Retiring Faculty Members on Lessons They’ve Taught and Learned: Part One

This year’s group of retiring faculty members have been department chairs, founded a nonprofit, been leaders in their fields, and won a Pulitzer Prize.

No interview can quite capture the importance these educators have meant to their students and colleagues.

Ten retiring educators were honored at a faculty celebration on April 29: Pierre Archambault, Amelia Broome, Cathy Edelstein, Janet Kolodzy, Megan Marshall, Eileen McBride, Alisa Ruggiero, Lauren Shaw, Tulasi Srinivas, Steve Yarbrough. Emerson Today reached out, asking them to reflect on their time at Emerson.

Read: Lauren Shaw Has Seen the Big Picture at Emerson for Five Decades

Several shared what they’re most proud of, their favorite assignments, and what they’ll be doing in retirement. Part One covers School of Communication and Marlboro Institute faculty. Check back for Part Two, featuring School of the Arts faculty.

Cathryn Edelstein
Senior Executive-in-Residence
Communication Studies
2005-2025

What are you most proud of from your time at Emerson College?

Edelstein: I am most proud of building the Nonprofit Communication Management minor in the Communication Studies Department. The courses and learning skills in this program have catapulted many students’ careers right out of Emerson College. Keeping in touch with my students, watching them succeed, and knowing I had some small part in their success trajectory brings me joy.

Was there a moment when you knew you were right for the profession?

Edelstein: I was an independent communication consultant before joining Emerson College in 2005. I enjoyed it very much, but missed collaborating with others.  I knew I was in the right place when I met colleagues and students who were creative, motivated, and passionate about communication.

What do you hope students will remember most about you or your classes?

Edelstein: I want my students to remember how to create messages using any mode, taking into consideration the background, values, and culture of the audience. I also want them to use their voices in collaboration with the communities they uplift, and not “for” them. Communication skills are the most important skills any person can use to be a change agent.

What’s a favorite assignment or lesson you loved teaching over the years? Why did you create the nonprofit On the Same Page and will it continue? 

Edelstein: The response to the first question is creating the advocacy campaign project, On the Same Page Boston, so my students could learn how to run a campaign in my Nonprofit Fundraising Campaigns course. It is a win-win program that benefits my students and Boston Public School students simultaneously.

I created On the Same Page Boston after a conversation with BPS teacher Neil Harris. He confirmed that his school lacked diverse and inclusive books that represented the identities of his students. With this knowledge, I set forth to create a diverse and inclusive book campaign whereby the public could donate books from a curated wish list to a partner BPS school. The program also includes donating gently used books for BPS students with the help of our for-profit partner, Tatte Bakery and Cafe. To date, over 8,500 books have been donated.

After my retirement, [Communication Studies] affiliated faculty member Niko Emack ’23 will continue to teach this course and run On the Same Page Boston. I will mentor him through the first semester.

What’s one piece of advice you always tried to give your students? 

Edelstein: I don’t have just one…

• Research everything before using information found on the web. Is it credible? Can the information be traced to a primary source? 
• Intercultural competence is important. Research cultures before sharing space with those outside of your culture so you can enter a space prepared and able to interact with others. 
• If you have privilege, speak up for those who can’t. 
• Be ethical above all else.

What are you looking forward to most in retirement?

Edelstein: After retirement, I look forward to spending time with family, especially my two granddaughters, who are 2 and 4. In June, I will be welcoming a grandson!

Professionally, I will be working on a podcast and finishing an intercultural children’s book I have begun to write.

Eileen McBride
Associate Professor
Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies
2005-2025

What are you most proud of from your time at Emerson College?

McBride: I’m always proud when I see my students succeed. I’m delighted when I hear that one of my students has been accepted into a graduate program and is excited to start the next phase of their work and studies. And I’m proud when I see a student who has struggled find their confidence in writing or begin to understand a challenging concept.

A student once emailed me to say that even though she expected to find psychology “very hard and useless to me,” after taking Intro to Psych she was happy to be proved wrong. She went on to say that psychology had opened her eyes and had given her “information that I can carry with myself” – and that she planned to take more classes. I loved that she had come to enjoy the subject and am proud that I was able to help her make this connection.

I started my career as a clinical psychologist with the full intention of continuing in that field. But a move to the U.S., and a chance opportunity to teach a class at Emerson (thank you, [Professor Emeritus] Dan Kempler and the [Communication Sciences and Disorders] Department!) allowed me to realize how much I enjoyed teaching the subject I love. The combination of the curiosity and creativity Emerson students brought to the class, and the sense of community I immediately felt from the faculty here, confirmed this new direction.

What do you hope students will remember most about you or your classes?

McBride: I have lots of hopes! I hope that some of the passion I have for psychology will have rubbed off on my students and that they might be able to apply it in their own lives or careers – and even consider continuing to pursue the subject. I hope that some of our exploration and discussion about who we are as people, and why we do what we do, has helped them understand themselves and others a little better. I hope that they remember how to use [American Psychological Association] formatting ☺ And I hope they look back on the fun we had exploring the thousands of concepts and topics that make up each class.

Your bio states you’re a clinical psychologist who studies psychosocial adjustment and well-being in emerging adulthood. Are there particular trends in today’s emerging adults that weren’t present or as pronounced when you first started teaching?

McBride: I think that we are still reckoning with the impact of the COVID pandemic on young people. There have been significant increases in mental health challenges in the last decade – and particularly in the period immediately following lockdown – that show up in the classroom. I also see the broader challenge this generation of undergraduates have faced in transitioning from a mostly virtual to a fully in-person world, and their struggles to adjust and find a sense of belonging.

However, there is also a real resilience, and, despite the challenge of the current climate, I see young people finding their own sense of agency and a renewed energy for engagement, learning, and activism.

What’s a favorite assignment or lesson you loved teaching over the years?

McBride: When I teach Developmental Psychology, I have an assignment where we work to connect developmental theory to our own life experiences. For the “early life” portion, the students interview someone who knew them as a child; in the “later life” component, they interview someone who is older and at a very different life stage. In each of these assignments I enjoy seeing the connections students make from theory to life, and I love that the assignment becomes an opportunity for a meaningful conversation with a parent or grandparent. I’m also always delighted to hear the family stories students share and the opportunity to get to know a little bit about who they are and where they came from.

What’s one piece of advice you always tried to give your students?

McBride: I don’t think I directly offer advice, but I hope that the lessons from psychology about building self-efficacy, awareness of our own patterns for navigating the world, and the many complicated biological and social factors that shape us, help my students as they launch into adult life.

What are you looking forward to most in retirement?

McBride: I’m looking forward to having the time to read, think, garden, cook, renovate a little, and visit my family who are dispersed over three continents.

Janet Kolodzy
Professor
Journalism
1998-2025

What are you most proud of from your time at Emerson College?

Kolodzy: That a distinct, distinguished, and always forward-thinking Journalism Department survives and still thrives, thanks to the faculty, students, alumni, and staff who fight and promote its mission.

Was there a moment when you knew you were right for the profession?

Kolodzy: I’ve had numerous moments over the years when I saw a student’s “aha moment” to a new way of thinking or doing. One of my favorites involved a student who only wanted to do sports, but I required him to write election-year political stories in TV News Producing. He ended up liking to do politics.

What do you hope students will remember most about you or your classes?

Kolodzy: One of my standard phrases to students is to remember: “Journalism isn’t about you, the journalist. It’s always about them, the public.” Journalism can take you anywhere and serve you in doing just about anything.

How has the way you teach journalism changed since when you began teaching?

Kolodzy: When I started teaching in 1998, putting journalism online was relatively new, even radical. But online brought about the convergence of print and broadcast and new technologies. So teaching journalism meant teaching adaptability and trying new tech skills to reach audiences where they are. Today, that means on social media as well as online, on air, and yes, even still on paper.

What’s one piece of advice you always tried to give your students

Kolodzy: Persist. Care.

What are you looking forward to most in retirement?

Kolodzy: Opening a new chapter in pursuing good trouble by strengthening voting rights in Arizona, where I am moving.