IN A CEREMONY AT THE STATE CAPITOL IN RICHMOND, GOV. MARK R. WARNER PRESENTED PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR JOANN GRAYSON WITH THE 2004 TIAA-CREF VIRGINIA OUTSTANDING FACULTY AWARD -- the commonwealth's highest honor for the faculty of Virginia's public and private colleges and universities.

"Receiving a TIAA-CREF Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award is the highest honor that a university professor can receive in this state," says JMU President Linwood H. Rose. "Joann Grayson personifies the scholar-teacher who is dedicated to her students and her academic discipline. This honor is a reflection of Dr. Grayson's great abilities and the quality of our university."

Grayson was one of 86 faculty members from 35 institutions nominated for the award and is the fifth JMU professor to win it since its inception in 1986. Grayson says, "I think it's wonderful for our department to be recognized, because it's very important for people to understand that you don't do
service-learning in a vacuum. The award really recognizes all of us -- the faculty, administration, students and the community we're striving to serve."

Grayson's interest in the study of psychology and its applications to real-life problems came to her early in life. With an acute desire to "understand how people operate," she managed a YWCA and directed a day-care center as a prelude to her academic career.

A major portion of Grayson's teaching centers on a course in the psychology of child abuse and neglect. More than 1,200 students have completed the class, and hundreds more who were personally trained by Grayson now work with children who are potential victims of abuse or neglect. To enhance the course, Grayson developed more than a dozen service-learning projects including placements with community programs such as Baby-Think-It-Over, a pregnancy prevention project for middle-school children; Camp Kaleidoscope, a camp for foster children; and First Step, a shelter for battered women.

"Children are our future," Grayson says of her professional focus on maltreated and neglected children. "These children are at a high risk for substance abuse, depression and suicide. If we want to produce people who are happy, well-adjusted and contributing members of society, we need to be concerned with their families and with their having solid childhoods."

In a single semester in 2003, Grayson's students, under her mentoring, spent more than 480 hours tutoring 24 children who have been child-abuse victims. More than 25 hours were spent helping children and families recover from the effects of domestic violence, and another 25 were spent assisting the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Social Services district Foster Care Unit. Hundreds more hours went into work with Grayson's programs.

"This course is dedicated to the idea that one person can make a positive difference in the life of at least one child," Grayson says. "Students are proving that idea true."

In 1983, Grayson was appointed by Gov. Charles S. Robb to the Governor's Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and was elected chair in 1985. She was reappointed to the board by Gov. Gerald Baliles in 1986 and by Gov. Douglas Wilder in 1990. During this time, Grayson authored Protecting Children From Abuse: Future Directions, a comprehensive report based on public hearings held throughout the commonwealth. Grayson has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on Education and has published more than 80 articles or book chapters in her field. She has served as editor and publisher of the Virginia Child Protection Newsletter since 1981. 

During her 27-year tenure at JMU, Grayson has never failed to draw attention to the importance of what she does with students and, ultimately, the work they do as they go into the world. "I believe we can change the world, one relationship at a time," she says. "Each student has the power to make that difference. My challenge is to offer each of them the opportunity."

-- Charles Culbertson