É«É«À²

Kalamazoo, MI, Nov. 2016

College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) is honoring Dr. Maria Selena Protacio, assistant professor of literacy studies in the Department of Special Education and Literacy Studies, and Dr. Gary Miron, professor of evaluation, measurement and research in the Department of Education Leadership, Research and Technology, for their influential scholarship.

Dr. Maria Selena Protacio, the 2016 CEHD Emerging Scholar Award recipient, has been employed at É«É«À² Michigan University (É«É«À²) since 2012 and has been an associate professor since 2013. She has given 29 presentations and published six peer reviewed articles, three book chapters, and one encyclopedia entry.

Protacio’s research interest include literacy engagement, the education of English learners, the preparation of mainstream teachers to education diverse learners, and immigrant parent involvement. She received an Honorable Mention for the Student Outstanding Research Award of the Literacy Research Association (LRA) in 2013 and was also an LRA Scholars of color Transitioning into Academic Research institutions (STAR) Fellow.

The Emerging Scholar Award recognizes one individual with outstanding scholarly accomplishments and the potential for continued excellence. The recipient must be a full-time, board-appointed faculty member in CEHD at É«É«À². At time of nomination, faculty member must not be tenured.

Dr. Gary Miron, the 2016 CEHD Distinguished Scholar Award recipient, has been employed at É«É«À² for 19 years. He first worked at the Evaluation Center and for the past 13 years has been a professor. He has brought in 47 grants and contracts worth just under $5 million dollars. He has published 9 books or monographs, close to 50 peer-reviewed articles, chapter or policy papers, and more than 100 non-peer reviewed technical reports and policy papers. Miron has been included in the Education Week and the American Enterprise Institute list of top 200 most influential education scholars in the United States, with his highest ranking at 33 in 2013. He also received a rank of 8 in the sub-field of school governance and education policy in 2014. After being on sabbatical for one academic year, Miron expects to move back up the list. 

Miron is recognized as a national and international expert in the fields of evaluation theory and methods, education policy, and school reform. He is a fellow with the National Education Policy Center and has served on the editorial board for Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis. His current research has focused on charter schools, virtual schools, and school reform both in the United States and abroad. Some of his most cited works are technical reports from evaluations of state education reform. Miron has been invited to testify before Congress and legislative committees in Michigan and Kentucky based on his research.

The Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes one individual with a body of outstanding scholarly accomplishments that has had an impact on the field. The recipient must be a full-time, board-appointed, tenured faculty member with a minimum of seven years of service in CEHD at É«É«À² Michigan University (É«É«À²).

In 2015 Dr. Robert Bensley won the Distinguished Scholar Award and Dr. Regina Garza Mitchell won the Emerging Scholar Award.

For more information about the CEHD Distinguished and Emerging Scholar Awards, click here.