UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) has selected Penn State College of Education faculty member Ashley Patterson as the 2026-27 AACTE Holmes National Program Coordinator.
Beginning Sept. 1, Patterson will serve through June 4, 2027, supporting national programming and strategic initiatives for the Holmes Scholars Program.
“This feels special to me because I think of it as an acknowledgement that I'm putting in earnest effort to cultivate students and learners into whatever they see for themselves on the other end of the rainbow,” Patterson said. “So, having been selected for this role, I feel honored and confirmed that I responded to the professional call that was right for me.”
The Holmes Scholars Program originated from the Holmes Group — a consortium of major research universities formed in the 1980s to strengthen educator preparation and reaffirm the role of colleges of education as central to the mission of higher learning. Those universities came together in response to growing concerns that teacher preparation was undervalued within academia, seeking to demonstrate that preparing excellent educators required both scholarly rigor and strong collaboration across disciplines.
Since 1991, the Holmes Scholars Program has built a pipeline of education leaders and scholars aimed at broadening and better diversifying the pool of qualified educational professionals. The program supports master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral students through mentorship, peer support and professional development opportunities. Penn State is one of the original Holmes Scholars universities.
“We are delighted to see Ashley’s contributions to the Holmes community recognized at the national level,” said College of Education Dean Gwendolyn Lloyd. “Since taking on the coordinator role at Penn State, she has reimagined our program around principles of equity and scholar success — work that clearly resonates within the broader Holmes network. This appointment reflects not just her individual achievement, but the strength of the program she has helped build here.”
Patterson has served as program coordinator at Penn State since 2022. In that time, she has led the program’s revitalization through an equity-focused strategic plan and expanded professional development opportunities for Holmes Scholars. She also has contributed to national efforts supporting graduate students’ academic job searches and career preparation.
“I didn't have access to a program like this in my graduate studies, but some of the things we do and talk about are focused on making the unwritten rules of graduate school and academia and faculty life a little bit more transparent and knowable,” Patterson said. “What drew me to the Penn State and the national program coordinator roles was an opportunity to help demystify all that ‘fuzzy stuff’ that's part of a graduate degree. I want to help scholars understand how to make the degree do what they want it to do for them, because some of those less explicit details just don't get taught in the same way that the academic component does.”
Established in 2025, the National Holmes Program Coordinator position provides coordinator leadership in the planning, implementation and continuous improvement of national Holmes programming. Selected through a competitive application process, the national program coordinator works alongside AACTE to support initiatives including the Holmes Preconference, Washington Week, the Research & Dissertation Retreat, virtual professional development and resource development.
The rotating national coordinator position is designed to engage campus coordinators from across the Holmes network in shaping national programming while expanding leadership opportunities within the Holmes community.
Patterson said she relishes the opportunity to continue her work with the program at a time when others are seeing that opportunity taken away due to recent legislative changes in some regions.
“Some of our Holmes sites are not even allowed to exist anymore due to state laws that are being put into place,” she explained. “You don't quite know what's going to take hold, so there's no guarantee that I could have had this role next year. That certainly makes me even more excited to be in this position now.”
Patterson said she plans to take advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with and guide students who are fully invested in improving the education industry and ensure their decision to engage with the Holmes program is fulfilling.
“One of the things that I'm hopeful for is to be able to give the participants more of what they want,” she said. “Our scholars here really do appreciate what this program offers. I’m thankful to be able to work with students who are really passion driven — they're not doing this because they're seeking the [curriculum vitae] bullet point. It’s work to be a part of the program, but they really are committed to it. I'm really excited to be able to tap into that type of enthusiasm and help Holmes Scholars across the country bring some of their visions to fruition.”