Educational Leadership Honors Alumnae

The Center for Research and Doctoral Studies in Educational Leadership recognized two alumnae Wednesday evening during a reception for the women’s education-related works.

Nadine Kujawa (second from left) received the Excellence in Educational Leadership Award for 2004 on Wednesday. Also pictured are (from left) Theodore Creighton, Beverly Irby and Genevieve Brown, dean of the College of Education and Applied Sciences.

Nadine Kujawa was presented the Excellence in Educational Leadership Award for 2004 from the University Council for Educational Administration.

Kujawa, who received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from SHSU in 1962, is the superintendent for the Aldine Independent School District. She also received her Master of Education degree from the University of Houston.

“This year we were asked to nominate an educator who has meant a lot to school children all over the state; someone who has really supported education,” said Beverly Irby, department of education leadership and counseling chair.

“We had to nominate a leader, and when we thought about a leader we thought about someone who has taught children, who has cared about children, and we thought about someone who has really mentored young principals and teachers and students,” Irby said. “We thought about Nadine Kujawa.”

Kujawa will also be honored at the UCEA national convention later this year.

“It’s a pleasure to accept this award, but this award has to be accepted for all of those people who made such an impression on me and all of you, because leaders are only the end result of everyone they come in contact with, whether it’s professors, teachers,” Kujawa said.

Doctoral graduate Lauren Black with Jack Staggs, who presented her the Jack Staggs Dissertation Award.

Professor emeritus Jack Staggs, who taught in the educational leadership department and also served as dean of the College of Education and Applied Sciences, presented Lauren Black with the 2003 Jack Staggs Dissertation Award.

“Years ago when we started this program, I decided I should set up a fund to recognize the individual who submits the best dissertation in a calendar year,” Staggs said.

The award is given every year to the author of the dissertation that has been most successfully defended, according to Theodore Creighton, professor and director for the Center for Research and Doctoral Studies in Educational Leadership.

“We put them through a pretty rigorous competition,” he said.

Black’s dissertation involved the development and validity of the principal efficacy scale. She received her doctorate in 2003 and is now the principal of Cypress-Fairbanks High School.

“This is the most challenging, yet rewarding part of the doctoral program,” Staggs said. “Some of them complete it (the dissertation), and some of them do not.”

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
April 8, 2004
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