Greetings!
My name is Jocelyn Stevens, and I am the chair of the Education Department at Truman, as well as the coordinator for the music education program. In this newsletter you’ll find information about many of the exciting things that have been happening in Truman’s Education Department, including profiles of our new faculty members, the accomplishments of some impressive MAE graduates, and an exciting program for our MAE students. The tradition of excellence in teacher preparation remains strong here at Truman, and I hope you enjoy reading about a few of the reasons why!
We have expanded our MAE Advisory Board to include Dr. Howard Fields, Superintendent of the Ferguson-Florrisant School District, and Collin Davit, Director of AI and Blended Learning for the Lindbergh School District. We are continuing to seek out innovative educational leaders from across the state to ensure that our program meets the needs to students and teachers and is informed by current experiences in the field, so I welcome any suggestions of individuals we should invite to join our Advisory Board.
The faculty and staff in our department are some of the most hard-working and genuinely caring individuals I have had the pleasure to work with. We have added two wonderful new full time faculty members to our team this year, Melissa Chapman and Madeline Good (read more about them here), and our veteran faculty continue to do fantastic work. Here are a few highlights:
- Holly Kincaid was 1 out of 10 gifted education professors from across the country selected by the National Association of Gifted Children to participate in a distinguished education delegation in Muscat, Oman where she will be speaking on the strengths and talents of twice-exceptional children.
- Julene Ensign was recognized by MOSHAPE (Missouri Society of Health and Physical Educators) as the Scholar of the Year for her excellence in research and publication. Julene had manuscript of a longitudinal study of beginning physical educators published in October in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.
- Stacy Davis’s chapter in the book Approaches to Teaching the Works of Benito Pérez Galdós will be published by the Modern Language Association in the spring.
- Chris Maglio was reappointed by the governor to the Child Abuse and Neglect Review Board and has been working at the Greenwood Interprofessional Autism Center to provide autism screenings.
- Enrique Pareja, Marty Strange, and Jill Arnold have all been or continue to serve on various certification committees for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
I am regularly impressed by my colleagues for the work they do in their scholarly and service endeavors but, just like each of you, it’s the teaching in the classroom each day, the relationships they form with their students, and the way they quietly work to ensure that their students get the best educational experiences possible that is the most important work. Rest assured that the tradition of excellent teacher preparation continues to remain strong at Truman. So share that Bulldog spirit and keep in touch!