chapter organized and participated in a fall bake sale during the first week of school; the chapter collected over 500 books (!) for the Las Vegas “Reads” fall event at the Historic Fifth Street School. They hosted a “Teach or Study Abroad” event for students to hear about international options and experiences of faculty and students, and heard a talk by former Clark County School District Teacher of the Year, Dr. Linda Archambault. Dr. Lawrence Rudd has been a key contact for NSC at our partnership school, Sewell Elementary, and is an expert on climate change as evidenced by being awarded a 2011 – 2012 grant funded by the Nevada Collaborative Teaching Improvement Program (NeCoTIP) titled "Climate Change Science: Content and Inquiry Methods for Secondary Teachers.” He is also engaged in a fiveyear grant (2008 – 2013) funded by the Nevada National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NV NSF EPSCoR) titled “Nevada Infrastructure for Climate Change Science, Education, and Outreach.”
Nevada State College has the distinction of being one of the youngest public colleges in the United States. We are an institution that is defining the future of education and it is by far one of the most exciting places in higher education today. The School of Education (SOE) is populated with focused faculty and engaged students eager to ensure that the children and youth in Nevada have the benefit of highly skilled and committed teachers and speech pathologists. SOE has paid serious attention to two areas of education that will help future educators do their work more effectively and prepare future educators for high–needs areas. Specifically, SOE offers exciting and important programs in Bilingual Education and Special Education. The need for highly trained educators with these skills is great in Nevada and throughout the country. Our faculty bring special talents to SOE and students richly benefit from their experience, expertise, knowledge and passion for their work. Another area of great importance is the work faculty do in our Speech and Language Pathology program preparing professionals to work in schools with students requiring interventions of this kind. Two new faculty members have joined us this year to move this program forward: Elizabeth Meyerowitz and Teri Romero. Dr. Rachel Salas will be joining us from Sacramento as an assistant professor of Literacy, an exciting new addition to the faculty as well. Dr. Kevin Graziano is not only a personable teacher but his accomplishments have brought him local, state, and international opportunities and recognition. He completed two teaching fellowships this year, one at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia and the other at the Marino Institute of Education in Dublin, Ireland. He was a Fulbright fellow at Sakhnin College in Sakhnin, Israel working with Arab students. Dr. Roberta Kaufman has been the co-advisor for the student honorary society, Kappa Delta Pi. The mission of Kappa Delta Pi is “to sustain an honored community of diverse educators by promoting excellence and advancing scholarship, leadership, and service.” NSC’s
Dr. Rho Hudson, in collaboration with Dr. Connie Malin, Innovations International Charter School (IICS) co-founder/ CEO/Principal and Dr. LeAnn Putney, UNLV professor and co-founder of IICS, hosted three “Family Nights” at IICS during this past school year. The events were so successful that they were invited to give a presentation at the 2012 National Professional Development Schools Conference, entitled “How Schools and Colleges Can Work Together with Parents to Help Their Children Succeed Academically.” Especially important, School of Education students contributed to this important work of engaging parents in their children’s education. Dr. Lori Navarrete worked with colleagues outside of the School of Education (Magdalena Martinez/Nevada System of Higher Education, Edith Fernandez/formerly College of Southern Nevada currently NSC, Pedro Martinez/Deputy Superintendent, Clark County School District,); they will be presenting a symposium at the Association for the Study of Higher Education meeting in Las Vegas in November entitled: “Ensuring Nevada’s Future by Increasing Latino College Completion.” Dr. Christi Carmack has done remarkable work at SOE guiding student teachers to create wiki-portfolios to demonstrate their competence as future teachers and working with faculty to integrate technology into their classrooms. Multi-talented, Dr. Carmack’s expertise is also in Special Education! As you can see, the interests of the faculty are far-ranging and important. As interim dean, it is an honor to entice future students to come here to study with this remarkable faculty. Come visit and see for yourself. Sincerely,
Elizabeth M. Hawthorne, Ph.D. Interim Dean, School of Education
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