Thank you to each of our colleagues who are retiring this year for your exceptional contributions to the college. While we will miss you in our classes and on our teams, we wish you all a wonderful retirement. Good luck in your next adventure!
Tom Crumpler–School of Teaching and Learning
Crumpler is a professor of education in the School of Teaching and Learning (TCH). His research focuses on formative assessment in literacy, teacher identity, and process drama as a tool for learning. During his tenure as a faculty member, he directed the Borg Center for Reading and Literacy, The Reading Recovery Program, the doctoral program, and took on other leadership roles in TCH. A favorite experience of his time at Illinois State has been working with teacher interns through his TCH 209 courses, noting the rewards of seeing them develop their skills and preparing to make a difference in the lives of elementary students. Crumpler looks forward to a retirement filled with traveling, writing, and relaxing.
Lucille Eckrich–Department of Educational Administration and Foundations
Eckrich has served as a tenure line faculty member in the Department of Educational Administration and Foundations since 2001. She was heavily involved in urban education throughout her career at Illinois State, serving as part of the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline, Urban Needs in Teacher Education, the Urban Teacher Preparation Steering Committee, and the National Center for Urban Education. She has published and presented regularly on urban teacher preparation, student debt, and political economy and education. Lucille pointed to numerous fond memories in her career at Illinois State, including her involvement in the Restorative Practices pilot project, her interactions during service-learning/urban immersion trips with undergraduate students in foundations of education courses, and teaching a doctoral course on Political Economy and Education. In retirement she looks forward to more time with family and friends, while continuing her work as president of the Alliance For Just Money, a national not-for-profit organization she helped found in 2018.
Lynne Haeffele–Center for the Study of Education Policy
Haeffele has served as director of the Center for the Study of Education Policy (CSEP) since 2015. She has filled a variety of roles throughout her career, including science teacher at Bloomington High School, Illinois State Board of Education administrator, researcher at CSEP, and education policy director for Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon. Her research has primarily focused on P-20 education policy issues, and she has conducted a variety of program evaluation studies and strategic planning initiatives for state and regional organizations throughout her career. A favorite experience was directing the Illinois Best Practice School Study (2004-2006) to identify effective practices at high-poverty, high-performing schools and sharing those findings statewide to enact change. Time with family and friends is a priority of hers in retirement, as she looks forward to travelling to Texas to visit her two daughters and Wisconsin to see other family. She also plans to enjoy her time organizing family memorabilia.
Marcia Hickrod–Department of Educational Administration and Foundations
Hickrod started at Illinois State in 1966 as a faculty member in the English department. She became the coordinator of advisement for the College of Arts and Sciences in 1972 and started work on her Ph.D. at that time, earning it in 1980. She was charged with establishing an adult learning program by President Lloyd Watkins in 1990. A favorite accomplishment of hers is that the program grew to nearly 4,000 adult learners at its peak. Hickrod retired for the first time in 1993 and enjoyed traveling extensively in Europe and Scotland for a few years. Retirement didn’t stick, and she returned to campus in 1998, agreeing to work in the College Student Administration Personnel master’s program where she enjoyed serving as the students’ advisor and confidante. Having stayed on for several more years than originally anticipated, she now looks forward to travel (eventually) but will be content for a while to sleep late, do her crossword puzzles, and Zoom with friends and family.
Maribeth Lartz–Department of Special Education
Lartz is a professor in the Department of Special Education, teaching Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) language methods classes and supervising DHH language practicum students. She started at Illinois State in 1983 as a non-tenure track instructor teaching sign language classes and supervising student teachers. Her scholarship efforts have focused on increasing the quantity and quality of personnel to serve infants/toddlers who are D/deaf and hard of hearing and their families. She will always remember working side-by-side with ISU students on language development with deaf/hard of hearing students, as well as the monumental change when the Department of Special Education first moved to DeGarmo Hall in the early 1990s with the rest of the college. She knows it might be somewhat cliché, but now more than ever, she is looking forward to more time spent in retirement with her family, church, and community.
Kris Mason–National Board Resource Center
Mason is director of the National Board Resource Center (NBRC) at Illinois State. A National Board Certified Teacher, she taught for 23 years before moving into school administration at Dunlap #323 and Farmington #265 where she loved being a high school principal. Mason accepted the position of director at the NBRC after working there in several capacities over her many years as an educator. Her fondest memories include significantly growing the numbers of National Board Certified Teachers in the state and seeing the NBRC secure an additional $500,000 in funding. In retirement, she plans to move to Colorado for new adventures, including babysitting her new twin grandbabies.
