The College of Education & Human Development celebrated two Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education faculty members during its Faculty Awards Recognition on March 30.
Associate Professor Thomas Crisp is the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Service to the Profession Award, which recognizes a full-time faculty member who fulfills in an exemplary way the college’s commitment to service and has consistently demonstrated exemplary service to their profession at a national level.
Crisp is an associate professor of literacy and children’s literature in the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education. His professional work focuses on issues of justice and representation in children’s and young adult literature, media and culture. His research and scholarship centers primarily on youth literature by and/or about people who self-identify as LGBTQ+. His professional writing can be found in academic books and professional journals, such as Reading Research Quarterly, Children’s Literature in Education, English Journal, Language Arts, Taboo: The Journal of Education and Culture, The Journal of LGBT Youth, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Lion and the Unicorn, Journal of Children’s Literature, International Research in Children’s Literature, Voice of Youth Advocates and the Horn Book Magazine. Crisp is currently president of the Children’s Literature Association, co-editor of the Journal of Children’s Literature and is an Internationale Jugendbibliothek/International Youth Library Fellow.
Associate Professor Yali Zhao is the 2021 recipient of the Innovation in International Education Faculty Award, which recognizes a full-time faculty member in the college for their outstanding achievement in international education.
Zhao is an associate professor in the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2004 with a doctorate in social science education and an interdisciplinary qualitative studies graduate certificate. Previously, she was associate professor at University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China. She has published widely in reputed academic journals, such as The Social Studies, Social Education, the International Journal of Social Education, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, International Education Journal, Social Studies and the Young Learners, Asia-Pacific Cybereducation Journal, History Teaching and Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Innovations in Education and Teaching International and The International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. Zhao co-edited and published a book entitled, “Seeking the Common Dreams between the Worlds: Stories of Chinese Immigrant Faculty in North American Higher Education.” She is actively involved in cross-cultural and international education teaching, research and service. She has been leading the China study abroad program and educational exchange program with Chinese universities in the department and college for the past 16 years and has served as a mentor for Georgia State’s Faculty Learning Community on International Virtual Exchange for the past two years.
For more information about the Faculty Awards Recognition, visit https://education.gsu.edu/cehd-faculty-awards.