Five Education Alum Honored on Graduate School's 100th Anniversary

Book cover - Changing the World: Stories Celebrating 100 Years of Graduate Education at The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin's Graduate School is celebrating its 100th anniversary and in honor of the milestone, a commemorative anniversary book was created to spotlight some of the university's graduate alumni who have spent their lives making a difference.

The book, titled "Changing the World: Stories Celebrating 100 Years of Graduate Education at The University of Texas at Austin" profiles 100 alumni, including five remarkable individuals from the College of Education – Ada Anderson, Shirley Bird Perry, Teresa Lozano Long, Walter Bumphus and Alice Kuhn.

The spotlighted graduates are philanthropists, civil rights advocates, education supporters and administrators, and community leaders – and each is deeply appreciative of the contributions that the College of Education made to their many successes.

"The Graduate School is not a collection of dates, offices, buildings, numbers of graduates, or national rankings of its degree programs," wrote Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Victoria Rodriguez in the book's foreword. "Rather it is the story of its graduates – those men and women who pursued their dreams and earned master's and doctoral degrees from the university."

Dr. Teresa Lozano Long

A lifelong supporter of the arts, education, health and the celebration of Latino culture, Dr. Teresa Lozano Long was the first Hispanic ever to obtain a doctorate in health and physical education from The University of Texas at Austin's College of Education.

Well-known around Texas for their generosity, she and her husband Joe created the Long Foundation in Austin to support Texas programs that help children and young adults improve their economic and social potential, as well as programs for the visual and performing arts.

In 2000, the Longs gave The University of Texas at Austin a $10 million endowment to support what is now called the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and, with their contribution of $20 million, the Longs became the lead donors for the renovation of Austin’s Palmer Auditorium (now named the Joe R. and Teresa L. Long Center for the Performing Arts). In 2008, the Longs donated $25 million to establish the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Scholarship, Research and Teaching Fund at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Among the largest cash gifts in UT System history, the Fund includes permanent endowments for the research of diabetes and other diseases that are widespread in South Texas.

Dr. Long has served on dozens of boards and committees around the state and across the country, including Presidential appointments to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Council on the Arts. In recognition of her generosity and leadership, Long has been named a Distinguished Texas Exes Hispanic Alum, a University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus, has been inducted in the College of Education's Department of Kinesiology and Health Education Hall of Honor, and, along with her husband, is a recipient of the Texas Medal of Arts Award.

Ada Anderson

An influential Austin civil rights advocate, Ada Collins Anderson was the first African American to enroll in The University of Texas at Austin's Graduate School of Library Science and obtained her master's degree in educational psychology from the university's College of Education in 1965.

In 1953 Ada Anderson helped found the Austin chapter of Jack and Jill of America, a social and recreational civic organization for youth, and later formed a coalition of Austin pastors, university professors and others that became the genesis of the Austin Human Relations Commission. During the 1960s, this commission worked to change city regulations and open Austin hotels, schools and businesses to all people.

Anderson also worked as a teacher and psychometrist in Austin, assisted the Austin Community College Board and The University of Texas at Austin, and served on the board of the Laguna Gloria Art Museum for 15 years. She was a founding member of the Austin Lyric Opera, and in 1989 initiated creation of the Leadership Enrichment Arts Program, which offers low-income and minority youth a chance to experience the performing and visual arts. An avid supporter of education, Anderson is a longstanding member of the College of Education's Foundation Advisory Council.

She has been honored with numerous civic awards, including election to the Texas Black Women’s Hall of Fame, a leadership award from the Austin Chamber of Commerce Business Committee on the Arts and a commemorative resolution adopted by the Texas House of Representatives in 2005.

“When my parents were young,” says Anderson, “a public education was not provided to African Americans. My great-grandfather built a school, bought the furniture and textbooks, hired a teacher and paid her salary just so there would be a place for African American children to learn. He and others like President Lyndon Johnson – who I’d kiss if he were here – did so much to make my life easier.

“My thesis in educational psychology was titled ‘Race and Ethnic Origin as a Determinant of Acceptability for Employment in Austin’ and, coincidentally, I completed it on the same day that President Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act. In the years after that I’d reflect on how people held the door open for me, strangers were polite to me and the white individuals I encountered behaved very normally towards me. I’d think, ‘Haven’t they always done that?’ The answer was no, of course they hadn’t. Somebody sacrificed, stuck their neck out and did what was hard in order to make life better for me and many others.”

Alice Kuhn

Alice Kuhn, who received a master's degree from the College of Education in 1983, and her husband Michael created the Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation to fund organizations that benefit those who historically have been denied access to social influence, economic power and resources. The Foundation offers funding that benefits low-income individuals; addresses institutions, laws and policies that perpetuate poverty; and operates at the community level, with strong roots in Austin.

Reflecting Alice's deep commitment to education, the Foundation also includes educational programs that encourage and enable students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to stay in school and go on to obtain a college degree. The University of Texas at Austin's Summer Scholars Program is one such program that is funded by the Kuhns' generosity. Established to help motivated, bright Texas high school students who are in the top 10 percent of their class and who have everything that it takes to succeed in college but the financial resources, the Program fully pays for each student’s university experience. The university covers tuition, fees, and program expenses, while housing and meal expenses are funded by philanthropic donations.

A primary goal of the program is to ensure that the students are nurtured and made to feel they are part of a true learning community. They join in research projects with tenured faculty, receive individualized tutoring and academic counseling, attend academic workshops, and bond with one another socially.

Like many participants in the Summer Scholars Program, Alice and her husband were first-generation college students. Given that perspective, plus their families’ Russian and Hungarian immigrant backgrounds, both recognize the value of attending college. “If you give someone a good education, he or she can live out their aspirations,” says Alice. “A good education can’t be taken away.”

Shirley Bird Perry

Shirley Bird Perry, who obtained a master’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education, has devoted over four decades of her adult life to higher education, most recently serving as Senior Vice President at UT-Austin. In that capacity, she has been responsible for overseeing the President's fund-raising efforts and maintaining momentum in contacts with potential donors, coordinating the President's program of community visits around the state and working with the University's Center for American History to create a better historical record of the University. She is a member of the Vice President's Council and the University Leadership Council.

Before joining The University of Texas at Austin as Senior Vice President, Perry was Vice Chancellor for Development and External Relations with the UT System from 1992 until 2004. In that position she directed fund-raising operations, public affairs activities, management of estates and trusts, event planning and special services.

Prior to that, she was Vice President for Development and University Relations under University of Texas at Austin Presidents Peter T. Flawn and William H. Cunningham. In 1979, Dr. Flawn appointed her as Assistant to the President and Coordinator of the University's Centennial Observance, which culminated in 1983. Perry was promoted to Vice President and Coordinator of Centennial Programs in 1981.

A fifth generation Texan, she joined the UT-Austin administration immediately after graduation from the university in 1958, working first as program director and then as director of the Texas Union. Her service to The University of Texas at Austin and UT System has been interrupted only twice since then, when she was a teacher in California from 1959 to 1960, and was Coordinator of Educational Programs and Services with the Association of College Union-International from 1976 to 1979.

Perry received the Marvin D. (Swede) Johnson Award in State Relations for her contributions in the areas of public affairs and governmental relations and was the first woman to be elected to the Association of College Unions-International’s executive committee. She also was the first woman to serve as president of the organization and received the association's highest recognition, the Butts-Whiting Award. Perry was the first woman to receive that award.

A Life Member of the Texas Exes, she received the organization's Top Hand Award in 1984. The Parents' Association presented its Award of Distinction to her in 1992, and the Texas Union named a special student recognition award in her honor - theShirley Bird Perry Leadership Award. In 2003, she was named a Woman of Power by the Austin Business Journal, and in 2005, she received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Texas Exes.

Perry serves as an advisory director of JPMorgan Chase Bank in Austin. Her past corporate board memberships include service on the boards of directors of Southwestern Public Service Company and Lomas and Nettleton Mortgage Investors.

Dr. Walter Bumphus

Dr. Bumphus, who is chair of the College of Education's Department of Educational Administration, received his doctorate in educational administration from The University of Texas at Austin's Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) and has been selected to be the next president/CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).

In his capacity as AACC president, Bumphus will lead a national organization of more than 1,200 regionally accredited public two-year colleges, the largest and fastest growing sector of higher education.

Bumphus’ extensive professional experience includes more than 38years as a top-level educational administrator, community college leader, system chancellor and successful business executive. He served as president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS), and in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Bumphus received considerable praise for leading a recovery effort that included creation of a call center to re-establish critical internal and external communications, as well as the location of temporary offices for the affected institutions. Working with his leadership team, he set up channels to ensure that both students and displaced employees received assistance after the storms.

During his professional career, he has consulted at more than 85 community colleges and universities and garnered numerous national accolades, including the Marie Y. Martin CEO of the Year award from the Association of Community College Trustees, the National Initiative for Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development International Leadership Award. He also has received distinguished graduate awards from both Murray State University and The University of Texas at Austin.