West Virginia University’s College of Education and Human Services will honor its 2014 Hall of Fame recipients on Friday, Oct. 10, in a ceremony at the Museum Education Center (the former Erickson Alumni Center) from 4-6 p.m. Hall of Fame inductees are individuals with a record of outstanding achievements and who have contributed in a significant way to the vision and mission of the college. The college began giving the awards in 2004, and they are sponsored by the college’s Visiting Committee.

Chosen for Hall of Fame induction are Pamela Balch of Buckhannon; Mary Ellen Burris of Rochester, New York; J. Joe Evans of Glenville; Dr. Thomas P. Lombardi of Morgantown; Donald P. Louda of Aliso Viejo, California; and Kathryn C. Vecellio of Palm Beach, Florida. Dean Lynne Schrum will give a welcome. Biographical narratives and awards will be presented by Committee Chair Anne Nardi.

Also selected to receive the college’s 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award, Balch received her Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction in 1977. She is currently president of West Virginia Wesleyan College. Under her leadership, West Virginia Wesleyan was listed as a first-tier college in the Southeast for the last two years in the online U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges Guide. Wesleyan has had more Appalachian College Association Scholarship recipients than any college or university over the past five years and 11 Fulbright Scholars in the past six years. An advocate for science education, Balch worked with the Wesleyan Board of Trustees and faculty to establish an $8.9 million-, 23,000-square-foot research center at the Christopher Hall of Science.

Born in West Virginia, Burris is senior vice president of consumer affairs for Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., in Rochester, New York. She graduated from the college in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in education. Throughout her career, she has been recognized for her dedication to Wegmans consumers and maintaining quality assurance. Currently, Burris serves on the Dean’s Advisory Committee for the University of Rochester Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development. She also serves on the Healthi Kids Policy Team of the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, which focuses on helping children have healthy food to eat and active play.

Evans earned his doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the college in 1976. Nominated for the award because of his total dedication to science education throughout the state of West Virginia, Evans has participated and continues to participate in several education initiatives. Evans set out to reform science education early on. Under his guidance, the West Virginia Department of Education developed the workshops that continue to this day to educate the state’s middle and high school science teachers on chemical safety. He was recently appointed to the leadership team for the adoption of the Next Generation of Science Standards, which were created by the National Research Council and the National Science Teachers Association to develop a framework for the scientific curricula taught in public schools around the country.

Lombardi, now a professor emeritus at the college, taught in the Department of Special Education from 1971 to 2002. Upon starting his career at WVU, he worked with the West Virginia Department of Education to establish the state standards for a teaching certificate for specific learning disabilities. His research on the Dean’s Grant led to the development of special education curricula still taught today in the college’s Benedum Collaborative Five-Year Teacher Education Program. Lombardi recently established a $50,000 scholarship in the name of his wife, Estelle Lombardi, to be granted to students majoring in special education.

Louda conducted his post-doctoral studies at the college from 1969 to 1970. It was there that he began to conceptualize his ideas of teaching technology education as part of the general curriculum in public schools. His philosophies and teachings on technology and engineering education have touched thousands of students in public universities. Today, he is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of technology education.

Kathryn Cottrill Vecellio is a West Virginia native who graduated from WVU with a bachelor of science in biological sciences/secondary education in 1971 and a master of art in guidance and counseling in 1972. Although she still has a home in West Virginia, Vecellio has been a resident of Palm Beach County since 1979 and has worked as an organizer, fundraiser, and development volunteer for many community, charitable, and educational organizations in that area and throughout the country for more than 40 years. Following in her parents’ spirit of philanthropy, Kathryn has established a reputation as a “hands-on” volunteer.

Recently, she chaired the Palm Beach Heart Ball and raised a record-breaking $2.48 million, making it the most successful Heart Ball in the nation. She also has served as a trustee for many organizations, including Palm Beach Atlantic University, Palm Beach Community College Foundation, Norton Museum of Art, St. Mary’s Hospital, Intra-Coastal Health Systems, Benjamin School, the Center for Children in Crisis, and the Center for Family Services. Additionally, she served for 14 years on the visiting committee for WVU’s College of Education and Human Resources. She is currently serving as a trustee on the National Board for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (which awards more than $60 million per year for research to further its mission to eradicate blood diseases), the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, The Kravis Center for Performing Arts, the Schepens Eye Research Institute, and the Vecellio Family Foundation. She also serves on the Cleveland Clinic Florida Health and Wellness Center Leadership Board, the American Heart Association Palm Beach County Market Board of Directors, and the National Development Committee for NSDAR.

With a lifetime of work volunteering and many years of full-time community service, Vecellio’s honors and distinctions are many and include “Florida’s Finest Award for Community Service” – Gov. Lawton Chiles, “Women in Leadership Award” – Executive Women of the Palm Beaches, “The William Booth Society Award” – Salvation Army, “Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser Award” – Association of Fundraising Professionals, “Women of Distinction Award” – Palm Beach Atlantic University, to name but a few.

Vecellio and her husband of 39 years, Leo, and their two sons own the Vecellio Group, Inc., which has been one of the nation’s top 400 contractors since 1938. Their Family Foundation has supported 344 students with a total of $2.9 million scholarship dollars and has donated $6.3 million to the needs of many West Virginia and Florida organizations, charities, communities, and schools.

A dynamic volunteer, activist, educator, and fundraiser, Vecellio has continued to be loyal to WVU. She has funded the Dr. Clarence C. and Maxine D. Cottrill General Dentistry Endowment for Continuing Education and the Cottrill Dental School Scholarship in honor of her parents, as well as the Kathryn C. Vecellio CEHS. In addition, the Vecellio Family Foundation has donated funds to various other CEHS projects, most notably the Allen Hall Speech Clinic.

Complete awardee biographies may be viewed at: http://cehs.wvu.edu/awards/hof/archive/2014

For more information, please contact Christie Zachary at (304) 293-0224 or Christie.Zachary@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

cz/9/5/14

CONTACT: Christie Zachary, Director of Marketing and Communication, College of Education and Human Services
Phone: 304-293-0224, Christie.Zachary@mail.wvu.edu

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