumni and education leaders who have made profound impact,” Hamm said. “This year, they recognized some truly exceptional people who have driven and are continuing to drive both K-12 and higher education forward.”

Read the citation for each recipient below.

Danielle Parker Moore (’15 Ph.D.)

Parker Moore came to the UNC School of Education to pursue a Ph.D. in Education with a concentration in Culture, Curriculum, and Change after having taught health and physical education at two schools in North Carolina and social studies at a high school in Orlando, Florida. Prior, she had graduated with a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina Central University and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago.

Since earning her Ph.D. in 2015, Parker Moore has gone on to become an engaged member of the Wake Forest University community through her teaching, research, and service. As an assistant professor of multicultural education and the director of the Schools, Education, and Society Minor, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on multicultural education, community engagement, and educational psychology. From 2015 to 2018, she served as associate director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest, a center devoted to exploring the intersections of gender, race, and place to advance scholarly inquiry and pursue equitable outcomes.

Parker Moore’s research interests span qualitative research methods, social justice education, community participatory action research, and parent/caregiver engagement in both school and community contexts.

Her scholarship also investigates the experiences of essential worker parents and caregivers as they navigated the challenges of facilitating online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through rigorous qualitative research, Parker Moore addresses educational inequities and seeks to foster social action. She is skilled in methodologies such as semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, surveys, and focus groups. Additionally, she co-edited “Mentoring Students of Color: Naming the Politics of Race, Social Class, Gender, and Power,” published in 2019.

As the founding executive director of Wake Forest University Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School, Parker Moore leads a free, summer literacy program for K-8 students. The program empowers youth to thrive academically and socially, cultivating a belief in their capacity to contribute meaningfully to their communities, nation, and the world through hope, education, and action.

During its seventh annual session last summer, nearly 70 children participated in the program, a six-week journey of literacy enrichment and college campus immersion. Days began with a lively gathering of music, singing, special recognitions, and announcements of the day and continued with interactive literacy classes of 10 to 12 students taught by college “servant leader interns” — college students at Wake Forest and area universities. These mentors facilitate the integrated reading curriculum, featuring books that mirror the young scholars’ experiences and identities. Parker Moore began her relationship with the program as a servant leader intern and has stayed involved ever since.

Beyond academics, Freedom School nurtures social awareness and civic engagement by giving students the opportunity to get involved in causes relevant to them. Freedom School also conducts parent workshops on self-care, financial literacy, and advocacy. Data from the 2023 Freedom School session show that the program increased instructional reading by five months.

For infusing learning opportunities with joy and inspiration, and for leading North Carolina students toward a widely educated, civic-minded future, the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill honors Danielle Parker Moore with its Alumni Achievement Award.

Michael D. Priddy (’70 B.A., ’75M.Ed., ’81 Ed.D.)

Michael D. Priddy found his passion early in his education career when he discovered his beloved home state of North Carolina was full of contradictions. In contrast to his own experiences growing up in a city that provided exceptional public education for all its children, he found other cities and towns were not always so fortunate.

After studying history as an undergraduate student at Carolina, Priddy began teaching high school math and social studies in Northampton County, a rural area in the northeastern part of the state. After this formative experience, he returned to Chapel Hill to earn his M.Ed. in 1975 and his Ed.D. in 1981. From there, Priddy embarked on a lifelong career providing leadership to North Carolina’s K-12 public schools.

Priddy began applying his studies in educational administration and supervision in Guilford County, first as the supervisor for secondary education and later rising to assistant superintendent, interim superintendent, and associate superintendent roles. In those years, he discovered a love of operations, finance, human resources, and technology — because they are critical parts of school districts where efficiencies are essential to maximize public funds for classrooms, schools, and, most importantly, students. In this work, Priddy also enjoys working closely with school board members and county officials to find areas of common interest and priority.

Among his important achievements was what became known as the Health Sciences Academy in Pitt County Schools. While serving as superintendent of Pitt County Schools in 2000, he had a conversation with the president of the local hospital and medical center that illuminated the many job pathways available there, but that the students graduating from the county school system were not prepared to pursue them. Through a multi-stage, multi-partner initiative, the school system partnered with Pitt Community College and East Carolina University to establish the Health Sciences Academy, a high school curriculum designed to expose students to and prepare them for healthcare-related careers. For more than 20 years now, hundreds of students from each of the six area high schools have earned the Academy credential upon graduation.

Priddy has also served as interim superintendent for Bertie County Schools, Pamlico County Schools, and Wayne County Public Schools, and helped lead a consulting initiative that brought millions of additional dollars into school systems to expand educational technology infrastructure.

Working in several N.C. school systems, within the UNC System, and at the office of the State Board of Education, Priddy learned what was needed, what was missing, and how to create pathways for more students to reach more opportunities. His work was informed by serving as chair of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission and the state’s ABCs of Accountability program. Most recently, he completed four years as chairman of the board of directors for the Public School Forum of N.C., a non-partisan think-and-do tank, based in Raleigh, that has conceived, proffered, and influenced public education policy for more than 30 years. At the UNC School of Education, he served as president of the Alumni Council and is currently chairing its Board of Visitors.

For a career devoted to serving students across North Carolina, and for innovations expanding their opportunities after they leave school, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education honors Michael D. Priddy with its Distinguished Leadership Award.

Fouad Abd-El-Khalick

Across his career, but notably as dean of the UNC School of Education, Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Ph.D., has made substantial contributions to the greater good.

When Abd-El-Khalick arrived at Carolina in 2016, the School ranked No. 35 overall in U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of best schools and colleges of education. Its annual research expenditures were $5.7 million. Each of those measures improved markedly as a result of Abd-El-Khalick’s leadership. The School’s rank rose to as high as No. 21 and enjoyed a near-quadrupling of total research expenditures to $22.2 million by the time of his departure in 2024. The School also raised $26.8 million as part of the Campaign for Carolina (2014-21) and raised a record $8.2 million during fiscal year 2023, nearly doubling the previous best fundraising year ever.

Beyond those impressive numbers, Abd-El-Khalick also led efforts focused on people – attracting to the School the best, brightest, and most diverse faculty, students, and staff. Strategic efforts under his leadership bolstered an already talented faculty and renewed 70% of their ranks, grew the School’s student enrollment, welcomed more students to Peabody Hall through increased credit hours taught, and expanded student and faculty diversity.

These achievements were anchored in Abd-El-Khalick’s vision, leadership, and efforts to build coalitions in support of education. His eight years at the School were marked by initiating, nurturing, and sustaining collaborations and partnerships within Peabody Hall, across the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, with North Carolina school districts and governmental agencies, with a range of organizations in and beyond education, other colleges and universities, and more. His efforts helped to realize the transformative power of education through field-leading research, the highest quality educator preparation, and forward-thinking service to the state.

Abd-El-Khalick created strong partnerships to expand the School’s impact and reach in service of PK-12 students, aspiring education professionals, educators, and school districts, including:

• With Person County Schools and UNC leadership, launching Carolina Community Academy, an innovative K-2 laboratory school in Roxboro that takes a “whole child” approach to achieving student success;
• Launching a new undergraduate major in Human and Organizational Leadership Development, one of a handful of similar programs in schools of education across the nation;
• Delivering the School’s Master in School Administration and Master of Education for Experienced Teachers programs as HyFlex programs, offering in-person and virtual options and increasing access for working professionals from across North Carolina; and
• Creating an online Ed.D. program focused on organizational learning and leadership to equip working professionals from a range of sectors and organizations with knowledge, skills, and experiences to take a human-centered approach to leadership.

In addition, with substantial federal, state, and philanthropic funding, the School partnered with urban and rural school districts to enhance the preparation of North Carolina’s most effective teachers, school leaders, and critical wraparound service professionals through established and innovative initiatives that include the North Carolina Teaching Fellows, DREAM, UNC LEADS, Fellows for Inclusive Excellence, and Helping Heels.

As dean, Abd-El-Khalick was also invested as Alumni Distinguished Professor and maintained his scholarly contributions. A leading science education researcher, he continued to make significant contributions to the development of the scholarly study of teaching and learning about, and assessment of “nature of science,” which describes the characteristics of scientific knowledge and how that knowledge is developed and validated.

Already an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 2021 he was named Kuwait Prize Laureate (in Economics and Social Sciences; Education) for his scholarship on nature of science in science education. In 2022, the National Association for Research in Science Teaching bestowed on him its highest honor, the Distinguished Contributions to Science Education through Research award, noting that he was among the eight most published researchers in the field.

With gratitude for eight years of transformative leadership and collaboration for the greater good, the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill honors Fouad Abd-El-Khalick with its 2024 Peabody Award.