Distinguished Alumni Honorees
Alumnus of the Year Award
J. Daniel House (2009)
J. Daniel House received his bachelor's degree in psychology in 1978, and a master's degree in experimental psychology in 1980 from Illinois State. He completed a Ph.D. at the University of Iowa (Iowa City) in 1985 in educational psychology with a focus on instructional technology and measurement statistics. Since 1987, Dr. House has been on staff at Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, Ill.) in the Office of Institutional Research. In 1994, Dr. House was promoted to Director of Institutional Research, a position he currently holds. He has been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Educational Technology, and for several summers managed to find time to teach workshops in advanced statistical methods for higher education at UCLA.
Dan has been prolific in the field of scholarly productivity. His vita lists over 75 papers and presentations to regional, state, national, and international organizations. Over 125 publications have appeared in reputable journals including Education, Journal of School Psychology, Psychological Reports, Journal of Genetic Psychology, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Journal of College Student Development, and several others.
Dan also finds time to keep himself busy outside of work. He is accomplished in tae kwon do, and holds a black belt. In summer 2009, he won the heavyweight division at a national tournament in Texas. He also participated in the National Senior Olympics in California and finished in the top ten in his age group in the high jump and javelin.
Notable is that Dan is originally from Normal and is a graduate of Metcalf Laboratory School and Normal Community High School. During his time at Illinois State, he was a high jumper and a member of Illinois State's men's track team. Dan currently resides in DeKalb, Ill. with his wife Cathy. They have two children: Lindsay and Joe.
Kristofer Hagglund (2008)
Kristofer Hagglund received his B. A. in 1984 from Illinois State and his Ph.D. in Clinical (Medical) Psychology from the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 1990. Dr. Hagglund is the Associate Dean of the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he co-directs the Center for Health Policy, a research and policy-analysis organization committed to improving health care. He oversees projects funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health and the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City to increase health literacy, reduce health care disparities, and expand health-equity collaboration.
Kristofer and his wife, Lori, have been married for 27 years and live in Columbia, MO. In their spare time, they maintain a yard (attributed mostly to his wife) that has been certified as a wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. They have one daughter, Lindsey, who is married to husband Cory; they also live in Columbia.
Several accomplishments are notable in Dr. Hagglund's distinguished alumnus. He has authored over 50 peer reviewed publications, served as principal/co-investigator for over 25 grants/contracts, given over 40 invited presentations at national and state conferences, and co-edited a book in 2006, Handbook of Applied Disability and Rehabilitation Research, New York: Springer Publishing. Dr. Hagglund's research focus is on health policy. In addition to addressing programmatic and policy initiatives to improve health literacy and racial/ethnic health policy, Dr. Hagglund and his colleagues are currently evaluating access and quality of health care under the Missouri Medicaid program.
Robert Kaiser (2007)
Robert Kaiser received a B. S. in psychology in 1993 and an M. S. in industrial-organizational psychology in 1998. He lives in Greensboro, NC with is wife, Molly, and their children, Claire and Ben.
Rob Kaiser began his career at the Center for Creative Leadership. He joined Kaplan DeVries in 1997 to expand the firm's research and development capabilities. He was named a partner in the summer of 2005. Rob is a thought leader in the field of leadership. He has over 85 publications and presentations, ranging from scholarly journals to professional conferences and workshops to award-winning articles in the business press. His 2005 book, Filling the Leadership Pipeline, is a practical volume on building leadership bench strength throughout an organization. His latest book, co-authored with Bob Kaplan, is The Versatile Leader: Make the Most of Your Strengths—Without Overdoing It.
Rob provides assessment and coaching services for leaders and their teams. He has coached middle managers and executives in Fortune 100 business as well as the private sector. He specializes in helping high potentials transition to the executive suite.
Rob also provides a unique service of contract research to help organizations frame, study, and solve vexing leadership issues—from creating corporate leadership models to revamping assessment tools and systems to linking succession and development investments to strategic performance measures used to assess the top executives in major global corporations like Motorola, Unilever, Tyco Electronics, and ConAgra Foods.
James Johnson (2006)
After he earned his master's degree, Dr. Johnson worked as a Psychometrician for the Bloomington Public Schools and the Illinois Gifted Children's Project before starting his doctoral studies.
Dr. Johnson accepted a position as Assistant Professor of psychology in 1966 at Illinois State. He enjoyed the work so much that he taught for 36 years before retiring in 2002. However despite retiring, he continues to teach the department's Fundamentals of Psychology course.
Over his career, Dr. Johnson has received many awards. One in particular was the award for Outstanding Contributions to the Illinois Psychological Association (IPA). This award recognized Dr. Johnson's 17-year tenure as editor of the Illinois Psychologist (the official newsletter of the IPA. He also served as an IPA Council Representative, and Chair of both the Academic and School Sections of the IPA.
Jim was also active in the Illinois Counseling Association and the American Association for Counseling and Development. He was a charter member of the Illinois School Psychologists Association. His scholarly contributions include over 50 publications and presentations.
In his role as teacher/professor and as a fan of Redbird Athletics, Him has contributed to the University in many different ways. He has served as a tutor at the Athletic Study Center and has touched the lives and academic careers of many of Illinois State's athletes. Jim was recently honored as the recipient of the prestigious Stretch Miller Award, presented by the Athletic Department for outstanding contributions to Illinois State's Intercollegiate Athletic Program.
Further evidence of his impact on students included the Herb Sanders Award for Outstanding Academic Advisement in 2002. This award recognized Dr. Johnson's service as our department's Honors Coordinator for 15 years and as an advisor to the Student Psychology Association (SPA), Psi Chi (the national honor society for psychology), and as the faculty advisor to the Golden Key International Honor Society. Over the span of his teaching career, Jim was recognized a record six times as the SPA Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year. In 1999, Golden Key recognized Jim as the Advisor of the Year for this region.
Fred Dornback (2005)
Fred Dornback received his B. S. in 1962 and his M. S. in psychology/counseling in 1964 from Illinois State. His career in school psychology spanned over 40 years, both as a practitioner and administrator. Fred's career has been distinguished by the innovativeness of his work and his consistent mentoring of young professionals.
Fred was selected as one of six school psychologists to participate in the first National Department Education Act (NDEA) Institute. Two years later, Fred was chosen as one of 30 nationwide to attend the first NDEA Institute for only school psychologists. On a national level, Fred was one of the original founders of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). He created the organization's logo, which is still used today. Fred served as the first Regional Director for the local area and as the fourth NASP President (1973-74). He was also an Illinois State Board of Education Due Process Hearing Officer and assumed a leadership position. In addition, Fred's long career included supervising and mentoring school psychology interns from Illinois State.
Since his retirement from service in the public schools, Fred has become a Red Cross Disaster Mental Health worker, has run workshops for seniors in his community, and has served as a founding member of the Board of Directors and Board Secretary for the Living Well Cancer Resource Center. A dedicated supporter of Illinois State, Fred and his wife Mary, also an Illinois State alumnus, currently reside in the Chicago area.
Early Career Award
Michael Criss (2009)
Dr. Michael Criss earned his bachelor's degree in psychology in 1994 and a master's degree in developmental psychology in 1996 from Illinois State. He then went on to earn a Ph.D. in human development and family studies from Auburn University, Auburn, Ala. Dr. Criss is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla. His teaching assignments include Lifespan Human Development Parenting, and Adolescent Development in Family Contexts, Developmental Contexts of Normative Behavior Problems, and Advanced Research Methods in HDFS. His research interests include parenting, children's relationships with parents, siblings, and peers, antecedents of antisocial behavior, and child resilience.
Ara Schmitt (2008)
Ara Schmitt received is Ph.D. in School Psychology from Illinois State in 2001. He completed his post-doctoral residency at Phoenix Children's Hospital with Dr. David Wodrich, his mentor. Dr. Schmitt is an Assistant Professor of school psychology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Penn.
Prior to accepting his current position, Dr. Schmitt worked as a school psychologist at the Temple (AZ) Union High School District and the Gilbert (AZ) Unified School District. His notable accomplishments include co-authorship of a Gilford School Practioner Series book entitled Patterns of Learning Disorders: Working Systematically from Assessment to Intervention. Topically, the authors of these types of books are the most senior practitioners in the field of school psychology. Dr. Schmitt has also published in top school psych logy and neuropsychology journals, and has over 15 presentations at national and state conferences.
Dr. Schmitt's research interests include the assessment of empirically-validated interventions for learning disorders, and the manifestations of chronic illness and traumatic brain injuries. Based upon these research interests and his career accomplishments, Dr. Schmitt was selected to participate as an early career scholar in the School Psychology Collaboration Conference sponsored by the Society for the Study of School Psychology in March 2007. Dr. Schmitt has also become actively involved with professional service on the editorial board of the School Psychologist, the newsletter of the APA Division of School Psychology. He has also served as an ad hoc reviewer for Educational Measurement: Issues and Practices.
Brenda J. Lohman (2007)
Brenda Lohman earned her bachelor's degree from Augustana College in 1994, her master's degree in developmental psychology in 1996 from Illinois State, and her Ph.D. in human development and family science from The Ohio State University in 2000. Dr. Lohman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University. Brenda was chosen for the early career achievement award because she has amassed a strong scholarship record and was able to obtain a competitive position at a Research 1 University.
Dr. Lohman has secured over seven million dollars in external grant funding for her research in human development. Funding for her first grant came while she was a developmental graduate student at Illinois State. Her research interests include adolescent coping and conflict resolution, family-school connections, urban poverty and adolescent well-being, and child and family policy.
She has won numerous awards including Iowa State's VIESHA Outstanding Faculty Award in 2004, and the Society for Research on Adolescence Social Policy Award for Best Journal Article in 2004. She currently has more than 14 journal articles in print including two articles in the nationally-recognized Science journal. Dr. Lohman has presented over 40 papers at national and state conferences.
Tracy Cruise (2006)
Tracy Cruise received her bachelor's degree in 1991 from Southwest Missouri State University, and her master's degree in clinical psychology in 1994 and her Ph.D. in school psychology in 1998 from Illinois State University. Tracy distinguished herself in both her graduate programs in the classroom, her clinical work, and in her research and writing. She was also a class leader and a favorite with her classmates and faculty alike.
Dr. Cruise is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Western Illinois University in Macomb. She is affiliated with both the school and clinical psychology graduate programs, reflecting the academic roots of her graduate training.
Dr. Cruise has continued her writing and research in the area of child sexual abuse, authoring or co-authoring a number of refereed journal articles. Tracy co-authored a book with her Illinois State faculty mentor, Dr. Connie Horton, Child Abuse and Neglect: The School's Response, which was published by Guilford Publication. Also, in the area of child abuse and neglect, Dr. Cruise has authored or co-authored a number of book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and applied handouts for use by school psychologists who are working with teachers and parents. She has presented over 50 papers at national and state conferences.
Dr. Cruise has also developed a research interest in supervision issues. Tracy has been a leader in the planning of and serving as a trainer for the annual statewide workshops on effective supervisory practices for school psychology internship supervisors.
Dr. Cruise is the first graduate of our doctoral program in School Psychology who has been promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor and received tenure. Dr. Cruise's colleagues credit our department for educating such an effective and valued teacher, scholar, and department colleague. We take great pride in graduates like Tracy Cruise and our department is better because of them.
James LeBreton (2005)
James LeBreton received his B. S. in 1995 and his master's degree in industrial/organization psychology in 1997 from Illinois State, and his Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Tennessee in 2002. He is an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University, In 2006, he will join the faculty at Purdue University, as an Associate Professor.
In his relatively short academic career, Dr. LeBreton has generated an impressive research vitae. He has published several journal articles and book chapters, presented and chaired conference symposia, and consulted on a variety of federal grant projects. His interests in research methodology and personality psychology combine to fuel cutting-edge research on conditional reasoning methods for assessing aggressive and antisocial counterproductive work styles.
A Normal, Ill. native, James credits the Honors section of Introduction to Psychology taught by Dr. Macon Williams (professor emeritus of psychology) as a profound influence on the course of his education and career. James met his wife Beth (Gerace) LeBreton, counseling psychology, M. S., 1997, while they were in graduate school at Illinois State. James and Beth are the proud parents of a one-year old daughter, Maggie.