2019-20 Faculty Awards

Ji Hong
Henry Daniel Rinsland Memorial Award for Excellence in Educational Research

This year’s recipient, Ji Hong, has served on the Department of Educational Psychology faculty since 2007.

She has demonstrated excellence in educational research in a single, long-impact project over time. Her research investigates an important area in teacher professional development: teacher identity and development for both in-service teachers and pre­service teachers. In Oklahoma and other areas where there is a high shortage of teachers and a lack of teacher professional development, her research is particularly noteworthy and meaningful.

Along the line of teacher professional development, she has engaged in a systematic program of studies that were built upon one another exploring various issues and constructs, including teacher's motivation, resilience, attrition and identity development over time.

Rockey Robbins
President’s Associates Second Century Professorship

Robbins is a Choctaw-Cherokee Professor of Professional Counseling. He excels in all areas of academic responsibility – research, teaching and service – which he combines meaningfully and seamlessly, each aspect richly informing the others.

Robbins is an internationally recognized expert on Native American issues and counseling psychology, particularly relating to culturally appropriate psychological assessment, developing American Indian treatment models and techniques based on traditional American Indian ideas and practices, Native American spirituality and psychology, and group interventions.

His scholarly work is described by colleagues as “the best in his domain,” and he is in high demand as a keynote speaker, having delivered nearly 50 keynote addresses at national conferences, tribal complexes, reservations and universities such as Dartmouth, Columbia and Boston University.

Robbins’ teaching and mentoring has powerfully and positively impacted many students’ lives, especially students from marginalized groups. He is devoted to supporting Indian students on campus, and to developing and supporting mentoring systems to support them.

Mirelsie Velázquez
Rainbolt Family Endowed Education Presidential Professorship

Velázquez is an assistant professor and graduate program liaison in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Her scholarship, integrated within and across teaching, research and service, and anchored by and lived through principles of justice and equity, advances the aspirational ideals and virtues of the Rainbolt Family Endowed Presidential Professorship.

Velázquez engages students in knowledge and knowing in and outside of classrooms. Her pedagogical engagement exposes students to frameworks, questions and experiences that enable them to understand how structural conditions in society, communities and schools reinforce inequitable and unjust social orders.

Velázquez is active in Women’s and Gender Studies, the Center for Social Justice, and Latinx student groups. Nationally, she works extensively to provide access and opportunities for graduate students of color through the McNair Research Program and through her leadership in the History of Education Society.