Three at COE selected for Faculty Achievement Recognition

Professor Thomas Oakland, Professor Mary Brownell, and Professor and Associate Dean for Research Paul Sindelar are among 51 UF faculty selected as Faculty Achievement Recognition honorees.

The campus-wide award is given to faculty members in recognition of achievements made in the past two years.

Oakland, who has taught at in the Department of Educational Psychology for 11 years, is renowned for his excellence in scholarship and service both at home and abroad. He has authored or co-authored hundreds of publications and delivered more than 175 presentations abroad. His work centers around assessment, school-related disorders, adaptive behavior of children, test development, and legal and ethical issues in education. Oakland’s work has earned him the esteem of his colleagues and peers who have honored him with many other awards including the prestigious APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Advancement of Psychology, an honor which only twelve other psychologists have received in the history of the organization. In 2004, Oakland received UF’s International Educator of the Year Award.

Brownell, a professor in the Department of Special Education, and Sindelar, who leads COE’s Office of Educational Research, received their award jointly for their work regarding the preparation and quality of teachers in the United States. They are considered to be two of the leading scholars in their field, and have garnered over $7 million from the U.S. Department of Education during the past six years to support their work.

In the year 2000, the USDOE gave $4 million to found the Center on Personnel Studies in Special Education, and Brownell and Sindelar were chosen as the co-directors for this prestigious center.