TROY, Ala. – Dr. Candice H. Howard, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotions at Troy University, is the 2005-2006 recipient of the Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching, the University’s most prestigious honor for faculty members.

Dr. Howard, a Troy resident, received the award during the University’s annual Honors Convocation held Monday night in the Claudia Crosby Theater.

The Ingalls Award is given annually to the teacher on the Troy Campus who has “most diligently, effectively and cheerfully conducted his or her classes during the current academic year.” Students nominate faculty members for the award, and a committee of students and faculty advisers selects the recipient.

Dr. Howard earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from TROY and her doctorate in Motor Development with an emphasis in Special Education from Auburn University.

Dr. Howard served as a graduate teaching assistant at both TROY and Auburn before joining the Troy University faculty as an adjunct instructor in 1999. She became a full-time member of the TROY faculty in 2003 as an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion.

Dr. Howard also previously served as director of community health education for the Southeast Alabama Area Health Education Center, Inc. in Troy, where she designed, planned and implemented programs to educate students and communities on healthy habits and disease prevention. She has served as a laboratory technician for Rehab Associates in Montgomery and wellness center assistant for Alabama River Pulp, Inc. in Perdue Hill, Ala.

In October, Dr. Howard led a group of eight Kinesiology and Health Promotion students from TROY to Waveland, Miss. where they delivered and distributed supplies donated to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Her students also have developed a Spring Festival for area pre-school and kindergarten programs.

In 2001-2003, Dr. Howard was honored by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System for Outstanding Financial Support through grant funding she obtained for Youth Career Summits. She also was successful in procuring grants for educational programs during her stint with the Southeast Alabama Area Health Education Center.

Dr. Howard has had articles published in numerous journals including Teaching Elementary Physical Education, Journal of Physical Education, Health, Recreation and Dance and the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. She also has made presentations for the International Society of Infant Studies, the National Association of Sport Psychology for Sport and Physical Activity and the Motor Development Research Consortium.

Dr. Howard chaired the University’s 2006 Helen Keller Lecture committee and is a member of VOICES for Alabama’s Children, the North American Society for Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, the American Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

Howard said receiving the Ingalls Award is tremendously rewarding because it is a student driven honor.

“Confucius describes the superior teacher as one who ‘leads his students and does not pull them along, urges them to go forward and does not suppress them and opens the way to them, but he does not take them to the place.’ I hope I lead, urge, and open doors for my students allowing them to learn along the way,” Dr. Howard said. “When we reach the point in which I can no longer take them, I hope then I have made a lasting impression as a teacher and they are able to further the process of education by making impressions on others.”

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