Education Policy and Leadership Associate Professor Emeritus, John E. Splaine,
is University of Maryland Commencement speaker at campus ceremonies Dec. 21

John E. Splaine

COLLEGE PARK, MD (December 2005) - On Dec. 21, the University of Maryland's graduating Class of 2005 will attend commencement ceremonies to celebrate a milestone in their education. Sharing the occasion with the graduates is a featured commencement speaker, chosen in advances by the students.

This year's commencement speaker is College of Education associate professor emeritus, John E. Splaine, from the Department of Education Policy and Leadership. " This is an honor I did not expect," said Splaine, "but I value the opportunity to once again communicate with students."

Splaine earned his bachelor's and master's degree in American History from the University of New Hampshire, and holds a doctorate in education from Boston University. A former high school history teacher in both New Hampshire and Maryland, he was director of the Upward Bound program at the University of New Hampshire from 1970 to 1973. In 1973 he joined the College of Education faculty in education policy and leadership until retirement in 2001 as associate professor emeritus. He accepted a position at the University of Denver, where he held the Amos B. Hostetter, Jr., Chair. He taught courses in political communication until his retirement from there in 2003. Since then, Splaine has taught education courses part-time at the University of Maryland.

Splaine has received many awards and honors throughout his career. He was named an outstanding faculty member at University of Maryland by the Association of Parents, and the Panhellenic Council selected him as the outstanding teacher at University of Maryland in 1994. The Iota Upsilon Chapter of Kappa Delta Pi presented Splaine with an Award for Excellence in 1999, and he was the recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award from Kappa Delta Pi (Iota Upsilon Chapter. He was chosen by a student as a faculty mentor in 2005 as part of the Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars Program at the University of Maryland.

A well-respected scholar, Splaine has been an education consultant with C-SPAN television since 1987, including C-SPAN's series on "American Presidents: Life Portraits" which won a prestigious Peabody Award in 1999. His book, A Companion to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates , was published to accompany C-SPAN's nationally televised re-enactments of the 1858 debates. He also contributed to the compact disk, "A House Divided: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates," which received the Gold Apple award from the National Educational Media Network. He has presented at a Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) seminar, and has appeared on National Public Radio (NPR). Splaine is the author of Road to the White House Since Television . He has also co-authored such books as Critical Viewing: Stimulant to Critical Thinking , Educating the Consumer of Television: An Interactive Approach, and Politics: Communicating a Message, Issues in New Hampshire Government .

Splaine has had impact in the international community as well, working in 1996 and 1997 with Croatian non-government organizations through the Solidarity Center in Croatia, and in 2000 with Serbians and Montenegrins through the Center in Montenegro.

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For more information on the College of Education, visit: www.education.umd.edu
or contact Jenniffer Manning-Scherhaufer, Communications Coordinator: manning1@umd.edu