Since graduating, Psychology alumnus Ken Newbury (BA ’75, PhD ’85) has led an eclectic career, including roles as counselor, teacher, school principal, magician, and playwright.
But those many roles are united by Newbury’s passion for driving change through interactive, immersive learning—a commitment that began early. At 20, he became a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) and quickly earned acclaim for his innovative pedagogy, including a memorable project addressing problematic behavior at Michigan football games. Students consistently reported transformative experiences, and he received Rackham’s Outstanding GSI Award in 1976.
After earning his doctorate, Newbury worked as a clinical psychologist before joining a substance abuse prevention agency. There, he developed a successful mini-curriculum to teach children drug resistance skills, which led him into public education. One standout project during that time was helping establish the nation’s first hands-on drug prevention museum in Toledo, OH, where thousands of children engaged with interactive exhibits on substance abuse. For 28 years, he also directed America’s Pride of Toledo, a high-school music and drama group focused on drug prevention that once performed for Vice President Al Gore.
Newbury later pursued school leadership positions, serving as principal at the Hebrew Academy and in Ohio public elementary schools. He found the role deeply fulfilling, allowing him to educate children, parents, and fellow educators alike.
“As a principal, you think about everything from getting funding for new playgrounds to designing programs for developing early math skills,” he says. “Much of it shares a theme of early intervention and prevention, but that happens in so many ways, and not just for kids. I had parents who were experiencing abuse or other crises, and my role then goes back to being a psychologist. I also developed programs on bullying, including one called Speak No Evil that went international. It used immersive education to teach an entire school (including educators) about the effects of hurtful words.”
Now semi-retired, Newbury’s latest role is playwright. His first major work, Echoes of Vilna, is based partly on the diary of Yitzchak Rudashevski, a young Jewish boy who wrote from Lithuania’s Vilna Ghetto during the Holocaust. The play celebrates the strength and creativity of the Vilna inhabitants, who maintained a vibrant arts collective and resistance movement amidst the atrocities.
“It’s really a story about resilience,” Newbury says. “In the end, almost everyone died. But while they were living, they really lived. They fought back in the ways that they could. They fought back through their culture, through plays, through music, as well as through other means.”
True to his philosophy of immersive education, the play invites participants to take on various roles, making it an interactive, experiential production.
“The project allows people to experience these different perspectives and see the Holocaust in a completely different way,” Newbury says. “We're going to do some readings at the Holocaust Museum in Illinois and in other places. One day I hope Michigan may take it on. I would love for Michigan students to be able to read the roles as if they are the characters, to learn a bit about what it was like to live those lives.”
