Impactful SCHOLARS
Faculty advocate for education in Illinois and beyond
By Lauren Leisure
As Illinois’ largest preparer of teachers, Illinois State University’s College of Education aims to ensure that future educators are well-equipped for their roles.
College of Education faculty are not only preparing the next generation of educators, but they’re also reshaping the field of education. From preparing teachers to meet the social-emotional needs of students, to expanding access to education in prisons, to training specialists who serve blind and visually impaired children, Illinois State is home to educators whose work is both innovative and impactful.
Among the College of Education’s impactful faculty are Dr. Mindy Ely with the Department of Special Education, Dr. Laura Kalmes with the Department of Educational Administration and Foundations, and Dr. Meghan Kessler with the School of Teaching and Learning—whose dedication to inclusive, responsive, and transformative education continues to shape classrooms and communities across Illinois and beyond.
“We want this training to be available nationally.”
—DR. MINDY ELY
Dr. Mindy Ely helps future teachers create Braille materials.
Building a future for vision education: Dr. Mindy Ely’s impact
Ely is a leader in the field of low vision and blindness education, focusing on preparing professionals who work with blind and visually impaired children, especially in early intervention.
As a faculty member at Illinois State, Ely helped transform the University’s low vision and blindness education program into a national model for preparing specialists to work with students from birth to age 3.
“I am in the field of education to focus on blind and visually impaired students,” she said.
Before joining Illinois State in 2016, Ely spent nearly a decade at the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired and the Illinois School for the Deaf, building birth to 3 early intervention services in Illinois as a collaborative effort between state schools and the Illinois Bureau of Early Intervention.
Ely trained a workforce and wrote policies and procedures to establish professional roles. During that time, she also maintained a private practice where she worked directly with blind and visually impaired infants and toddlers and their families.
“Most of my career was in early intervention, from birth to the age of 3,” she said. “Early Intervention is home-based rather than school-based, and it’s about supporting and empowering parents as they teach their baby rather than about the educational professional teaching the child.”
At Illinois State, Ely has continued that work by securing federal funding to expand training for professionals in this highly specialized area.
“We’re the only program in the country with a comprehensive program to train birth to 3 low vision and blindness educators,” she noted. While Ely hopes to expand access to the program beyond Illinois, current credentialing requirements have limited enrollment to in-state educators.
“We want this training to be available nationally,” she said.
Ely’s work ensures that blind or visually impaired infants and toddlers receive the support they need during their most critical years of development. Her efforts have already reshaped how low vision and blindness educators are prepared, while laying the foundation for continued growth across state lines.
“Education is transformative in a way that brings hope and clarity in difficult situations.”
—DR. LAURA KALMES
Dr. Laura Kalmes with a former student in the Education Justice Project.
Expanding access to education: Dr. Laura Kalmes’ mission in Illinois prisons
For Kalmes, education is not just a career, it’s a tool for transformation. An assistant professor in Educational Administration and Foundations (EAF) and the interim director of the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State, Kalmes brings a passion for equity and access to every space she enters.
Her work has bridged academia and community, particularly through education programs for incarcerated individuals. Kalmes’ connection to prison education began when she taught a college-level course at the Danville Correctional Center through the Education Justice Project. This experience sparked a deeper involvement in coordinating anti-violence and trauma-informed programming for incarcerated learners.
“I’ve been involved in the Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prison, thinking of ways we might offer graduate-level coursework to incarcerated students,” Kalmes said. “Undergraduate education for incarcerated students has been expanding with the reinstatement of the federal Pell Grants in 2023. This has built a post-secondary pipeline by graduating incarcerated students with bachelor’s degrees, which naturally increases the eligibility for and interest in graduate programs.”
Kalmes, whose work in equity focuses on transitioning the “school-to-prison pipeline” into a “prison-to-school-pipeline,” envisions Illinois State playing a critical role in expanding educational access for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals.
“Everybody in that (Education Justice Project) class wanted to be there,” Kalmes said. “The quality of attention, which is really focused and present, is extraordinary.”
These experiences remind her of education’s deeper purpose. “Education is transformative in a way that brings hope and clarity in difficult situations,” she said.
Back at Illinois State, Kalmes carries these lessons into her teaching.
“The quality of attention and enthusiasm that students have when they have access to education in prison reminds me why I’m doing this work,” Kalmes said.
According to Kalmes, the University is in the exploratory phase of launching what will likely be the first doctoral-in-prison program in the nation through EAF’s leadership, equity, and inquiry degree.
Through Kalmes’ scholarship and commitment, she is expanding the definition of who education serves and how it can change lives.
“Teachers can be agentic enactors and informed advocates.”
—DR. MEGHAN KESSLER
Dr. Meghan Kessler
Dr. Meghan Kessler: Advocating for educators and the future of teacher preparation
As an assistant professor in middle level education at Illinois State, Kessler is committed to improving the experience of both future educators and those already in the profession. Her teaching and research center on supporting responsive, whole-child pedagogies and creating systems that affirm teachers’ identities and emotional well-being.
Through her advocacy work, Kessler is helping shape the policies that directly impact classrooms across the state.
“I consider myself an advocate for Illinois teachers and am incredibly proud to be working at ISU where we help educate such a large number of teachers,” Kessler said.
Her research focuses on the interaction between local or state policies and teachers’ lives, all with the goal of helping educators thrive in increasingly complex environments.
Kessler brings this work into policy spaces as a member of the executive board of the Illinois Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (IACTE).
“Key issues for teacher education programs right now are advocating for state-level policies that will support and improve retention of teachers, new licensure mandates, and continued funding for teacher education research,” Kessler said.
Crucial to her approach is the belief that educators themselves should be engaged in shaping the systems they work within.
“Teachers can be agentic enactors and informed advocates,” Kessler said. Her work often relies on qualitative methods to bring attention to voices that she said are too often left out of policy conversations.
“The teaching profession is more complex than ever,” Kessler said. “That makes it essential to support, sustain, and affirm the hard work that teachers do every day.”
From classrooms to policymaking spaces, Kessler’s work ensures that teachers are not only heard but empowered to lead the future of education.
Through their distinct yet equally vital areas of focus, Drs. Kessler, Kalmes, and Ely exemplify Illinois State’s commitment to excellence in education. Whether advocating for supportive policy, providing life-changing learning opportunities for incarcerated individuals, or building the nation’s only birth to 3 vision education program, their work demonstrates the profound impact that Redbird teacher-scholars are making.