Applauding distinguished alumni

From left: Jennifer Herring, Cacky Mellor, Jasper Sanchez, Shella Dennery and Kyair Butts. (Graphic by Ali Trepanier)

At a special ceremony during Alumni Weekend, Lesley University recognized five alumni for their superlative accomplishments and contributions in their respective fields.

The honorees were:

Kyair Butts ’14, who won the Joseph Moore Award for Dedication to the Profession.

Butts is the 2019 Teacher ofthe Year for Baltimore City Public Schools. He teaches literacy at Henderson-Hopkins Partnership School and is a teacher leader in the district creating, facilitating, and leading district professional development centered on literacy and equity.

Butts also mentors young or new-to-profession educators. He has been featured in various education blogs and literacy podcasts for his work in urban literacy curriculum especially knowledge building & fluency, specifically his deep knowledge of “Wit & Wisdom” curriculum.

Butts is in his 9th year with Baltimore City Public Schools and continues to find joy in the classroom and his community. His students are potent motivators to continue in this work by continuing to fulfill a passion driven purpose. Follow Kyair and his students on Twitter (@kyairb) and Instagram (@MrK_bcpss).

Shella Dennery ’97, who was awarded the Sally K. Lenhardt Professional Leadership Award.

Dennery, Ph.D., LICSW, is the Director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships Program (BCHNP), a school-based behavioral health program in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Dennery directs a comprehensive program in partnership with the Boston Public Schools. The program provides equitable and culturally responsive behavioral health services and supports to students and families in their educational homes.

The program also provides professional development and consultation locally and nationally to educators, school staff, behavioral health professionals and administrators focused on social and emotional wellness and behavioral health.

Dennery has spent her career working as a school social worker in the Boston Public Schools and teaching and consulting on behavioral health-related topics in community settings. She partners with the Children’s Mental Health Campaign to advocate for increased access to care and systemic change in behavioral healthcare for youth across Massachusetts.

Dennery is an adjunct faculty in social work at Boston College and Simmons University and is an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Jennifer Herring, Ph.D., ’22, who earned the Margaret A. McKenna Community Service Award.

Dr. Herring currently serves as the social justice curriculum & data analyst in Framingham, Massachusetts, Public Schools, where she supports all schools based on their academic, behavioral, attendance and school culture data. Prior to this role, she has taught in Boston, Cambridge, and Lawrence, Massachusetts, and served as a vice principal in an elementary school in Framingham.

Dr. Herring’s fluency in Haitan Creole, Spanish, and American Sign language informs her work in Framingham, particularly in the current Dual Language programs. She also serves as an adjunct professor at Lesley University’s LIFTS program (Learning Institute for Trauma Sensitivity,   upporting those suffering trauma via lens of racial equity and inclusion.

In graduate school, Herring obtained a master’s of education in Psychological Studies as well as a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership. Her research focus centers on supporting all students who have endured trauma by creating supportive school systems.

Herring is the founder of Herring Hope & Healing, which seeks to support and create spaces for collective and individual healing from trauma and oppressive systems.

Cacky Mellor, Ph.D., ’12, ’14, who received the Myrtle Pierce Aulenback Alumni Achievement Award.

Dr. Mellor is a visiting faculty member in Lesley University’s Psychology & Applied

Therapies Department and has a remote somatic private practice, Somatic Reclamation. She has spent the past 15-plus years studying the power of words on the body, mind, soul, and society.

As an undergraduate, Mellor studied Art Therapy and Holistic Psychology at Lesley University, then earned her Master of Education in art-based activism and social entrepreneurship from Lesley’s Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Depth Psychology with an emphasis in Somatic Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Mellor was awarded the Peter A. Levine Research Award in Dissertation Leadership by Somatic Experiencing International in 2022 for her dissertation “Somatic Reclamation: Exploring the Lived Experience of Words.” She has cultivated a diverse somatic toolkit to support clients on their healing journey.

Mellor is a registered somatic movement therapist and educator, Somatic Experiencing© Practitioner, and RYT-500. Additionally, she is an experienced Reiki master practitioner and has done training in energy work, embodied social justice, EFT, NLP, and somatic attachment therapy. She is also a non-denominational minister and draws from her eclectic background to meet each client’s unique needs and goals.

Jasper Sanchez ’21, who was presented with the Recent Alumni Award.

Sanchez is an independent curator, queer art historian, and public art enthusiast who graduated from the Art History & Critical Theory program at Lesley. A Venezuelan-Colombian raised in Miami.

Immersion in transnational art since their youth inspired them to focus their studies on curatorial practice with an interest in queer diaspora. Sanchez was the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy’s inaugural public art intern ambassador and later helped develop socially engaged art projects within Lesley’s Office of Community Engagement.

Sanchez has programmed with the Boston LGBTQIA+ Artist Alliance (BLAA) and curated exhibitions at Distillery Gallery, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, and Tufts University Art Galleries. In the Fall of 2022, Sanchez curated Anukriti: A Temple for Timeless Beasts at the Mills Gallery as part of the Boston Center for the Art’s 1:1 Curatorial Initiative. Their exhibitions have been reviewed in The Boston Globe and WBUR, while their writing has been featured in the Boston Art Review and the Boston Hassle.

Sanchez is currently a curatorial assistant with the public art organization Now + There, helping curate temporary, site-specific experiences aiming to make public space inBoston more caring, equitable, and welcoming for all.

You can follow Jasper on Instagram at @jasper_a_sanchez.