Each year U.S. News and World Report issues rankings of graduate programs in the United States, taking into account public and private universities from all over the country. The 2009 listings were published on April 25 - and we are very proud to announce that three of our programs are included in the listings of Top 100 programs in the country.

• Rehabilitation Counseling (at the lofty ranking of #6 in the country)
  
• Communication Disorders and Sciences
  
• Social Work

Last year our Education programs together were ranked in the Top 100. Unfortunately, the data we provide for this year's ranking was in advertently incomplete and so we could not be included. We have no doubt, however, that if we had been appropriately considered, we would have achieved that lofty (Top 100) ranking again.

CARBONDALE -- A national organization dedicated to promoting education research and educators has selected a Southern Illinois University Carbondale administrator as a fellow.
 
The American Education Research Association tapped Patricia B. Elmore, interim associate provost for academic affairs at SIUC, as a fellow earlier this month.  The AERA, a national research society, advances knowledge about education by encouraging scholarship related to that area and promoting research to improve education.  It has more than 26,000 members.
 
AERA selects fellows based on their sustained record of research accomplishments and contributions to their individual fields.  Elmore said being named an AERA fellow will help her in future efforts both as a researcher and an educator.
 
 “The AERA expects that fellows will contribute to the continued advancement of the field through research, leadership roles, and mentoring of new scholars,” she said.  “I plan to continue mentoring emerging scholars and advancing educational research nationally and internationally in my role as editor of Educational Researcher and in future endeavors.”
 
          Elmore, the author of numerous research publications, has a long record of contributions in books, paper presentations and research.  She also served for years as a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at SIUC, helping many graduate students achieve success in educational measurement and statistics.
 
         “My former students currently serve in prestigious roles in both university and testing organizations throughout the United States and internationally,” Elmore said.  “Their continuing sustained achievement and recognition by the profession is my and SIUC's legacy.”
 
Elmore served as interim dean of the College of Education and Human Services from 2005 to 2007 and as associate dean for administration from 1998 to 2005.  She earned her Master of Science in education in 1967 and her doctorate in educational psychology with a specialization in educational measurement and statistics in 1970.
 

Patricia B. Elmore Professor

Elmore also is a fellow of the American Counseling Association and has almost 40 years of experience in higher education.
 
         Elmore is co-editor of “Educational Researcher,” published by the AERA, and is immediate past editor of “Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development,” which is sponsored by the Association for Assessment in Counseling and Education and published by the American Counseling Association.
 
Elmore is the winner of the 1994 American Counseling Association Research Award and was inducted into the Educational Council of 100 in 2000.  Among many other awards and honors, SIUC named her a University Faculty Woman of Distinction in 2001 and the Association for Assessment in Counseling and Education presented her its Exemplary Practices Award in 2003.

A recent report from ORDA states that the college received $19.2 million last Fiscal Year (July 07-June 08).  This amount represents approximately 27% of the overall SIUC total of $70.2 million.   Our college’s external funding exceeds that of the SIU School of Medicine for the Springfield and Carbondale campuses combined.    To equal the amount for COEHS, one must add the total external funding together for all the other seven colleges on the SIUC campus.   This information is provided to help understand COEHS’s achievements in perspective of the overall university.  

The $19.2 million in COEHS represents an increase of $2.7 million over last year and we have set benchmark increases for four consecutive years. Since 2004, the college has shown a cumulative increase in funding of $7.7 million or roughly 67%.  These grant/contracts are found throughout the college

and they reflect our diverse mission.  They fund many initiatives including partnerships with schools and human service agencies, student assistantships,  equipment, travel and summer support for faculty.   Our success in external funding is one testimonial to the hard work of the faculty and staff in our college.

(Prounouncer: Airhihenbuwa is “air-en-ha-BOO-ah”)

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Collins O. Airhihenbuwa, an internationally known expert on health education, will talk about the relationship between culture and health at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, in the Hiram H. Lesar Law Building courtroom on the campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Airhihenbuwa’s free lecture caps off the College of Education and Human Services, Department of Health Education and Recreation’s annual Robert D. Russell Symposium, which honors a seminal faculty member who died in 2005. A graduate student poster session in the law building lobby will precede the talk; a public reception will follow it.

Airhihenbuwa, head of the Department of Biobehavioral Health at The Pennsylvania State University, believes culture plays a key role in understanding health and health choices.

“To improve health, we need to understand the social and physical contexts that shape individual behavior,” he wrote in an e- mail.

“We also need to understand the location and influence of power rather than focusing solely on the individual.”

Airhihenbuwa’s talk ties in with themes from a report released in August by the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. After a three-year study, the group concluded that policies, politics and economics combine to create “unfair, unjust and avoidable causes of ill health” not just in poor countries, but in rich ones, too.

Airhihenbuwa’s most recent book, published last year, focuses on the crisis of global health and the politics of identity. He is currently wrapping up a five-year project for the National Institute of Mental Health on dealing with the stigma of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. A public health training project in Nigeria, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center, is ongoing.

	Joyce Fetro Interim Chair Department of Health Education and Recreation

A nationally-respected scholar, excellent teacher, and supportive colleague, Joyce Fetro was chosen to fill Interim Chair position in the Department of Health Education and Recreation. Fetro will serve from January 1 until July 1, or later if a permanent chair is not able to take the office by that date.  

We are pleased to have Joyce in a leadership role in the department and as a new member of the college’s Executive Council.

Hostetler to participate in panel of teachers from across the nation

Jerry Hostetler Associate Professor

when he first came to SIUC as a student in 1961, Jerry Hostetler said he spent most of his time in the basement of Morris Library.

But the associate professor of education said Tuesday he now spends more time in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama and Congressman Jerry Costello appointed Hostetler to the Professional-Development Curriculum, a panel charged to instruct teachers how to access the library's digital resources and use them in K-12 classrooms.

"Professor Hostetler will provide a talented and experienced voice to ensure the success of this innovative effort." Barack Obama, U.S. Senator

"Professor Hostetler will provide a talented and experienced voice to ensure the success of this innovative effort," Obama said in a Tuesday news release.

The panel, made up of 14 teachers from across the nation, will report about the value of using primary source material - accounts of a historic event documented at the time of its happening - in K-12 classes, according to a news release from the library.

The report is scheduled for presentation at the National Education Computing Conference in June 2009.

"One of the great benefits of my job is I get to go to Washington (D.C.) a couple times a year," said Hostetler, who has earned his bachelor's, master's and doctorate from SIUC.

Hostetler said some of the congressional archives that have been made available online include pictures of southern Illinois during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Hostetler said he began working with digital resources at SIUC in 2002 through the Teaching with Primary Sources program. He said at that time, the Library of Congress had 5 million digitized materials instead of the 14 million it has now.

• Paul Asunda (PhD, University of Georgia), Department of Workforce Education and Development
• Lingguo Bu (PhD, Florida State University), Department of tionCurriculum and Instruc
• Julia Champe (PhD, Idaho State University), Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education
• Maria Claudia Franca (PhD, Southern Illinois University), Rehabilitation Institute
• Nicole Heal (PhD, University of Kansas), Rehabilitation Institute
• Muthoni Kimemia (PhD, University of Central Florida), Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education
• Christina McIntyre (PhD, Georgia State University), Department of Curriculum and Instruction
• Thomas Parry (PhD expected, Indiana University), Department of Kinesiology
• Jared Porter (PhD, Louisiana State University), Department of Kinesiology
• Dhitnut Ratnapradipa (PhD, University of Utah), Department of Health Education and Recreation
• Dona Reese (PhD, University of Maryland Baltimore), School of Social Work
• Deborah Seltzer-Kelly (PhD, University of Nevada Reno), Department of Curriculum and Instruction

To learn more about each new faculty member click here.

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The national Council on Social Work Education will recognize Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s School of Social Work during the council’s annual meeting this fall in Philadelphia.

The school has made outstanding contributions and demonstrated engagement and leadership in the field of international social work both at home and abroad, according to Golam M. Mathbor, chair of the council’s award committee. It therefore will receive a Partners in Advancing Education for International Social Work Award, conferred by the council’s Commission on Global Social Work Education annually since 2003.

“This recognition from your colleagues in the international field is very well deserved,” wrote Mathbor to Mizanur R, Miah, the school’s director, in an e-mail July 15 announcing the honor.

To select this year’s honoree, the committee evaluated six schools nominated from among 600 degree-granting social work education programs.

“We heard we were rated by each member of the committee as No. 1,” Miah said.

The school’s international focus plays out on a number of fronts, Miah said. For example, it collaborates with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in providing a two-year certified education program for 300 social workers and supervisors in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza.

It has ties with 11 universities in eight countries, with Study Abroad programs in Austria, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Mexico and India and an Elderhostel program in Mexico.

The school has worked actively with the Microcredit Summit Campaign, an international effort aimed at helping the world’s poorest families raise their standard of living, and has memberships in the International Consortium for Social Development, the International Federation of Social Workers and the International Association of Schools of Social Work. It financially supports several international conferences and serves as a publication partner of the international journal Social Development Issues.

Roughly half the school’s tenured and tenure-track professors hail from other countries, and it often hosts visiting scholars from abroad. Many faculty members serve on international committees and have working ties or research partnerships with colleagues overseas.

In addition, the school draws a number of international students to both its undergraduate and graduate programs, offers all international graduate students assistantships and strives to place students in other countries for field practicums.

“I think it says something that a small school in the rural Midwest can win this award,” Miah said.

“It gives us a lot of pride.”

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The 2008-2009 Roscoe Pulliam Scholarship winners as announced by the Southern Illinois University Alumni Association are: Arika Pavloff of Du Quoin, Amy Phegley of Mt. Carmel, Joshua Piha of Naperville and Amanda Rabideau of Pittsburg.

The Roscoe Pulliam Scholarship Fund awards four, $1,000 scholarship annually to Southern Illinois University Carbondale students. Recipients must be closely related to an SIUC alumnus or alumna who is a current member of the SIU Alumni Association.

Here are brief profiles of the scholarship winners.

Pavloff, the daughter of Angela and Greg Pavloff, is a freshman in elementary education. She transferred to Southern from John A. Logan College, where she made the Vice President’s List and was a member of Phi Theta Kappa. She worked as a math tutor and teacher’s aide, and volunteered as a nursery helper at church. In high school, she was on the National Honor Roll and was a National Student Athlete. She was included in Who’s Who Among American High School Students and served as Student Council secretary at her school.

Phegley, the daughter of Brenda and Terry Phegley, is a senior majoring in kinesiology with a concentration in pre-physical therapy. She is on the Dean’s List and the National Dean’s List and is a member of Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society, Sigma Alpha Lambda National Leadership and Honors Organization and the Golden Key International Honor Society. She is also active in the Student Athletic Advisory Council, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Pre-Health Professions Association, the Saluki Cross Country and the Saluki Track teams. During high school, she was valedictorian of her class and won a Presidential Education Award, U. S. Marine Corps Scholastic Excellence Award, U. S. Army Scholar Athletic Award and a Prairie State Achievement Honor for Reading. She was also an Illinois State Scholar, National Society of High School Scholar member, and an All American Scholar.

Piha, the son of Wendy and Thomas Piha, is a senior majoring in special education and elementary education. His honors include the Dean’s List and membership in Kappa Delta Pi, which is the SIUC chapter of the national Honor Society in Education. He is a summer intern lab technician for the Wheaton Water District. As a high school student, Piha won Outstanding Senior Award in Family and Consumer Science, participated in Best Buddies Service Organization and competed in football and track. He also volunteered with Special Olympics and worked as a tutor.

Rabideau, the daughter of Ruth and Thomas Rabideau, is a senior majoring in physiology and philosophy. She is a recipient of the REACH Undergraduate Research Award Grant, Super Student Scholarship, Endocrine Society Summer Research Award, Lonnie Russell Undergraduate Research Award and the President’s Volunteer Service Award. She served as vice president of the National Biological Honor Society Beta Beta Beta chapter, president of the Pre-Health Profession Association and was a Student Life Advisor team captain. She volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, AmeriCorps and Abundant Health Resources Clinic. During high school, she was valedictorian of her class and a member of the National Honor Society.