Opening Doors to Education

New Scholarship Pays Tribute to Maryann Manning

Ensuring Alabama’s children have access to the highest-quality education has driven the career and life of Maryann Manning, Ed.D. Her dedication to this ideal through 35 years of teaching will be recognized through the Maryann Manning Endowed Literacy Scholarship in Education at UAB.

“I’m humbled by the many students, colleagues, friends, and family members who made the scholarship possible,” Manning says. “I plan to personally continue to contribute to the scholarship so it can benefit more students.”

According to Jerry Aldridge, Ed.D., professor of education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, this scholarship fund will help better educate and support teachers in their quest for literacy instruction. “For many years, Dr. Manning has been one of the international leaders in literacy education,” he says. “She is currently on the board of the International Reading Association and also has been responsible for the Mid-South Reading and Writing Institute that has been held at UAB for the past 20 years.”

A retired professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UAB, Manning is the author or co-author of more than 10 books and more than 100 articles. She served as director of the Red Mountain Writing Project and the Alabama Young Authors’ Conference. She also is a board member of the Center for the Expansion of Learning and Thinking and the U.S. National Committee of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education.

Manning has assumed leadership positions in the Association for Childhood Education International, the National Council of the Accreditation of Teacher Education, the College Reading Association, and the Alabama Reading Initiative. In her work with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, she has chaired visiting committees and facilitated self-studies of more than 100 elementary schools and, in 2002, was honored for her contributions with the association’s Alabama Distinguished Educator Award. Other awards and honors include the Governor’s Commendation for Service to Alabama Schools in 1999, the Whole Language Umbrella Lifetime Award from the National Council of Teachers of English in 2004, and the Truman Pierce Award in 2006 from the Alabama Association of Elementary School Principals for distinguished service to Alabama schools. She also received the first Ellen Gregg Ingalls/UAB National Alumni Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Teaching in 2002.

Aldridge adds, “Nobody deserves this honor more than Maryann. Her contributions in reading, writing, and beyond to the School of Education, the region, nation, and world will continue to flourish because of this scholarship.”