Wheaton News

Two will be honored at Reunion for their accomplishments, service

Two distinguished alums will be recognized by the Alumni Board of Directors on Saturday, May 17, 2025 during Reunion.

Martha Stone ’70 and Derron Wallace ’07 will each receive an Alumni Achievement Award, which pays tribute to graduates who have made a significant contribution to society.

In 1997, Martha Stone founded the Center for Children’s Advocacy (CCA), where she serves as special counsel. After starting CCA with $2,000, she grew it to a vibrant non-profit with 13 attorneys, providing legal representation and advocacy for the most vulnerable at-risk children in Connecticut. CCA addresses issues of abuse and neglect, racial justice, educational inequities, youth homelessness, and access to medical and mental health care.

Each year, CCA provides legal consultation or representation to more than 900 individual children while engaging in training and systemic advocacy that benefits thousands of poor children throughout Connecticut.

“It is quite remarkable what she created and the organization continues to thrive,” Anne Adler ’70 noted in her nomination. “Martha’s career has been a selfless endeavor to benefit the children of Connecticut. Her good works started with political efforts inspired by Professor Jay Goodman.”

Stone earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Wheaton and a JD and LLM from Georgetown University Law Center. She later served as legal director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union and was associate director of Children’s Rights, Inc., a national organization that litigates foster care nationwide.

Named one of the “50 Most Influential” by Hartford Magazine, Stone has received numerous awards for distinguished service and was an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law for 26 years.

Stone currently serves as lead counsel for the major school desegregation case in Connecticut, which has led to the creation of 41 magnet schools and provided equal educational opportunity to thousands of the state’s children.

Derron Wallace is a sociologist, organizer, writer and educational researcher. The Jacob S. Potofsky Chair in Sociology and associate professor of sociology and education at Brandeis University, Wallace is the Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. His research and organizing focuses on ameliorating structural and cultural inequalities in urban schools and neighborhoods as experienced by Black youth.

Wallace’s research has been published in leading sociology and education journals, and he has garnered support from several foundations, including the US-UK Fulbright Commission, the National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation.

Widely recognized for scholarship on Black youth nationally and internationally, Wallace has received numerous awards, including the 2023 Doris Entwisle Early Career Award from the Sociology of Education section on the American Sociological Association and the 2023 Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association for research on the social context of education.

He has earned a pair of awards for excellence in teaching and research from Brandeis, he co-edited two books and published The Culture Trap: Ethnic Expectations and Unequal Schooling for Black Youth with Oxford University Press in 2023, in which he explores cultural explanations of Black students’ achievement and behavior in London and New York City schools. The book has received several awards, including the 2024 Pierre Bourdieu Award for Best Book in Sociology of Education and the 2024 Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award for Anti-Racist Scholarship from the American Sociological Association.

In her nomination, Tianna Lall-Emard ’14 shared, “Derron truly represents the power of Wheaton alums. His work is more impactful now than ever given the state of our country’s education system, the racial reckoning that has taken place, and the overturn of affirmative action. I could not think of a more deserving candidate for this award.”

Wallace came to Wheaton as a Posse Scholar. He double majored in sociology and in African, African American, Diaspora Studies, graduating summa cum laude. As a student he was inducted to Phi Beta Kappa and received a Projects for Peace grant, a Watson Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship and a Marshall Scholarship.

He holds a master’s in international education and a Ph.D. in sociology of education from the University of Cambridge where he was a Gates Cambridge scholar. Wallace currently serves as a board member of the National Education Association Foundation.