FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 30, 2008 Contact: Joshua Hollis (662) 329-7119 Bean receives Kossen Faculty Excellence Award at MUW COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Suzanne Bean, former director of the Roger F. Wicker Center for Creative Learning, and professor of education, recently received the Connie and Tom Kossen Faculty Excellence Award at Mississippi University for Women. Bean was awarded $5,000 for this honor, which recognizes the role of faculty as the heart of the university. The award was established in 2004 by Tom and Connie Kossen, a 1964 alumna of MUW. Criterion for the award is based on three fundamentals: excellence in teaching, excellence in scholarly or artistic achievement and excellence in service, preferably both on campus and in communities throughout MUW’s service area. “Receiving the Kossen Award of Excellence is such an honor to me because of the support shown from my colleagues at MUW,” said Bean. For the past 27 years, Bean has served 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 has served as director of graduate studies and coordinator of graduate programs in education at MUW. In the past four years, she has brought more than $5 million grant monies to MUW. She has co-authored seven books and has had numerous publications in professional journals. She has co-authored a textbook for teachers of gifted students, “Methods and Materials for Teaching the Gifted.” Bean is on the Editorial Review Board for Gifted Child Quarterly and the Journal for Secondary Gifted Education. Dr. Bean also has co-authored numerous grants and was the lead author of the grant that established the Roger F. Wicker Center for Creative Learning. For the past two decades, she has made numerous presentations at the state, regional and national levels. She served as president of the Mississippi Association for Gifted Children and she is currently serving as chairperson for the Advisory Board for the organization. Her dissertation and continued research has been in the area of developing leadership potential in children and adults. She also completed the Leadership Mississippi program sponsored by the Mississippi Economic Council. Bean recently was granted emeriti status. “The W has been such a wonderful place for me to grow professionally and I feel blessed to have been a part of the teaching, research, and service offered by MUW,” she said.