University News
Smith-Skripps Receives Distinguished Alumni Award
May 17, 2007
MACOMB, IL -- Western Illinois University College of Education and Human Services (COEHS) Dean Bonnie Smith-Skripps recently was named the Carl Sandburg College 2007 Distinguished Alumna. Smith-Skripps was recognized at Sandburg's graduation ceremony May 10.
Smith-Skripps graduated from Carl Sandburg College in 1971 with as associate of arts degree, before transferring to Western where she earned her bachelor's, master's and education specialist degrees. Smith-Skripps earned a Ph.D. in educational administration from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
She was named COEHS dean in June 2004, after serving as the college's interim dean for three years. As the College of Education and Human Services dean, she is responsible for the overall leadership and management. Her duties include faculty recruitment, development and evaluation as well as program development and review. She also has taken an active role in fundraising and developing several external partnerships. Smith-Skripps has served as chair of the University Teacher Education Committee and oversees the accreditation process of Western's teacher education program.
During her tenure at WIU, she has spearheaded the development and delivery of the college's first distance master's degree program. Through a collaborative effort with the United States Department of Education Star Schools Program and the Pacific Region Educational Laboratory, the college offered a hybrid (online with two face-to-face instructional segments) instructional technology and telecommunications (ITT) master's degree program to educational leaders on 10 islands in the Pacific Region.
Her national leadership includes chairmanship of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) Technology in Teaching Committee. She is currently serving her second term as chair of the United Star Distance Learning Consortium, a multi-state initiative to provide quality secondary instruction and professional development through distance delivery to P-12 schools across the country. Since 1993 she has co-chaired the planning committee for the annual Illinois Education and Technology Conference. She is also a member of the governor's Homeland Security Task Force.
Prior to being named acting dean in December 2001, Smith-Skripps served the college as assistant and associate dean from 1995 to 2001. From 1980 to 1995 she served as the coordinator of Macomb Projects (now called The Center for Best Practices in Early Childhood Education) and director of special projects in the college. She has worked at Western since 1975. Prior to entering administrative positions, she taught in the department of English and Journalism from 1975 to 1979.
Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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