Shane Jimerson from UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School recently was honored by Indiana University, being selected to receive the 2012 Leadership and Advocacy Award and present the first Ronda C. Talley Lecture. This lecture on April 18 also launched the 2012 School Psychology Future(s) Conference, and featured a live online broadcast.
During this presentation, Dr. Jimerson highlighted the importance of leadership, advocacy, and science informing educational practice and also advancing understanding of critical issues aimed towards helping students and staff in the school context.
“Advocacy is an essential element to enhance student outcomes,” Jimerson highlights. “School psychologists have an opportunity to provide essential leadership and advocacy in their efforts to bridge the confluence of science/practice/policy in order to promote the social and cognitive competence of all students.”
The Talley Lecture Series emphasizes the promotion of school psychologists’ work in advocacy and policy. The new lectureship and a future chair are being established in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology at Indiana University’s School of Education thanks to a generous estate gift from Ronda C. Talley, a 1979 Ph.D. graduate of the school. A nationally recognized leader in the field of educational psychology, Talley is a professor of psychology at Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Jimerson currently serves as president of Division 16 for the American Psychological Association, and has extensive international experience in the area of school psychology. His research has provided insights regarding developmental pathways of school success and failure, the efficacy of early prevention and intervention programs (grade retention among others), school psychology internationally, developmental psychopathology, and school crisis prevention and intervention. He is a professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology.