Monday, March 28, 2011
Dr. Leigh Anne Howard receives Sydney L. and Sadelle Berger Faculty Community Service Award
Dr. Leigh Anne Howard
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Wendy Knipe Bredhold Media Relations Specialist, News & Information Services 812/461-5259 Howard has been an innovator in developing community-based projects for her courses, implementing service learning projects every year since joining the USI faculty in 2000. Since 2001, she has facilitated a partnership between students her performance studies classes and the K-12 students at the Boys and Girls Club's Fulton Square Unit. The project enables USI students to study and apply performance theory by working with Smart Moves, the club's drug, alcohol, and tobacco prevention program. Howard's students utilize performance as a tool to help club members learn to deal with issues such as peer pressure, substance abuse, race and gender discrimination, and more. "Dr. Howard's class is the only one of its kind that we offer and is the only outside resource that comes regularly to our club and provides additional learning activities," said Leslie M. Asbury, director of the Fulton Square club. "Through her teaching style, role-playing exercises and class participation, she has found a new way to address many issues that our members face daily." Howard has served as director of the Veterans Oral History Project, an affiliate of the National Veterans History Project organized by the American Folklife Center a the Library of Congress, since 2003. She organized Debate-A-Palooza during the presidential election of 2008, and she has served on many committees at the University, college, and department level. She also has served as a mentor for other faculty members planning service projects in their areas of study. "Dr. Howard's record is an excellent example of engaged teaching, research, and service a true model for how a faculty member at an "engaged" campus should work," said J. Wayne Rinks, chair of the Department of Communications. Howard has published articles in Communication Education, American Behavioral Scientist, World Communication Journal, Theatre Insight, and Theatre Symposium. She earned her Ph.D. in Speech Communication (Performance/Cultural Studies) from Louisiana State University in 1995, her M.A. in Communication (Rhetoric and Organizational Culture) from Western Kentucky University in 1991, and her B.A. in English, Drama, and Classical Studies from Centre College of Kentucky in 1986. The Sydney and Sadelle Berger Faculty Community Service Award is made possible by the Bergers' son Charles and his wife Leslie. Selected by the USI Faculty and Academic Affairs committee, the award winner is given a plaque and a stipend. |
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