Schumaker
Jean Bragg Schumaker, ’68, received
the 2004 Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni
of more than 15 years for outstanding contributions to and achievements in
a career field.
Schumaker is co-founder and associate director of the Center for Research on Learning (CRL) at the University of Kansas, where she also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Special Education and a senior research scientist. Characterized by a colleague as "an internationally recognized scholar of the highest caliber and one of the leading researchers in the field of learning disabilities," she received her master's degree and doctorate in development and child psychology from the University of Kansas and was trained as a somatic experiencing practitioner in trauma therapy by the Ergos Institute. She has been principal investigator of research grants and contracts totaling nearly $60 million and has produced numerous journal articles, book chapters, instructional manuals for classroom teachers, and books, including the co-edited Teaching Every Adolescent Every Day: Learning in Diverse High School Classrooms. In addition, she founded the International Training Network (ITN), whose trainers teach educators throughout the world to use the scientifically based instructional practices developed by the CRL, and Edge Enterprises, an educational research and publishing organization. Her honors include election to the University of Kansas Women's Hall of Fame and the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Learning Disabilities. A guest editor of the Journal of Behavioral Education, she has served on the editorial boards of her field's other leading journals and is a past president of the Division of Learning Disabilities.
Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2004