Athens, Ga. -Donna Alvermann, a UGA Distinguished Research Professor in the College of Education’s department of language and literacy education, has been named a 2010 Southern Regional Education Board Mentor of the Year for the Compact for Faculty Diversity Institute on Teaching and Mentoring.
Alvermann was among only four faculty members in the country receiving this award from the Compact for Faculty Diversity, a partnership of regional, federal and foundation programs that focuses on minority graduate education and faculty diversity.In addition to the SREB, the compact includes the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Office of Federal TRIO Programs, United States Department of Education.
Alvermann has been recognized for her work on several occasions during her nearly three decades as a UGA faculty member.She received the William S. Gray Citation of Merit from the International Reading Association for her outstanding contributions to the field of reading education in 2006.She was elected to the Reading Hall of Fame in 1999 and is a recipient of the National Reading Conference’s Oscar Causey Award for Outstanding Contributions to Reading Research, the Albert Kingston Award for Distinguished Service, the College Reading Association’s Laureate Award, and the H.B. Herr Award for Contributions to Research in Reading Education.
Alvermann’s research focuses on youth’s multiple literacies in and out of school. She has co-authored or edited two new books in the past year, Bring It to Class: Unpacking Pop Culture in Literacy Learning(Teachers College Press) and Adolescents Online Literacies: Connecting Classrooms, Digital Media, & Popular Culture(Peter Lang Publishing).
Alvermann was appointed to the Rand Corporation/U.S. Department of Education’s Reading Research Study Panel in 2000 and guest edited the Journal of Educational Research’s Special Year 2000 issue on “Reading Research and Instruction.” She was elected chair of the board of directors of the American Reading Forum in 2000 and served as director of the College Reading Association Board from 1997-2000. She was named a Spencer Research Foundation Mentor from 1997-98.She co-directed the National Reading Research Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, from 1992-97.
Alvermann is past president of the NRC, past co-chair of the IRA’s Commission on Adolescent Literacy and has served as editor of Reading Research Quarterly, one of the most important and widely circulated international research journals in the field of education.
Her previous books include: Content Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today’s Diverse Classrooms (6th ed.); Popular Culture in the Classroom: Teaching and Researching Critical Media Literacy; Bridging the Literacy Achievement Gap, Grades 4-12; and Adolescents and Literacies in a Digital World.
Alvermann joined the UGA faculty in 1982 and became a full professor in 1990. She was named a UGA Distinguished Research Professor in 1993. She earned her doctorate at Syracuse University in reading and language arts education and her M.A. and B.S. in education from the University of Texas-Austin.
Alvermann will be presented the award at the Compact for Faculty Diversity Institute for Teaching and Mentoring on Oct. 30 in Tampa.
For more information on SREB, the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring and the UGA College of Education see the following websites: www.sreb.org/, www.instituteonteachingandmentoring.org/Institute/index.html and www.coe.uga.edu/.