Fourteen members of EPC were commended at the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences Faculty and Staff Recognition Ceremony on April 25, 2018.

To see photos from the event, please go to the “EPC at the 2018 CEHHS Faculty & Staff Recognition Ceremony” album on our EPC Facebook page.

Awards

CEHHS Board of Advisors Faculty Support Award
Awarded to recognize current/past accomplishments or future projects of one outstanding faculty member for teaching/research/service efforts in any area within CEHHS.

Gary Skolits
Program Coordinator & Associate Professor in Evaluation, Statistics & Measurement

“It truly was a special privilege to be recognized in my role as an EPC faculty member. The nomination by faculty peers alone was a special honor to me; the subsequent commendation at the college level will always remain a highlight of my faculty career.”

Helen B. Watson Outstanding Faculty Research Award
Awarded to a full-time faculty member or team within the departments of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies; Edu­cational Psychology and Counseling; Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies; or Theory and Practice in Teacher Education.

Louis Rocconi
Assistant Professor in Evaluation, Statistics & Measurement

“It is a tremendous honor to be selected for this prestigious award. I am truly humbled to receive recognition for my research and grateful to be a part of this esteemed department and college.”

Louie M. & Betty M. Phillips Faculty Support in Education
Awarded to a faculty member in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences related to the preparation of teachers involved in K-12 education. This award serves to highlight outstanding research and teaching efforts.

Melinda Gibbons
Program Coordinator & Professor in Counselor Education

“I am humbled and honored to be recognized for my research and outreach activities. I am also happy to have the opportunity for others to learn about the need for this type of engaged scholarship.”

Recognition

Casey A. Barrio Minton
Professor in Counselor Education

– Recognized under Presidents of National/International Professional Organizations for being President-Elect of Southern Association of Counselor Education & Supervision

Pamelia Brott
Program Coordinator & Associate Professor in School Counseling

– Recognized under Recipients of National/International Professional Awards for National Career Development Association Fellow

Synthia Clark
Administrative Specialist I

– Recognized under UT Support Staff Service Awards for five years of service

Stephanie Cowherd
Associate Director of Center for Literacy, Education & Employment

– Recognized under Grants & Contracts Recipients for the TN DHS-DRS, Tennessee Department of Human Services, Division of Rehabilitation Services, $797,060

Lisa Crawford
Associate Director of Center for Literacy, Education & Employment

– Recognized under Grants & Contracts Recipients for the Coordinated School Health Events, Tennessee Department of Education, $270,759
– Recognized under Grants & Contracts Recipients for the Partners in Education (PIE) Conference Support, Tennessee Department of Education, $1,308,909
– Recognized under Grants & Contracts Recipients for the TDOE Summer Trainings, Tennessee Department of Education, $621,980

Melinda M. Gibbons
Program Coordinator & Professor in Counselor Education

– Recognized under Recipients of National/International Professional Awards for the Counseling Vision & Innovation Award from the Association for Counselor Education & Supervision
– Recognized under Chancellor’s Honors Awards for Research & Creative Achievement

Craig Howard
Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology

– Recognized under Recipients of National/International Professional Awards for the Distance Learning Best Practice Award from the Association for Educational Communications & Technology Division

Robert Kronick
Professor in Counselor Education & Director of University-Assisted Community Schools

– Recognized under Authors/Editors of Books & Assessments for Community Engagement: Principles, Strategies, and Practices
– Recognized under Authors/Editors of Books & Assessments for Wicked Problems and the Community School Solution
– Recognized under Recipients of National/International Professional Awards for Counselor Education of the Year from American Mental Health Counseling Association

R. Steve McCallum
Professor for School Psychology

– Recognized under Editors/Co-Editors of Peer Reviewed Publications for being Co-Founder & Consulting Editor of Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

Gary Skolits
Program Coordinator & Associate Professor of Evaluation, Statistics & Measurement

– Recognized under Editors/Co-Editors of Peer Reviewed Publications for being Co-Editor of The Qualitative Review

Qi Sun
Program Coordinator & Associate Professor in Adult Learning

– Recognized under Editors/Co-Editors of Peer Reviewed Publications for being Co-Editor of Adult Education Quarterly
– Recognized under Recipients of National/International Professional Awards for the Outstanding Service Award by The American Association of Adult and Continuing Education

Duren Thompson
Instructional Designer & Program Coordinator

– Recognized under UT Support Staff Service Awards for twenty years of service

Lisa Yamagata-Lynch
Program Coordinator & Professor in Instructional Technology/Learning Environments & Educational Studies

– Recognized under Recipients of National/International Professional Awards for the Distance Learning Best Practice Award from the Association for Educational Communications & Technology Division

Associate professor, Merilee McCurdy, and professor, Lisa Yamagata-Lynch began their new roles as associate department heads on July 1, 2017. We asked them some questions about their upcoming roles.

How long have you been with EPC?
I began my academic career at the University of Nebraska in 2001. In 2014, I began at UT and in the EPC department. I also coordinate the School Psychology doctoral program.

How do you feel about being chosen as one of the new associate department heads?
I really am honored to serve as an associate department head. It is a big responsibility and one that I take seriously. Our job is to make everyone else’s job easier – including the department head – and to help our department grow in productivity and national reputation. I look forward to starting this new academic year!

What are you primary functions within this role?
In many ways, we are still trying to make these decisions. Lisa will serve as the director of graduate studies for our department, which is a huge role. I will be the point person for the CRC (curriculum review committee) for the department. I will present all departmental curriculum changes to the CEHHS CRC for approval. I also will chair the department’s award committee. Our goal is to make sure we have faculty, student, and staff nominations for all eligible college and university awards. We have future plans to work with all faculty to edit and update the department bylaws and carry out the goals of the EPC strategic plan. It is definitely going to be a team approach to getting things accomplished!

What are you most looking forward to?
I look forward to getting more familiar with the entire department. Often, faculty tend to work in our own “silos” or program areas. We know our program and students very well; however, we may not know the department as well. An interesting aspect of this position is learning the strengths and goals of all programs and being able to advocate for and support those programs. I know this first year will be very challenging but I am excited by the opportunity.

How long have you been with EPC?
I have been with UT since August 2011 so 6 years, when I came in as an associate professor in EPC.

How do you feel about being chosen as one of the new associate department heads?
It was an honor to be selected as an associate head. I like to be able to work in a community oriented way, so taking on a leadership position will allow me to do that in a way that being a faculty may not. I am looking forward to working for students, staff, and faculty.

What are your primary functions within this role?
I see my primary job to assist Jeff, our department head, lead our department while advocating for our students, staff, and faculty. I hope that I can contribute to the growth and development of our department in the coming years. I will also be the the Director of Graduate Studies so I am looking forward to working closely with our students.

What are you most looking forward to? Or, what are your top priorities for this position?
I am looking forward to getting to know our students, staff, and faculty in new ways that I have not had an opportunity in the past, and supporting open communication between all of them and the department leadership team.

“I am looking forward to this opportunity and hope to serve the department well.”

Associate professor, Lisa Yamagata-Lynch, was selected as one of two Office of Information Technology (OIT) Faculty Fellows for the 2016-17 academic year. Yamagata-Lynch came to UT Knoxville and joined the Educational Psychology and Counseling (EPC) Department in 2011. We asked her about her experiences so far, and her plans for the future. Read her responses below.

Why did you want to become an OIT Faculty Fellow?
I found out about the OIT Faculty Fellow opportunity couple of years ago, when another faculty who I met during my job interview here became a fellow. He encouraged that I apply, but it was not the right time for me then with my tenure and promotion timeline. I waited a few years, applied for the fellowship for the 2016 to 2017 academic year, and was offered the position.

What are some things you have done in this position?
The goals I set for myself in my fellowship application included the following areas of potential contributions by providing:

• faculty and staff workshops for designing and developing asynchronous and synchronous courses and programs,
• consultation services for faculty and administrators interested in designing/redesigning online courses and programs,
• consultation services for addressing accreditation issues with online programs, and
• consultation services for addressing assessments for multi-section online courses.

As UT is in a transition between Blackboard and Canvas for our learning management system, most of my efforts have been organizing materials for faculty to use Canvas, and consultation time with faculty about Canvas. I have also been involved in organizing the ITCoP (IT Community of Practice) brown bag series, where we often have a panel of experts/guests share examples of their work and engage in audience questions and answers.

Additionally, I had the opportunity to be part of a search committee for a full time instructional designer for OIT. It was great to be part of this team and meet great candidates for the position. I look forward to working with the person who was hired.

What else are you planning on accomplishing?
I hope to continue helping both OIT staff and faculty to make the transition between Blackboard and Canvas.

What have you most enjoyed about this experience?
I have enjoyed being able to have a space in OIT, and get to know the staff a lot better than I would be able to otherwise. We truly have dedicated professionals at OIT who are there to help us when we are in need. At times, I think that faculty may not know what exactly they need help with, but people at OIT are happy to work with us in any way that they can.

“As my term is getting closer to an end it feels like there is always more that I could have done. Moving an entire organization from one learning management system to another is hard work in all stakeholders and end users. I hope to be able to help in any other way possible in the future.”

Erin Garty, PhD student in Learning Environments and Educational Studies, was given an Outstanding Graduate Student Award for Graduate Research and Service at the Second Annual Kickoff Breakfast for Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week.

“This award was unexpected but much appreciated, and I would like to thank Lisa Yamagata-Lynch and Kelly Ellenburg for giving me the opportunity to work with them on a Smart Communities Initiative service learning project.” – Garty

Garty was nominated by associate professor, Lisa Yamagata-Lynch, who highlighted her efforts with the Smart Communities Initiative (SCI). Garty and classmates worked to determine how to ethically obtain electronic and non-electronic citizen input for the city of Cleveland to use for planning purposes. Garty compiled individual team reports from peers and then spent many hours after the course was over to prepare and design the report for publication. For more information about this experience, please refer to the story “SCI Ethical Needs Report Published.”

The Ethical Needs for Collecting Citizen Input for Future Planning in Cleveland, TN report has been published.

In the summer of 2014, nine students enrolled in Lisa Yamagata-Lynch’s Professional Ethics in Instructional Technology course joined the inaugural Smart Communities Initiative (SCI). The students had diverse backgrounds and represented the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling. During the semester, they worked in small groups, had classroom discussions, and collaborated with the Cleveland city planners to conduct an ethical needs analysis for collecting citizen input.

In April of 2015, Yamagata-Lynch, associate professor, and Erin Garty, master’s student presented the findings from the course were presented at the SCI End of Year Showcase. Yamagata-Lynch and Garty explained that the fundamental ethical concerns included equitable access, anonymity and online community behaviors, ownership and copyright, and policy-related issues such as privacy and security. The report holds many recommendations, resources, and options all tailored to the needs of Cleveland. Garty was charged with creating the actual report, and said her greatest challenge was pulling together contributions from multiple voices and turning it into a cohesive report with a single voice.

“Writing this report provided me the experience of working with multiple stakeholders that added to what I believe I gained the most – practical real-world experience.” – Erin Garty

For additional information please see previous post – Instructional Technology partners with the City of Cleveland.