CEHD FACULTY AWARDS
The College of Education & Human Development’s Faculty Awards Recognition is an annual event that celebrates faculty excellence in three areas: teaching, service to the profession and community, and research and scholarship. Awardees have published extensively, mentored numerous educators and peers, secured significant grant funding, and represented Georgia State University and the College of Education & Human Development in school systems, community organizations and in their disciplines.
This year’s virtual recognition was held on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, at 12 p.m.
Dr. Yali Zhao
Innovation in International Education Faculty Award
Dr. 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.
Dr. 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. Dr. 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.
Dr. Debra Schober-Peterson
Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching
Dr. Debra Schober-Peterson is the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching, which recognizes a full-time faculty member in the college for outstanding achievement in the area of graduate teaching.
Dr. Schober-Peterson is a clinical professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is passionate about her work with young children who exhibit language or speech sound disorders and is dedicated to providing students in speech-language pathology with the best academic and clinical experiences possible. She teaches courses in the areas of language disorders in young children, speech sound disorders and diagnostic methods. In addition, Dr. Schober-Peterson serves as director of clinical education for the communication sciences and disorders program and director of the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic. She also coordinates the program’s part-time clinical internships and full-time medical placements. She has been involved in clinical education in the field of speech-language pathology for more than 30 years.
Dr. Deron Boyles
Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching
Dr. Deron Boyles is the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, which recognizes a full-time faculty member in the college for outstanding achievement in the area of undergraduate teaching.
Dr. Boyles is a professor of philosophy of education in the Department of Educational Policy Studies. His research interests include school commercialism, epistemology, critical pedagogy and the philosophy of John Dewey. His work has been published in such journals as Philosophy of Education, Social Epistemology, Journal of Thought, Philosophical Studies in Education, Inter-American Journal of Philosophy, Educational Foundations, Journal of Curriculum Theory, History of Education Quarterly, Educational Studies and Educational Theory. He has published six books, including “American Education and Corporations: The Free Market Goes to School,” “The Politics of Inquiry,” “From a Gadfly to a Hornet: Academic Freedom, Humane Education and the Intellectual Life of Joseph Kinmont Hart,” and “John Dewey’s Imaginative Vision of Teaching: Combining Theory and Practice.” He received the CEHD’s Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award in 2007 and its Outstanding Service Award in 2012. In 2010, he was presented with the James and Helen Merritt Award for Distinguished Service to Philosophy of Education from Northern Illinois University. Dr. Boyles is a fellow in the Philosophy of Education Society, past-president of the American Educational Studies Association and past-president of the John Dewey Society.
Dr. Stacey Wallen
Outstanding Faculty Service to the Community Award
Dr. Stacey Wallen is the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Service to the Community 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 the community and Georgia State University.
Dr. Wallen is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is a speech-language pathologist and her clinical area of expertise is pediatrics, including early intervention, speech and language disorders in school-age children, and speech and language disorders in culturally- and linguistically-diverse populations. Her research interests include acoustic phonetics and second language/dialect acquisition. Dr. Wallen has worked to provide community-based learning and service opportunities for students through partnering with organizations in the Atlanta community, including the Atlanta Children’s Shelter, the Global Village Project, Refugee Family Literacy and Thomasville Heights Elementary School.
Dr. Thomas Crisp
Outstanding Faculty Service to the Profession Award
Dr. 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.
Dr. 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. Dr. 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.
Dr. Tim Kellison
Outstanding Faculty Research Award
Dr. Tim Kellison is the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Research Award, which recognizes a full-time faculty member in the college for outstanding achievement in the area of scholarship.
Dr. Kellison is an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health. His research is primarily focused on sport in the urban environment, with special emphasis in sport ecology, urban and regional planning, public policy and politics. He has explored multiple questions related to the real and perceived benefits and harms sport and its industry bring to urban communities. He is director of the award-winning Center for Sport and Urban Policy and holds affiliate faculty status in the Urban Studies Institute. He has received multiple recognitions for his work, including being designated a North American Society for Sport Management Research Fellow and being named a Fulbright Specialist in Urban Planning. Additionally, Dr. Kellison served on an international working group convened by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and served as a co-author of the U.N.’s Sports for Climate Action Framework.
Dr. Andrew Roach
Outstanding Faculty Research Mentoring Award
Dr. Andrew Roach is the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Research Mentoring Award, which recognizes a full-time faculty member who fulfills in an exemplary way the college’s commitment to providing mentoring in the conduct of research to faculty colleagues and doctoral students.
Dr. Roach is an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services and coordinator of the college’s school psychology Ph.D. program. A school psychologist and former elementary and middle school teacher, Dr. Roach is a core faculty member and an evaluation team leader for the Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (GaLEND) program, which is part of a nationwide network of LEND programs that provide interdisciplinary training for future professionals, disability advocates and family members. From 2013-2018, he served as associate director for the Center for Leadership in Disability, a federally-funded University Center for Excellence in Development Disabilities Education, Research and Service. He also is co-founder and senior faculty liaison for the Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy Program, Georgia State’s inclusive postsecondary education program for students with intellectual disabilities. Dr. Roach’s current research and scholarship focuses on establishing inclusive educational programs and practices; developing and sustaining authentic and trustworthy leadership in schools, nonprofit organizations and communities; and the implementation of mindfulness and contemplative practices. In 2010, he received the Lightner Witmer Early Career Research Award from the American Psychological Association – Division 16 (School Psychology). He also received the Council for Exceptional Children’s Early Career Publication Award in 2007 for a study that examined the influence of access to the general curriculum on the assessment performance of students with disabilities.