Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the School of Education at University of Michigan, has received the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award from the Michigan State University College of Education Alumni Association.
She will be honored for her influential efforts to transform mathematics teaching and to improve how the nation prepares teachers during an Awards Reception on April 9, 2010 at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing. She was nominated by Carole Ames, dean of the MSU College of Education.
Ball began her pioneering work on the mathematical knowledge needed for effective teaching (MKT) as a graduate student and then faculty member in the MSU College of Education, from which she has three degrees. She has drawn on 13 years experience as an elementary teacher and over $25 million in funded research to develop new understandings about math instruction to enhance student learning. Ball serves on many high-level panels that define policy and standards at the national level. She is known for building consensus, especially among educators and mathematicians, and she was the first education trustee at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. She also recently chaired the subgroup on teaching for the Presidential National Mathematics Advisory Panel.
Driven by a deep respect for the teaching profession, Ball contributes significantly to the national debate about restructuring teacher education and reflects those efforts through program changes at the U-M School of Education Colleagues say she has provided exemplary leadership and service to students as dean for the past five years, all the while continuing her own extensive scholarship. Ball is a featured speaker around the world, the author of over 100 publications and the recipient of the Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award for best article published in an AERA Journal. She was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Education in 2007 and, in 2008, received the Louise Hay Award for Contributions to Mathematics Education.