Cato College of Education

Families, friends and staff recently gathered in Cone University Center’s McKnight Hall to celebrate Niner University Elementary’s first class of fifth grade graduates at their “moving on” ceremony. Sixteen students, dressed in miniature Charlotte green graduation gowns, assembled in the front row of McKnight Hall. Families watched eagerly, their faces filled with pride and anticipation. […]

Angela Preston ’16 Ph.D. ’11 M.Ed. is director of the Mebane Early Literacy Center in the Cato College of Education. A noted consultant, she began her career as a special educator in the North Carolina public school system.

Throughout April, which is National Counseling Awareness Month, UNC Charlotte and the Cato College of Education recognize the graduate students preparing to enter the profession.

Kelly Cartwright recently joined the Cato College of Education as the University’s first Spangler Distinguished Professor of Early Child Literacy.

Cartwright previously served as professor of psychology, neuroscience and teacher preparation at Christopher Newport University in Virginia where she directed the Reading, Executive Function and Development Lab while contributing to the Center for Education Research and Policy.

Cato College of Education faculty member Clare Merlin-Knoblich was named Counselor Educator of the Year by the North Carolina School Counselor Association.

This award recognizes Merlin-Knoblich’s outstanding contributions to the field of school counseling in North Carolina and beyond. She joins UNC Charlotte counseling professors Sejal Foxx and Taryne Mingo, who received the award in 2015 and 2020, respectively.

The Omicron Pi chapter of Kappa Delta Pi continued won a trio of awards at the honor society’s 55th convocation in St. Louis, Missouri.

Charlotte’s Omicron Pi chapter received its sixth Achieving Chapter Excellence Award from for its outstanding programming in support of the society’s mission and strategic goals.

Counseling professor Dania Fakhro remembers her neighbors in Syria wearing the keys to the homes they had been forced to flee around their necks. They were people displaced by conflict with roots common to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that today leaves buildings in rubble and thousands dead.

The Association of Counseling Education and Supervision recently recognized UNC Charlotte’s counseling master’s program with the Robert Frank Outstanding Counselor Education Program Award for its excellence in standards and innovation. This national award is given to one master’s and one doctoral program annually.

Misty Hathcock is the 2023 recipient of the Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Preparation Award from the North Carolina Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Hathcock ’85, ’91 M.Ed., ’92 M.A., ’96, ’04 Ed.D. is director of alumni engagement and the N.C. New Teacher Support Program in the Cato College of Education.

UNC Charlotte has named the building that houses the Cato College of Education Mebane Hall in honor of a transformative endowment of up to $23 million from the Mebane Foundation to support early literacy.