Class Notes

While always a true Virginia native, Forrest Clift has utilized his time in Michigan to further both his personal life and professional career. Working on his Ed.S. in 2009 at Grand Valley State University, Forrest transferred to pursuing his doctorate in Educational Leadership at Eastern Michigan University. Currently helming work on his dissertation, Hidden Rainbow: The Search for LGBT Issues in a Teacher Education Program, Forrest anticipates completing data collection in spring 2015 to finish his Ph.D. by summer 2015.

In addition to focusing on his individual educational pursuits, Forrest’s work at GVSU has led him to working on a development team with Grand Rapids Public Schools to create the United States’ first International Baccalaureate primary years program (PYP/elementary) school focused on the incorporation of the arts in the school instructional model. Projected start date for the school is September 2016. Forrest’s professional writing work finds his second textbook chapter being published in December 2014 in the SAGE Publication, Proud Heritage: People, Issues, and Documents of the LGBT Experience.  His chapter, Virginia, examines the state’s LGBT history and laws from the pre-colonial period to modern day.

In his free time, Forrest enjoys traveling the U.S., officiating wedding ceremonies of close friends, taking long walks with his border collie (Peasley), and reading everything from magazines to biographies to trashy novels.