USDLA Holds 2004 Annual Distance Learning Awards Ceremony Including Induction of Hall of Fame Candidates and Eagle Award Presentation

Business Wire, Oct 12, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) 2004 Annual Awards Ceremony was held today in San Francisco, CA in conjunction with the Fall Training and Online Learning Conference, the premier conference for USDLA and the distance learning industry.

The USDLA Awards were presented to distance learning professionals and organizations for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching, Excellence in Distance Learning Programming and Outstanding Individual Achievements. The annual Awards Program was created to acknowledge major accomplishments in distance learning and to highlight those instructors, programs, and distance learning professionals who have achieved excellence in the field. This year's winners cover a broad spectrum of educational expertise from new approaches to collaborative learning and include the following recipients.

EXCELLENCE in DISTANCE LEARNING TEACHING/Higher Education to Dr. Rebecca Weintraub, Director of the Center for Corporate and Community Education at the USC Annenberg School of Communications, Los Angeles, California.

EXCELLENCE in DISTANCE LEARNING TEACHING/Pre K-12 Education to Charles A. Thorpe, Instructor for Spanish at the Kansas Regents Educational Communications Center, Manhattan, Kansas.

EXCELLENCE IN DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMMING/Higher Education for the Master of Science in Education Program at the Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois in collaboration with LessonLab/ Pearson Skylight.

EXCELLENCE IN DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMMING/Government for the Air Force Institute for Advanced Distributed Learning at Maxwell Air Force Base.

EXCELLENCE in DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMMING/Pre K-12 Education: Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, a not-for-profit organization, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

EXCELLENCE IN DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMMING/Telehealth: University of Texas's Medical Branch Telehealth Center. The UT Medical Branch Teleheath Center, in Galveston, Texas.

EXCELLENCE IN DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMMING/Corporate: Reynolds University/The Reynolds and Reynolds Company in Dayton, Ohio.

MOST OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT BY AN INDIVIDUAL/Pre-K-12 Education to Dr. Elvira Bitsoi Largie, Executive Director of the Navajo Education Technology Consortium, Gallup, New Mexico.

MOST OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT BY AN INDIVIDUAL/Telehealth: Jana L. Lindsey, RN, CMC, Shriners Hospital for Children, Kaneohe, Hawaii.

In addition to this year's distance learning award winners, USDLA honored Senator Robert F. Bennett with its 2004 Eagle Award and inducted six outstanding distance learning pioneers into the USDLA Hall of Fame. USDLA honored Senator Bennett in appreciation of his long-standing support for educational technology and his consistent congressional voice related to distance learning education and training initiatives in the United States.

This year's outstanding distance learning pioneers inducted into the USDLA Hall of Fame included Glenn R. Jones, Chancellor, J.D., Jones International University, Englewood, CO; Jack Wilson, Ph.D., President, The University of Massachusetts System; Boston, MA; James E. Vautrot, President and CEO, BAF Satellite and Technology Corporation, Melbourne, FL; Mary Beth Susman, Ph.D. Director of Education Services, Rocky Mountain PBS, Denver, CO; A. Frank Mayadas, Ph.D., Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, New York, NY; and Fred Poker, Managing Consultant, IBM Business Consulting Services, Potomac, MD.

About USDLA

The United States Distance Learning Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 to promote the development and application of distance learning for education and training. USDLA represents 2000 members from pre-K through 12 education and higher education, continuing education, corporate, military and government training, home schooling and telemedicine. USDLA is a leading source of information and policy for distance learning that focuses on all legislation impacting the distance learning community and its varied constituencies. Since 1993 USDLA has continued to establish state chapters in all fifty states. For more information about USDLA visit the organization's website at www.usdla.org. or call 800.275.1562