- Ann Turnbull, professor of special education, senior scientist with KU's Life Span Institute and co-director of the Beach Center on Families and Disability, is the 1999 Louise Byrd Graduate Educator Award winner. She will be honored during the KU doctoral hooding ceremony at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 22, in the Lied Center. The award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated extraordinary devotion to graduate students and graduate education as well as distinguishing themselves as scholars. The award was established in 1984 in memory of a former longtime secretary of the KU Graduate School.
- Norman Yetman, professor of sociology and of American studies and a Chancellors Club teaching professor, is the 1999 J. Michael Young Academic Adviser Award winner. He received a $500 check from the advisory board of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences during a May 7 reception at the Adams Alumni Center. The award recognizes advisers who have given their time and attention to helping students make good decisions about their educational and career goals. The award was named for J. Michael Young, a professor of philosophy who directed the honors program, until his death at age 51 in 1995.
A letter signed by 14 students and faculty noted good teaching includes the careful and diligent mentoring of a student's values and personal growth. "In this role, Ann has earned the consummate trust of her doctoral students; she quickly becomes the person in whom they confide.... She converts ... students into confident and competent consultants, providers of technical assistance, witnesses before policy-making bodies and allies of families all across America."
Turnbull's previous awards include two national honors: being named the 1990 recipient of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Leadership Award and the 1982 Educator of the Year by the U.S. Association for Retarded Citizens. She was also named the 1982 Outstanding Woman Teacher by the KU Commission on the Status of Women; and the 1977 Educator of the Year by the North Carolina Association for Retarded Citizens.
Turnbull received a bachelor's degree in education at the University of Georgia in Athens and a master's in education at Auburn University in Alabama and a doctor in education at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Her research focuses on how to enhance the quality of life for families who have children and youth with disabilities.
"Advising to Norman is an opportunity to get students to reflect on their life choices, to open up new paths, to expose students to new experiences and to bring together students and faculty with mutual interests," according to the nominating letter.
Yetman was first formally recognized for his mentoring and advising skills in 1997 as the first recipient of the Elizabeth Kollmer Award for mentoring and advising given by the Mid-America American Studies Association. His previous faculty awards include being named the Outstanding Educator in 1971 and the Mortar Board Outstanding Educator in 1986. Students have nominated him numerous times for the HOPE award (Honor for the Outstanding Progressive Educator Award).
Yetman received a bachelor's degree from the University of the Redlands in California and a master's and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. He has served as editor and associate editor of the interdisciplinary journal American Studies for about 16 years. He has researched American racial and ethnic relations, contemporary American society and the role of sports in U.S. society.
Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853 or e-mail mjdunlap@ukans.edu.