Equipping Leaders, Impacting the World, Shaping the Future
INSIDE:
- New Name for the School of Education
- Texas Clinical Teacher of the Year — again
- Faculty Receive top Baylor Awards
- New Online Degrees
Welcome to the spring 2026 digital edition of Impact magazine, published by the Moody School of Education. This issue marks a significant milestone, as the School of Education has been named in recognition of a transformational gift from the Moody Foundation of Texas. We are deeply grateful for the Moody family’s generosity, which will provide meaningful student support and amplify the School’s impact for generations to come. We invite you to explore the links below featuring highlights from the School.
— Dr. Shanna Hagan-Burke, Moody School of Education Dean
Baylor’s School of Education received a $30 million endowment gift from the Moody Foundation of Texas to support scholarships for future educators and amplify research and outreach efforts. It’s the largest single gift to the School in its 107-year history and one of the largest to the University.
Bella Buncher, BSEd ’25, is the seventh Baylor intern in nine years to be named Texas Clinical Teacher of the Year. Buncher was a student teacher at Hillcrest PDS, and her mentor teacher was a prior recipient of the same award in 2021!
Several Moody School of Education faculty were recently recognized for their professional accomplishments, including top faculty honors on the Baylor campus as well as state and national professional honors.
Read about some of the Moody SOE faculty achievements in research, teaching, professional organizations, and even a Distinguished Alumna.
What began as curiosity about hunger at Baylor evolved into nationally recognized scholarship, a campus movement, and now a landmark book: Starving the Dream: Student Hunger and the Costs of Campus Affluence, co‑authored by Dr. Nathan Alleman and two former students.
Moody School of Education’s Professional Online Learning Unit launched a new online master’s program and two graduate certificate programs. These academic programs offer great opportunities for earning enhanced credentials — fully online.
The Moody School of Education welcomed nine new faculty members at the launch of the 2025-26 academic year, with additions in three of the school’s four academic units. They brought expertise in English literature, quantitative research, qualitative research, statistics, history, special education, science education, and more.
Moody SOE is celebrating several recent milestones, including a new name for our center focused on disability and flourishing, a significant gift to enhance the Center for School Leadership's Catalyze program for educators, and new collaborations with school districts.
Moody School of Education’s partner campus residential community, the Leadership, Education, and Development Living-Learning Community (LEAD LLC), moved into a fully renovated Allen-Dawson Hall in the fall. See how it looks!