Miami University

The scholarly and teaching achievements of Miami University School of Education, Health and Society faculty, students and alumni receive state, national, and international recognition.  Here is a sampling of recent honors and program innovation:

 

 

• Randal Claytor (kinesiology and health) is the 2008 receipient of the Richard T. Delp Outstanding Faculty Award from Miami University’s School of Education, Health and Society (April 2008).
• A novel by Miami alum Tracie Vaughn Zimmer ('96, master of education) has been awarded the Schneider Family Book Award from the American Library Association. The book, Reaching for the Sun, uses poems to tell the story of a year in the life of a middle-school student who has cerebral palsy.
• Keith Zullig (kinesiology and health) was one of nine candidates inducted as a Research Consortium Fellow at the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) convention (April 2008).

• Jaclyn R. Saurber, a senior special education major, has been selected to present the findings of her Undergraduate Summer Scholar research project at the National Council for Exceptional Children convention in Boston in April. She’ll be participating in a roundtable discussion session normally reserved for doctoral students, said her faculty advisor, Leah Washburn-Moses (educational psychology). (February 2008).

• The Association for the Study of Higher Education presented Marcia Baxter Magolda (educational leadership) with its annual Research Achievement Award (November, 2007).
• Tom Romano (Teacher Education) was named the 2007 Effective Educator by the Miami University Alumni Association.
• Doris Bergen (Educational Psychology) is one of only a dozen Miami faculty members to be awarded the title of Distinguished Professor by Miami’s Board of Trustees since the program begin in 1981 (2007).
• Tom Poetter (Educational Leadership), director of Miami’s Partnership Office, is one of only 30 university and school district educators in the nation to be recognized for his contributions to the Institute for Educational Inquiry’s Agenda for Education in a Democracy (2007).
• Karen Montgomery (Teacher Education) was named 2007’s Outstanding Professor by Miami’s Associated Student Government. More then 50 professors were nominated for the honor.  
• Miami is only the 2nd university in the country to initiate a Partners for School Health Program with a major school district and the American Heart Association.   The collaborative effort is aimed at reducing the epidemic of children’s obesity.  Nationally, 18 percent of children are obese. In Cincinnati it’s more than double that—38 percent (2007). 
• A new Ph.D in Student Affairs in Higher Education has been approved.  The doctoral program focuses on student learning and the role of student affairs in promoting learning.  The holistic approach to undergraduate education embodied in the program blurs the traditional boundaries between the academic side of the university and student affairs (2007).
• EHS external funding increased by more than 250 percent from the 2004-05 academic year to 2005-06, from $1.75 million to $4.5 million (2007)).
• EHS faculty are piloting Miami’s ITunes U participation (2007). 
• EHS was awarded a five-year $1.5 million grant aimed at helping address the challenges of teaching students who are not native English speakers.  It will be used to help preservice teachers and other school personnel learn to more effectively accommodate English language learners in regular classroom settings.
• EHS’s innovative alternate special education licensure program (created in partnership with the Ohio Department. of Education via a $400,000 grant) can boast of a 100 percent Praxis II rate to date (Praxis tests are required for teacher licensure in Ohio).  Of the 25 teachers in the initial phase, 22 completed the program.  The second group had 27 teachers add the special education licensure to their credentials.  EHS is the first and only university in the state to offer an online alternative certification program for special educators.   The program was cited as a model program for online certification by ODE. 
• Tamara Long, a first-year school psychology graduate student, was one of only five students nationwide to be named a recipient of the highly selective $5,000 minority scholarship from the National Association of School Psychologists (2007).
• Paula Saine (Teacher Education) was awarded Miami’s “Distinguished Woman of Color” Award. She is the third faculty member from EHS to be so honored in the past five years. Other faculty award winners include Iris Johnson (Teacher Education) in 2003 and Susan Mosley-Howard (Educational Leadership and Dean of Students) in 2005 (2007). 
• Dr. G. Nathan Carnes, who earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Miami in 1980 and 1996, was named the Outstanding Science Educator of the Year (Level 1) by the Association for Science Teacher Education.  He is a faculty member at the University of South Carolina (2007).
• Tom Romano (Teacher Education), who teaches English methods and writing, won first place honors for best broadcast writing in the 2007 Associated Press competition.
• For the third time in four years, a Miami student teacher supervisor was awarded the top state honor for such professionals from the Ohio Association of Teacher Educators (OATE).  Judith A. Wyckoff received the outstanding supervisor award in honor of the guidance and mentoring she has provided to more than 65 Miami physical education and health student teachers since 2000 (2007).
• “I Can, Can You,” a children’s book by Marjorie Pitzer (instructor, Educational Pyschology) has been named a top 40 book for children with disabilities by the International Board of Books for Young People. Pitzer is also an intervention specialist at Winton Forest Elementary (2007).
• Dr. Kathy McMahon-Klosterman (Educational Psychology) was named the winner of Miami University’s most prestigious teaching honor, the E. Phillips Knox Teaching Award (2006).
• A children’s picture book database project by Dr. Valerie Ubbes (Physical Education, Health and Sport Studies) was named one of the “101 Best Web Sites for Elementary Teachers” by the International Society for Technology in Education (2006).
• Dr. Gary (Pete) Peterson (Family Studies and Social Work) was named a National Council on Family Relations Fellow in recognition of his outstanding scholarly achievements and leadership on family issues (2006).
• Kathleen (Allen) Cawrse, a 1975 Miami teacher education graduate, received an American Stars of Teaching Award from the U.S. Department of Education (2006).