Southeastern Louisiana University

Doctoral fellow selected for DOE internship

Contact: Christina Chapple

4/30/09

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     Meyers left April 26 for the nation’s capital, where she will spend the month of May working in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development Performance Information.

     An 18-year veteran of the Livingston Parish school system, Meyers is currently on a one-year leave from her position as an English and graphic design/animation teacher at French Settlement High School as she pursues her doctoral degree in educational leadership.

     As the only fulltime fellow in the approximately three-year-old doctoral program offered by Southeastern in consortium with the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Meyers has been working on a variety of projects in the College of Education and Human Development and has served as an administrative intern at Walker High School.

     Having completed her doctoral coursework, she will return to the classroom next year as she works on her dissertation with an eye on obtaining her doctoral degree in May 2010.

     Since she has a particular interest in policy development and data analysis, Meyers said she is “absolutely thrilled” about the internship, through which she will help plan a national educational data summit to be staged later this summer.

     “We are so very fortunate to have someone of Mrs. Meyer’s caliber to represent the university and our college through a prestigious internship, one of only 12 of its kind issued nationally,” said Diane Allen, dean of the College of Education and Human Development.

     “For Southeastern’s doctoral program to have a student recognized on the national level says a lot about this university – and about her,” added Michael D. Richardson, head of the Department of Educational Leadership and Technology, who worked with Meyers to obtain the prestigious internship. “At Southeastern we thought it was very important that we do what we could to help Beth realize her ambitions, her dreams, and her goals in working in the policy area. What better way to do that than in Washington, D.C.?”

     “I have always used data in the classroom to understand students and track and improve their performance,” Meyers said. Her mentors in the Southeastern doctoral program, she said, “have really offered me every opportunity to learn about policy, data and research.”

     “My ultimate goal, my ‘wish upon a star’ dream, is to start a policy institute in Louisiana to study education,” said Meyers, who is also a Teacher Consultant in the Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project and was one of 40 teachers nationwide selected in 2007 to participate in the Toyota International Teacher Program.

     Her interest in policy has prompted Meyer to frequently attend meetings of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, as well as legislative sessions. “One of the things that I hear when I go into these meeting is requests for information,” she said. The policy institute, she said, would be a source for “solid research information that they can base policy on, a way of being proactive, rather than reactive.”

     “I am passionate about Louisiana and its potential to be just incredible,” Meyers said.