by Claire Miller
Lama Farran is a licensed speech-language pathologist who has worked with a wide range of children in her career.
Farran’s studies in the College of Education have focused on the relationship between language and reading in bilingual English-Arabic children, which she hopes will help her expand her work with young children.
“I want to take a better look at language from different angles – from a disability standpoint, from a multilingual standpoint and from a typically-developing standpoint,” said Farran, whose dissertation on language and reading won her the Hayden-Waltz Doctoral Dissertation Award. “All of these lenses will help me see the complex relationship between reading and language.”
The award, established by COE alumni Dr. Melvin Hayden and Dr. Lucy Welzant Hayden to honor their parents, is presented to a doctoral student whose dissertation exhibits originality, clarity and effectiveness in the presentation of ideas.
“It’s exciting,” Farran said about winning the award. “I’m so glad that my work is honored this way.”
Farran was one of several COE students, faculty and staff celebrated for their outstanding contributions to the field of education at the COE’s annual Honors Day ceremony on April 21.
Approximately 170 people attended the event, held in the Georgia State University Speakers Auditorium, and cheered for those who’ve distinguished themselves through their research, teaching and service.
Peggy Albers, one of the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award winners and a presenter at the event, said Honors Day is a great way to showcase the work being done throughout the college.
“We can bring together the entire College of Education community and honor so many great people,” she said.
People like Andrew Asemota, the Ron Colarusso Outstanding Early College Student Award recipient, have a passion for education and their dedication to their work sets them apart.
Asemota is a senior at Carver Early College High School, which works with the College of Education to give juniors and seniors the opportunity to take college courses and earn college credits before graduating from high school. His experiences as a soccer coach, a teacher’s aide and an Early College student helped him decide to pursue an early childhood education degree at Georgia State next year.
“I’ve really enjoyed the program,” Asemota said. “I’ll be enrolling in the College of Education in the fall. I like being around kids and working with them.”
In addition to honoring those working and studying in the college, Dean Randy Kamphaus introduced Sandra Coffey Hofmann (B.S. ’74), winner of the COE’s 2011 Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Hofmann currently serves as the president and board director of Women in Technology, a networking, career building and leadership development organization for women in the technology field, and the CIO-in-Residence at the Advanced Technology Development Center, a nationally-recognized science and technology incubator housed at the Georgia Institute of Technology that helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies.
In her 25-year career, Hofmann has successfully provided leadership to technology and manufacturing professionals at companies such as IBM, the Turknett Leadership Group and Closets and More. She credits her experiences in the College of Education for her success as a teacher and as a leader in the corporate world.
“It has been many years now since I left the halls of GSU with my B.S. in education,” she said. “Teaching was my passion and I taught in Georgia, Louisiana and California. By the time the ’80s rolled around, I joined the corporate world and learned that there is a curious child in every adult. What I learned about teaching prepared me to be a more effective leader.”
To view a complete listing of this year’s award recipients, click here.
To view photos from the ceremony, click here.
