Dr. Loretta Prater from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (UTC) will become Chair of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences on July 1.
Selected in a nationwide search, Prater brings significant experience in writing and directing grants, as well as experience in teaching and research. Her research interest is in the area of adolescent pregnancy and adolescent parenting issues. Her scholarly efforts have resulted in publications and national presentations.
A native of Chattanooga, Prater taught in the public schools there, also directing district wide drug prevention programs. She is currently an associate professor and Director of Special Programs in the College of Education and Applied Professional Studies at UTC. She is involved in numerous community projects impacting children and families. She initiated and directs Each One Reach One, a program to recruit minority males as elementary school teachers. She coordinates Higher Ground, a national research initiative to assist students toward successful completion of college.
Recipient of numerous awards and honors for teaching excellence, outstanding service, and scholarship, she was named one of ten outstanding women of Chattanooga. She serves on several boards and committees and is president of Chattanooga's organization of Family and Consumer Sciences professionals.
She is married to Dwight Prater and is the mother of sons Leslie and Stefan.
Prater says she is "excited. . . to become part of the Eastern Illinois University family" where "there are many progressive activities in process. I am looking forward to working with everyone in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences and in the College of Business and Applied Sciences to build upon the strong foundation which currently exists. . . .After July 1, I invite all to stop by my office to say hello." "I look forward to working in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences."
--Ruth Dow -
Mrs. Gayle Gilbert Strader, Associate Professor in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, will retire at the end of Intersession 1997 after teaching nearly 15,000 students.
Innovative and talented, she has taught at Eastern for 32 years. Recently honored with the Illinois Outstanding Professional Award from the Illinois Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (IAFCS), she has received Teaching Excellence Awards from Eastern and a most prestigious honor, the Livingston C. Lord Distinguished Service Award in 1986. She was named the 1995 Outstanding Alumnus of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Strader grew up on a farm near Arcola, attending a one-room school through fourth grade, was in 4-H and active in high school Future Homemakers of America (FHA). With a B.S. in Home Economics Education from Eastern and a M.Ed. and further advanced study at the University of Illinois, her emphasis has always been on education, later concentrating on consumer issues.
Prior to joining Eastern's faculty, she taught junior and senior high home economics at Lovington for six years. She began teaching 7th-9th grade home economics in Eastern's Laboratory School in 1965, and joined the School of Home Economics in 1974. From a long line of educators, including her mother and grandmother, sister, nieces, and her own children, Strader has a "love for the classroom" that never waned.
This versatile teacher has taught nearly 20 different courses, including Family Food Management, Beginning and Advanced Clothing Construction, Flat Pattern, Tailoring, Housing, Sociology of Clothing, Consumer Education, Consumer Issues, Consumer Textile Products, senior seminar and several summer workshops. Her favorite course, because of its timeliness and changing nature, has been Consumer Education, of which she has been the only instructor since the late 1970s.
Before central advisement, Strader had as many as 65 advisees. She has served on countless school, college, and university committees.
A 1994 sabbatical involved working behind the scenes with the consumer fraud hotline at the Attorney General's Office in Springfield. Professionally, she is very active with several organizations and has served on the IAFCS Board of Directors since 1989. Many times students accompanied her to state and national conferences.
She has been the adviser to the Student Association of Family and Consumer Sciences/Home Economics for many years and has maintained close ties to the state FHA program. Strader is a popular speaker at Eastern student organizations on topics of leadership, etiquette and professional image.
She plans to continue as a realtor, and a more flexible schedule will give her more time with her family. Husband Mike is Director of the 14-county Peace Meal Senior Nutrition Program. Daughter Jill teaches deaf children at Streamwood High School and expects her third child in the spring. Son Toby is a developmental kindergarten teacher in Indianapolis. Grandchildren are Samantha, 7, and Matthew, 3.
Asked what she will miss most about teaching, Strader replied, "the interaction with colleagues and students." When she steps through the classroom door, she has an energized feeling she will certainly miss. Students consistently rated her creative style of teaching as excellent, one in which they had an opportunity to touch, smell, taste, feel, see--and learn.
Faculty, alumni, students, administrators, and others who have been touched by her unique and vast talent wish her the very best in retirement.
If you or others you know would like to add a note, card or letter to a Memory Book for her, please send it by April 7 to:
--Rose Bradley