Festschrift for Lynn Fuchs
Isn't this a wonderful remembrance of a wonderful peron's contributions?
Colleagues, friends, and family members of Lynn S. Fuchs gathered at Vanderbilt University on 16 and 17 April 2026 to remember the contributions of the late scholar who was a powerful advocate for children with disabilities and their families and educators. A coterie of scholars presented remembrances of Professor Fuchs, who passed away in May 2025; those remembrances will become a festschrift commemorating her stellar contributions to special education and psychology.
The gathering felt like a mixture of a research conference, a memorial, and a reunion. There was lots of laughter mixed in with the tears—but mostly, overwhelming appreciation and gratitude for how Lynn changed the lives of so many people, directly and indirectly, and her extraordinary accomplishments in the fields of special education (and education, ed psych, etc.). When Sharon Vaughn and Paul Yoder presented the sheer numbers of published works, citations, and impact indices, there were audible reactions from the crowd.
"The tribute was wonderful,” Doug Fuchs wrote in a note to Special Education Today. He said, “Sad, but gratifying that so many took time from their busy lives to participate. The presentations were smart, substantive, and entertaining; each in their own way, making clear Lynn's profound influence. My heartfelt thanks to the presenters, organizers, and everyone else."
Peabody College Dean Camilla Benbow and Professor Emeritus Douglas Fuchs opened the session and introduced the speakers—eminent contributors to the field of special education—over the two days of the event. The full agenda, shown here, includes the names of presenters and the titles of their talks.
The festschrift was organized by Pamela Seethaler, Marcia Barnes, Joe Wehby, and Kim Paulsen. They received help from Janet Walker Roberts and Brian Smokler. The events were held in the Rotunda of Wyatt Hall of Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.
There are plans to produce a special issue of the Journal of Learning Disabilities featuring papers by the speakers shown on the agenda. When those articles are published, we will post a note here on Special Education Today linking to them.
Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this post, we misspelled Mr. Brian Smokler’s name. It is corrected here. I apologize.—JohnL
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