Gerhard (Gerry) Neubeck was a professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota, and became NCFR's 35th president in 1977.

Until 1940, Nuebeck lived in Germany, where he was a German-Jewish athlete. In the run-up to the 1936 Olympics, the Nazis put on a charade, allowing Jewish athletes to train in a segregated Olympic facility, then telling them days before the Games that they weren't good enough to compete.

After being beaten by Nazis, Neubeck and his parents fled to the Netherlands and then to the United States, where he eventually earned a master's in psychology and doctorate in education. In the 1960s, he taught of the nation's first courses on human sexuality. He retired from the University of Minnesota in the 1980's and passed away in 2008.

Read more about Neubeck at NCFR.org

The University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) has been awarded the highest standard of accreditation and was recognized for exemplary performance in its partnership with local schools by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).

"NCATE's accreditation renewal for the university, which extends through 2019, recognizes CEHD's high quality preparation of teacher candidates and other school professionals," said CEHD Dean Jean Quam.

"This recognition means a great deal to us and to our teacher candidates," she said. "We voluntarily pursue national accreditation, as it is not a state or national requirement, because we value the assessment of the quality of our programs against a set of very rigorous national standards and by our peers and P-12 school practitioners."

The university recommends Minnesota teaching licensure for about 300 teachers each year, most of whom remain in the state. CEHD works with several school partners in Minnesota to develop highly qualified teachers through its Teacher Education Redesign Initiative (TERI), which is supported by the Bush Foundation's Network for Excellence in Teaching (NExT). One of TERI's hallmarks is collaboration with local districts to prepare teachers focused on reducing disparities in student achievement.

"We have strong clinical programs, and our school district partners rely on us to provide prepared and innovative student teachers," said TERI director Misty Sato. "When we started TERI, we had closing the achievement gap as number one on our list of long-term goals. That includes diversifying our teaching profession and preparing teachers who are more culturally responsive. We are beginning to see results -- the diversity of the candidate pool has increased over the past 3 years and employers of CEHD-prepared teachers report on surveys that these teachers effectively teach students from culturally and ethnically diverse backgrounds."

Quam agrees that data collected by the college indicates a positive trend. "We are attracting a very talented pool of teacher candidates," she said. "They are academically strong, many have had international experiences, and they express a long-term commitment to teaching that is focused on equity and student achievement."

NCATE, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a specialized accrediting body, identified the U of M's field experiences and clinical practice for distinction. All U of M teacher candidates have clinical experiences that include numerous opportunities to design instruction that supports student learning in diverse classrooms, analyze student assessment data, and engage with other school professionals.

Dr. Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, associate professor of kinesiology, gave an invited talk on the "Psychological Aspects of Returning to Sport Following Injury" at the Current Concepts in Sports Medicine spring conference sponsored by Fairview Sports and Orthopedic Care, held in Edina, Minn., on May 18, 2013. This year's conference had national and regional experts come together to discuss and lecture on injuries of the overhead athlete.

School of Kinesiology alumna Azizah Jor'dan, Ph.D., has been selected to participate in the prestigious National Institute on Aging (NIA) Summer Institute on Aging Research, to be held July 14-19 on the National Institutes of Health Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The program includes lectures, seminars, and small group discussions related to aging. Jor'dan is one of only 32 participants selected among a group of outstanding applicants. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in gerontology at Harvard Medical School.

Jor'dan graduated from the School of Kinesiology in 2012 and was an advisee of professor Michael Wade.

Megan Gunnar, Regents Professor and director and Ann Masten, Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychology at the Institute of Child Development, discussed findings of research on early childhood development, resilience and early brain development with Hennepin County social workers, librarians and other human services workers recently. Hennepin County is partnering with University researchers like Masten and Gunnar who are seeking to raise awareness of how children's brains develop, while providing additional tools and approaches for workers to use in their everyday interactions with children and families. The project was highlighted on MPR news on May 10,Hennepin service workers learn about infant brains. Summary findings from the event, Connecting Research to Practice: Understanding Infant Brain Development, along with photos, videos and other supporting materials are available at the Hennepin-University Partnership website.

Megan Gunnar, Regents Professor and director at the Institute of Child Development, presented Early Adverse Experiences and Regulation of the HPA Axis at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting in a state of the art plenary session on May 6. The symposium session, Psychosocial Stress and Physiological Dysregulation: The Biological Embedding of Early Childhood Adversity, addressed several aspects of excessive, uncontrollable and/or chronic stressful events in early childhood, sometimes known as toxic stress. The PAS Annual Meeting is the largest international meeting focused on research in child health.

In April, staff from the College's Institute on Community Integration (ICI) gave numerous conference presentations, including:

• Autism Society of Minnesota Annual Conference: Joe Timmons and Barb Kleist, "Residential Services for Individuals with Autism: Considerations for Minnesota"; Sharon Mulé, "Redefining Social Skills: The Move to the Adult World."
• AERA Annual Conference: Sheryl Lazarus, Martha Thurlow and Yi-Chen Wu, "Longitudinal Analyses of Effects of Reclassification, Reporting Methods, and Analytical Techniques on Trends in Math Performance of Students with Disabilities"; Chris Bremer and Chris Opsal (with co-presenters), "The Effect of Federal Financial Aid on the Retention of Occupational and Non-Occupational Students at Four Community Colleges."
• Netherlands: Angela Amado, eight presentations on community inclusion at one of the largest Dutch agencies for people with disabilities.

On March 28-29, the North Central Regional Resource Center (NCRRC) at the Institute on Community Integration hosted a national conference in Chicago on fiscal issues and related monitoring requirements contained in Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Delegations representing 21 States/territories and staff from other Regional Resource Centers attended. Kent Hamre and Maureen Hawes co-facilitated the event and the entire NCRRC staff helped host the conference and led sessions.

Department of Family Social Science doctoral candidate Juyoung Jang and professor Sharon Danes have a paper accepted by the Entrepreneurship Research Journal: "Are we on the same page?: Copreneurial Couple goal congruence and business viability."

Three students in the School of Kinesiology have been awarded an American Kinesiology Association (AKA) Student Award for 2013. Molly Watkins, who will graduate Summa Cum Laude this spring with a B.S. in Kinesiology, was presented with an Undergraduate Scholar Award. Scott Brown, who will graduate this spring with a Ph.D.in kinesiology, with an emphasis in exercise physiology, was awarded the Graduate Scholar Award. Vicki Schull, doctoral candidate in kinesiology, sport management emphasis, received the Writing Award. The students are advised by Ms. Susan Stirling, Dr. Lisa Kihl, and Dr. Stacy Ingraham, respectively.

AKA is the national organization that promotes and enhances kinesiology as a unified field of study and advances its many applications. These awards are intended to recognize and promote academic excellence, to further the professional competence and dedication of academically accomplished graduate students, and to promote kinesiology and its related fields.