Education doctoral student champions building resilience for Kentucky youth

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 28, 2025) — Throughout her educational journey at the University of Kentucky, Hannah Edelen has gained valuable perspective from embracing unique roles along the way.  

The Springfield, Kentucky, native traveled more than 60,000 miles across the Commonwealth as Miss Kentucky 2022 and has served as a middle school teacher, children’s author, elected school board member and advocate. Each experience has enriched her doctoral work by helping drive the questions she seeks to answer through her research and studies in the UK College of Education Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, where she earned her Master of Education in 2022. 

“I’ve always felt that my doctoral work complements my career,” Edelen said. “From being a middle school teacher to serving as Miss Kentucky to now being a leader in advocacy and policy and a locally elected school board member, the durable skills I’ve gained have harnessed me with the ability to be dexterous and adjust to new situations or challenges quickly and effectively.” 

Most recently, Edelen merged her roles as policy scholar and advocacy director for Kentucky Youth Advocates when she wrote the opening essay, “Mitigating Adverse Childhood Experiences in Kentucky: Reflecting on a Decade of Progress and Needs for a Hopeful Future,” for the 2024 Kentucky KIDS COUNT data book. Edelen says the findings — focused on measures of child well-being in Kentucky — are both a source of hope and call to action. 

For as long as she can recall, Edelen has been fascinated with education, and the source of hope it offers for improving children’s lives.  

“Growing up in a challenging household, I found education to be my safe space that felt full of opportunity and offered a chance to alter the trajectory of my life. This vehicle by which one’s life could be altered felt liberating to me and scratched my curiosities,” she said. 

After starting her teaching career, her fascination with education evolved into a passion for using policy to create meaningful change.  

“I became quickly perplexed with all the variables at play within the schoolhouse — everything from strategies that help kids learn, to the extent to which teachers have autonomy within their own classroom, to the types of teacher advocacy organizations that exist and their effectiveness,” she said. 

As Edelen starts work on her dissertation, she hopes to explore how state-level policies impact local school board authority.  

“We’re grateful for students like Hannah, who can help us make sense of concepts we study in our classrooms through their lens as educators and policymakers,” said UK College of Education Assistant Professor Zitsi Mirakhur, Ph.D. 

The Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation doctoral program has expanded Edelen’s view of the education landscape. 

“From learning about the sociology of education and its theoretical functions with (Mirakhur), to gathering, analyzing, and using educational data with Dr. Kelly Bradley, to evaluating educational programs and their effectiveness with Dr. Shannon Sampson, to ruminating endlessly on philosophical aims and the purposes of education with Dr. Eric Weber, my program has equipped me with the skills to step forward confidently in this next chapter,” Edelen said. 

Regardless of her role or project, Edelen’s values have remained consistent. 

“I believe every child deserves access to a high-quality education, robust resources that help them succeed academically, developmentally and emotionally, and I believe every child deserves to have a champion,” she said. 

In her current role as advocacy director at Kentucky Youth Advocates, Edelen leads initiatives like Bloom Kentucky and Bounce, which focus on building resilience and addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences through impactful policy change. 

“I have the honor and privilege to serve alongside some of the most tireless, intelligent and committed colleagues at Kentucky Youth Advocates where we work to make Kentucky the best place in America to be a kid,” she said. “My future right now is here — galvanizing stakeholders, using research and data to inform and drive best policy and practice and advocating for Kentucky’s kids. Who knows what the future holds, but I am confident that I will continue being bold about creating change for all Kentuckians.”