News Briefs: Faculty Updates
Cooper Becomes Associate Dean
Dr. Sandi Cooper, professor of mathematics education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, became the School of Education’s associate dean for undergraduate education in the fall. As associate dean, she oversees programs and administrative personnel associated with educator preparation, including recruitment, admissions, scholarship awards, advising, clinical field experiences, and educator certification.
Top 2% of Researchers
Three School of Education (SOE) faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology were recognized among the top 2% most-cited researchers in the world for their respective disciplines. Compiled by Stanford University, the prestigious list included 43 current or retired Baylor faculty and postdoctoral researchers. SOE researchers on the list included Dr. Erik Carter, Luther Sweet Endowed Chair in Disabilities and Executive Director of the Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities; Dr. Grant Morgan, SOE associate dean for research and professor of quantitative methods; and Dr. Marley Watkins, affiliated research professor and former department chair.
Research Grant studying Patience
Three School of Education faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology — (L-R) Drs. Erik Carter, Sarah Mire, and Terrill Saxon — are part of an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research team conducting a mixed-methods longitudinal study of patience. The four-year study will explore what can be learned about patience from those who experience adversity, particularly for parents of adolescents. SOE researchers will focus specifically on families raising adolescents who experience intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Funded by a $4.71 million grant from Templeton Religion Trust, the study is part of the Baylor Research in Growth and Human Thriving Science (BRIGHTS) Center, a multidisciplinary center that catalyzes research related to the science of human flourishing. The team is led by principal investigator Dr. Sarah Schnitker, Baylor professor of psychology, and includes Baylor’s Dr. Anne Jeffrey (philosophy and medical humanities), the three Baylor SOE faculty, and faculty from UC Riverside, Wake Forest, and Claremont Graduate University.