School of Education

School of Education Alumni Picking Up Awards at Cream and Crimson Weekend

Recipients Selected for Career Achievements, Service

Monday, June 9, 2008

The Indiana University Alumni Association is honoring two alums from the School of Education over the annual Cream and Crimson Alumni Weekend on June 13-15. A School of Education alum will receive IU’s highest alumni award; another is among those the IUAA has selected for its highest alumni volunteer honor.

Joseph J. Russell, M.A. ’68, Ph.D. ’71, former dean of Afro-American Affairs, is one of five selected for the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Service Award. The award is the university’s highest honor reserved solely for IU alumni. It recognizes outstanding career achievements and significant contributions benefiting the recipient’s community, state, and nation, or IU.

Russell was an integral part of creating the IU African-Affairs American Studies Program, the Minority Achievers Program, the Strategic Hiring Program, and the African American Arts Institute. He was the first executive director of the National Council for Black Studies, a position he held for 16 years.

The award will be presented during the award recognition dinner on Saturday, June 14, in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union. More about Russell and the other recipients is available at http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/8255.html.

On Friday night, June 13, the IUAA will present its highest awards for alumni volunteers. The awards banquet notes alumni chapters for service to IU and local communities.

Paula A. Griesel, M.A. ’67, a retired elementary school teacher, is a President’s Award recipient. Griesel , who also earned a Reading Specialist Certificate in 1982 from the School of Education, taught reading for many years in Lake, Porter, and Monroe Counties. She is a noted advocate for children, particularly special-needs or at-risk students. Griesel now lives in Alabama.

Further information on the President’s Awards is at http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/8357.html?emailID=8357.