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In its first year, ACCESS Academy doubles applications and delivers strong academic results

ckearney — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:44:46 +0000

In its first year, ACCESS Academy doubles applications and delivers strong academic results ckearney Thu, 03/26/2026 - 15:44

In its first year, 911��’s Accelerated College and Employability Skills (ACCESS) Academy is already demonstrating strong indicators of demand, academic rigor, and early student achievement. Interest in the program has grown rapidly. For the 2026-27 admissions cycle, ACCESS received 387 applications from ninth graders, double the 193 applications submitted the previous year.

With only 30 seats available for the incoming ninth-grade cohort, the program has quickly become one of the most selective emerging innovation pathways in the region. Participation in the program allows advanced freshmen in high school to take college classes.

In December, ACCESS Academy students demonstrated projects and discussed their experiences with then-Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera in a robotics lab at Fuse at Mason Square. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Early academic outcomes among the inaugural cohort also reflect the program’s rigor. The current ninth-grade ACCESS Academy class maintains an average GPA of 3.72, demonstrating strong performance across a curriculum that integrates advanced technical coursework with core high school instruction. These early indicators highlight the momentum behind the academy and the role of 911�� and its College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) in developing research-informed, workforce-aligned learning models for secondary education.

One of the most significant milestones for the academy this year is the launch of its first dual enrollment course. Thirty-seven ACCESS Academy ninth-graders are currently enrolled in a Python programming course offered through Northern Virginia Community College. Introducing a college-level computing course at the ninth-grade level represents an acceleration point within the academy’s academic pathway, providing students with foundational programming skills relevant to software development, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and data science.

Potomac Falls High School teacher Matt Wax, one of the academy instructors, said launching a new academic model required both flexibility and innovation in instructional practice. “Because the program is brand new, there aren’t many existing resources to draw from,” Wax said. “We’ve had to adapt instruction in real time, creating opportunities for students to think outside the box while adjusting expectations and course design as the program evolves.”

Early implementation has also highlighted the collaborative learning environment developing among students. While some ninth-graders are adjusting to the rigor of college-level coursework, Wax noted that peer support has become an important element of the classroom culture. “It’s been encouraging to see students who are doing well step up to help classmates who are struggling,” he said. “That willingness to support one another is one of the most positive outcomes so far.”

In addition to rigorous coursework, ACCESS students are already engaging in technical and professional learning opportunities beyond the classroom. Last fall, 31 ACCESS Academy students attended the BSidesNoVA Cyber Security/Hacker Conference, where they participated in sessions focused on cybersecurity tools, ethical hacking, and emerging digital threats. Participation in professional cybersecurity conferences at the ninth-grade level represents a distinctive feature of the academy’s early exposure model.

In the summer of 2025, ACCESS Academy offered an AI Camp to 9th through 12th graders at Fuse at Mason Square. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Thirty ACCESS students participated in Virginia CyberSlam 2026, an event sponsored by 911��’s Cyber Security Engineering Department and Loudoun County Public Schools. The event challenged students to apply cybersecurity concepts in simulated threat-response scenarios and collaborative problem-solving environments.

ACCESS students have also had opportunities to present their learning to state-level education leaders. During a recent visit to Fuse at Mason Square, students demonstrated projects and discussed their experiences with former Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, providing visibility for the academy’s instructional model and student work.

At the curricular level, ACCESS Academy is emerging as a leader within Virginia’s expanding lab school network through its use of problem-based learning as core instructional framework. Rather than relying on traditional lecture-based instruction, students engage with complex, real-world problems that require research, collaboration, and iterative design. This curriculum model, developed with support from CEHD faculty, is attracting statewide attention.

Faculty affiliated with the program will present the ACCESS Academy curriculum framework at the upcoming Innovation Summit hosted by Old Dominion University, highlighting how the academy integrates computing education, interdisciplinary learning, and research-based instructional design.

For instructors, one of the most notable aspects of the program has been the diversity of students who have chosen to participate. Wax observed that the inaugural cohort includes a wide range of ability levels, interests, and backgrounds, creating opportunities for varied perspectives within collaborative learning environments. The program’s rapid growth in applications reflects the special opportunities it provides, he added.

“ACCESS offers opportunities free of charge that many students might not otherwise have access to,” he said. “For students who are looking for something different from a traditional model of schooling, it offers an accelerated and more professionally oriented pathway.”

“What we’re seeing with ACCESS Academy is early evidence of what becomes possible when we design learning as a connected pathway rather than a series of disconnected experiences,” explained Ingrid Guerra-Lopez, dean of CEHD, who led the vision and design of ACCESS Academy. “ACCESS is giving us a living platform to study and continuously improve how teaching and learning can better prepare students for the complexity of the future. This model invites us to rethink readiness not as something that begins after high school, but as something we intentionally build across the entire educational ecosystem.”

This initiative supports the Advancing 21st-Century Education for All solution of 911��'s Grand Challenge Initiative

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Higher education institutions must evolve and secure mergers and partnerships to thrive, industry leaders agree

Katarina Benson — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:36:29 +0000

Higher education institutions must evolve and secure mergers and partnerships to thrive, industry leaders agree Katarina Benson Wed, 03/25/2026 - 14:36

Colleges and universities face significant demographic, financial, technological, and political changes that affect enrollment, tuition and financial aid, athletics programs, and career outcomes. The institutions that will succeed in the future are the ones today transforming their operational models and establishing robust alliances across sectors.

That was the prevailing sentiment March 17 when higher education leaders from across the country convened at Fuse at Mason Square for the inaugural P3•EDU MAP Summit. (P3 is short for public–private partnerships, and MAP stands for mergers, affiliations, and partnerships.)

“Depending on how you count them, we have 6,000 institutions of higher education in this country, and not all of them are going to make it out of the next decade,” said U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent. “And quite honestly, not all of them need to make it out of the next decade or should. And the ones that do are going to be the ones that adapt in a variety of ways.”

The Colleges and Universities at an Inflection Point panel at the P3•EDU MAP Summit. From left, moderator Ted Eismeier, Senior Vice President, Head of Postsecondary Communications, Whiteboard Advisors; Robert Kelchen, Professor and Department Head, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Brad Wolverton, Editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education; Mike Gavin, President and CEO, Alliance for Higher Education; and Sara Custer, Editor-in-Chief, Inside Higher Ed. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine referenced the state’s many successful public–private partnerships, including Fuse at Mason Square itself, noting different kinds of P3s he’s brokered in his many elected offices in Virginia, including urban infrastructure, Metrorail extension, and student housing near college campuses. Higher education needs to "change course and change direction while still meeting the needs of the workforce and families,” he said.

“There's this sort of false narrative about higher ed institutions needing to do everything themselves,” said James Sparkman, the P3•EDU producer whose organization is a catalyst for higher ed alliances. “I think this is unsustainable for a lot of institutions, and it's definitely not the model for the dynamic colleges and universities that I know that thrive on partnerships.”

911�� President Gregory Washington acknowledged the importance of colleges finding “a new set of solutions” by collaborating with industry, non-governmental organizations, and the public K-12 sector.

“If you have these conversations with members of government, and with many of our well-placed corporates, they will tell you there are too many universities,” Washington said. “And that the value proposition is in question. So what that means is that the calvary probably isn't coming. We’re going to have to find ways to survive, which means looking more toward partnerships and frameworks working together. Those institutions that don't do that do so at their own peril. And part of that peril is their own survival.”

Washington mentioned his “co-opetition” model in which institutions find more ways to align resources while continuing to compete against each other. But those alliances can be elusive because colleges and universities and reluctant to relinquish their autonomy.

Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, found in a previous role that it was difficult to convince neighboring colleges to sync academic calendars or library loan agreements, let alone establish the cross-institutional partnerships that higher ed survival increasingly demands.

“Our blessing is that we are not a federal higher education system,” Hass said. “Our curse is that we are individual institutions and organizations with individual histories, individual mascots, individual sports teams…. We have this radical independence, and it is, in many ways, our strength. And it does make the system more complex, more flexible, and more redundant in a way that probably increases the overall resiliency of the system. But that doesn't mean individual institutions have that resiliency.”

“We have been at inflection points before in the history of higher ed,” Inside Higher Ed editor-in-chief Sara Custer said during one of the summit panels. “This one feels completely different. One thing that is a blanket cause of where we are right now is the overcompliance and fear we’re seeing on college campuses from leadership right down to junior staff.”

Kent, who was deputy education secretary in Virginia before joining the U.S. Department of Education, said that more intentional conversations are taking place now between potential partners in and around higher ed and that the role of his department is to facilitate those partnerships through “cutting regulatory burden.”

“We are all about breaking down silos,” Kent said. “We are all about doing things in a different way. We are all about questioning the status quo in this administration. We are breaking a lot of molds in the way that we do things, and we think for the betterment of students and taxpayers, and quite honestly, for the betterment of higher education as a whole.”

“P3s are something that Virginia embraces, and we're very excited about it, being able to put all stakeholders around the table,” Kaine said. “Because without that, it's really hard to do projects. And it's just a tribute to the fact that good things in life now hardly happen by the say-so of a dynamic president or the say-so of a dynamic governor. It takes a lot of people around the table.”

This initiative supports the Advancing 21st-Century Education for All solution of 911��'s Grand Challenge Initiative

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Podcast: The future classroom: Teaching and learning in age of AI

sholla4 — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:00:08 +0000

Podcast: The future classroom: Teaching and learning in age of AI sholla4 Mon, 03/23/2026 - 13:00

As society navigates rapid technological advancement and escalating challenges at home and abroad, it’s up to our educators to prepare students to meet the evolving needs of the state, the nation, and the world. We call this Advancing 21st Century Education for All: one of the key pillars of our Grand Challenge Initiative.

On today’s episode of Access to Excellence, Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of 911��’s College of Education and Human Development, joins President Gregory Washington to discuss the future of education in a rapidly changing world and why the irreplaceable human elements of teaching will define the profession's future even as technology transforms it.

We don't have the luxury of looking away and saying, well, I don't like technology and I don't like the AI thing, or whatever the technology might be. And just say, well, I'm not gonna engage. The world has moved on, right? So I think one of the critical things that is gonna be really important for educators and, and educational systems is to promote the ability for students to engage in lifelong learning and adaptability 'cause that is always going to be a constant requirement. — Ingrid Guerra-López

Read the transcript

Intro (00:04):
Trailblazers in research, innovators in technology, and those who simply have a good story: all make up the fabric that is 911��, where taking on the grand challenges that face our students, graduates, and higher education is our mission and our passion. Hosted by Mason President Gregory Washington, this is the Access to Excellence podcast.

President Gregory Washington (00:27):
The world is changing. Virginia and the nation require institutions that can rapidly align the next generation workforce with the evolving needs of the economy and our communities. More is already demanded of this generation than any before them. We have no choice but to prepare them for a task that is nothing short of saving the world. At 911��, we call it advancing 21st century education for all. It's one of the key pillars of our Grand Challenge initiative, and I can't think of a better person to talk to us about it than our guest. Dr. Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of 911��'s College of Education and Human Development, Dean Guerra-López, welcome to the show.

Ingrid Guerra-López (01:22):
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

President Gregory Washington (01:25):
Well, let me start high level here. Where does your passion for education come from?

Ingrid Guerra-López (01:32):
So, it, it actually, I would say maybe doesn't come quite from education, it comes from learning. I've always been really drawn to asking questions, to needing to understand how things connect, just overall general inquiry and curiosity, you know, how things fit together. And so learning to me is ultimately what the promise of education is. Learning in itself, it, it's intrinsically valuable. It expands us. It, it deepens our judgment. Uh, it fuels so many other things. And education is one of those means. It's one of the many pathways through which learning can occur. We can learn through so many ways: on our own, through reflection and experience, uh, informally in our communities, through family, through our work, vicariously by watching others, and through that formal educational system. So I think it's, it's really important to distinguish the education from the actual point of it, which is learning and growth.

President Gregory Washington (02:29):
You got teachers and you have learners, right?

Ingrid Guerra-López (02:31):
That's right.

President Gregory Washington (02:32):
So, before we talk a bit about the future in the 21st century, talk to me a little bit about the current status of the education system, right? What are our streams, what are our current challenges? And there are very few areas more maligned in, in my opinion, than education, especially, especially at the K-12 level in the country. And so, talk to me a little bit about where we are currently positioned.

Ingrid Guerra-López (02:58):
Yeah, I, I do think that we do have a deep commitment for equity and for access. And there's a, a genuine sustained effort across states and districts to expand access. And whether it's through early childhood programs or inclusive special education services or college access pathways, you know, even support for multilingual learners. We've expanded who education is for, and that matters enormously. Now, the next step is really ensuring that access translates into meaningful opportunity and high quality learning experiences for everybody, for every learner. So I think that's one really important strength that we, we have right now. I think that there are also extraordinary, uh, innovation pockets across the country. Uh, we know that educators are experimenting boldly, whether it's through problem-based learning or competency-based progression, industry partnerships, AI-assisted instruction. There's a lot of things that are going well in terms of innovation. The challenge isn't a lack of innovation, it's that innovation is often localized.

Ingrid Guerra-López (04:04):
It's isolated in pockets rather than scaled system-wide. So I would say that that's really important. I would also highlight that the research base is fairly strong. We know more than ever before, um, how children learn. We know about brain development, uh, motivation and engagement, effective feedback, et cetera. The learning sciences and human development research base is, it's pretty robust. That's part of the work that we do through our partnerships at the College of Education and Human Development. One of our really exciting initiatives is a research practice partnership ERA•NOVA, our Educational Research Alliance of Northern Virginia, where we engage with over 20 school divisions across the region and beyond connecting research directly to district level practice, especially this year around AI readiness.

President Gregory Washington (04:54):
So you gave me a lot of the strengths, and you talked about scalability. I see that as being a challenge. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. But if we know how to do this right, if our research has given us more insight than ever before, we, we have all of this positive, why do we not have better educational outcomes, especially at the K-12 level?

Ingrid Guerra-López (05:18):
So there's, there's a couple of things. I think our educators are represent an interesting variable, because on the one hand, the resiliency of those educators are, um, it's a strength, right? They've shown us that they can navigate a, a, a global pandemic, um, rapid technological change, et cetera. But at the same time, we're seeing more teacher burnout and issues with retention than ever before. We're asking them to be all things to all people, instructional designers, and data analysts, and technology integrators, and social workers. All the things without systematically redesigning workload, support structures, compensation. And preparation alone is not enough, right? You need that induction and that support and the mentorship and the professional growth systems that, that have to evolve with it. So that's why modernizing educator preparation and building stronger support pipelines is so central. So what I'm getting at is really that, that we have a structural mismatch. Our current system was largely optimized for predictable career pathways and content transmission and standardized pacing, like all of the things of the industrial area workforce required. Today's economy though, requires more, uh, adaptability and continuous learning. It requires comfort with a certain level of ambiguity, and it also requires us to think across different disciplines. So we're still organized around seat time and subject silos, while the world rewards problem solvers right across different boundaries. So, um, I don't know if it's a, a failure as much as it's a structural lag.

President Gregory Washington (07:02):
Structural lags unimplemented manifest themselves to the broader public as failures, right?

Ingrid Guerra-López (07:09):
Yeah.

President Gregory Washington (07:09):
Yeah. So let's back up for a second. You, you hear these calls of reform, you hear these calls of rethinking college education. Where does the call come from the loudest?

Ingrid Guerra-López (07:21):
I think it comes from, uh, different people, from everybody, really, but for different reasons, right? So you have employers who want graduates who can navigate complexity and technology and, and, and change. Understandably, families want return on investment and a good quality of life for their graduates. Governments want workforce alignment and economic competitiveness, right? They want our educational systems to be aligned with that. Students just want relevance. You, you go into a classroom at any level and you hear students asking you like, how does this connect to the real world? You know, what will I do with this? They don't reject rigor. They reject irrelevance. Right? And then you have industries like healthcare and technology sectors who want interdisciplinary thinkers, because those fields are evolving so quickly that narrow specializations aren't enough. They want engineers who understand ethics. They want healthcare professionals who understand data. They want leadership who can translate between disciplines, you know, and technologists who understand human behavior.

President Gregory Washington (08:29):
If I were to now ask the real question, the big question, you know, we're sitting in the 21st century, right? We largely have a 20th century educational framework. Uh, classes today aren't taught that much differently than what they were taught in 1999. Uh, we, we had electronic means of delivering content, and that was incorporated into our world. Fast forward, we have the most disruptive technology of our generation. Artificial intelligence has now moved beyond the laboratory, beyond the application of a few people who are on the bleeding edge to really being mainstream. Right? Right. Now, 50% of American households use AI in some form. It's about as mainstream as you can get. So what should 21st century education look like at different levels? So from early childhood through doctoral programs, what should it look like? Put your crystal ball on.

Ingrid Guerra-López (09:34):
Yes. Yes. Love to bring out my crystal ball. So, I, I think at those, uh, very early years and early childhood, it's really critical to cultivate curiosity, play-based problem solving. And of course, you, you wanna integrate with early digital literacy, right? Not just screen time, but digital understanding.

President Gregory Washington (09:55):
So, unpack that. It sounds intriguing. What does that actually look like?

Ingrid Guerra-López (10:00):
It's really, um, understanding what the technology is, right? Where, how algorithms work and, and again, at a developmentally appropriate way, you know, making a distinction between, you know, real world connection and what you might get out of the, the technology. It, it's a, it's a lot of different things. They're born into a generation where, um, technology all around them. So understanding what it does well, what it doesn't do well, that early discernment about how technology can help, but what the limitations are as well. I think that there are other things, right? So we, we, we tend to talk about technology and technology being such a disruptor, but, but there are also those uniquely human skills that are just as critical. Uh, and so as you think of the progression through K 12, the project-based learning is really important because it builds in that relevance, and it really does create an environment where you have to integrate knowledge, different subject matters into a coherent project that's tied to a, a real world authentic environment.

Ingrid Guerra-López (11:13):
So, you know, even in stem, it, it needs to be applied, right? Like, what community problem are you solving? Uh, and again, that AI literacy that's appropriate at, at every level. And, and really critically, again, I would have emphasize that it's that real world problem solving tied to community challenges. That's something that, you know, is so integral to what, what Mason does. And I think that that's really critical. As we move through undergraduate, again, the interdisciplinary learning is really critical. Industry connected experience is one of the things that we try to do at our college is, you know, engage our students in sometimes as many as, as two different kinds of internships or applied learning experiences in workplaces or in those kind of environments, because it's so critical. The data literacy, you know, whether they're gonna go on to work in a classroom or any other setting, we live in these highly technology-integrated, uh, data-rich environments.

Ingrid Guerra-López (12:15):
And the, the data literacy is, is really critical. And just like the technology piece is important, the ethical reasoning is important, right? It's, it's not just the use of technology. It's ethical reasoning around technology. And, and we know from, there's a really interesting survey that is deployed every three years by the World Economic Forum, and they survey employers across the globe, um, every three years or so. And, you know, those, the skills that they consistently have at the top as desirable for global employers continues to be those transferable skills, right? So adaptability, critical thinking, communication, systems thinking. So that has to be embedded, uh, in our undergraduate curriculum all the way through our, our graduate, um, stages with systems thinking and research to impact pipelines. Again, I think one of the things that's unique and a great strength of 911�� is that we really focus on research of consequence. That there is an immediate sort of transdisciplinary approach to what we do in that we work closely with the community. We work on societal challenges that matter to our communities. And so that has to be a critical environment through which we, we teach at the graduate level or at the doctoral level, those research skills that are, you know, really tied in that, uh, problem of practice.

President Gregory Washington (13:40):
But you walk in the classroom of today, and those young people are living in a half virtual half real environment, right? They're on their phones when they go home, they're on their iPads, they're on their laptops, and the like. They're literally interfacing with ai. AI is a helper for them. They're asking it questions, they're engaged with it. They are already there, right? And so what does educating this next generation of educators look like so that they can actually engage with young people at that level? Because it can't be traditional, it cannot be the way you and I learned, because the young people, aren't they, we didn't have the tools. We didn't have the tools that they had. I remember hours in stacks, right, in the library. Or I remember getting online and spending hours with Google searches, and they're not using Google searches anymore. They go right to the answer and to the references in a very quick way just by knowing how to properly prompt or do they, right? So these are the kinds of things that I'm trying to see where we are in terms of educating the next generation of educators who have to teach to students who have these tools.

Ingrid Guerra-López (15:06):
Yeah, no, absolutely. Right? If, if we're serious about preparing students for a rapidly changing world, then that means we have to start with the adults who guide them, and, and that's our teachers. So modernizing education begins with modernizing the teaching profession in a lot of ways. And, you know, today's teachers are not, they're not just content experts or deliverers. It's a complex professional operating and dynamic environment. So I think, you know, education today and for the next, uh, generation of educators, uh, they're, you know, clearly instructional designers because the content isn't enough and a textbook is not really enough. They're designing learning experiences that are integrating many of those elements that I, I, I talked about, right? Whether it's project-based learning and then technology tools in a purposeful way, or interdisciplinary content applied right in real world problems. They have to understand how to scaffold learning how to potentially use those technology tools to differentiate instruction, how to potentially use those AI tools to develop meaningful performance based assessments.

Ingrid Guerra-López (16:19):
So that's one component of, you know, what they're now having to do in this next generation. But again, going back to the data-rich environments that also have to be data interpreters, right? We know that classrooms are increasingly data-rich environments, and teachers have to be able to interpret assessment results, identify learning patterns, and adjust instruction in real times in many ways. So that, that data fluency, it's not just about spreadsheets, it's about instructional decision making. The technology component, right? They have to be technology integrators. It's not as an add-on. It's embedded in, as you were saying, in describing how students learn and how they work and how they live. So teachers need to understand when technology enhances learning and when it distracts from it, you know, there have been many instances where in some cases, technologies were integrated in the classroom. I'm thinking of the, the smart board, for example. And then they sat there as symbols of progress, but there wasn't any support in many cases provided to teachers to take advantage of the technology, not only to enhance teaching practices, but to enhance learning outcomes and to model for students how to use technology effectively. So, so they have to now know how to integrate AI tools responsibly and how to help maintain academic integrity while at the same time embracing innovation. And, and that's a balance.

President Gregory Washington (17:51):
This is where I, I want to have a, a more lengthy discussion, right? Should our teachers educate our students in how to effectively develop and utilize prompts so that they can properly interface and engage with a large language model.

Ingrid Guerra-López (18:12):
So AI is, is a lot of things, right? There's a, certainly a, a literacy component to it, just as far as understanding what it is. And it, it, it's also a tool in that it helps them apply learning sciences.

President Gregory Washington (18:27):
Yeah. But it, but it has a language. And that's the thing. So, so, you know, I tell people all the time, if you get on your computer, you give it a PDF of a paper or of a book, and you say, review this book for me, and give me, and give me your summary of it. I would contend to them that that is an improper way to use AI, right? But it's the way in which people engage and interact with it, right? But they're not really speaking the language of how the computer, which AI is really giving you your answers based on associations. It associates the, the words that you write with specific sets of other words and other outcomes that it knows. So if you don't want it to hallucinate or give you things that are really, shouldn't be part of the question in which you ask it, you actually need to take care of that in how you ask it, right?

President Gregory Washington (19:26):
You need to start to focus the large language model to a general framework, a general area that's involved with the document or that, that you've given it. You need to tell it who it is, so it knows where to pull prerequisite information to help it do the identifications that are necessary to get your answer, right. So one example is you have a person do a general prompt. You give them a, the same book, you have them do a general prompt where they ask it, summarize this for me, blah, blah, blah. And let's say it's on physics, you know, it's on electromagnetics. I'm, I'm sorry, I'm giving you an engineering scenario.

Ingrid Guerra-López (20:10):
It's, it's okay.

President Gregory Washington (20:10):
But let's say it's on electromagnetics and you say, summarize this book on electromagnetics. That's one way, another way to say is, you are the foremost electromagnetics physicists in the world. Your research is on blank relative to electromagnetics. Take this book, summarize it. Give me relative feedback with emphasis on A, D, C, D and E. I'm gonna get a very different set of outcomes that I've gotten with just a straight summarize this. Yeah. Right? And because our young people are gonna be interfacing in dealing with young people who are gonna be interfacing with this technology, to me, it's critical that they know how to do it. People are gonna use it. So you, you better learn, they better know how to use it in the most efficient way, in the most efficient mechanism possible. Right? And so we're still debating whether it's cheating or not, and we really should be about how do you best employ it to give you an advantage over the other folk who are still debating whether it should even be used or not. Right? Because to me, that ship is kind of sailed.

Ingrid Guerra-López (21:24):
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. What you are describing, so I mentioned earlier, AI is a lot of different things, right? It can be seen as a tool, as a career pathway, uh, as a disruptor. But to me, you're describing AI as a literacy, right? It's something that students must understand. We teach reading and writing because literacy empowers agency and AI literacy is gonna serve a similar function. Um, students and educators both need to understand how AI systems are trained, where bias can enter, what hallucinations are, how to verify an AI generated output, or what ethical boundaries really matter as you create your prompt or as you think about how to engage with AI and how data privacy works as well. So without that kind of literacy, I definitely agree. Like we risk creating passive consumers of, of technology instead of informed critical users.

President Gregory Washington (22:27):
You know, we have very, very highly regarded education programs here at 911�� from special ed to education leadership. And so what makes Mason stand out as an education institution in your mind?

Ingrid Guerra-López (22:41):
Yeah, I think, um, and I mentioned this a little bit earlier, I think the fact that we have such strong ties to our community and our educational partners, we're working in real problems of practice that our school partners see as, as priorities. One of the, the really exciting initiatives that I mentioned our ERA•NOVA partnership. We're really approaching, even AI, for example, not, not from a high perspective, but working directly with our, uh, school division leaders to define what readiness actually means. Whatever your subject matter is, it's gonna be relevant a across the different, uh, content areas of teaching. So we're asking things like, you know, what competencies should teachers have in an AI enabled classroom? Um, and, and, you know, responsible classroom integration look like. What, what is that? How do we balance innovation with student safety? Um, how do we actually even know whether AI is improving learning?

Ingrid Guerra-López (23:46):
So one of the things that, um, we are doing as a result of that collaboration is identifying very specifically the kind of skills that we should be embedding across all of our educational programs across all of our teacher preparation programs, whether it's in special education or early childhood education, or secondary education, because that's just going to be part of the job. I've heard some alarmist kind of warnings that, you know, AI is going to, uh, eliminate teachers, and that just simply isn't true. We've been hearing those concerns for a long time. We heard it, you know, with the radio and the television and the internet and the cell phones <laugh>, what it's going to do is elevate the teaching profession, right? Because if you look at not just the teaching profession, but all professions, it is fundamentally changing the way in which you work, the actual critical tasks that are required, how well you do it. So it is, uh, in my opinion, going to elevate. So I think that's one of the things that's really unique about us. It's that integration between research and practice. It, we don't just stay at the theory of things, but we're using research and, uh, research capacity and theory to work with our educational partners and the educational community to, to address real challenges.

President Gregory Washington (25:13):
So if I were to ask you who's actually successfully making this change and adapting as you've highlighted here, who, who's doing that at 911��?

Ingrid Guerra-López (25:25):
You mean across our educational programs or?

President Gregory Washington (25:27):
Yeah.

Ingrid Guerra-López (25:27):
Yeah. I, I think I, like I said, I think we're, we're all doing it that ERA•NOVA that research practice partnership, we have faculty across many programs, including educational leadership who are really vested in working. We have, uh, a couple of faculty right now. We, we were successful in, uh, obtaining a global data sharing agreement with a couple of our school divisions. And what we did is we prioritized the areas of interest of those school partners. So we already have faculty in the college testing out AI tools to enhance math instruction and literacy instruction. And that's huge because it, it, you know, it requires for the school division to have a lot of trust in us. And so we're, that's just the, the kind of, I think, work that we're doing in partnership with our school divisions to, to modernize the teaching profession.

President Gregory Washington (26:25):
These technologies are gonna solve some significant problems for us. I, I do believe, as you highlighted that the teaching profession isn't going away. What I caution is stating that it's not going to have to radically change, right? You can interface with a teacher who understands many of the great works of Shakespeare, right? Or you can interface with a bot that has read every great work on any subject and can correlate it, right? And so how does that professor engage with a student that has access to that tool, right? Because in some instances, the, the, the, the, the tool, the technology actually has a greater knowledge base and is able to synthesize that knowledge base better than the professor. The tool itself has the ability to synthesize and bring information together. And, and, and for lack of a better way of saying this, and almost like a human-like manner. So we have to teach people how to find their place in that environment. And I think that that's critical and non-trivial, right? I know we have people thinking about this and working on this here. Do you have some examples of any programs that are utilizing that?

Ingrid Guerra-López (28:01):
I guess I would kind of take us a little further back. It's not about content, right? The role of an educator. It requires that human judgment. We can't compete with the knowledge generation, the analysis, in some cases, the synthesis, but that's not the value of an educator, right? It's really that human connection. It's that mentorship, it's discernment. It's very subtle art of recognizing when a student is struggling. It's the human connection. It is the helping to love to learn, to engage with learning on an ongoing basis. That's the challenge is right now, we're, and you know, lots of folks are, are talking about this. We're, we're educating students for a world that we probably can't even imagine.

President Gregory Washington (28:53):
No, that's right. Right? But, but I contend to you that we've always educated young people for worlds that they could not imagine. Right? I remember we were educating people in the early and mid-2000s for an explosion of wireless and internet of things based technologies that hit long before these young, we didn't know what those technologies were gonna look like, right? But we graduated young people who can interface and, and engage with them. And so I think you're hitting the nail right on the head with this whole piece of leaning into that human connectedness part, right? My, the best teachers, uh, the best teachers that I've had throughout my career have been people who could do that, right? Who could look at you and see your strengths in your development cycle, who could see your weaknesses, right? And they didn't do that by, uh, a test per se. They did this by discerning, they did this by watching you engage and seeing, you know, it could be where you stopped your pencil as you were writing. It could be the look that was on your face as you were engaging, right? It could just be the feeling that they got from engaging with you on a specific issue or on a specific problem, right? Those pieces are, in my opinion, uniquely human.

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:30):
That's right.

President Gregory Washington (30:31):
And we have to figure out how to emphasize them and lean into the tools.

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:39):
That's right.

President Gregory Washington (30:40):
You, you, you get what I mean.

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:41):
Absolutely.

President Gregory Washington (30:42):
That is the solution. That's, that is, or at least, that's the solution right now, <laugh>,

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:47):
Right? That that's right. We, because don't be because we

President Gregory Washington (30:49):
Don't know what the future's gonna look like.

Ingrid Guerra-López (30:49):
That's right. We, we don't know what the new thing will be. And so regardless of the change and the, regardless of, of the tools that come along, right? What we're really trying to promote is adaptability. And again, change is always, it, it's only accelerating, right? So we don't have the luxury of looking away and saying, well, I don't like technology and I don't like the AI thing, or whatever the technology might be. And just say, well, I'm not gonna engage. The world has moved on, right? So I think one of the critical things that is gonna be really important for educators and, and educational systems is to promote the ability for students to engage in lifelong learning and adaptability 'cause that is always going to be a constant requirement.

President Gregory Washington (31:37):
So let me ask you this, because you, you clearly are, uh, as an educator, you're gonna have to deal with humanist on the, the ethical values of what you teach and what you don't teach, right? And so how can classical liberal arts education evolve to meet the needs of these 21st century students and workers and employees and employers, right? How do we evolve the classical liberal arts framework in order to meet that need?

Ingrid Guerra-López (32:09):
Yeah. I, I think, you know, it's just as important as it's, as it has always been. Um, I think, you know, we want to, um, leverage, you know, the logic, the logical reasoning that comes from, from philosophy and, you know, the history, uh, patterns right across history. So I, I think they're just as relevant as before, but I think like everything else, it has to evolve and we have to do, uh, a better job of applying those insights, right? Like to me, liberal arts as, as someone who navigated philosophy and English and psychology, uh, in my undergrad, I have found those skills to be so critical to everything I do. And so I, I think it's just making sure that we're taking it a step further and that we are using the liberal arts in a way that's applied, and that is clearly relevant. I, I think it's relevant, but as educators, I think we need to do a better job of, of making that connection. But, you know, as I said, again, this whole idea of, uh, critical thinking, um, and, uh, collaboration and insight, those are all things that I think our liberal arts are, are really good at helping us develop.

President Gregory Washington (33:30):
If you were talking to a young person right now, somebody just graduating out of high school and entering into the profession, you say, I want to be a teacher. Teachers really impacted me my entire life. And that's where I see myself having the greatest impact as a human. And that young person was looking at you, what are three things you would tell that person to make sure you do now while you're going through your educational framework in order to make you a, an effective teacher going forward?

Ingrid Guerra-López (34:08):
I definitely think that I would ask them to model adaptability, right? To make sure that as you enter the teaching profession, that you're aware that students are also looking at you and how well you embrace change. So I think that's one critical thing. Also, this idea that, that I mentioned before around problem-based learning is really critical. The world needs problem solvers, right? Ethical problem solvers that regardless of the workplace or context can work with others to solve complex problems. And so embedding that in the learning environment and in the learning experiences is, is really critical. So I, I think those are some of the critical things that I would make sure that they know is, is essential for an effective teacher.

President Gregory Washington (34:59):
Given where you sit as a leader and an administrator, right? And you're leading now cohorts of faculty, what do you tell them about how this disruption that's coming from AI, this, this change that's coming to the profession, what do you tell them about what they should be doing right now to adapt and to coexist with these technologies as they evolve?

Ingrid Guerra-López (35:29):
Experiment, right? I think one of the things that, that we're working on in the college is to have, or to develop an AI and other kind of emerging technologies tinkering lab where people are in an environment where they can explore and they can tinker and they can try out tools, whether it's with, uh, with fellow educators or, you know, a space for other, for educational leaders as well. There's on both ends of the spectrum in some, in some cases, a lot of fear about safety and the implications of using it. And then the other hand, very eager, uh, folk who want to use it and think it's the tool for all the, the problems. And so I think just having that community space for educators to explore, to experiment, to ask questions, to break things, to say, well, what happens if we do this? And, and to make that part of the learning experience, I think that's only going to reduce the fear and anxiety of the unknown.

President Gregory Washington (36:29):
Well, this is all good stuff, and the kind of thing that positions us well for the future. What do you tell your fellow deans, you know, some of which are really struggling with this technology, and you are kind of at the forefront of it, because outside of computer science, it probably affects your discipline more than any other.

Ingrid Guerra-López (36:50):
Yeah. I mean, we certainly talk, uh, I think as leaders often about, you know, how the implications of AI in the university and, and of course the workplace as well. I, I think, you know, what I would reiterate with my colleagues is that there is no one area that isn't impacted by the shifts in technology, whether it's AI or whatever comes after every single career, every single sector, every single space and community is being impacted by technology in one way or the other. And so we have a responsibility to understand if that's already changed our communities, and it's gonna change it even further. How do we adapt the preparation that we provide those students during the time they're with us to make sure that they're capable and ready to shape and contribute in that kind of world?

President Gregory Washington (37:47):
That's it. Well, we're gonna have to leave it there. Ingrid, thank you for sharing your vision and leadership with the educators of our future. I'm 911�� president Gregory Washington. Thanks for listening. And tune in next time for more conversations that show why we are all together different.

Outro (38:16):
If you like what you heard on this podcast, go to podcast.gmu.edu for more of Gregory Washington's conversations with the thought leaders, experts, and educators who take on the grand challenges facing our students, graduates, and higher education. That's podcast gmu.edu.

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Five ways future health care leaders can tackle burnout in the workforce

Taylor Thomas — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:17:15 +0000

Five ways future health care leaders can tackle burnout in the workforce Taylor Thomas Mon, 03/23/2026 - 12:17

Photo by Vladimir Fedotov via Unsplash.

The fight against widespread burnout in the health care workforce should begin with the training of future health care administrators, according to a new paper from the 911�� College of Public Health.

Published in the Journal of Health Administration Education, the paper examines how health administration programs can better prepare future leaders to address burnout by focusing on workplace factors, such as working conditions, leadership support, job design and workload, social connections, and opportunities for advancement. More than three-quarters of health care workers report feeling stressed or stretched thin, with burnout contributing to problems like higher turnover and staffing shortages that can affect patient care.

Drawing from existing research and national frameworks on workforce well-being, the principal investigator Debora Goetz Goldberg outlines several leadership strategies that can help counteract burnout, including:

Build workplaces where staff can speak up

Health care leaders must create environments where employees can report mistakes, raise concerns, and discuss safety issues without fear of punishment. Clear reporting policies, open communication, and a culture of trust are key for psychological safety.

Redesign jobs to reduce overload

Many health care roles involve long hours, heavy documentation, and clunky technology that add to daily stress. Leaders make decisions about staffing, scheduling, and tools that can either ease those pressures or make them worse.

Prevent violence and protect staff safety

Health care workers face some of the highest rates of workplace violence of any profession. Leaders can help reduce risks by establishing zero-tolerance policies, training staff to de-escalate tense situations, and putting safety measures in place before incidents occur.

Involve frontline staff in decisions

The people delivering care often know exactly where problems arise. When leaders directly involve nurses, physicians, and other staff in decisions about schedules, policies, and daily operations, the changes are more likely to succeed.

Measure and improve workforce well-being

Health care organizations routinely track patient outcomes and financial performance. Workforce well-being deserves the same attention. Leaders can measure burnout, engagement, and working conditions and use that data to steer improvements.

John Cantiello, also from 911��'s College of Public Health, and Riva Kamat from Lotus Clinician WellBeing, Inc., co-authored the paper.

In This Story

Debora Goetz Goldberg, PhD, MHA, MBA

This initiative supports the Improving human health, well-being, and preparedness solution of 911��'s Grand Challenge Initiative

Key Takeaways:

Burnout affects a majority of health care workers and contributes to turnover, staffing shortages, and risks to patient care.
A new paper from 911�� argues that health care administration programs should train future leaders to address burnout through organizational decisions and workplace design.
Leaders can help counter burnout with strategies like creating psychologically safe environments, preventing workplace violence, and involving frontline staff in decisions.

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$3 million NIH grant funds national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports

Taylor Thomas — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:47:22 +0000

$3 million NIH grant funds national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports Taylor Thomas Thu, 02/26/2026 - 07:47

Today, more than half of older Americans receive their Medicare coverage through private Medicare Advantage plans. In 2020, that program made a sweeping policy shift, allowing those plans to offer supplemental benefits beyond traditional medical care, including groceries, meal deliveries, utilities, transportation, pest control, and air filters.

Jeah Jung, professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. Photo provided

Now, with an approximately $3 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging, 911�� health economist Jeah Jung will lead a national study to evaluate whether those benefits reduce adverse health events and improve functional outcomes.

“Health-related social needs, such as food security, housing quality, reliable transportation, and social support, are increasingly recognized as important contributors to individuals’ health,” said Jung, a professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. Despite the wide rollout of the new initiative to meet those needs, she said, “there is currently no information or evidence of how many people are using it, how they’re using it, and whether it’s actually bringing the intended outcomes.”

As of 2025, 55% of Medicare beneficiaries, or 34.4 million Americans, were enrolled in Medicare Advantage, the private alternative to traditional Medicare. According to Jung’s data analysis, more than 30% of Medicare Advantage plans adopted non-medical supplemental benefits by 2025. Meanwhile, she found that more than 90% of dual-eligible special needs plans—serving low-income beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid—adopted the benefits.

“This is a really large-scale initiative by Medicare to address unmet social needs and see whether that helps maintain and improve beneficiaries’ health outcomes as well,” Jung said. “With an investment of this size, we want to see evidence on how it’s working and who it’s reaching so the policy can be refined in the future.”

Using secure Medicare administrative data, Jung’s five-year project will examine whether the availability of non-medical benefits is associated with changes in emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and whether patient can remain in their homes and communities rather than enter nursing homes. The study will also analyze who uses the new benefits, and whether uptake differs by demographics, such as race, ethnicity, sex, health risks, and area-level socioeconomic factors.

The project will also include contributions from Emily Ihara, professor and chair of the Department of Social Work in the College of Public Health. Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University and Dartmouth College are serving as co-investigators.

In This Story

Jeah Jung, PhD, MPH

Emily Ihara, PhD, MSW, FGSA

Key Takeaways

A $3 million National Institute on Aging grant will fund a national study of Medicare Advantage’s benefit expansion into social supports such as food assistance, transportation, and other non-medical benefits.
Led by 911�� health economist Jeah Jung, the five-year study will use Medicare administrative data to examine whether these benefits reduce emergency visits, hospitalizations, and nursing home entry.
The findings will provide national evidence on who is using these benefits and whether this large-scale federal effort is working as intended.

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Poverty vs. Wealth: New Study Shows Biggest Buyers and Sellers of Illicit Kidneys

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:55:50 +0000

Poverty vs. Wealth: New Study Shows Biggest Buyers and Sellers of Illicit Kidneys Andrew J Schappert Wed, 02/25/2026 - 12:55

The study created a map of countries playing significant roles in the buying and selling of illicit kidneys.

An international team of researchers from 911��, Harvard University, and the University of Tokyo have used artificial intelligence to map the global underground market for illegal kidney transplants, finding that the United States consistently ranks among the world’s largest illicit importers.

The Schar School’s Naoru Koizumi led the international team that studied the illicit kidney trade.

The study, led by Naoru Koizumi, a professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government, and Schar School colleagues Olzhas Zhorayev, Zifu Wang, and Meng-Hao Li, as well as Chaowei Yang, a professor in the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science in the College of Science.

The study appears in the International Journal of Health Geographics.

Illegal organ trafficking is widely viewed by health experts as a major but poorly measured global crisis. More than 840 million people worldwide live with chronic kidney disease, and demand for transplants far exceeds supply. On average, only about 13.5 kidney transplants occur for every 255 patients who need one, according to the study. Long waiting times—sometimes up to five years—contribute to roughly seven percent of patients dying or leaving transplant lists annually.

To better understand the hidden market, the researchers analyzed more than 50,000 news articles published over 23 years. Using large language models and retrieval-augmented generation, they built what they describe as the first global, geospatial database of illegal kidney trafficking. The system identifies reported cases and assigns roles such as seller, buyer, broker and surgery location, while also tracing financial flows.

Their analysis reveals a stark global pattern. Kidney sellers most often come from lower-income or vulnerable countries including India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Nigeria. Buyers, by contrast, are concentrated in wealthier nations—notably Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany.

Illegal transplant surgeries most frequently occur in India, Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Thailand, and Egypt, the researchers found. Brokers often operate in the same countries as sellers but also appear commonly in Western countries.

The network is fluid: About half of the countries playing major roles shift each decade due to factors such as conflict, legal changes, enforcement intensity, and corruption. One pattern, however, has remained consistent: Over the past two decades, the United States has stayed among the top three illicit kidney buyer countries, accounting for more than 7% of documented cases.

Unlike some countries that rely on narrow supply channels, U.S.-linked cases connect to a wide range of supplier nations, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and India—a pattern the researchers say points to structural demand pressures within wealthy health systems.

Financial data extracted in the study underscore the imbalance in the illicit market. Buyers typically pay between $50,000 and $120,000 for a kidney, while sellers often receive less than 10% of that amount. Most profits flow to brokers and organizers.

The authors say the new database enables systematic cross-country analysis that was previously impossible because evidence was fragmented and often limited to small regional studies. Future research will examine how illegal kidney prices and trafficking patterns relate to income levels, inequality, legal frameworks, and health care access.

More broadly, the researchers argue their work demonstrates how artificial intelligence can expose hidden global systems by converting scattered media reports into structured data. They say the findings could help policymakers target enforcement, strengthen international cooperation and better protect vulnerable populations.

The full study can be seen at this webpage.

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In This Story

Naoru Koizumi

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College of Education and Human Development launches initiative to strengthen Virginia’s educator workforce

Katarina Benson — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:04:24 +0000

College of Education and Human Development launches initiative to strengthen Virginia’s educator workforce Katarina Benson Mon, 02/23/2026 - 11:04

The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at 911�� is kicking off Future Ready Teachers, a new initiative designed to strengthen Virginia’s educator workforce by removing financial barriers, innovating and elevating teacher preparation, and supporting teachers from entry through their early years in the classroom.

Future Ready Teachers responds to a growing challenge in Virginia and across the nation: Too many aspiring educators step away from the profession—or leave it early—due to cost, limited early-career support, and salaries that often do not align with the cost of living. The result is a teacher shortage that disproportionately affects high-poverty, rural, and high-need schools, limiting PK–12 students’ access to stable, high-quality learning environments. With deep regional partnerships and a strong track record of preparing effective educators, 911�� is positioned to deliver a scalable, high-impact solution.

Future Ready Teachers supports future educators. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

“At 911��, we believe every aspiring educator deserves the opportunity to succeed, regardless of financial barriers or the realities of sustaining a career in teaching today,” said Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of CEHD. “Future Ready Teachers reflects our responsibility to address the nation’s teacher shortage by investing not only in access, but in forward-looking innovative preparation, sustained support, and long-term success in the profession.”

The urgency is clear. Eighty-six percent of U.S. public schools report hiring challenges due to a lack of qualified applicants, with Virginia reporting more than 3,600 teacher vacancies in 2024-25. Each Future Ready Teachers scholar represents a stable classroom and hundreds of students reached over a career, strengthening schools and communities across the commonwealth.

“Teacher preparation is the cornerstone of educational excellence,” said Audra Parker, director of CEHD’s Office of Teacher Preparation. “When we invest in teachers and teacher preparation, we’re investing in the lives of students who will shape tomorrow’s future.”

The initiative focuses on three priorities: removing financial barriers, advancing teacher preparation for evolving classrooms demands, and supporting educators beyond graduation. Funds raised will provide full-ride and cost-of-living scholarships and sustain a rigorous model that integrates structured mentorship, a three-year induction program, and preparation for technology-enabled, data-rich learning environments, positioning teaching as a rigorous, future-ready profession designed to attract and retain top talent.

This comprehensive approach positions Future Ready Teachers as more than a scholarship effort; It is a workforce strategy designed to increase teacher retention, reduce preventable turnover, and strengthen long-term classroom stability.

“Future Ready Teachers represents a bold commitment to every child, every classroom, and every future,” said Guerra-López. “It is an investment in people and in the long-term strength and stability of our education system.”

This initiative supports the Advancing 21st-Century Education for All solution of 911��'s Grand Challenge Initiative

Future Ready Teachers is part of the Mason Now campaign.

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911�� researcher leads $1 million NOAA project to improve seasonal forecasts of extreme weather

Katarina Benson — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 18:34:49 +0000

911�� researcher leads $1 million NOAA project to improve seasonal forecasts of extreme weather Katarina Benson Thu, 02/19/2026 - 13:34

When it comes to predicting extreme weather events, most people think of short-term forecasts such as flash floods or sudden storms. For farmers, water managers, and policymakers, however, the greater challenge often lies in anticipating seasonal extremes, including prolonged droughts or flooding. These events can have devastating economic and environmental impacts, particularly in states like Virginia, where drought ranks as the second costliest natural disaster after tropical cyclones.

Benjamin Cash, research professor in 911��’s Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, is leading a $1 million project funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to improve seasonal precipitation forecasts in Virginia.

Cash is working extreme weather predictions. Photo by Laura Powers/College of Science

“We are trying to improve predictions of extremes and precipitation on the time scale of the season; something water managers need to know,” Cash said.

Historically, NOAA has employed specialized forecasting models tailored to different hazards and time scales. While this approach enabled advances in some areas, it also limited the ability to efficiently share improvements across forecasting models.

Cash’s research seeks to advance this framework through the Unified Forecast System (UFS), a single, open-source code base accessible to the research community. By consolidating modeling efforts, UFS streamlines maintenance and allows scientific innovations to benefit forecasts across short-range, medium-range, and seasonal scales.

This shift also reflects NOAA’s move toward a community-driven model, inviting researchers nationwide to use and improve the system. “More eyes on the model are more opportunities to improve it,” Cash said.

“Unlike exploratory modeling, this project takes a hypothesis-driven approach, asking targeted questions about how misrepresentations of key climate features, such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, affects seasonal predictions,” Cash explained.

Through a series of controlled experiments, including long-term baseline runs and progressively constrained simulations, the team aims to isolate sources of error and identify ways to improve accuracy.

911�� will also play a key role in the UFS project by expanding education and training opportunities for future climate scientists. The grant includes a hands-on component designed to teach students how to use NOAA’s forecasting models. Faculty members will develop tutorials and conduct practical sessions; refining materials as challenges arise, such as adapting models to different computing environments.

“We want students to be able to use it as a research tool in their classwork or as part of a thesis,” Cash said. “One element of the proposal is hands-on training for students in the climate dynamics program.”

Beyond 911��, these resources will be shared with other institutions, enabling students nationwide to engage with advanced climate modeling and contribute to improvements in seasonal forecasting. Broadening access and participation to strengthen the next generation of researchers and accelerate innovation in climate prediction supports 911��’s Grand Challenge Initiative and the goal of building a climate-resilient society.

The work will unfold in phases through 2028, beginning with long-term model simulations, followed by experiments that progressively constrain the model to observed conditions. Success will include not only answering key scientific questions but also uncovering unexpected issues, such as bugs in model code, that lead to broader improvements.

“My hope is that at the end of this project we will have made measurable, tangible contributions toward improving seasonal forecasts for the United States, particularly precipitation extremes,” Cash said.

This research supports the Grand Challenge Initiative's goal of building a more climate-resilient society.

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911�� PhD student Jessye Gassel captures timelapse of a supernova

Katarina Benson — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:45:31 +0000

911�� PhD student Jessye Gassel captures timelapse of a supernova Katarina Benson Fri, 02/13/2026 - 10:45

Jessye Gassel has always been fascinated with spinning bodies.

“I grew up figure skating,” said physics PhD student at 911��. “From 3 years old to 23, I spent all my free time on the ice. And I had a lot of curiosity about how I could do the things I was doing.”

Gassel found herself looking forward to her high school physics class every day and knew, by junior year, that she would pursue it in college. A senior-year astronomy class honed that direction toward astrophysics.

911�� doctoral student Jessye Gassel presenting at the American Astronomical Society. Photo provided

Now she is working with Brian Williams, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is also her PhD advisor, and she recently presented a video compilation of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant (SNR) over the course of 25 years and related research at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Phoenix, Arizona.

Kepler’s supernova remnant is the result of a Type Ia supernova–a white dwarf star in a binary system that exploded. In fact, it’s a relatively young and nearby celestial object in cosmic terms: only 400 years old and 17,000 light years away. The video was created using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captured over more than two and a half decades.

“Type Ia supernovae are super cool but super rare,” said Gassel. “Cosmologists can actually use the behavior of the remnants to measure the expansion of the universe, and glean more information as to its structure, but there is still much unknown about the details of the actual explosion.”

Kepler’s SNR, she found, is expanding at different rates in different directions. The top is moving at 4 million miles per second (.05% of the speed of light), and the bottom is moving at 13.8 million miles per second (2% of the speed of light). This suggests that the top is expanding into a much denser material than the bottom. Part of what Gassel and her team want to explore next is what, exactly, that material is made of.

“The newest observations of Kepler were taken in summer 2025, and we started putting everything together last November for the January conference,” said Gassel, who has a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Gassel and Williams previously investigated Tycho’s supernova remnant in 2024 before moving on to Kepler.

The release of the video brought Gassel and Williams—and Kepler—lots of media attention. While publishing papers is standard for researchers, having a NASA press release about your work isn’t, so Gassel said having this opportunity as a doctoral student has been an honor.

“Seeing a news release on the front page of the NASA website with my name attached to it and reading all of the articles that other outlets published about it has given me a major confidence boost,” she said. “Since high school, I’ve struggled with imposter phenomenon as a woman in STEM, so this has truly felt like a ‘I’ve made it’ moment.”

On the doctoral front, Gassel is still putting together her dissertation committee and hasn’t settled on a project yet, although she is pretty sure it will involve supernova remnants and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Chandra the dog dressed as Chandra the telescope for Halloween. Photo provided

In fact, Gassel named her dog, Chandra, after the telescope that has brought so much meaning to her professional life. Dog Chandra debuted at the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s Halloween party last fall dressed as the Chandra X-ray Observatory and won first prize.

Although Gassel is focused on the stars, she said her terrestrial plans after 911�� include seeking at teaching position and continuing with her research.

Learn more about 911��'s Grand Challenge Initiative

Videos: Supernova Remnant Video From NASA's Chandra Is Decades in Making

Animation courtesy of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory illustrating the supernova studied in this research.

Watch the full animation and visualizations

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911�� named lead academic partner for Connected DMV’s spaceNEXT

Katarina Benson — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:19:04 +0000

911�� named lead academic partner for Connected DMV’s spaceNEXT Katarina Benson Mon, 02/02/2026 - 12:19

Connected DMV has announced that 911��, one of the nation’s most innovative and fastest-growing public research universities, will serve as the Lead Academic Partner for spaceNEXT, the inaugural global convening focused on the commercialization of space and a flagship program of Connected DMV’s Potomac Center for the New Space Economy.

Observatory on the Fairfax Campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

The spaceNEXT event will take place February 18–20 at Capital One Hall in Tysons, Virginia, and bring together global leaders across industry, government, academia, and the investment community to accelerate what’s next in the space-for-space and space-for-Earth economy.

“911�� is the ideal academic anchor for spaceNEXT. Their leadership in space science, satellite engineering, and frontier research perfectly aligns with our mission to build Greater Washington into the global capital of the new space economy,” said George Thomas, president and CEO, Connected DMV. “This partnership brings world-class expertise, talent, and innovation to the main stage, and we couldn’t be prouder to shape this inaugural event together.”

911��’s collaborative and creative research strengths align directly with the new space economy

Advancing space innovation that serves life on Earth—through Earth observation, remote sensing, planetary exploration, and space weather research—is a core focus of 911��’s Grand Challenge Initiative, which aligns research, education, and partnerships around solving problems that shape the future of humanity. The university’s growing strengths in robotics and autonomy, artificial intelligence, quantum science, integrated sensing and communication, and sustainable cyberinfrastructure—anchored by Fuse at Mason Square—support next-generation capabilities such as autonomous spacecraft operations, in-space servicing, on-orbit manufacturing, and resilient space infrastructure that connect scientific discovery to real-world impact.

“Our future in space is a key component to solving humanity’s grand challenge of creating a peaceful, healthy, and prosperous future,” said Andre Marshall, vice president for research, innovation, and economic impact. “911�� is forging strategic partnerships and driving novel research across disciplinary boundaries to help shape and secure this bold future, recognizing that it will reach far beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, and we are proud to partner with Connected DMV to further these ambitious goals.”

The 911�� College of Science’s multi-million-dollar portfolio in Earth- and space-observation research gives the university the region’s strongest capabilities in satellite data, remote sensing, and climate-driven analytics. Home to the Center for Earth Observing and Spatial Research, the  Satellite and Earth System Studies Program, the Center for Geospatial Intelligence, and the second largest observatory on the East Coast, the College of Science maintains research collaborations with NASA, NRL, Department of Energy, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Army Research Office, as well as a recent $13M collaboration with the Department of the Navy to study increased solar activity. These fields underpin the expanding market for commercial Earth intelligence, environmental monitoring, and mission-critical geospatial tools, while offering immersive training for tomorrow’s scientists and regional workforce. 

"The future of space commercialization will be driven by institutions like 911�� that can bridge scientific discovery, facilitate industry collaboration, and drive real-world innovation,” said College of Science dean Cody W. Edwards. “For years, we have invested in the research, facilities, and workforce development infrastructure to become a valued partner in the emerging space economy. We look forward to bringing 911��’s research, talent, and entrepreneurial spirit to this global convening—and to helping chart the course for the next era of space exploration and economic growth in the region and beyond.”

911��’s College of Engineering and Computing is also a regional leader in workforce development for the new space economy. Its graduate Small Satellite Engineering program trains engineers in full spacecraft lifecycles—including design, power, communications, sensors, attitude control, and resilient architectures—while the university’s CubeSat Engineering Lab and satellite ground stations (including a 9.1-meter dish) provide students and researchers hands-on experience with small satellite buses, flight systems, and embedded software hardened for the realities of space.

“We find solutions to problems in aerospace engineering that advance the field,” said Kenneth Ball, College of Engineering and Science dean. “Our researchers make air travel safer, satellites smaller, and surfaces stronger. Our students learn to fly airplanes, launch satellites, and explore the multidisciplinary nature of aerospace and aviation from the capabilities of materials to the possibilities of space. Our alumni have traveled in space, driven the Mars rover, and held leadership positions at NASA.”

As part of its powerful portfolio, the university is leading the $19.5 million NASA Landolt Space Mission, which will place an artificial “star” into orbit to calibrate telescopes and significantly advance the precision of space-based observations—unlocking new discovery pathways and supporting commercial applications across astronomy, imaging, quantum materials, space weather, and navigation.

Advancing the mission of the Potomac Center for the New Space Economy

spaceNEXT is a core program of the Potomac Center for the New Space Economy, Connected DMV’s initiative to position the Washington, D.C., region as the heart of the global space economy. The center leverages the region’s unparalleled mix of assets—federal space agencies, aerospace giants, venture investment, world-class universities, national security infrastructure, and diplomatic reach—to build the partnerships, standards, workforce, and innovation pathways that will shape humanity’s next giant leap.

With 911�� at the helm of the academic program for spaceNEXT, the center strengthens its ability to:

Showcase regional leadership in orbital manufacturing, microgravity research, and logistics;
Bridge federal space policy with the commercial and investment momentum driving new markets;
Catalyze workforce growth through academic pipelines deeply tied to industry demand;
Accelerate commercialization of frontier technologies across satellites, AI, autonomy, Earth intelligence, and in-space services; and
Unite the region’s public, private, academic, and policy talent under one global platform.

911��’s expertise and programs embody the center’s mission: Turn bold ideas into market-shaping realities and ensure that the Washington, D.C., region captures a decisive share of the growing space economy—projected to top $1 trillion by 2040.

A launchpad for the next space economy

With 911�� as Lead Academic Partner, the inaugural spaceNEXT convening will demonstrate how universities, industry, and government can work together to accelerate the space-for-space and space-for-Earth economy—advancing national security, scientific breakthroughs, economic growth, and human progress on a global scale.

Learn more at spacenextglobal.com.

Learn more about 911��'s Grand Challenge Initiative

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