Frances Hensley, director of the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program (GSTEP), was one of several UGA faculty recently honored with 2002 Walter Barnard Hill Awards for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach.

"Dr. Hensley has made significant contributions to outreach and service during her 15 years at the University of Georgia as well as 11 years as a public school educator," said Art Dunning, Vice President for Public Service and Outreach at the annual award luncheon January 31 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

As one of the original public service faculty members in the College of Education and first to be promoted to the rank of Senior Public Service Associate, Hensley has brought service and outreach to the forefront of the college's mission.

Hensley was recruited in 1995 to direct the Program for School Improvement (PSI), a university-based organization dedicated to policy, research and outreach to improve the quality of public school education in Georgia and across the nation.

Under her leadership, PSI operates the League of Professional Schools, an initiative to help member schools improve student achievement by establishing common goals, taking collective actions and studying the effects on students' learning. The U.S. Department of Education named the league as one of 33 exemplary school reform models in the nation.

In 1996, Hensley, along with colleague Carl Glickman, secured a $1 million grant, one of only 12 awards given by the Annenberg Rural Challenge, to facilitate renewal work in rural schools and to build school, community and university partnerships throughout rural Georgia.

In 2001, she was named to direct GSTEP, a $6.5 million, five-year statewide collaborative partnership led by the College of Education and funded by the U.S. Department of Education. It is the university's most ambitious effort ever to improve teacher education.

Under Hensley's direction, teams of College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and P-12 faculty at UGA, Valdosta State and Albany State universities are working to achieve a fundamental change in teacher education - one that supports students from the day they enter the university through their first years as classroom educators..

Hensley's past accomplishments include the development and direction of the Georgia facilitator Center from 1986 to 1995, one of the most successful and highly regarded facilitator centers in the country.

She was selected to serve multiple terms on the National Advisory Council and is a member of the National School Reform Faculty, a group of nationally recognized experts who analyze student work.

She is the author of one book, three book chapters, four peer-reviewed articles, curriculum materials and more than 100 technical reports. She has also made numerous presentations at national, regional and state conferences and meetings.

Other faculty members winning 2002 Hill Awards included:

• Mary Stakes, a public service associate with the Carl Vison Institute of Government;
• Connie Crawley, a public service associate with College of Family and Consumer Sciences and Cooperative Extension Service;
• Debbie Purvis, a senior public service associate, College of Family and Consumer Sciences and Cooperative Extension Service; and
• Dan Horton, a professor of entomology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Dan Durning, administrative director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, was named 2002 Walter Barnard Hill Distinguished Public Service and Outreach Fellow.
 

February 1, 2002
Writer: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu
Contact: Frances Hensley, 706/542-4038, fhensley@arches.uga.edu