USM Names Emeriti Faculty
Three University of Southern Maine professors will receive emeriti status for exemplary scholarship, public service and service to the university. The announcement will be made at USM’s 122nd Commencement, scheduled for 9 a.m., Saturday, May 11, at the Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland.
LIBBY G. COHEN
Libby G. Cohen, Professor Emerita of Special Education, holds a national reputation in the field of assistive technology and accessibility to science. She came to USM in 1980 and taught in the College of Education and Human Development for more than 20 years, during which time she served the university with the utmost dedication, integrity, and energy. Her department chair noted that “Dr. Cohen exceeds each of the criteria for emeritus status.” In addition he noted, “She has a deep commitment to social justice, and through her work has made important contributions to improving the lives of persons with disabilities.”
Professor Cohen is the author of grants that have funded a number of technology projects of national scope, increasing access to the World Wide Web and to careers in science for students with disabilities. Her projects have brought more than $4 million and national attention to USM, as well as influencing the delivery of science education to students with disabilities across the country. She has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Department of Education, Mitsubishi Electric Foundation and others. She began such programs as Biotechnology Works, ACCESS Earth and the Genasys Project, all based at U.S.M., that serve as national models.
Dean Richard Barnes of CEHD said of Professor Cohen, “She has brought the benefit of new knowledge about the use of technology in instruction to many teachers at all levels.”
In addition to her applied work, Professor Cohen is a prolific scholar with an exemplary record that includes seven books for which she was the author or co-author and numerous chapters and articles. She also has served on the editorial boards of three respected journals.
Professor Cohen’s work with assistive technologies began more than 10 years ago with establishment of USM’s Maine Educational Center for Assistive Technology and Software. The center provides workshops for teachers, parents and students of all ages and abilities to review specialized software and other technology devices. She was selected as a member and continues to serve on the Web Accessibility Initiative, an international group that addresses technology accessibility for the World Wide Web Consortium, the organization which governs the Internet.
Other off-campus service includes the Alternate Assessment Task Force for the Maine Department of Education and the Spurwink Institute for Students with Special Needs.
Professor Cohen played an important role in developing the Special Education Program in the College of Education and Human Development and led the effort to create the M.S. in Special Education. She also served the College as chair of the Technology Committee, on various faculty searches, and on the Peer Committee and the Faculty Development Committee. In addition, she always received excellent evaluations as a teacher, for which she was recognized with a Faculty Senate Award for Teaching in 1999. For the 2000-01 and 2001-02 academic years, in addition to her faculty duties, Professor Cohen was director of ALLTech, a nationally recognized center that provides training, consultation, and technical assistance in the areas of assistive technology, specialized software, Web accessibility, and universal design in education.
Cohen’s university service included sitting on the advisory board for the ScienceCorps Program, which is based in USM’s Molecular Biology Program; on USM’s Distinguished Awards Committee, International Programs Committee, and University Graduate Council.
In addition to other USM awards recognizing her achievements, Professor Cohen held the Walter E. Russell Endowed Chair in Philosophy and Education from 1986-88.
“Her service work within the College and University,” Dean Barnes said, “ ... has been constant, tangible, heartfelt and, most of all, effective.”
ROBERT J. FRENCH
Robert J. French, associate professor emeritus of geography, was instrumental in the establishment of the Department of Geography-Anthropology. Professor French began his career as a professor at Gorham State Teachers College, a predecessor institution of USM, in 1969 and continued to teach at USM until he retired in 1995.
During his last five years at USM, Professor French served as the co-coordinator of the Maine Geographic Alliance, a program funded by the National Geographic Society to provide outreach to geography educators and to update approaches to the geography curriculum in lower grades. The program has played an important role in maintaining momentum for geography as a discipline on Maine campuses.
His publications, which he has continued to produce since his retirement, have focused on cartography and on the importance of place in image building, as in the success of L.L. Bean. His record of presentations demonstrates his commitment to the New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geography Association conference and the Maine Humanities Council’s Norumbega Outreach Series.
His grant awards reflect his long-term interest, dating back to the 1970s, in Historical Archaeology, and French participated in excavations at Castine, Fort Hill in Gorham, Brightwater Garrison in Phippsburg and Mosher Island in Casco Bay, among others. Another strong interest of his was in historical cartography, and he established a substantial cartographic collection for the department. Professor French also served the department as chair from 1980 to 1982.
After retirement, he put into practice the environmental ethic he’d taught throughout his career by building a solar-powered house on land that he placed in wild lands managed by the Georges River Land Trust.
Since his retirement, Professor French continued to serve USM and his discipline by serving as guest curator for the 2001 Osher Map Library exhibit “Road Maps: The American Way” and remains active with the Osher Associates.
In the words of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, “as a teacher and a scholar, Professor French earned the greatest respect from his colleagues.”
SALLIE C. NEALAND
Sallie C. Nealand, assistant professor emerita of nursing, has taught at USM since 1980. Throughout her years at USM, she demonstrated her dedication to helping nurses reach their educational goals.
Midway through her career at USM, in 1992, Professor Nealand earned her doctorate at Vanderbilt University and returned to USM to coordinate the RN to BS program offered at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College. She played a major part in the success of this program, for which she recruited, taught and advised registered nurses returning to school to earn baccalaureate degrees.
She developed an open house for prospective RN students in the LA area during the fall of 1992 and managed a database of more than 150 students in the RN to BS and MS programs. Her efforts ensured that applicants to the program received full credit for their professional experience and enjoyed a rich baccalaureate experience.
In addition to teaching clinical labs and community health clinics, Professor Nealand taught interdisciplinary courses such as Cancer and Society and emerged as a leader on the LAC campus in the integration of technology into the curriculum, offering a nursing research course through LAC’s Web site. Over the past year, Nealand also served as a mentor for the new nursing faculty at LAC and helped develop the BS Nursing Program for non-nurses at LAC.
Before moving to the LAC campus, she served for several years as assistant dean then associate dean for the undergraduate nursing program in the College of Nursing and Health Professions in the early to mid-1980s. She also served on the advisory committee for USM’s Center for Teaching and on a number of search committees.
After moving to the LAC campus, she joined in the planning process for the master’s program in Occupational Therapy in 1992, then served as acting director of the program during 1997 while chairing the search committee for the next director. She shepherded the program through the challenging transition between two directors, with the result that the program remained stable and continued its accredited status.
Above all, Professor Nealand served her students and their learning process, her dean said. “Sallie is well loved by all her fellow faculty and staff as well as students,” Dean of LAC Betty Robinson said. “She will be sorely missed!”
Members of the campus community and public who need more information on USM’s Commencement should call 780-5106.
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