{"id":206622,"date":"2011-06-08T09:40:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T13:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=206622"},"modified":"2023-11-06T09:42:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T14:42:19","slug":"neag-alumni-society-recognizes-outstanding-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/06\/neag-alumni-society-recognizes-outstanding-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Neag Alumni Society Recognizes Outstanding Alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Neag School of Education Alumni Society and the faculty of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.education.uconn.edu\/\">Neag School of Education<\/a>\u00a0recently held its 13th Annual Awards Dinner and recognized outstanding alumni.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis evening was memorable as faculty and alumni gathered to formally recognize the achievements of some of our outstanding graduates,\u201d said Dr. Tom DeFranco, dean of the Neag School of Education. \u201cOur award recipients are educators who have made significant contributions across all levels of education. We know that you will agree with our outstanding selection of alumni to honor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Distinguished Alumnus<\/strong>\u00a0is Ms. Fran Mainella, B.S. \u201869, visiting scholar with Clemson University\u2019s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. Prior to that, she had a 40-year park and recreation career culminating as director of the U.S. Department of Interior\u2019s National Parks Service.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Outstanding Higher Education Professional<\/strong>\u00a0is Dr. Jean A. Wihbey, Ph.D., \u201902, provost with the Palm Beach State College, Palm Beach Gardens, FL.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Outstanding School Administrator<\/strong>\u00a0is Mr. W. Kurt Telford, B.S., \u201979, principal with West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, NC.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Outstanding School Educator<\/strong>\u00a0is Ms. Rachel L. Buck, B.S. \u201901, M.A. \u201902, math teacher with the Connecticut IB Academy, East Hartford, CT.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Outstanding Kinesiology Professional<\/strong>\u00a0is Dr. Heather Gibson, M.A., \u201989, Ph.D, \u201994, associate professor in the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management at the University of Florida and an associate director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute in Gainesville, FL.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Outstanding Physical Therapy Professional\u00a0<\/strong>is Ms. Sidway A. McKay, B.S. \u201985, physical therapist with the Concentra Medical Centers in Denver, CO and lecturer\/adjunct faculty member with the University of Colorado, School of Medicine\u2019s Physical Therapy Program.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Outstanding Professional<\/strong>\u00a0is Dr. Diana L. Payne, Ph.D. \u201807, assistant professor and education coordinator with Connecticut Sea Grant, in Groton, CT.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the Neag School of Education or the Neag Alumni Society, visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.education.uconn.edu\/\">www.education.uconn.edu<\/a>. To visit a photo album from the event, click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.10150175373886765.302508.54435971764&amp;l=f1e252c0b8\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Neag School of Education Alumni Society and the faculty of the\u00a0Neag School of Education\u00a0recently held its 13th Annual Awards Dinner and recognized outstanding alumni. \u201cThis evening was memorable as faculty and alumni gathered to formally recognize the achievements of some of our outstanding graduates,\u201d said Dr. Tom DeFranco, dean of the Neag School of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":206623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1879],"class_list":["post-206622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 16:55:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206624,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206622\/revisions\/206624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/206623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206622"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206622"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}