USU Professor Participates In Inaugural Professor Lecture Series

Utah State University professor of reading and associate department head Parker Fawson presented his Inaugural Professor Lecture Jan. 22 in a presentation titled “Twenty Years Ago, I Knew Everything.”

 

Parker received a bachelor’s in elementary education from Weber State University, a master’s of education in educational leadership and a doctorate of education in reading from Brigham Young University. Prior to his academic career, he was a classroom teacher in 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th grades.

 

Besides his classroom teaching, Fawson has experience working with teachers of struggling readers in high poverty settings, including elementary schools in both urban and rural environments. In addition to being professor of reading and associate department head at USU’s school of teacher education and leadership, Fawson currently coordinates global initiatives in education for the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. As part of this effort, he has received university and foundation funding to support student and faculty travel to New Zealand, Chile, Philippines, Mozambique and soon to Rwanda where international educational partnerships are being nurtured and supported.

 

Fawson also has provided professional service to national reading organizations where he has been the reading coordinator for the Utah Council of the International Reading Association and the president and vice president of the Central Utah Reading Council. Fawson has served on the national board of directors for the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers and currently serves as editor of the organization’s peered reviewed international research journal Literacy Research and Instruction.

 

The Inaugural Professor Lecture Series is coordinated by the provost’s office and is hosted by President Stan Albrecht and First Lady Joyce Albrecht. Faculty members in the series have been promoted to full professor within the last academic year and present a lecture that highlights their research, creative activity or teaching at the university.