Barbara Pavel-Alvarez, a visiting lecturer in West Virginia Universitys Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences, has been named the Outstanding College and University Professional in Family and Consumer Sciences by the West Virginia Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Pavel-Alvarez, who was honored at the organizations annual meeting March 25-27, teaches courses in child development and family studies in the Davis Colleges Division of Family and Consumer Sciences. She is instructor for”Families Across the Lifespan,”“Early Childhood Education”and”Marriage and the Family.”

“It has been our good fortune to have Barbara as a member of our division,”said Director Jan Yeager.”Although she is a part-time faculty member, we continually turn to her for more and more contributions. She responds by willingly sharing her time, talents and intellect.”

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Pavel-Alvarez is spearheading the development of a distance education program in child development. It consists of seven online courses that will assist Title I paraprofessionals to meet the mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act. The program is also designed to appeal to nontraditional students, who may use the courses as an Area of Emphasis in the Regents Bachelor of Arts degree program.

Pavel-Alvarez introduced a Web-based section of”Families Across the Lifespan”this semester in collaboration with the WVU Extended Learning program. The pilot course attracted 24 students, including two from out of state. Based upon the early success of this offering, the Division and Extended Learning have developed the online area of emphasis for paraprofessionals working in public schools, day care centers or other settings such as Head Start programs. Course offerings will begin officially in the fall of 2004.

Pavel-Alvarez graduated from WVU with a bachelors degree in 1973 and a masters degree in home economics education in 1987. A Fairmont resident, she has taught courses in human development and consumer economics at Fairmont State College.