Boston College graduate Tanji Reed Marshall is a nationally recognized and sought-after expert on educational equity and educational leadership. Her book Understanding Your Instructional Power: (ASCD, 2023), helps teacher candidates reflect on how everyday decisions around curriculum, language, time, and space can either affirm student identity or unintentionally limit it. Drawing from her own experience as a classroom teacher and coach, Reed Marshall offers support and encouragement to K–12 teachers seeking to use their power in productive ways so that all students can bring their full selves to class and receive the education they deserve. Reed Marshall is the CEO and Principal Consultant of Liaison Educational Partners. She has more than two decades of experience in advancing practice on behalf of students of color, those experiencing economic uncertainty, and those perpetually left on the margins of the education system. She partners with states, school districts, schools, and education organizations to solve complex issues related to educational equity and improve educational leadership. Reed Marshall earned a bachelor’s degree from BC in 1986. She also holds a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.
Teacher power
‘Woody’s Words’
The life of Woodrow “Woody” Wilson Rawls, the author of the classic children’s book Where the Red Fern Grows, is the subject of a new nonfiction picture book written by Boston College graduate Lisa Rogers. Woody’s Words (Calkins Creek, 2025) pays homage to the persistence and creativity Rawls demonstrated in chasing his dreams. According to the book, after Rawls read The Call of the Wild, he was determined to become a teller of tales. He went on to write several novels and publish two books for children. Woody’s Words is illustrated by Susan Reagan. An award-winning author, Rogers has written other biographies for young readers, including Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage and
‘A Ghost in the Throat’
Poet and essayist Doireann Ní Ghríofa will talk about her prose debut, A Ghost in the Throat, at Boston College on September 24 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. A Ghost in the Throat is a genre-defying work that melds the epic lament by 18th-century Irish poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill with the author’s own meditations on motherhood and life. A Ghost in the Throat was an An Post Irish Book Awards Nonfiction Book of the Year, a Guardian Best Book of 2020, a winner of the James Tait Black Biography Prize, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2021, an NPR Best Book of 2021, and a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, among other honors. Her lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by Boston College Irish Studies. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Plato and ecological guardianship
Award-winning educator Melissa Lane will present “Plato’s Republic on Motivating Ecological Guardianship” at Boston College on September 18 at 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall 110. Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University, where she is also Associated Faculty in Classics and in Philosophy. Her most recent book, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, was awarded the 2024 Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize. She also is the author of Eco-Republic: What the Ancients Can Teach Us about Ethics, Virtue, and Sustainable Living, among other titles. This Lowell Humanities Series Lecture is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Posted in Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged ecology, environment, philosophy, politics
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Expert Witness Ann Burgess
Boston College Connell School of Nursing Professor Ann Burgess is a trailblazing forensic and psychiatric nurse who has worked with the FBI and helped pioneer the criminal profiling of serial killers. A new book, Expert Witness: The Weight of Our Testimony When Justice Hangs in the Balance (Grand Central Publishing, 2025), delves into her role as a trauma expert in some of the biggest criminal court cases in the last 30 years. Written by Burgess and CSON Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Steven Matthew Constantine, Expert Witness takes readers from the women’s movement of the 1970s to the #MeToo movement of the 21st century to capture how revolutionary one voice can be. Publishers Weekly called Expert Witness a “fascinating memoir.” Burgess and Constantine previously collaborated on the book A Killer by Design, which inspired the Hulu docuseries “Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer.”
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Connell School of Nursing, crime, forensics, memoir
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Lainey from Lovelace Academy
Boston College alumna Marie Benedict has teamed up with author Courtney Sheinmel for a new historical adventure for middle school readers titled The Secrets of Lovelace Academy (Aladdin, 2025). Their book is about Lainey Philipps, a young girl who lives in a London orphanage until a chance encounter leads to an invitation to attend the prestigious Lovelace Academy. Lainey’s life of drudgery has hardly prepared her for the aristocratic airs and cutthroat academic ambition of the other girls. Terrified she’ll be cast out of the academy, Lainey grabs at a chance to prove herself by traveling to Switzerland to meet a female scientist crafting a groundbreaking theory. Benedict is the bestselling author/co-author of several historical novels, including The Queens of Crime, The Only Woman in the Room, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, and The Personal Librarian, among others.
‘The People’s Hospital’
Physician and author Ricardo Nuila will talk about his acclaimed book, The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine, at Boston College on September 10 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. The People’s Hospital details the stories of five uninsured Houstonians unable to access healthcare who ultimately receive care at Ben Taub Hospital, where Dr. Nuila works. The People’s Hospital was selected as a semi-finalist for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Amazon, Kirkus Reviews, and The Washington Post. Nuila is an associate professor of medicine, medical ethics, and health policy at Baylor College of Medicine. His features and essays have appeared in Texas Monthly, The New York Times Sunday Review, The Atlantic, and The New England Journal of Medicine. His short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, McSweeney’s, Guernica, and other magazines. Nuila’s lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and is cosponsored by the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Tinker Bell
Bestselling author Jen Calonita, a Boston College alumna, has published the second installment of The Enchanters book series: Tinker Bell (Random House/Disney, 2025). Filled with adventure, intrigue, and romance, Calonita’s novel reveals the untold story of Tinker Bell and her connection to Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. Calonita is the author of more than 40 books for teens and young adults. Her books have sold more than a million copies and have been translated into 15 languages. The Enchanters book series, which debuted in 2024 with Calonita’s Fairy Godmother, focuses on the untold origins of Disney’s beloved magic makers.
‘Casual Monsters’
Townshend University is an elite school with driven students, brilliant professors, and an unfortunate secret. Beneath the soaring spires and voluminous library is an enchanted vault where an unspeakable evil has been safely imprisoned…until last Thursday. That’s the premise of Casual Monsters, the latest fantasy novel from indie author and Boston College alumnus Chuck Abdella. A high school history teacher, Abdella is also the author of a book series called The Outcasts.
Dublin to Dingle
In 2023, Boston College graduate David H. McGrath set out to walk across Ireland, from Dublin on the east coast to the west coast, specifically Skellig Michael, the location featured in the Star Wars movie franchise. He captured his adventure in the new book, 500,000 Steps Across Ireland: From Dublin to Dingle on Foot, which details his month in Ireland and the people and places he saw along the way. McGrath is a writer, standup comic, and adventurer. This summer, he returned to Ireland and walked from Shannon to Derry, raising money for a local cancer center and the Irish Cancer Society.
