Marcie Boucouvalas

Hall of Fame Class of 2003

Marcie Boucouvalas is one of the nation's preeminent leaders and scholars in adult and continuing education. She is the Professor of Human Development and Adult Learning and Human Resource Development at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University where she has been a resident faculty member since 1980, frequently serving as external examiner for dissertations in other countries. Her 35 years of contributions to the field of adult education have included theory and research, as well as grass roots action within a variety of institutional contexts, in geographically diverse areas, in urban and rural settings, with a myriad of populations, special interest groups, and diverse cultures. She releases others' energies in ways that helps them find their own voice and path, and has brought vision and visibility of the adult education field onto the radar screen of other disciplines.

Dr. Boucouvalas' scholarship, research, and leadership have focused on the areas of international adult education, including a specialty on the history of lifelong and adult learning in Greece and adult development and learning with an emphasis on transformational issues of the individual and society. She is a leading scholar on transpersonal psychology and was selected in 1994 to the Academy of Consciousness Studies at Princeton. Her first published research on transpersonal psychology appeared in 1980 in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology for which she became a field editor in 1981 and the editor in 2002. She also served on the editorial board of the Adult Education Quarterly for over a decade.

With integrity and deep devotion to human rights, Dr. Boucouvalas has been influential in responding to and serving the needs of many diverse professional groups. Some leadership roles include president of the International Associates in Adult Education and secretary of the International Society for Comparative Adult Education. She has contributed greatly to the field of adult and continuing education's growing body of knowledge through authoring numerous refereed publications, book chapters and books or edited volumes. Among her works are the Transpersonal Orientation as a Framework for Understanding Adult Development and Creative Processes, and Adult Education and the Human Rights Movement: Toward a Global Research Agenda for the History of Adult Education. A member of the Honor Society for International Scholars, she is also listed in 15 biographical reference publications. 

In recognition of Dr. Marcie Boucouvalas' contributions on local, national, and international levels she was awarded the Phi Delta Kappa Distinguished Academic Service Award in 1985. She also served as a U.S. representative to the World Assembly in Adult Education in Bangkok, 1990; Cairo, 1994; Jamaica, 2001; to the UNESCO Assembly in Hamburg, 1997; and, when the USA rejoined UNESCO in 2002, was appointed as the U.S. delegate to the Assembly in Sofia, Bulgaria.

In recognition of Dr. Marcie Boucouvalas' contributions to the field of continuing education on local, national and international levels she was awarded the Phi Delta Kappa Distinguished Academic Service Award in 1985 and the Golden Key Award in 1986. She also served as a U.S. representative for the World Assembly in Adult Education in Cairo in 1994 and Bangkok in 1990.