Connie Vinita Dowell, M.L.S.’79, with three decades of experience working in academic libraries, began her new position as the university’s first dean of libraries in March. Dowell previously served as dean of the library and information access at San Diego State University.
Under Dowell’s leadership, Vanderbilt will initiate a comprehensive study of its libraries, with a [...]
Two new faculty members, both in the Department of Psychology and Human Development, joined Peabody College in January. Professor Amy Needham, whose research emphasizes cognitive, motor and perceptual development in infants, came from Duke University.
Professor Bruce McCandliss conducts studies using fMRI and other technologies that place him on the leading edge of developmental cognitive neuroscience. He [...]
Peabody College of education and human development is the best graduate school of its kind in the nation, according to rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.
“We are very pleased by this ranking, which speaks to the high quality of the college and especially our faculty, our students and our staff,” said Dean Camilla [...]
The Susan Gray School has achieved national reaccreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Susan Gray School is one of the first programs in the nation to achieve reaccreditation under new, more extensive and more stringent NAEYC standards, which were released in the fall of 2006.
Trying to find the highest-quality [...]
For the first time Vanderbilt has been named one of the top 100 best places to work in the United States in Fortune magazine’s annual survey. It is the first educational institution to be named to the list.
The No. 98 ranking released in the February 2 issue encompasses approximately 21,000 employees at Vanderbilt University and [...]
For the second year in a row, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recognized the Peabody Reflector in January during its annual District III competition. The magazine won a Special Merit Award in the Alumni Magazines I division.
Tracy Cummings, a graduate student in the Experimental Education Research and Training program, received the NASA Science Engineering Mathematics Aerospace Academy Award in Washington, D.C., last September. The Science Engineering Mathematics Aerospace Academy (SEMAA) is a national program with 22 sites in 17 states. Cummings worked with a team that was awarded a grant to [...]
Dean Camilla Benbow and Claire Smrekar, associate professor of public policy and education, participated on the panel “To Ph.D. or Ed.D.? That is the Question” at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education’s annual meeting.
Janet Eyler, professor of the practice of education and director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Leader-ship, Policy and [...]
Two federal policymakers—Kerri Briggs, assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education for the U.S. Department of Education, and Catherine Freeman, BS’93, senior program officer for the National Research Center of the National Academies of Science—co-taught a new special topics course in education policy at Peabody College this spring.
“We are very excited to be able to [...]
Peabody first-year student Natalie Wills shows off her new wheels as she prepares to say goodbye to mom, dad and sister during move-in weekend in August.
Department of Human and Organizational Development
Sandra Barnes, professor of human and organizational development and sociology of religion (Ph.D., 1999, Georgia State University; M.S., 1995, Interdenominational Theological Center; M.S., 1989, Georgia Institute of Technology; B.A., 1986, Fisk University)
Torin Monahan, associate professor of human and organizational development and medicine (Ph.D, 2003, M.S., 2002, Rensselaer [...]
Camilla P. Benbow received the 2008 Distinguished Alumna Award from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Past recipients have included Nobel Prize winner Peter Agre, acclaimed writer Russell Baker, actor John Astin, and world-renowned cardiologist Ben Carson. Dean Benbow earned her Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) from Johns Hopkins in 1981 and her Master of Science in Education [...]
Remember when it cost just $38 for seven hours of coursework? No one here remembers that either, but we have newfound evidence that it was so, as this 1940 receipt indicates. Found in a book donation to the Goodlettsville Public Library, the receipt was sent to the Peabody Library this summer, as was this supplement [...]
Calculators are useful tools in elementary mathematics classes, if students already have some basic skills, new research has found. The findings shed light on the debate about whether and when calculators should be used in the classroom.
“These findings suggest that it is important children first learn how to calculate answers on their own, but after [...]
This summer Peabody’s Peggy Westlake, assistant to the director of the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement, along with her husband, Mark, and daughter, Carolyn, traveled from Nashville to Key West, Fla., to Madawaska, Maine, to San Ysidro, California, to Blaine, Wash., and back to Nashville on motorcycle to raise money and awareness for Make [...]
Standardized testing is an inescapable part of modern education; however, these tests often fail to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities. Vanderbilt Learning Sciences Institute researchers Stephen N. Elliott, Peter A. Beddow and Ryan J. Kettler have developed a decision-making instrument called the Test Accessibility and Modification Inventory (TAMI) to address the issue [...]
The new Peabody Research Institute (PRI) has been created to conduct research on children and families using a permanent staff of researchers and a high level of methodological expertise. Staff will collaborate with and support faculty on grants, including education research. The new center will be initially staffed with researchers moving from the Center for [...]