Boyertown graduate invited to convention
Brittany (Kuder) Zakszeski, a Ph.D. student in the school psychology program at Lehigh University’s College of Education, is one of 100 doctoral students in the United States and Canada selected in 2017 to receive a highly competitive $15,000 P.E.O. Scholar Award.
She was scheduled to speak on June 1 at the organization’s 80th annual Pennsylvania state convention at Seven Springs Mountain Resort, Seven Springs, Pa.
P.E.O. Chapter CN in Easton sponsored Zakszeski for this coveted award. Zakszeski is a 2009 graduate of Boyertown Area High School. P.E.O. Pennsylvania is a Philanthropic, Educational organization for women.
Zakszeski is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the school psychology program at Lehigh University. During her time at Lehigh, Brittany has worked in public, private and alternative education settings in eastern Pennsylvania, most recently at Centennial School of Lehigh University.
She became certified in the state of Pennsylvania as a school psychologist in 2016 and was hired as adjunct faculty by Lehigh in 2017. Brittany’s research interests center on promoting students’ resilience and understanding implementation science as it can be applied to educational settings, broadly, and to school practitioners’ adoption and sustained use of evidence-based practices, more specifically.
Her dissertation examined trajectories of selfregulation across the early elementary years and their relations with student and contextual factors. Zakszeski aspires to work in higher education where she can concurrently conduct research to enhance the practice of school psychology and train future generations of school psychologists.
The P.E.O. Sisterhood, founded January 21, 1869, at Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, is a philanthropic and educational organization interested in bringing to women increased opportunities for higher education. There are approximately 6,000 local chapters in the United States and Canada with nearly 240,000 active members. Chapter CN was organized in Easton in 2012.