The first lecture in the Shepherd University’s Faculty Research Forum will be held Thursday, Feb, 7 at 2 p.m. in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies auditorium and will feature “Voices of Native Resiliency: Educational Experiences during the 1950s and 1960s,” presented by Dr. Jennifer “Jenny” L. Penland, assistant professor of education.

Penland will examine the educational experiences of American Indians who grew up during the 1950s and 1960s known as the termination period in American history. Through these stories the need for culturally responsive pedagogical curriculum and instruction will be evident.

Penland received her doctoral degree in educational leadership with an emphasis in higher education and multicultural studies from Lamar University in Beaumont, Tex. She was an associate professor with Western Wyoming Community College, a director of programs at Texas A & M University-Commerce, an assistant professor and supervisor at Dickinson State University in North Dakota, a science and social studies instructor at Lamar University, a middle school teacher in Texas and Colorado and a curriculum coordinator and training consultant for Region 5 Education Service Center in Texas.

Penland has made presentations, nationally and internationally, and has been published in “The Journal of Mentoring and Tutoring,” “The National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision,” “E-Learn,” “The Qualitative Report,” “Social Advocacy and Systems Change,” “Fourth World Journal” and “Sage Reference.”

Other Shepherd Faculty Research Forums topics to be presented this spring are “Isidore: His Life and Times” presented by Dr. Walter K. Hanak, emeritus professor of history, on Wednesday, March 6 at noon, and “The Amazing Perceptual Trait Synesthesia: What It Is, and What Psychological Science Can Tell Us About It” presented by Dr. Christopher Lovelace, assistant professor psychology, on Wednesday, April 3 at 2 p.m.

For more information about the Shepherd Faculty Research Forum, visit www.shepherd.edu/aaweb/frf/.