Donald Mesibov
Donald Mesibov (COM’63) of Potsdam, N.Y., credits BU for enabling his pursuit of diverse careers. After graduating, he became editor of the Assabet Valley Beacon, where he started its annual Beacon Santa campaign to raise funds for toys for families in need at Christmas. He then moved to northern New York, where he taught English and worked for the state teachers’ union. After retiring from the union in 1994, Donald founded the Institute for Learning Centered Education, which sponsors workshops and conferences on student-centered learning. In 2022, he published Helping Students Take Control of Their Own Learning: 279 Learner-Centered, Social-Emotional Strategies for Teachers (Routledge), his fourth book on constructivistbased teaching practices. That was followed by Mesibov, Schopler, and TEACCH: Changing the World for Parents, and People with Autism (Don Mesibov, 2022), which documents his brother Gary’s illustrious career as an autism-informed educator and advocate. Donald continues to conduct workshops and write. He is producing an audiobook that will focus on a 1962 interview he conducted with Jackie Robinson while on the WBUR sports staff. According to his wife, Susan, “Don is a failure at retirement.” Email him at Demesibov@gmail.com.
From the Summer 2023 issue.