Elise Blankenship, Ed.D.

In 2023, Elise Blankenship, Ed.D., a retired associate professor in the VCU School of Education, pledged a $1.75 million estate gift to provide scholarships for full-time upper-level and graduate students in the school.

Blankenship’s pledge will be added to the Jean E. Lokerson and M. Elise Blankenship Endowed Scholarship in Education, which Blankenship created in 2018 in honor of her late friend and colleague Jean Lokerson, Ph.D., professor emerita. Blankenship and Lokerson both came to VCU in 1974 to help build the School of Education’s new graduate program in learning disabilities. They taught at the school for more than 22 years, and both remained active at VCU until Lokerson’s death in 2016.

During their time at VCU, they were known as pioneers in educating teachers and parents about dimensions of learning disabilities. They had co-developed learning disabilities simulation modules in the early 1970s, which led to a better understanding of cognitive function and dysfunction in child learning. They traveled nationally and internationally to teach educators about learning disabilities.

Funding student scholarships helps Blankenship express her gratitude for the support she received and to continue the impact she and Lokerson have had on the field of education.

“I cannot express enough how very much I enjoyed my tenure at the VCU School of Education, and the same joy was expressed by Jean so many times,” Blankenship says. “We truly appreciated the support of the administration and our dedicated, competent colleagues in the school. Best of all was the joy of working with our students in the learning disabilities program. They were enthusiastic, energetic and committed to their education.”