AACTE 2026

What’s new at AACTE 2026

In 2026, we’re turning up the momentum with the theme: “CONNECTED to Lead: Innovation and Impact.” This year’s event celebrates the collective power of visionaries, disruptors, and dedicated educators driving real, lasting change in how we prepare the next generation of teachers and learners.

Join us in the ‘Big Easy’

Get ready to be inspired in New Orleans, a city known for its rich history, cultural vibrancy, and spirit of resilience — an ideal setting for AACTE 2026. From lively jazz to world-class cuisine, New Orleans offers energy, diversity, and a deep sense of community.

Opening Keynote

Beyond the Horizon
Friday, February 21
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D.

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, is the new AACTE president and CEO, who joins the Association after serving as a distinguished professor and dean of the School of Education at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C., for over eight years. During her tenure at AU, Holcomb-McCoy implemented various programs that heightened the visibility of the school within the University and on a national stage. Notably, at the start of her tenure at AU, the School of Education was housed within the College of Arts and Sciences, serving approximately 250 students. Under her direction, the unit became a stand-alone school in 2019 and now supports more than 1,500 students.

Holcomb-McCoy’s leadership at AU is far-reaching, having led initiatives in teacher preparation and education, partnering with districts/organizations like District of Columbia Public Schools, Teach for America, Friendship Charter Schools, City Year, Maya Angelou Schools, and City Teaching Alliance to engage over 300 students and enhance urban education in Dallas, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. She introduced the online Ed.D. program and co-created the Advancing Early Education Collaborative and the Child Development Associate (CDA) certification — which addresses workforce shortages and inequities. This program provides pathways for aspiring early childhood educators at AU and Trinity Washington University. Holcomb-McCoy also increased faculty diversity, with nearly 50% of the education faculty identifying as people of color.

Before leading the School of Education at AU, Holcomb-McCoy served as vice provost for Faculty Affairs campus-wide and vice dean of Academic Affairs in the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University, where she launched the Johns Hopkins School Counseling Fellows Program and the Faculty Diversity Initiative. Holcomb-McCoy also served as an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services at the University of Maryland College Park and as director of the School Counseling Program at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

Holcomb-McCoy’s impact reaches beyond AU through founding the Teacher Pipeline Project, which has generated more than $1 million in scholarships for D.C. school students aspiring to teach. This groundbreaking initiative, the first of its kind for D.C. students and created in partnership with district education officials, incorporates the Dual Enrollment and Teaching Fellows programs, dedicated to developing a diverse, homegrown teaching workforce for the District.

A former public school educator, Holcomb-McCoy received her bachelor’s in early childhood education and master’s in school counseling degrees from the University of Virginia and earned a doctorate in counseling and educational development from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She began her career as a kindergarten teacher, then went on to work as a school counselor and family therapist before transitioning to work in higher education. She is a 2023 ASCEND Aspen Institute Fellow, an American Counseling Association (ACA) Fellow, and she has been a prominent voice in research and advocacy for preparing the educator workforce, from teachers to school counselors and principals.

Closing Keynote

How the Word is Passed
Sunday, February 23
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.

Clint Smith, Ph.D.

Clint Smith is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2021. He is also the author of two books of poetry, the New York Times bestselling collection Above Ground as well as Counting Descent. Both poetry collections were winners of the Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and both were finalists for NAACP Image Awards. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Clint has received fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His essays, poems, and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the Harvard Educational Review, and elsewhere. He is a former National Poetry Slam champion and a recipient of the Jerome J. Shestack Prize from the American Poetry Review.

Previously, Clint taught high school English in Prince George’s County, Maryland where he was named the Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council. He is the host of the YouTube series Crash Course Black American History.

Clint received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University. Born and raised in New Orleans, he currently lives in Maryland with his wife and their two children.