Pam Kiser, professor of human services, has been named Watts-Thompson Professor at Elon University. Kiser will succeed Janie Brown, chair of the health and human performance department, who is retiring this month.
The Watts-Thompson professorship was established by a bequest from James Eugene Watts, a 1928 graduate of Elon, and his wife, Thelma Thompson Watts. Watts, an Anson County, N.C., native, was one of eight siblings to attend Elon. His sister, Jo Watts Williams, former vice president of development, now serves as special assistant to the president. The endowment is designated for the promotion of quality teaching and instruction at Elon.
Kiser joined the Elon faculty in 1981 and has served as chair of the department of human services since 1992. She has served as field coordinator for human services, supervising student internships and service-learning projects. She has been an active member of several university committees, including the Academic Council, the Civic Engagement Committee and the Phi Beta Kappa Committee. She assisted in founding the Sigma chapter of Alpha Delta Omega, the national honor society for human service education, at Elon.
Kiser was one of the faculty leaders involved in the founding of Elon’s service-learning efforts in the early 1990s. She has served as a Kernodle Service-Learning Faculty Development Fellow, leading faculty development efforts related to service-learning and acting as a liaison between the faculty and the Kernodle Center for Service-Learning. She has led workshops on service-learning for Elon faculty and staff and local elementary school teachers. In recognition of her expertise in service-learning, she was awarded a 2004-2006 Project Interweave grant and was a finalist for the National Campus Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning in 2004.
In 2000, Kiser published a book titled, “Getting the Most from your Human Service Internship: Learning from Experience,” which is used at more than 40 U.S. colleges and universities. Kiser and collaborator Cynthia Fair completed a Carnegie-funded study on the effectiveness of a field-based learning model Kiser developed to help students make a meaningful connection between learning and experience.
Her commitment to her field of study extends beyond the classroom. Kiser has served on the board of directors of the Crossroads Sexual Assault Response Center in Burlington and the Alamance County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council.