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Hendrix Grad Receives UA’s Outstanding Alumni Award in Education

CONWAY, Ark. (March 25, 2014) – Hendrix alumnus Dr. Jerry Robbins of Ann Arbor, Mich., recently received the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions Outstanding Alumni Award in Education.

The awards honor alumni of the college for exceptional professional and personal achievements and extraordinary distinction in their fields.

Robbins, a 1960 Hendrix graduate and mathematics major, earned a master’s degree in education in 1963 and a doctorate in education in 1966. He began his career as a mathematics and music teacher in Clinton, Ark., served as a high school principal in Missouri. He moved on to teaching on the college level and went on to work for 25 years as the dean of colleges of education at three universities, retiring in 2004 as Dean of the College of Education of Eastern Michigan University, the nation’s largest producer of educational personnel at the time, according to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. He was previously education dean at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Georgia State University.

His education honors including winning the AACTE Volunteer Service Award in 2005. He has held many offices in professional associations and led three institutions through six successful reviews by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. He has written extensively about educational leadership and other education topics and done community volunteer work in education and music.

Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the sixth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country’s “Up and Coming” liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report.  Hendrix is featured in the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges, as well as the 2014 Princeton Review’s The Best 378 Colleges, Forbes magazine's list of America's Top Colleges, and the 2014 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu