Dr. Kaye Adkins

Dr. Kaye Adkins recently received a very prestigious academic award. Adkins is a professor of English and technical communication and is also the assistant Chair of the Department of English and modern languages.

Adkins said, “This was a Distinguished Service Award from the council for programs in technical and scientific communication towards CPVC. So this is really meant a lot for me in some ways is one of my colleagues said it’s almost kind of like recognition for my lifetime of work.”

Adkins has done many hours of work for not only her own school, but many other organizations as well. “I recieved the CPVC’s nonprofit status which I helped to restore and a lot of other work. And when they gave it to me, the president of the organization told me she wanted to make sure I understood that that’s what it was for because they talked a lot about the work I did as treasurer for the organization. The president wanted to make sure that I knew that it was also for my service to the profession to technical communication education.”

With budget cuts nationwide, an increase in expected hours, and a general lack of acknowledgement for all that they do educators are very under appreciated.

However, Dr. Adkins had lots of support following her Distinguished Service Award. Adkins said, “people wrote very nice letters for me, even from colleagues around the country. The people who wrote some really nice letters about my work with the organization mentioned ways I had helped other programs and other departments.”

Adkins is very well known on campus, and in her career field. “I’m kind of known as someone who’s an expert in curriculum design for the field. So I do a lot of reviews for professional journals when they have an article about curriculum design or something like that I’m usually the person they asked to review it”, said Adkins.

Missouri Western is in a time of change right now. With lots of aspects about our school growing and creating, so is the Missouri Western higher education program.

“I’m really interested to see where it’s going and how it’s going to change. And I think that with this new administration they are trying to prepare for the changes. There are small changes on how we do things but I think there are big changes to just in how we think about higher ed and what its purpose is. Our role is how we work with students. I’ve always seen students as active learners and I think there’s going to be more emphasis on that,” said Adkins.

Adkins has worked tirelessly for Missouri Western, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t always try to keep up her education. “I have published a lot of articles or important books, it was about the work that I’ve really done with our program, and our program is seen as a model actually for a lot of programs around the country. People come to ask me about how to set up a program I have helped a lot of people who were starting programs, or we’re trying to expand a few classes into a program.”

Dr.Adkins is supportive of Missouri Western. “This is a field that I really believe in. And I’m really excited about what’s happening in the field and I’m excited to kind of follow my students and see what happens with it in the future.”