Year in Review: Our top news stories of 2025
The past year has been a busy one for the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, with numerous stories of innovation, research, service and outreach by our students, faculty and staff.
As we look forward to 2026 and another year of accomplishments from our college community, we wanted to highlight stories featured on our website this year that you may have missed.
Here are a dozen stories from 2025 — one for each month — that demonstrate the college’s impact in Maine and beyond.
January: UMaine pays homage to future teachers at second annual Pinning and Recognition Ceremony
More than 80 future educators were honored at the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development’s second annual Pinning and Recognition Ceremony.
To become teacher candidates, UMaine education students complete five foundational courses that explore teaching as a profession and provide training in several core skills needed to become highly-effective educators. They also take part in field experiences in schools and other educational settings, including five full days (about 30 hours) of classroom observation, and produce a portfolio that includes reflections on those experiences. It’s one of several opportunities the university’s education majors have to work directly with PreK-12 teachers and students during their program of study.
February: UMaine professor examines athletic trainers’ role in treating and preventing concussions in women’s rugby
As a full-contact sport played with little or no protective equipment, rugby has a reputation for high injury rates, including concussions. When a player gets hurt playing any sport, athletic trainers are often the first medical professionals to respond.
“It’s important to understand when concussions and other injuries are happening and who they are happening to, otherwise we’re putting athletes at risk,” said Shannon Wright, an assistant professor of athletic training at the University of Maine.
In an article published in Clinical Practice in Athletic Training, Wright explored how athletic trainers can help treat and prevent concussions in women’s rugby players based on some of the latest data available.
March: Seeking to improve services for students with autism, UMaine Counseling Center taps special education professor’s expertise
Approximately one in 36 children in the United States are on the autism spectrum, and increasing numbers of students with an autism diagnosis are going to college. In 2019, Associate Professor of Special Education Sarah Howorth worked with UMaine’s Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies and the Maine Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to launch a pilot program called Step Up to College, aimed at providing effective supports for students with autism as they transition from high school to college. People on the spectrum often have challenges related to communication and forming relationships, so the Step Up program incorporated elements of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, or PEERS, a social skills curriculum for children and young adults with autism developed by the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
With the counseling center seeing an increase in neurodivergent clients in recent years, its staff invited Howorth to share her expertise in two half-day training sessions.
April: Zachary Wentworth, College of Education and Human Development Outstanding Graduating Student
Zachary Wentworth of Calais, Maine, is the 2025 Outstanding Graduating Student in the College of Education and Human Development (COEHD). He graduates with a degree in secondary education (social studies concentration) and a minor in history. A Maine Top Scholar, a Maine Seacoast Mission scholar and a Galen Cole Family Foundation scholar, Wentworth served as president of the University of Maine chapter of the Student Maine Education Association for the past two years. He was also an undergraduate resident assistant with Residence Life, working with the communities in Hart Hall in the 2023-24 academic year and in Hancock Hall this year. Wentworth completed his student teaching placement at Orono High School with mentor teacher Shana Goodall, a two-time alumna of COEHD and the 2019 Maine History Teacher of the Year. After graduating, Wentworth plans to pursue a master’s in student development in higher education at UMaine, while working as a graduate assistant in COEHD’s Advising Center.
May: UMaine helps state’s rural educators thrive by supporting them at key points in their careers
In Maine, where more than two-thirds of the population is rural, a new program led by the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development seeks innovative solutions to these rural education workforce challenges by directly engaging teachers and school leaders, as well as the communities that they serve.
Rural Thrive: The Rural Educator Resilience Project launched this school year with a $3.3 million Congressionally Directed Spending award secured in Fiscal Year 2024 by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and U.S. Sen. Angus King. In addition to UMaine’s College of Education and Human Development, the project includes educator preparation programs at other public universities across the state, as well Thomas College and Colby College.
June: Database detailing 187 years of hazing deaths now available
At least 333 young people have lost their lives to hazing in the United States since 1838, with 122 recorded just since 2000, according to data in a new database co-developed by the University of Maine, HazingInfo.org, the University of Washington and an award-winning journalist.
For the first time, hazing deaths data from the past 187 years is available through an interactive web feature that honors the memories of those killed and calls new attention to the consequences of hazing.
“The hazing deaths database is invaluable as it illuminates the horrendous consequences of hazing for so many individuals, families, and communities,” said UMaine professor Elizabeth Allan, who leads the Hazing Prevention Research Lab in the UMaine College of Education and Human Development and is the founder of the research organization StopHazing.
July: UMaine researchers examine issues around AI in family therapy
The use of artificial intelligence in therapy is still in its infancy but has potential to provide families and couples with personalized support to strengthen bonds and overcome relationship problems, according to Daniel Puhlman, assistant professor of family studies in the UMaine College of Education and Human Development and lead author of the research article.
“Couples going through a separation, for example, where you have high emotions and high conflict, just being in the same space can be difficult, if not dangerous,” Puhlman said. “In a situation like that, AI’s ability to be interpretive and suggest therapeutic interventions or treatment measures could be a very powerful tool.”
“Challenges and opportunities in using interpretable AI to develop relationship interventions” was published in Family Relations, the academic research journal of the National Council on Family Relations, as part of a special issue on AI in family life.
August: Database from HazingInfo, UMaine makes hazing data available from colleges and universities nationwide
Hazing data from nearly 1,500 college campuses across the United States is now available at HazingInfo.org.
This marks the first time that information about college hazing incidents in all 50 states is available in one place for students, families and others to learn about hazing on their campuses. The announcement also marks a major expansion for HazingInfo.org, the nation’s first free, comprehensive database of college hazing incidents. The database previously featured data from nine states.
“Launching the database with all 50 states is an incredible milestone in the effort to promote transparency and accountability for hazing,” said Elizabeth Allan, professor of higher education at UMaine.
September: UMaine helps local teachers create outdoor learning opportunities
It was a sun-soaked, blue-sky day in late summer, and a group of eight University of Maine students were paddling on western Maine’s Bryant Pond in green Old Town canoes.
They were practicing a classic T-rescue, a maneuver that offers a quick way to get a capsized paddler back into a boat. Working in teams, the students from one canoe dunked themselves into the pond. The students from another canoe then grabbed the overturned boat by the bow and lifted it across their vessel to drain before sliding it back into the water upright and helping their classmates clamber back inside.
This exercise was part of “Bringing the Classroom Outdoors,” a summer course offered as part of a UMaine Outdoor Leadership and Education Graduate Certificate. Launched in 2023, the certificate equips students with knowledge and skills to lead trips and outdoor education activities for participants of all ages. Most of the students who took the class this year were practicing teachers in Maine seeking to incorporate more outdoor learning experiences into their schools.
October: UMaine alumni receive top K-12 administrator awards
Two University of Maine alumni, Gorham School District superintendent Heather Perry (‘04G) and Regional School Unit 34 (Alton, Bradley and Old Town) assistant superintendent Jon Doty (’00, ‘04G, ‘06G, ‘18G), were honored by the Maine School Superintendent Association (MSSA) as the state’s top K-12 administrators for 2026.
Perry, who has been Gorham School District’s superintendent for the past 10 years, was named 2026 Maine Superintendent of the Year. Doty was named 2026 Maine Assistant Superintendent of the Year. He has worked in RSU 34 for more than 25 years, serving as curriculum coordinator and coordinator of gifted and talented services before spending the past four years as assistant superintendent.
November: Study describes how K-12 teachers used UMaine-developed virtual environment to explore mathematical concepts
TriO allows multiple users to naturally explore directional and spatial reasoning in virtual, three dimensional space, without feeling like they’re doing traditional math.
TriO was designed by a team at UMaine’s Immersive Mathematics in Rendered Environments (IMRE) Lab with the goal of offering K-12 teachers and students new ways to delve into familiar mathematical concepts. A new study, published in Digital Experiences in Mathematics Education, describes what happened when six high school teachers used the environment to explore geometry and coordinate systems. These ideas are traditionally taught using analog tools — think paper and pencil or white board and marker — in two dimensions. TriO allows users to learn and explore them in three dimensions.
December: UMaine awarded $5M NSF grant to lead statewide STEM Teacher Corps initiative
A new National Science Foundation (NSF) grant is powering a statewide effort led by the University of Maine to address one of the state’s most persistent challenges: the shortage of highly qualified K-12 teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
With the NSF’s support through its National STEM Teacher Corps Pilot Program, UMaine is now recruiting exemplary educators whose expertise will help transform teacher retention and student achievement across the state.
The NSF award totals $5 million over four years, enabling UMaine researchers to recruit 10 of the state’s most accomplished high school STEM teachers and equip them to coach and support their peers. The initiative is designed to strengthen instruction for at least 200 teachers and thousands of Maine students, with a special emphasis on rural districts where educators often work in isolation.