Education graduate earns University of Kansas PhD and develops learning tool

Maggie Mosher combines special education expertise with educational technology.

Franciscan education graduate Dr. Maggie Mosher ’05 has worked in special education and taught students from preschool through the university level in Catholic, public, and charter-school settings. She later earned a PhD in special education, focusing on instructional design, technology, and innovation, at the University of Kansas. Her professional work now includes helping educators understand the potential benefits and safeguards of artificial intelligence, with the goal of supporting rather than replacing the student-teacher relationship. At the University of Kansas, she and colleagues also developed VOISS, a virtual-reality tool that gives learners opportunities to practice social skills in simulated situations. In a Winter 2026 Franciscan Magazine profile, Mosher specifically credited Franciscan professors Dianne Keenan, Jane Stoner, John York, and Mary Katherine McVey with helping form her approach to teaching.