Staff members Synthia Clark and Christine Tidwell attended the Employee and Organizational Development (EOD) Certificate Celebration on Monday, February 1st. Clark received certificates in Communication and Customer Service. Tidwell received a certificate in Customer Satisfaction.

“I love learning and I’m so thankful to be working in a department that values and supports employees who want to improve themselves.”

Clark has been employed at UT since 2013 and has worked with EPC since 2014. She serves as program secretary for six programs –  Adult Education, Applied Educational Psychology, Adult Learning, Evaluation, Statistics, and Measurement, and School Psychology. She also works in the main office, has taken over as webmaster for the departmental website, runs the EPC Facebook page, and does some photography and marketing for the department.

“I’m just glad to work for a department and college whose leaders believe in continuing education opportunities.”

Tidwell has been employed at UT since 2003 and worked with EPC since 2007. During this time she has also earned certificates in Communication and UT Leaders: Lighting the Way – Part 1 Supervisory Certification.  Tidwell serves as departmental support for three programs – Cultural Studies of Educational Foundation, Instructional Technology, and Learning Environments and Educational Studies. She also serves as the department’s textbook and timetable coordinator and provides support for the curriculum review council coordinator.

Evaluation, Statistics & Measurement

Wenshu is currently seeking her PhD in Educational Psychology and Research with a concentration in Evaluation, Statistics, and Measurement. Originally from Hengyang, Hunan, China, she received her BS in Psychology at Peking University in Beijing and her MS in Educational Psychology at Miami University in Oxford, then came to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2012. We asked her to reflect on some of her past and current experiences. Read her responses below.

Awards

• Shipley-Swann Graduate Fellowship – 2012-13
  Fellowship awarded from the Graduate School designated to recognize outstanding academic achievement.

Accomplishments

• Received CDC Evaluation Fellowship and working as an evaluation fellow at CDC
• Completing the master’s degree in statistics through Intercollegiate Graduate Statistics Program while completing the PhD in Educational Psychology and Research
• Co-author of two manuscripts that are currently under review
• Served as Association Committee Member and Chairs at regional conferences (Mid-Western Educational Research Association)
• Gave presentations at leading national evaluation (American Evaluation Association annual conference) and engineering education (American Society of Engineering Education) conferences
• Refer to Curriculum Vita for more details

Current Occupation

CDC Evaluation Fellow
Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Center of Global Health, Division of Global Health Protection, Atlanta, GA

The responsibilities are: Serve on a team of evaluators responsible for assessing progress towards implementation of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA); Work with available, adapted and new methods to assess public health capacities; Conceptualize, design, coordinate, implement and disseminate basic program evaluations in support of GHS.
• Use of both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods
• Preparation of logic models
• Identification of existing indicators and data sources, and development of new indicators and data sources
• Conduct and coordinate activities to quantify progress towards targets set for GHS implementation with Ministries of Health, other U.S. Government (USG) agencies, and other international partners present in country

Personal Interests

I love outdoor activities such as hiking and camping. I also enjoy family time that I spend the most my weekends with my family (watching movies and having dinner). In addition, I’m a musician playing Chinese fiddle (Erhu). I have been invited to perform at multiple UT activities and Knoxville local events.

Future/Vocational Goals

My short-term goal is to become a full-time employee at the CDC as a Health Scientist leading monitoring and evaluation activities or serving as a biostatistician. My ultimate career goal will be working as a tenured-track faculty member at a university. I would like to apply my evaluation and statistics experiences that I gained in my the field to teach program evaluation, research methods, and statistics to undergraduate and graduate students.

What sold you on this program/department/university?

Close mentorship and the curriculum of the program; the great opportunities to collaborate with faculty and students on diverse research projects and gain various field experiences.

What would you tell an incoming student who joins the program/department?

Talk to your mentor and advanced students when you have questions and engage in multiple field practice projects. I was focused on evaluation of STEM programs. But, I’ve engaged in several public health evaluation field practice, which helped me to get my CDC Fellowship.

What do you think has been the most rewarding/challenging about this program?

The ESM seminar. You will have opportunity to gain field experience, learn how to write your CV, editing your manuscript, etc.

What is the best tidbit/find you have about UTK/Knoxville?

This is a beautiful campus with great faculty and students. You will never regret your time spent here!

The Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling wants to congratulate the graduate certificate recipients from four of our certificate programs during the fall 2015 semester.

Kendra Arielle Berry
Graduate Certificate in Evaluation, Statistics & Measurement

Crystal Rose Diaz-Espinoza
Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research Methods in Education

Kristin Elizabeth Greene
Graduate Certificate in Grief, Loss & Trauma

Christine Kay Patti
Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching & Learning

*If you earned a graduate certificate from the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling during this time frame, yet have unintentionally been omitted from this list, please send your name and certificate program to Synthia Clark sclark41@utk.edu. We will add you to the list after receiving this information from you and confirming your certificate status.