SOE News Briefs: Spring 2018
50 Years of Service
Darlene Kyser was among only three Baylor employees honored this spring for 50 years of service to the University. She remembers well her first day of employment at Baylor, back in 1967. She went home and told her husband that she didn’t think the new job was going to work out. “Why don’t you give it a couple days?” he responded. That “couple days” turned into a couple quarter-centuries in Baylor’s School of Education.
Kyser started out working with student teachers and teacher certification. She also assisted Dr. M. L. Goetting, (dean from 1957-1971), with student advising and registration — Goetting advised students in the hallway of Pat Neff as Kyser pulled their academic files. In 1974, Kyser was promoted to assistant to the dean, and her SOE tenure eventually spanned seven deans.
Kyser retired last October, and while she witnessed a lot of change in 50 years on campus, she says one thing hasn’t changed: “Although each generation is a little different, Baylor students are still the top-quality students that they have always been.”
Faculty Rising Stars
Two Baylor SOE faculty members were named by Baylor to the “Rising Star” program of the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.
Dr. Stephanie Gerow, assistant professor in Educational Psychology, and Dr. Kevin Magill, assistant professor in Curriculum & Instruction, are participating in the program that gives focused support to faculty for developing their research agendas and finding funding. Rising Star faculty members participate in special workshops about grant funding and scholarly research.
Through the program, Gerow and Magill traveled to Washington, D.C., with Dr. Truell Hyde, vice provost for research, to meet with agency officials who oversee government research funding.
Gerow, who teaches in the Special Education and Applied Behavior Analysis programs at Baylor, conducts research in developing, evaluating and disseminating interventions for children with developmental disabilities. Her research interests include applied behavior analysis, challenging behavior interventions, and teaching natural change agents — such as parents and teachers — to implement interventions.
Magill’s research examines the relationship between ontology, ideology and pedagogy among pre- and in-service teachers. An expert in social studies education, he explores how these factors relate to the teaching of civics and social studies and how they connect to community knowledge.
Staff Awards
Lisa Edwards, office manager in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, received the Outstanding Staff Member Award from Baylor University. A Baylor employee for 19 years — 18 of them in C&I — Edwards coordinates administrative duties for the department, including faculty travel, graduate programs, study-abroad programs, student worker supervision, personnel forms, assisting the chair, and general organization.
Her nominators noted Edwards’ attitude of servant leadership. “She is often very quiet, and one might not always know what she does behind the scenes, but be assured she is dynamic, considerate, organized, and a strong leader,” one faculty member wrote.
Teaching Award for Grad Student
Corina Kaul, MA ’14, a PhD candidate in educational psychology, was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award from the Baylor Graduate School. Every semester, the Baylor Graduate School selects three graduate students for this award to celebrate their achievement in classroom instruction.
Kaul received the award for teaching The Developing Child in spring 2017. It was her third semester teaching the course that discusses development and “emerging adulthood.”
“I enjoy teaching this class so much because it gives students an opportunity to connect material we cover in class to experiences they have in their own lives,” Kaul said.
The class is a collaboration with two Baylor School of Education faculty members, Dr. Janet Bagby and Dr. Tamara Hodges, and PhD student Robin Wilson.
Kaul graduated from the University of Oregon with a BS in management, marketing and psychology. She returned to school in 2013, when she came to Baylor to earn an MA in educational psychology.
This is the second year in a row that a School of Education graduate student has won this University-wide award.
Baylor SOE Hosts ASMA
Baylor’s Sport Management Program — housed in the Department of Educational Leadership — hosted the annual Applied Sport Management Association (ASMA) conference in February.
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby was the keynote speaker for the conference. Bowlsby is a national leader in collegiate athletics and has served as the fourth Big 12 Conference commissioner since 2012. Attendees at the three-day ASMA also toured Baylor’s athletic facilities, attended the Baylor baseball tailgate and game, listened to panel discussions, and gave presentations on industry research.
U.S. News Ranking
Baylor School of Education, which is among the nation’s top 20 education schools located in private universities, moved up to No. 84 overall in the 2019 U.S. News graduate program rankings, released in March.
For the U.S. News rankings of graduate education programs, 385 schools granting doctoral degrees were surveyed in fall 2017 and early 2018. The rankings were based on a weighted average of 10 measures of quality, including peer and education professional assessments, student selectivity, faculty resources and research activity.
Alumni Awards
Check out the SOE’s new “Alumni Awards” page:
baylor.edu/SOE/alumawards
If you have recently received a professional award, we would like to include your great news. Photos welcome; please send as an attachment.
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