Contact: Lisa Sollie

MERIDIAN, Miss.—A Mississippi State University-Meridian assistant professor of educational leadership will serve as keynote speaker for a national conference in early April.

Penny Wallin will give the featured address during the National Field Experience Conference in Ruston, Louisiana April 5-6. The purpose of the conference is to share information, practices, policies and research pertaining to teacher candidates’ experiences in school settings.

Wallin currently serves as executive director for the Mississippi Alliance for Arts in Education and is on the community action team with the John F. Kennedy Center’s Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child Meridian site. That project will develop a comprehensive arts integration strategic plan to impact children pre-K through 8th grade in the Meridian Public School District with arts education.

Wallin holds degrees from Rider University, Harvard University and the University of Southern Mississippi. She was among the first educators in the U.S. to receive National Board Certification, and she has worked in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida and Mississippi as a teacher, teaching artist, principal, curriculum director, clinical professor and district superintendent.

She is the author of more than 15 articles and publications, as well as three MSU education courses: Integrating Drama in K-8 Classrooms, Brain-friendly Classroom Management, and Educating for Diversity.           

In 2004, Wallin was named Mississippi's Outstanding Administrator of the Year for her work with arts in education, and in 2012 she organized Mississippi's Imagination Conversation in partnership with the Lincoln Center Institute. MSU also honored her in 2013 at the Faculty Annual Awards and Recognition Forum for her work in educational leadership and arts in education. 

For more information about education degree opportunities available at MSU-Meridian visit www.meridian.msstate.edu