Dr. Keith Verner, Chief of the Division of Development Pediatrics and Learning, College of Medicine, is the 2001 recipient of the Award for Faculty Outreach.

The Outreach Award recognizes faculty members who extend the intellectual expertise and resources of the University through teaching, research and service to address the social, civic, economic and environmental issues and opportunities facing our Commonwealth, nation and world.  The award was established in 1998 by the Provost and the Vice President for Outreach and Cooperative Extension and the Faculty Senate Committee on Outreach.

The Division of Development Pediatrics and Learning was created at the College of Medicine to support and expand the interdisciplinary outreach activities Verner has initiated.  These activities include the Center for Science and Health Education (CSHE) through which Verner supports school districts through needs assessment, teacher in-service education, grant-writing to improve school science laboratories, and research and development of complete student activity modules.  The largest CSHE program, the Elementary School Science Centers, now involves over 23,000 K-6 students and more than 1,300 K-6 teachers from 31 school districts.

Verner also encourages his faculty members and professional colleagues to join in outreach activities including in-class lectures, e-mail exchanges with high school classrooms, annual middle school symposium presentations and instruction in the Governor’s Institute of Life Science Educators, which he founded in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and directs. 

Verner recently established the Biology of Learning Development (BOLD) initiative which unites Penn State faculty members from the College of Medicine and other colleges, and representatives from the public school community, including superintendents, to bring the latest advances and solutions from biomedical research into normal learning directly to school children throughout the state.