Penn GSE announces new endowed special education faculty chair following alumni donation

Penn Graduate School of Education Dean Katharine Strunk recently announced a newly endowed faculty chair in the field of special education.

The new position — established through a donation from Adam Usdan and 1983 College graduate Andrea Pollack — will work “across disciplines to address urgent challenges in education and improve outcomes for students with disabilities.” The endowment will also support specific research, teaching, and leadership into special education with the goal of increasing diversity in education practices.

GSE plans to appoint the inaugural chair in 2026.

Pollack, who also serves on the GSE’s Board of Advisors, founded Autism Parent Solution — an organization that advocates for the parents of autistic children — after her son was been diagnosed with autism. Her experience motivated her to return to Penn to obtain her Masters in Education from GSE in 2017 to provide support to parents in similar positions.

“I knew that there were so many parents struggling, and I knew that I had a system that could help families thrive,” Pollack wrote on her website. “I returned to school … so that I could most effectively share my knowledge to help parents get swift results without years of trial and error.”

Pollack and Usdan also supported the construction of the GSE building and are the namesakes of building’s “Andrea Pollack and Adam Usdan Overlook.”

“We are deeply grateful for the Usdan family’s vision and generosity, which will have a lasting impact on our students, our research, and the communities we serve,” Strunk said.

In October, the GSE announced that it received a $1 million donation from Google to expand its program promoting the use of artificial intelligence in education. The donation will allow Penn GSE to expand the program to five school districts across Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.