17 August 2005

Dr. Ruth Meese appointed Longwood's M. Kathleen Ranson Professor

Dr. Ruth Meese, a Longwood University special education professor, has been appointed the university's M. Kathleen Ranson Professor.

Dr. Meese is the third faculty member to hold the Ranson Professorship, in the College of Education and Human Services, which was Longwood's first endowed professorship. The Ranson Professor is chosen from among full professors on the basis of outstanding contributions as a teacher, scholar and citizen of the Longwood community. The appointment is for three years and is renewable.

The professorship, established in 1996, was made possible by a generous gift from Dr. M. Kathleen Ranson of Boca Raton, Fla., a Longwood alumna ('36) and Farmville native who was an education professor at Central Missouri State University for 29 years before retiring in 1981.

As Ranson Professor, Dr. Meese's primary goal is to establish a "Longwood Center for Comprehensive School Services" in which Longwood students would practice skills under faculty supervision and local schoolchildren would receive services. The Center would build upon the partnerships with four area school divisions (elementary schools in Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland and Prince Edward counties and the middle school in Buckingham) launched by the previous Ranson Professor, Dr. Betty Jo Simmons.

Dr. Meese started the special education component of the partnership with Prince Edward County Elementary School, in which she worked with Shirley Lee, assistant principal. She has taught the elementary and middle school partnership students one of their two courses (Survey of Exceptional Students) on the Longwood campus for several semesters.

Dr. Meese, who has taught at Longwood since 1987, is the author of three books and numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. She has received the Maria Bristow Starke Faculty Excellence Award and is a two-time recipient of the Fuqua Excellence in Teaching Award.

One area of professional interest for Dr. Meese has been research on children of inter-country adoption. She and her husband, Jim Windle, adopted their daughter, Katie Windlemeese, from Russia when she was almost five years old. She will be a 7th-grader this year.

Before coming to Longwood, Dr. Meese taught at the University of Virginia as an adjunct instructor for one year, in the Chesterfield County schools from 1977 to 1983 (she left to pursue a Ph.D. at U.Va., which she received in 1986), and in North Carolina and Ohio. A native of Laurel, Md., she has a B.S. from the University of Maryland and an M.Ed. from Ohio University.

As Ranson Professor, Dr. Meese will continue to teach in Longwood's special education programs. She replaces Dr. Betty Jo Simmons, professor emerita of education, who had been Ranson Professor since the 1999-2000 academic year and retired last December. The first Ranson Professor was Dr. Judith Mathis Johnson, assistant professor of education, also now retired, from 1997-1999.