UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Education has a new endowed professorship that will benefit two departments within the college, thanks to a generous gift from Wayne K. and Anita Woolfolk Hoy.
The first holder of the Wayne K. and Anita Woolfolk Hoy Professorship in Education will be in the Educational Leadership program. Upon retirement or departure of that individual, the next holder will be in the Educational Psychology program.
Upon retirement/departure of that professorship holder, the professorship will revert back to Educational Leadership. The professorship will continue to alternate in this manner.
Through Wayne’s tenure as an endowed chair at Ohio State University, he experienced the value of an endowment for recruiting and supporting talented faculty. “We wanted to provide such an opportunity for Penn State to maintain and enhance their exceptional programs in our two favorite fields,” he said.
“We are grateful to Wayne and Anita for endowing the professorship,” said Dean David Monk. “This endowed professorship will help us to recruit an experienced scholar of the highest caliber, which ultimately benefits our students.”
Wayne is a graduate of the educational administration doctoral program at Penn State, and although Anita received her doctorate from the University of Texas, she always has admired the Penn State Educational Psychology Program.
The unique alternating homes of the endowment reflect their academic careers. Both are professors, Wayne of educational administration and Anita of educational psychology. “Over our careers we have worked together integrating knowledge from the two fields in our research and textbooks, for example, our book on Instructional Leadership with Pearson. Our joint research on teacher and collective efficacy and on academic optimism is grounded in administrative theory and educational psychology. We value both fields and wanted to support them equally,” Wayne said.
“Over the years we have enjoyed working with Dean David Monk; we respect his leadership and value his vision for education as well as his friendship,” Anita added.
Both Wayne and Anita are Life Members of the Penn State Alumni Association. Wayne also received the Penn State Meritorious Research Award in 1991 and the Penn State Alumni Fellow Award in 1996.
Penn State’s alumni and friends are invaluable partners in fulfilling the University’s land-grant mission of education, research and service. Private gifts from alumni and friends enrich the experiences of students both in and out of the classroom, expand the research and teaching capacity of our faculty, enhance the University’s ability to recruit and retain top students and faculty, and help to ensure that students from every economic background have access to a Penn State education. The University’s colleges and campuses are now enlisting the support of alumni and friends to advance a range of unit-specific initiatives.