Three Women Faculty Members Honored With Awards From National Associations

Tammy Than, a professor of optometry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has been named the 2015 Optometric Educator of the Year by the American Optometric Association. She will be honored at the association’s annual meeting on June 24.

Dr. Than is a graduate of Waynesboro College in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in physical chemistry from West Virginia University and a doctor of optometry degree from the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee.

Stephanie Lusk, an assistant professor of rehabilitation education and research at the University of Arkansas, received the Rehabilitation Educator of the Year Award from the National Council on Rehabilitation Education. Dr. Lusk joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas in 2012 after teaching at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro.

Dr. Lusk holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in rehabilitation education and research from the University of Arkansas. She also holds a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from Arkansas State University.

Joan McDowd, a professor of psychology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, received the 2015 Rose Award for Philanthropy and Community Leadership from the American Stroke Foundation.

Dr. McDowd’s research focuses on attention and memory processes in the older population. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Toronto.