Texas Woman's Magazine - Fall 2022

QWorking for the
Super Win-win
What role does COPE play in the
broader community?
College of Professional Education
students are learning how to become
excellent educators and pillars of
their communities. We’re working
to graduate more Texas teachers for
> LISA HUFFMAN, PH.D.,
College of Professional
Education Dean
COPE Dean Lisa Huffman aims to erase
Texas teacher shortages and child-care deserts
students ages 3-18. We’re focused on
supporting our local families through
education, providing access to mental
health services, offering family
counseling services and developing
community leaders.
First, we lead an early STEAMthinking
camp (Science, Technology,
Engineering, Art, Mathematics) for
young children that reaches across
the state. We call it Digital Days
Summer Camp, and it’s led by faculty
from the department of Literacy and
Learning and master’s students in
early childhood education. They’re
integrating learning, retention and
focused-based coursework with
STEAM applications for young children,
their parents and teachers.
We offer a mental-health clinic
that provides our communities with
affordable resources. Our Counseling
and Family Therapy Clinic, a part of
COPE’s Human Development, Family
Studies, and Counseling department,
also provides our graduate students
with clinical opportunities.
And we work with rural libraries
across Texas to ensure equal access to
print and digital information. In many
rural communities, the library is the
only source of reliable internet.
What early-childhood education
challenges are we facing as a state?
As a state, we must invest in earlychildhood
education, which focuses on
preparing teachers for pre-kindergarten
through third-grade classrooms.
We have child-care deserts. We have
families and parents who can’t find care.
At TWU we offer a number of programs
preparing the early-childhood-educator
workforce for every corner of society.
We offer a variety of flexible and fullyonline
undergraduate and graduate
degree programs.
We’ve all seen the dire headlines about
the K-12 teacher shortage. But what
can be done?
It costs a lot of money to become a
teacher. There are a number of broad
factors contributing to the teacher
shortage, and that’s why we’re working
to remove every obstacle to becoming
a teacher that we can.
Our students are often nontraditional,
and they’re entering TWU
— or maybe returning to college — to
receive an education at an average age
of 28. They’re typically parents; they
care for their children; and they may
be caring for other family members.
We find that a lot of students have
to step out of the program and save
money for their in-classroom student
teaching experience and certification
exams. Student teaching is required
by the state, along with mandatory
certification exams, which may total
thousands of dollars.
My goal is to find a way to cover
the costs associated with becoming a
certified teacher from coursework
to graduation.
What is your biggest “reach” goal
as dean of COPE?
Going back to early-childhood
education and child-care deserts, I’d
like to have early learning centers on
each of our campuses.
We’re a woman-focused, Hispanic-
Serving Institution with the most
diverse student body in Texas and
the fourth-most diverse student
body in the nation, according to U.S.
News & World Report.
Early learning centers would provide
our students access to high-quality
teaching experience in the classroom.
So the children benefit, TWU
students benefit and the state benefits.
I call it a super win-win.
TEXAS WOMAN’S 5