The University of South Florida (USF) College of Education is proud to announce the recipients of the College’s 2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards.
Each year, the College of Education presents our Distinguished Alumni Awards to celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of our graduates. Recipients are selected by a committee of College of Education faculty, staff, and administrators, as well as representatives from the Education Alumni Society leadership team, based on nominations submitted by the USF community.
Three recipients will be recognized during the College of Education’s Distinguished Alumni Awards program on Wednesday, May 1 at 5:00 p.m. The program will take place in TECO Hall at the USF College of Education Tampa campus.
DEAN’S LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT ALUMNI AWARD
Charles Vilardi, M.Ed.
- B.S. ’93 Elementary Education
- M.Ed. ‘97 Educational Leadership
Charles (Chuck) Vilardi has been an administrator in Lee County for 24 years and he is beginning his 31st year with the Lee County School District. He was voted “Principal of the Year” by the Teachers Association of Lee County in 2023 and by the Lee County School Counselors Association in 2009. He was formerly the Principal at The Sanibel School for four years. He led the Sanibel School to be a Florida School of Excellence. He also started the highly recognized STEM program at The Sanibel School. He also served as a Principal Lead for four years. Previously he served as the Principal of Skyline Elementary for nine years and led Skyline to become a National Model School of Excellence. Prior to that he served as Principal of Pine Island Elementary for four years and worked as the Assistant Principal at North Fort Myers Academy of the Arts K-8 School. In 2018 Mr. Vilardi was nominated by the Lee County School district and was accepted into the Dr. Brian Dassler Leadership Academy. Mr. Vilardi was named “Teacher of the Year” in 1993 and was also named a “Teacher of Distinction” and “Outstanding Young Man of America” in 1998. He is married to his beautiful wife Leslie who is a teacher at Caloosa Elementary School. He is the proud father of two children, Carly and Nicholas. In his spare time he likes to go boating and travel.
SPIRIT OF PARTNERSHIP ALUMNI AWARD
Keri Fogle, Ph.D.
- M.A. ‘08 Exceptional Student Education
- Ph.D. ’14 Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Keri Fogle is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Dr. Fogle served as a special educator in Tampa Bay area elementary and middle schools for 10 years before joining UWF in 2015. Previously a television news producer and journalist, she switched careers after her second of three children struggled academically with a learning disability and returned to school where she earned her master’s degree and doctorate in special education from the University of South Florida. Her dissertation, based on personal experiences related to her son, focused on educators who advocated for the rights of their own children with disabilities inside the school districts where they worked. Dr. Fogle is also the Director and Principal Investigator for Florida’s Para-to-Teacher Support Program. The state-funded grant program provides financial assistance for paraprofessionals working with students with disabilities so they may earn degrees and teach in special education. Dr. Fogle serves as an advocate within the field, hoping to improve K-12 classroom experiences for students with disabilities by maintaining a research agenda focused on special education pre-service teacher preparation, para-to-teacher pathways, and parent-school relationships in special education. She is a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan, an avid long-distance cyclist, and enjoys many outdoor adventures.
YOUNG EDUCATOR ALUMNI AWARD
Yan Wang, Ph.D.
- PH.D. ’18 Curriculum and Instruction
Yan Wang, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her research program focuses on the development and application of statistical modeling to analyzing large-scale educational, psychological, and health data. She obtained her Ph.D degree from the Educational Measurement and Research Program, University of South Florida in 2018. She has published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals related to statistics and their applications. She currently serves as an Associate Editor of Behavior Research Methods. Her research has been funded by federal agencies (e.g., National Institutes of Health, Health Resources and Services Administration) and the Spencer Foundation.
We congratulate this year’s winners for their notable achievements in education, innovation, and research. We are proud to call them alumni of the USF College of Education. Learn more about the USF COEDU Alumni Society.