FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 22, 2007

MUW professor, two alumni honored by Girl Scouts

By Jill D. O’Bryant

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Mississippi University for Women professor Dr.
Suzanne Bean has been awarded the Girl Scouts of Northeast Mississippi
Tribute to Women Award in the education category for her involvement in
the organization for many years
.
MUW alumni Lee Edwards Alford ’92 of Columbus and Merlinda Oliver
’72 of Macon also were honored in the categories of volunteer community service and health and human services respectively.

“I appreciate Dr. Limbert nominating me for this award, and I am especially honored to have received it because the Girl Scout organization is one which helps to build the lives of strong, successful young women,” Bean said. “I believe in that purpose and have committed part of my time and energy to that purpose as well.”

Bean, who serves as director of the Roger F. Wicker Center for Creative
Learning and professor of education at MUW, has spent the last 28 years
working in the field of gifted studies as a teacher of gifted students, director of the Mississippi Governor’s School and founder and director of various other programs for gifted students and their teachers and parents.

She also has served as director of Graduate Studies and coordinator of
graduate programs in education at MUW.

Co-author of seven books, she also co-authored a textbook for teachers
of gifted students, has had numerous publications in professional journals and serves on the Editorial Review Board for “Gifted Child Quarterly” and “Journal for Secondary Gifted Education.”

A Girl Scout leader in Northeast Mississippi for the last seven years, Bean has donated several copies of books she has written for girls on leadership, inventing, entrepreneurship and adventures to the Girl Scout office in Columbus. She regularly conducts workshops on developing leadership potential in girls and young women and regularly volunteers as a book reader, reading tutor and science fair judge in area schools.

In 2005, the Center for Creative Learning and MUW’s Southern Women’s Institute partnered with Girl Scouts of Northeast Mississippi to host a special event call “Yes She Can!: The House that Jill Built.” Approximately 140 girls and their parents/leaders participated in the program about science, mathematics, leadership and women’s history. The featured speaker was Amy Wynn Pastor, one of the lead carpenters on the television show “Trading Spaces.”

“Not only is Dr. Bean a role model for girls because of all she has  accomplished as a professional woman while balancing being a wife and
mother of two, but she has done so much to encourage young girls through
her involvement with Girl Scouts, church activities and workshops she has conducted aimed at helping young women prepare themselves to be  strong, productive leaders in today’s society,” said Dr. Limbert in her nomination of Bean.

Bean has made many presentations at the state, regional and national
levels and has served as president of the Mississippi Association for
Gifted Children in which she currently serves as chairperson for the  Advisory Board. She is a member of the IHL Mississippi Educational
Research Group.

Her accomplishments and awards are numerous, including the textbook she
co-authored recently winning a Legacy Award for scholarly publications and receiving the 2006 Award of Excellence for her volunteer service to the Mississippi Association for Gifted Children.

“Dr. Bean is dedicated to enriching the lives of Mississippi’s young girls and helping them to develop into confident and self-award women through educational programming and mentoring,” said Dr. Sandra Jordan, provost and vice president for academic affairs.” The university community and residents of Northeast Mississippi are greatly enriched by Dr. Bean’s professionalism, energy and hard work.”