ARPE News

ARPE associate professor honored by Association of California Community College Administrators for his work to help administrators advance racial equity.

The San Diego State University College of Education salutes two longtime professors who will retire this summer. Dr. Anne Graves, professor and former chair of the Department of Special Education, and Dr. Caren Sax, professor and chair of the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education (ARPE) both made significant impacts on their departments and our college.

Assistant Professor Marissa Vasquez and Professor Frank Harris III in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education are among 12 recipients of San Diego State University's Faculty Forward Awards, recognizing their agility and dedication to student support during the COVID-19 pandemic. The honor, presented by Faculty Advancement and Student Success and the Center for Teaching and Learning, celebrates the extraordinary dedication, collaboration and innovation of faculty offering courses virtually in fall 2020.

As the semester draws to a close, the San Diego State University College of Education bids a fond farewell to three longtime members of the COE family. Dr. Marilee Bresciani Ludvik, professor of postsecondary educational leadership; Dr. Jacki Booth, lecturer and study abroad coordinator in the Department of Child and Family Development (CFD); and Sylvia Hernandez, credential analyst in the Office of Student Success (OSS); will be retiring from SDSU at the end of the year. 

For Dr. Sylvia Garcia-Navarrete (’91, ’12), awards season is apparently in full swing. The lecturer in San Diego State University’s Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education (ARPE) received two major honors recognizing her achievements and dedication to her home community in San Diego’s South Bay area.

Tears were flowing as Dr. Marissa Vasquez read the acceptance letter. The assistant professor in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education (ARPE) learned last month that she was named to the Faculty Fellows of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE). It’s a great honor and opportunity bestowed by an organization that once helped instill Vasquez’s belief that she could become a professor. But that wasn’t the reason for her tears.

Dr. Melo-Jean Yap acutely remembers the feelings of isolation she felt as young a woman of color studying biology — a discipline that is often very white and very male. The presumptions of incompetence she faced from faculty and peers, and the imposter syndrome that fed, still feel fresh.

Dr. Charles Degeneffe made researching and teaching about traumatic brain injury rehabilitation his life’s work in part because he was fascinated by the perilously thin line between professional and client.