Gregg Behr, Robert McCord, Emily Oster Receive Friend of AASA Award at National Conference on Education

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
James Minichello
703-774-6953 
jminichello@aasa.org    

Nashville, Tenn. – Feb. 18, 2022 – AASA, The School Superintendents Association, is pleased to announce that the 2022 recipients of the Friend of AASA Award are Gregg Behr, executive director of the Grable Foundation; Robert S. McCord, retired AASA academic-in-residence; and Emily Oster, professor of economics, Brown University. A ceremony to recognize the honorees was held during AASA’s National Conference on Education.

This award is given by AASA’s executive director to a non-educator, school district-based person or group/organization who has consistently supported the mission of AASA and has given their time and effort to help the association accomplish its goals to advocate on behalf of public education and assist with the professional development of its members.

“The support for public education provided by our three honorees throughout their careers has been extremely invaluable as we continue to fight for equity and the safety,health and well-being of our students,” said Daniel A. Domenech, executive director, AASA. “It is my pleasure to congratulate Gregg Behr, Robert McCord and Emily Oster for their outstanding contributions to what we do best—serving the children of our great country so they can become major contributors to society. It is only fitting to honor these three leaders of excellence at our national conference.”

Gregg Behr
Behr is a father and children’s advocate whose work is inspired by the legacy of his hero, Fred Rogers. For more than a decade, he has helped to lead Remake Learning (remakelearning.org) — a network of educators, scientists, artists and makers he founded in 2007 — to international renown. Formed in Rogers’ real-life neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pa., Remake Learning has turned heads everywhere from Forbes to the World Economic Forum, for its efforts to ignite children’s curiosity, encourage creativity, and foster justice and belonging in schools, libraries, museums and more. A Phi Beta Kappa and Truman Scholar graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and a graduate of the Duke University School of Law and Sanford School of Public Policy, Behr also holds honorary degrees from Pennsylvania’s Carlow University and Saint Vincent College. Nationally, Behr has served as board chair for Grantmakers for Education and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, as a trustee for GreatNonprofits.org and the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, and as an advisor to Independent Sector, the Fetzer Institute and the Partnership for the Future of Learning.  

Robert S. McCord
McCord has been an AASA member since 1985. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, and a doctorate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During his 46 years in Las Vegas, he served as a teacher, counselor, principal, director and assistant superintendent. After 30 years in the 300,000-student Clark County School District, he was appointed to the faculty of UNLV and taught in the principal and superintendent preparation programs. He has authored dozens of professional articles and research studies. For nearly two decades, he served as the academic-in-residence at AASA, authoring and coauthoring many publications, including the decennial study of the superintendency and the annual superintendent salary and benefits study.  

Emily Oster
Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University and the author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet and The Family Firm. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Before coming to Brown, she was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Oster’s academic work focuses on health economics and statistical methods. She is interested in understanding why consumers do not always make “rational” health choices — why people do not eat a fully healthy diet or pursue all recommended preventative health behaviors. Her work also explores methods for learning causal effects from observational data. Oster’s books analyze the data behind choices in pregnancy and parenting. 

Regarded as the most comprehensive professional learning and networking event for school superintendents and administrators, AASA’s National Conference on Education addresses the most critical issues affecting public education today, including leading through the COVID-19 pandemic, equity in education, social and emotional learning, personalizing education, technology and school safety. 

For more information about the conference, access AASA’s Conference Daily Online.  

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About AASA 
AASA, The School Superintendents Association, founded in 1865, is the professional organization for more than 13,000 educational leaders in the United States and throughout the world. AASA’s mission is to support and develop effective school system leaders who are dedicated to equitable access for all students to the highest quality public education. For more information, visit www.aasa.org.