Alex Abad 
Table of Contents
-
Trailblazers:
From remaining, Jo Lynne DeMary, Hulon Willis, Jr, and Janet Brown Strafer stand in entrance of the newly unveiled Trailblazers Wall.
Photo by Skip Rowland ’83
|
March 15, 2022
The William & Mary University of Instruction local community lately collected to unveil a new installation in the school creating honoring trailblazers who broke boundaries at the college and in just the area of instruction and opened doorways for generations of upcoming educators.
The a few inaugural honorees on the Trailblazers Wall are Hulon L. Willis, Sr. M.Ed. ’56 Janet Brown Strafer ’71, M.A.Ed. ‘77, D.Sc. ’18 and Jo Lynne DeMary ’68, Ed.D. ’82. Their pics and biographies are now shown in the front hallway of the faculty building. More trailblazers will be determined and celebrated yearly.
“As we try to dwell out our institutional values of belonging, integrity and regard and to entirely embrace an inclusive record of our institution, our development is due to the willpower and tenacity of folks — people people today who have the courage and conviction to act and persevere in purchase to make a distinction,” mentioned Dean Rob Knoeppel at the ceremony, which was held through Constitution Day weekend in early February 2022.
All a few honorees were being represented in attendance at the devotion ceremony. The late Hulon Willis, Sr. was represented by his son, Hulon Willis, Jr, together with other associates of the Willis relatives. Janet Brown Strafer and Jo Lynne DeMary attended the party, also accompanied by their family members.
The task experienced its origins during the university’s commemorations of 50 Decades of African People in Home (2017-2018) and 100 A long time of Females (2018-2019). At that time, a committee was established to direct initiatives in aid of the 50th commemoration and to take a look at how the college constructing could superior reflect the crucial contributions of traditionally underrepresented groups. Below the path of Chair Stephanie Blackmon, Course of 1963 Associate Professor of Greater Instruction, the committee suggested establishing a Trailblazers Wall to honor pioneering associates of the school community.
The committee also led the do the job of amassing nominations from the college local community and selecting the inaugural honorees. All through the dedication ceremony, Dean Knoeppel identified the get the job done of the committee, the leadership of Dr. Blackmon and the initiatives of other college and staff who contributed to the results of the task.
As engraved on the new installation, the Trailblazers Wall honors “members of the W&M University of Education and learning local community whose life and stories exemplify bravery and perseverance, and whose determination, irrespective of obstructions, resulted in the improvement of the faculty, the college, or society at large.”
The three honorees have been invited to talk briefly during the dedication ceremony, then the installation was formally unveiled by the honorees, alongside with Dean Knoeppel, Dr. Blackmon, and Associate Dean of Diversity & Inclusion Natoya Haskins.
“It’s been an honor for me to get to know these extraordinary people, to find out from them and function with them to advance the mission of the university and college,” explained Knoeppel. “As I have reflected on our collecting nowadays, I uncover myself constantly drawn to the words and phrases braveness, dignity and honor.”
Although celebrating and saluting the school’s trailblazers, Knoeppel urged the school local community to honor their legacy by continuing to progress function similar to fairness, inclusion and option.
“Education is a uniquely human endeavor,” reported Knoeppel. “It is my earnest hope that we attract toughness from the braveness of these trailblazers and that we have the grace, dignity and humility to progress community discourse to find alternatives to our latest struggles.”
Hulon L. Willis, Sr. M.Ed. ’56
Willis was the first African American college student to enroll at William & Mary, earning his master’s degree in education and learning in 1956. He was a professor of wellbeing and bodily instruction at Virginia Point out University as effectively as director of campus police. He was a football and wrestling mentor and pioneered the practice of martial arts in the location. As a perfectly-identified sensei, he taught karate to law enforcement, marketing much less violent methods of trying to keep the peace.
Willis’s legacy lives on in the Hulon Willis Affiliation, the university’s affinity team for Black alumni, and as a result of his spouse and children: he, his son Hulon L. Willis Jr ’77 and granddaughter Mica Willis ’13 comprise the very first a few-era household of Black alumni.
Janet Brown Strafer ’71, M.A.Ed. ‘77, D.Sc. ’18
Janet Brown Strafer was one particular of the a few college students who enrolled in 1967 as the initially Black learners to have an prospect to are living in household halls and participate thoroughly in campus lifetime. With each other with Lynn Briley and Karen Ely, Strafer was honored through the university’s 50th Anniversary of African Us citizens in Home.
Strafer completed an undergraduate degree in elementary schooling, followed by a master of arts in education at William & Mary. She was a teacher and steering counselor in Williamsburg-James Town County Community Universities prior to pursuing a 35-year profession in federal company. Soon after serving as an instruction counselor for the Army in Berlin, Germany, she took on roles as an training specialist at the Army Engineer College, a administration analyst at the Pentagon and later a branch chief and senior plan analyst.
In 2018, the College of Education and learning created the Janet Brown Strafer Award in her honor. Each individual 12 months, the award recognizes a person student and one school member for their get the job done promoting inclusivity and fairness in instruction.
Jo Lynne DeMary ’68, Ed.D. ‘82
Jo Lynne DeMary rose to the optimum place within public education in Virginia when she grew to become the state’s very first girl to provide as superintendent of public training. She gained both of those her undergraduate diploma in elementary schooling and her doctorate in academic leadership from William & Mary. She served as a instructor, assistant principal, principal, elementary faculty supervisor, director of special instruction and assistant superintendent of instruction in Henrico County right before staying named point out superintendent in 2000. For the duration of her tenure, she supervised the progress of the K-12 content standards recognized as the Expectations of Studying and performed a critical job in the design and launch of an accountability system with once-a-year screening in English, arithmetic, science and historical past.
Following leaving the state department of education in 2006, Dr. DeMary joined the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University, serving to to make and immediate their Centre for College Improvement. She retired in 2012 just after 43 a long time in education and learning, but ongoing to be involved in the field, mentoring foreseeable future instructional leaders and serving on a number of boards like the William & Mary Faculty of Education’s Improvement Board.
