Carter, Walker to Speak at UGA's First Conference on Black Issues in Higher Education

Keynote addresses by two of the most highly recognized scholars in urban and African-American education will highlight the University of Georgia's first annual Conference on Black Issues in Higher Education on Friday, February 3.

Norvella Carter, the Endowed Chair of Urban Education at Texas A&M University, and Vanessa Siddle Walker, the Winship Distinguished Research Professor at Emory University, will highlight the conference sponsored by UGA's College of Education in Masters Hall at the Georgia Center from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Panel discussions featuring several UGA faculty members will include topics such as Surviving and Publishing at a Research I University, The Intricacies of Mentoring Minority and Women Faculty, and Leadership and Administration in the Academy.

“We feel that this conference will be of particular interest to junior faculty and doctoral candidates,” said Louis A. Castenell, Jr., dean of UGA's College of Education.

Walker is well known for her research and writings on the history of African-American education and the impact of segregation, racism, and community conditions on the learning and education of African Americans.

Winner of the prestigious Grawmeyer Award for Education from the University of Louisville in 2000 and the Young Scholars Award from the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools, Walker also has been a former National Academy of Education Fellow. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and both her master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.

Walker's award-winning book Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South was published in 1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. She also was co-author of Facing Racism in American Education.

Walker began her career as a high school teacher in Chapel Hill High School and then at Cummings High School. She also taught English seminars for minority students at Phillips Academy. Prior to accepting a position at Emory, she taught at Wheelock and Elon Colleges and the University of Pennsylvania.

Carter's research focuses on preparing teachers for urban classrooms, teacher efficacy, building resilience in children and teacher induction. Since joining the faculty at Texas A&M University in 1998, she has been actively involved in the recruitment of 32 master's and doctoral students from the city of Houston. She has developed partnerships with schools in several Houston school districts and has established programs that address the need for urban teachers through teacher induction initiatives, internship programs and professional development of veteran teachers.

Carter has been involved in some form of education for almost three decades. She can relate to most educational levels, pre-K-12 because she has been an elementary, middle school and high school teacher. She was a principal in an urban school in Detroit, MI, and has prepared educators for urban and diverse environments at three universities.

As director of the Chicago Metropolitan Teacher Education Center and Urban Specialist at Illinois State University, she redesigned the center to produce urban practitioners and revised curriculum to include culturally responsive pedagogy. She established partnerships with 20 urban schools, recruited approximately 30-40 students per year for student teaching and mentorship activities in the city (more than 200 in seven years) and recruited about 50 graduate students per year for professional development and courses in urban education. She designed professional development programs and Summer Institutes that serviced more than 300 participants during her directorship.

Carter earned a bachelor's degree in special education and a master's degree in administration and supervision from Wayne State University in Detroit. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University of Chicago.

Panelists for the discussions include: Ronald Cervero, professor of adult education and head of the department of lifelong education, administration and policy; Kecia Thomas, associate professor of psychology; Diane Batts Morrow, associate professor of history; Rosemary Phelps, professor of counseling and human development services; Patricia Miller, professor and head of the department of psychology; Juanita Johnson-Bailey, professor and graduate coordinator of adult education and women's studies; Rob Branch, professor of instructional technology; Sally Zepeda, associate professor and graduate coordinator of educational administration and policy; and Cheryl Dozier, assistant vice president for academic affairs at Gwinnett Center University.

Details:
Registration cost: $20
Deadline: Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Phone: 706.542.2134
Fax: 706.542.6596 (pdf form on website)
Web: www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/conferences.phtml

Wednesday, January 18, 2006
WRITER: Michael Childs, 706.542.5889, mdchilds@uga.edu
CONTACT: Juanita Johnson-Bailey, 706.542.2214, jjb@uga.edu
Bettye P. Smith, 706.542.4207, smithb@uga.edu