For
the past twenty years, Dr. Kay Kohl has led
the University Continuing Education Association
(UCEA) as its executive director. In this capacity,
she has exerted considerable influence over
the professional direction of the field; working
with the association’s more-than 430
regionally accredited college and university
members and its approximately two thousand
professional members.
Dr. Kohl’s impact on the field of continuing
education has been both as an association executive
and as an individual contributing through her
speaking and writing. She has been instrumental
in developing international connections between
and among continuing education associations in
Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe
(European University Continuing Education Network – EUCEN).
Dr. Kohl has also forged collaborative agreements
between UCEA and the International Council
for Open and Distance Learning, an organization
involving open universities and distance education
in more than 140 countries. Under her leadership,
UCEA has been a national vehicle for exploring
issues related to workforce development addressed
through it’s annual workforce forum. Dr. Kohl has
also ensured that UCEA utilizes a variety of
new learning environments generally grouped under “distance
education,” including innovations in pedagogy,
quality assurance and Internet technology.
Dr. Kohl’s contributions to the literature
of continuing education include oversight of
UCEA’s monthly newsletter, INFocus;
the journal The Continuing Higher Education
REVIEW; monographs; national reference volumes
such as Lifelong Learning Trends; and
a book series with the American Council on Education.
Under her direction, UCEA has established annual
offerings of more than a dozen professional development
conferences and seminars and a modular curriculum
for professional development of administrators
and faculty in the field.
Dr. Kohl's contributions to continuing education
were recognized when she was awarded Syracuse
University’s 2003 William Pearson Tolley
Medal for outstanding national and international
leadership in continuing education. This award
recognizes her contributions to furthering public
awareness of continuing education’s role
in human resource and community development,
to promoting professional excellence in the field,
and for building UCEA as a national resource
of important information on issues in continuing
higher education in a rapidly changing learning
environment.
Dr. Kohl is the eleventh and first female recipient
of the award since its establishment in 1966.