Two alumni inducted, 2026 Doctorate of Education Hall of Fame

The Department of Counseling, Educational Leadership, and Higher Education (CEH) hosted their second annual Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, July 21, honoring two distinguished alumni. Mit Foley, Ed.D., and Joe Lubig, Ed.D., were recognized for demonstrating exceptional leadership, research, and impact in the field of education. First introduced in 2024 at the 25^th Anniversary celebration for the Doctorate in Education program, the Hall of Fame Award is co-sponsored by the CEH faculty and the Doctor of Education Alumni Board. 

Dr. Mit Foley was selected as the hall of Fame recipient for K-12 impact. Earning his Doctorate in Educational Leadership from CMU in 2020, Foley now serves as the Assistant Superintendent for the Saginaw Public School District where he oversees all secondary schools, career and technical education, athletics, and federal grant programs. 

Foley’s path as an educator first started as a teacher in Saginaw. He later became the principal for Thompson Middle School, where he moved the school from the bottom 5% to a fully authorized International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years School, ultimately removing them from the Michigan School Priority List—an accomplishment that Dr. Beth Feiten, a graduate of the Ed.D. program and current Chair of the Alumni Board, was personally impressed with.

Foley also served as the principal of Arthur High School, and, with a focus on shifting school culture, moved the high school up to a 94% graduation rate and grew the scholarship dollars from $800k to $20 million, among other accomplishments.

In his current role as Assistant Superintendent, Foley has designed academic programming with 25 AP classes, expanding the dual enrollment, computer and STEM labs, and programs such as mechatronics, robotics, and Chinese. He’s also redesigned the middle school curriculum to reflect a culturally relevant and rigorous model, including tutoring and afterschool programing with a focus on acceleration over remediation.

Dr. Joe Lubig was selected as the Higher Education Hall of Fame recipient. Before announcing his retirement this past year, Lubig most recently served as the Associate Dean and Director for the School of Education, Leadership and Public Service at Northern Michigan University.

Feiten describes Lubig as “curious,” stating his curiosity drives his leadership, research, and his desire to impact communities.

Lubig is a founding member of the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), responsible for establishing accreditation standards and procedures for quality assurance, and also serves as the first chair of the AAQEP Accreditation Commission guiding program decisions for over 200 institutions to date.

Throughout his 38-year career, Lubig has worked with grant and summer employment programs to engage at-risk youth with supported high school completion and employment; He’s taught at Marquette Area Public Schools and has held multiple positions at NMU. Lubig has also conducted local, state, national and international presentations revolving around education, and has been a recipient of multiple grants to improve teacher pipelines, mentoring, teaching practices, and equitable access to programs licensure pathways.

hen asked by Northern Today about his best experience as a leader, Lubig said, “the daily opportunity to learn from the students, staff, faculty and community partners who are focused on the same goals and outcomes that improve the lives of the pre-K through grade 12 students, and the communities they will lead in the future.”

Congratulations to Dr. Foley and Dr. Lubig on this achievement!