Marcia Gentry as Influencer: Leader, Scholar, Colleague, Friend

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article, I describe a few personal favorite contributions of Dr. Marcia Gentry, one of the most successful graduates from our doctoral program at the University of Connecticut, as well as a dear friend and collaborator. Marcia focused her life’s work on the need to serve underserved and often-neglected populations in our field and implemented programs for these students, focusing on positive change in schools and on reservations. She also developed innovative identification and programming practices to be used in schools as well as summer programs. Marcia’s personalized boots-on-the-ground activities, research, and advocacy for numerous Native American students across the country helped develop gifts and talents in diverse groups. Her success in this area resulted in recent years in the application of the same know-how to leadership and change strategies with other diverse groups. Marcia’s life's work earned her a place among the top leaders in our field and in this special issue, we celebrate her work and life.KEYWORDS: cluster groupingculturally diverseenrichmentinnovative programmingtalent development Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsJoseph S. RenzulliJoseph S. Renzulli is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Connecticut. He has been awarded more than 50 million dollars in research grants and served as the director of The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented for over two decades. He has spent his career on research focused on the identification and development of creative/productive giftedness and the use of gifted education pedagogy to increase engagement and achievement for all children. He has worked on the development of organizational models and creative/productive approaches to differentiated learning environments that contribute to total school improvement, and he is a co-developer with Dr. Sally M. Reis of an online technology program that produces individual strength-based profiles and personalized enrichment resources for each student. His work on Assessment For Learning, which uses student generated strength-based information about interests, learning, and expression styles and executive function skills, has contributed to increased participation of underrepresented students in talent development programs. Dr. Renzulli’s books, articles, and videos have been translated into many languages, and in 2022 he was ranked Number 3 among the world’s top 30 education professionals. Email: Joseph.renzulli@uconn.edu