Lockey Lecture 2024

 

Join us in welcoming Dr. Todd Mealy to the Millersville University campus for the 34th annual Anna Funk Lockey Lecture.

DATE: Thursday, March 14, 2024

LOCATION: Biemesderfer Concert Hall, Winter Center (60 W. Cottage Avenue, Millersville, Pennsylvania 17551)

  RESERVE FREE TICKETS HERE

Dr. Mealy will deliver his talk, Pragmatism in Pedagogy: Bridging History and Practice to Educate for the Future at 7 p.m.  

In this year’s Millersville University Anna Funk Lockey Lecture, 25-year educator Dr. Todd M. Mealy will draw upon insights from his recent book, Shades of Brown: The Official Biography of Jane Elliott and the Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise, to explore the history of the complicated intersection of education and political idealism. He will discuss the important need for customizing teaching methods to meet diverse student needs. Advocating for data-driven education, Dr. Mealy will present it as a pragmatic solution to overcome the challenges of an increasingly politicized profession, ensuring educators optimize the potential of all students across urban, rural, and suburban school districts.

Please join us for what will certainly be an engaging evening. 

Individuals interested in ordering a copy of Dr. Mealy's book may do so by clicking on this link- Use the code "PASPECIAL" for free shipping.

 

Meet our speaker:

Dr. Todd M. Mealy is a 25-year educator with tenures at urban and rural school districts in Lancaster County, and has for five years worked as an adjunct professor in the History Department at Dickinson College. He is currently teaching at J.P. McCaskey High School in the School District of Lancaster, where he directs the Leon ‘Buddy’ Glover, Jr. Public Service Project. This initiative offers high school students an interdisciplinary service program designed to enrich the school, district, and city. Dr. Mealy is the founder and director of the National Institute for Customizing Education, a firm dedicated to providing research-based educational services to school districts nationwide. In this capacity, Dr. Mealy has worked as a curriculum writer for The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Mealy is the author, coauthor, or editor of thirteen books about the civil rights movement, sports culture, and educational reform. His most recent books are Shades of Brown: The Biography of Jane Elliott and the Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes Exercise and the children’s book Like a Champion: A Story About Building Confidence, coauthored with his son, Carter. Shades of Brown has been honored with the 2023 “Sunny” Book Award for best book in the education genre and is currently a contender for the Independent Book Publishers Association's education book of the year. Shades of Brown has been praised by Dr. Bernice A. King as “an insightful critique” and a “must read that resonates with the urgency of our times to overcome racial bias, prejudice, bigotry.” Emory University philosophy professor George Yancy calls the book important for upholding “critical thinking, social diversity, and the humanities.” Flatbush Pictures is currently using Shades of Brown as its key resource in the forthcoming film about the life of Jane Elliott. Dr. Mealy is also a regular contributor to Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, where his writings explore the history of culture, politics, and sports in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

From 1998-2019, Dr. Mealy coached football at high schools in Lancaster County. As a head coach, he accumulated one of the best winning percentages in Central Pennsylvania, three times voted coach of the year, and two section championships. 

Dr. Mealy holds a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, where he received the university’s highest honor for his doctoral studies in the field of American studies.