Andrianopoulos Earns CHC Terrence Murray Professorship
The Murray Professorship supports faculty in developing innovative courses and programs for Honors students.
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Mary Andrianopoulos, professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences, has been named the Terrence Murray Commonwealth Honors College Professor. The two-year award was approved by the UMass Board of Trustees on June 9.
Awarded through a competitive application process, the Murray Professorship supports distinguished faculty in developing innovative courses and programs for students in the 3100-member Commonwealth Honors College at UMass Amherst.
Andrianopoulos' research focus is on using operational metrics to identify and quantify the most salient and confirmatory signs and symptoms (red flags and diagnostic markers) that are supportive of underlying motor speech programming, planning, and motor execution problems in children with neurodevelopmental differences, such as autism, Down syndrome, childhood apraxia of speech, and childhood dysarthria. She is co-author of the test battery, Language Neutral Assessment of Motor Speech (LAMS), which is currently on contract and undergoing standardization by Academic Therapy Publishers. The LAMS is a play-based, motor speech assessment to differentially diagnose motor speech disorders in young, hard-to-test children and those with severe disabilities who are non-verbal or minimally verbal. Andrianopoulos is also principle investigator and director for Project iPREP, an Interdisciplinary Preparation of Related-Service Professionals in Evidence-Based Practices, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
With the professorship, Andrianopoulos will conduct research using a mixed methods research model to identify the current state and challenges of existing mentoring models on campus as perceived by Honors Program Directors (HPD), Honors students, and faculty mentors. Andrianopoulos believes that the outcomes of her research will identify those experiences that enhance Honors students’ active learning and thesis experiences while concurrently supporting and expanding the faculty mentors’ and HPDs’ mentoring opportunities on discipline specific content.
“The Murray Professorship is timely for me since I have been very active supporting both undergraduate and graduate students in research,” notes Andrianopoulos. “To date, I have engaged, chaired, and advised 40 honors students completing research for their honors thesis in my lab.”
Andrianopoulos also served as HPD for the department of speech, language, and hearing sciences for the past 12 years. She understands firsthand the challenges that faculty face trying to enhance the educational experience for undergraduate students while fulfilling their role as academicians, researchers, and mentors. Andrianopoulos believes she is well positioned to contribute to the mission of the Commonwealth Honors College through the Murray Professorship. She believes her research will identify those practices and advising models that nurture and invigorate the honors mentoring processes, yet others lead to less effective practices and outcomes for both the student and faculty mentor.
The Murray Professorship was established in 2003 with a $1 million gift from FleetBoston Financial Foundation in recognition of Terrence Murray, former chairman of FleetBoston Financial Corporation, now Bank of America.