Blumberg-Pajak Scholar Award Winners
About the Blumberg/Pajak Scholarship
The Arthur Blumberg/Edward Pajak Memorial Scholarship Fund, which was established in 2014, supports the attendance of doctoral students who are pursuing research in instructional supervision at the COPIS annual fall meeting. The scholarship recognizes the significant contributions of two legends in the field of Instructional Supervision, Dr. Arthur Blumberg and Dr. Edward Pajak. Dr. Blumberg was a professor of Educational Administration at Syracuse University who made significant contributions to the field, most notably his book entitled, Teachers and Supervisors: A Private Cold War. One of Dr. Blumberg’s doctoral students at Syracuse was Dr. Edward Pajak who went on to a stellar career in instructional supervision at Virginia Tech, The University of Georgia, and Johns Hopkins University. The establishment of the Arthur Blumberg/Edward Pajak Memorial Scholarship honors these two remarkable scholars who always nurtured new talent to the field.
2025 Blumberg-Pajak Scholar Award Winners
Shweta Chandrashekhar
Shweta Chandrashekhar is a special education doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison whose research examines university supervision and equitable teacher preparation for inclusive education. Her dissertation explores factors influencing supervisor praxis using Cultural Historical Activity Theory. As part of the UW-Madison Mary T. Kellner Teacher Education Center's supervisor professional development team, she has collaborated to develop supervisor professional development content that centers equity-focused practices and situationally responsive mentoring and coaching. Shweta has directly supervised and mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate teacher candidates across multiple programs, providing constructive feedback to facilitate their professional growth in both special and general education settings. Drawing on 12 years of experience as a special educator in India, she brings global perspectives to supervision practices that support marginalized and vulnerable student populations. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in inclusive strategies while modeling evidence-based practices such as Universal Design for Learning and differentiation. Her work is committed to preparing teachers who can implement high-leverage practices to create equitable learning environments for diverse learners in inclusive educational settings. She values collaboration and has published work with colleagues in journals and invited book chapters, presented at national and international conferences. Her research on teacher collaboration and university-school partnerships aims to strengthen teacher preparation programs and enhance the educational experiences of students with disabilities.
Anna Gustaveson
Anna Gustaveson is a doctoral student in the Culture, Curriculum, and Teacher Education PhD program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She studies systemic narratives in math, particularly as they relate to gender, race, ethnicity, language, and culture, as well as teachers’ beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning and student competency. Her work seeks to understand common deficit and anti-deficit narratives and practices from which teachers draw when planning and implementing math instruction, with the aim of supporting more teachers in taking up anti-deficit narratives and practices in their classrooms.
2020 Blumberg-Pajak Scholar Award Winners
Megan E. Lynch
Megan E. Lynch is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Supervision at Penn State University and works as a student teaching supervisor and a professional development associate. Megan’s research interest is in developing socially just pedagogy and political activism in preservice and in-service teachers, primarily within professional development school settings.
Dr. Taylor Barton
Dr. Taylor Barton received the 2020 Blumberg/Pajak Scholarship Award. He currently serves as principal of Lake Forest Elementary School in Georgia. Dr. Barton received his doctorate in Educational Leadership from Georgia State University, his Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Maine, and his Bachelor of Arts in English from Furman University.