Columbus Native to Give Commencement Address at The University of Texas College of Education - May 11th. 2009

Long-time College of Education supporter and adviser Elizabeth Shatto Massey with Dean Manuel Justiz

Elizabeth Shatto Massey will give the commencement address to the 2009 graduating class of the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin. The ceremony will be held May 22nd beginning at 12pm in the Gregory Gymnasium on the UT-Austin campus.

Born and raised in her beloved Columbus, TX, Elizabeth Anne Shatto Massey graduated from Columbus High School in 1957. In 2005 she was named a Distinguished Alumnus, the first woman to ever receive this award from Columbus High School. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education in 1961, the same year she married her hometown sweetheart, John Massey. During her time on campus, Mrs. Massey was a Littlefield Dormitory Advisor; member of the Orange Jackets; treasurer of the Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society; scholarship chair, vice president, and most outstanding graduating senior award winner for Pi Beta Phi; and a Sweetheart of the University nominee.

Mrs. Massey has remained actively involved with her Alma Mater and in many respects has never left the 40 Acres. A Texas Exes Life Member, she currently serves on the Texas Exes Board of Directors, is Chair-Elect of The University of Texas at Austin’s Development Board, co-chair of UT Austin’s Campaign for Texas, and a member of the Executive Committee of the UT System’s Chancellors Council. A member of the College of Education Foundation Advisory Council since 1997, she recently completed a three-year term as Chair during which the College’s national ranking rose to its current position as 3rd among public colleges of education in the nation. She and John are benefactors of the Elizabeth Shatto Massey Scholarship in Education, the Hill Bank and Trust Endowed Educational Fund, and the Elizabeth Shatto Massey Endowed Chair in Education.

The College of Education is the most highly ranked college or school on The University of Texas at Austin campus for the second year in a row among the graduate programs that receive yearly qualitative and quantitative rankings by U.S. News & World Report. The College ranks third in the nation among public colleges and schools of education and seventh in the nation overall, tied withJohns Hopkins, Northwestern University, University of California-Berkley and University of Wisconsin-Madison. This year’s rankings position the College of Education in a top-10 category that includes Harvard, Stanford University, Columbia, Vanderbilt and UCLA. This is the highest ranking the College of Education has ever achieved.

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910