Distinguished Professor

Dr. Jeanette Parker

The primary goal of education is to help all children realize their optimal intellectual, creative, and social potentials, enabling them to become productive citizens in our society and to live rich, fulfilling lives. In order for America's future leaders to reach these ideals, teachers must recognize and believe in their own potentials, must model professionalism and scholarship, must value and demonstrate respect for all kinds of diversity, and must advocate for their students. It is therefore the responsibility of all teacher preparation programs to provide opportunities for their candidates to master the subject matter that they will teach and the strategies by which they can most effectively impart the necessary cognitive and affective learnings to their students. During my 25 years in higher education, I have endeavored to impact the College of Education's accomplishment of these goals.

In my early years at the University, I developed Louisiana's first graduate program in Education of the Gifted and established the state's only resource center dedicated to the education of our academically and creatively talented youth. Through the Center for Gifted Education, one of only about 20 such centers in the nation, we have provided a variety of services in the area of gifted education, including several summer programs for academically and creatively talented students. For the last four years of my career at UL Lafayette, I was privileged to serve as PK-16+ Coordinator, collaborating with university and district colleagues to redesign all programs in the College of Education. If I could choose a legacy from my 25 years at the University, I would hope to be remembered for helping all teachers to meet the philosophical ideals of leaving no child behind.

Vita