Release Date: July 6, 2009
KSU visual arts professor receives national recognition with award
For media inquiries: Cheryl Anderson Brown, Director of Public Relations,
770-499-3417 or cbrown@kennesaw.edu
 |
Diana Gregory |
KENNESAW, Ga.—Diana Gregory, an assistant professor and program coordinator of art education at Kennesaw State University, recently received the Southeast Regional Higher Education Art Educator of the Year award from the National Art Education Association. Last year, Gregory won the Southeastern Higher Education Art Educator award from the Georgia Art Education Association. Gregory was eligible for the honor after receiving the Higher Education Art Educator of the Year award from the Georgia Art Education Association.
Gregory has been a KSU member since 2000. She received a doctorate degree in art education from Florida State University and has additional degrees from North Georgia College & State University and the San Francisco Art Institute. She recently worked collaboratively with the other KSU art education in the creation of the university’s Master of Arts in Teaching Art, which was launched in June. Her professional training in art therapy has guided her work with children with exceptionalities and adults and children with traumatic brain injury. She has taught in a variety of settings including art galleries, school systems, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes. Her interests include creativity in a postmodern context and across the life span.
“As a teacher, I believe that I must creatively construct an environment that promotes the student’s natural tendency to grow, to learn and to prosper,” says Gregory. “Teaching, like learning, is a life-long process that depends on personal discovery, self-awareness, joy and continuing service to the community. To obtain self-knowledge is only half of the goal in life. The other half is to return to society the grace and creative power that I find within myself.”
The National Art Education Association is divided into six job-alike category divisions: elementary, secondary, middle level, higher education, supervision and administration, and museum education. The NAEA is also divided into four geographical regions: eastern, western, southeastern, and pacific. The southeast region consists of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Virgin Islands.
# # #
A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive, residential institution with a growing student population of more than 21,000 from 142 countries. The third-largest university in Georgia, Kennesaw State offers more than 65 graduate and undergraduate degrees, including new doctorates in education and business.
The KSU College of the Arts is one of only four Georgia institutions to have achieved full national accreditation for all of its arts programs.