Award winners from left, Alvarez, Stocks, and Swafford.
The Teacher Education Division of the College of Education at Delta State University recently hosted the 30th Annual Conference of the American Council on Rural Special Education in Memphis titled "Unfinished Portraits: Envisioning an Inclusive Society for Individuals with Disabilities."
More than 100 special educators and related service personnel from all over the country from as far away as Alaska, attended the conference to share information about educating individuals with disabilities in rural settings.
Dr. Vicki Hartley, Elaine Lambert, and Dr. Maud Kuykendall, faculty members in the special education program at Delta State headed the local planning committee for the conference. In this role, they secured as keynote speakers Stephan Hamlin-Smith, associate director of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and Tanya Bradley, bureau director for Monitoring and Technical Assistance at the Mississippi Department of Education. Hartley is in her second year as a board member and the secretary of the ACRES Board of Directors.
Dr. Ann Lotven, provost at Delta State opened the conference with a welcome and an overview of the educational challenges in the Delta Region. Lotven has been an active member of ACRES in previous years. Two Delta State teacher education candidates, Mallie Lawrence and Tronica Lawrence participated in a panel on parent issues in disability services. Megan Cunningham, a special education teacher with a B.S. and M.Ed. in special education from Delta State also participated on the panel. Twelve faculty members and graduate students from Delta State presented research at the conference.
Three award winners at the conference had Delta State connections. Sonya Swafford, adjunct instructor in special education at Delta State University accepted the Special Educator of the Year Award. Amanda Stocks, a doctoral candidate at Delta State, accepted the Exemplary Rural Special Education Program Award in CATEGORY 1: Preservice/Inservice Training on behalf of Rankin County Schools Summer Differentiated Instruction Conference. Tracy Alvarez, who has a B.S. in speech and hearing sciences and a M.Ed. in special education from Delta State, accepted the Exemplary Rural Special Education Program Award in CATEGORY 2: Infant and Early Childhood Intervention on behalf of Project RUN Early Intervention Program based out of North Mississippi Regional Center.
