Prof. Humbach endows faculty chair
Nancy Humbach
5/16/08
Nancy Humbach may have retired as a professor of teacher education at Miami, but she has not retired from her discipline. She continues to believe that to be a citizen of the world, one must speak the world’s languages.
Miami’s Campaign for Love and Honor received a major boost when Humbach made the second largest gift in the history of the School of Education, Health and Society (EHS) designed to promote the teaching of foreign language.
The Nancy Humbach Chair in Foreign Language Education will ensure that Miami’s tradition of excellence in foreign language education grows even stronger, said Carine Feyten, EHS dean.
"There are few things more important to understanding the six billion or so people outside of the United States than being able to talk with them in their own language," said Provost Jeffrey Herbst.
“My 43 years in the classroom at all levels was dedicated to the teaching of cultural understanding through language. I can think of no better way to continue my work than to facilitate the preparation of future teachers of languages and cultures through research and excellence of the program I worked to build,” said Humbach.
Humbach, who taught at Miami from 1993-2006, is nationally known in the foreign language education field. She is the author or co-author of about 17 books that have been used to teach Spanish to literally millions of students.
Her many honors include the Nelson Brooks Award for the Teaching of Culture and the Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education (K-12) She also has been president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and was appointed a Fulbright-Hayes Scholar to the Instituto Caro y Cuervo, Bogotá, Colombia.
One of her activities in retirement has been to learn German, and Humbach has been sitting in on classes at Miami Hamilton.
“All of here are so grateful that Nancy has chosen to change the course of language education at Miami by creating an endowed chair,” said Feyten. “Gracias, Nancy.”
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