Contact: Jackie Fleming, International Visual Literacy Association
Phone: 812-855-9578
Email: jkflemin@iu.edu
INTERNATIONAL VISUAL LITERACY ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES THE SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD WINNER:
Virtual Conference 2020 –Michelle Wendt, Master of Instructional Technology, is the Technology Integration Specialist for the Southern Regional Institute and Educational Technology Training Center at Stockton University and the current president of the International Visual Literacy Association. She was awarded the Special Contribution Award at the 49th Annual IVLA Conference held virtually this past September.
The Special Contribution Award, given only when meritated, honors persons, institutions, or organizations making outstanding contributions either to the Association or to the furthering of visual literacy in research, education, publication, or creative products.
Michelle Wendt is receiving this award for her outstanding leadership of, and dedication to the International Visual Literacy Association since she joined the Association in 2017. Michelle has worked relentlessly on the creation of the new Association website and the process of transitioning the Association to the new website platform. She also helped plan, structure, and run the 49th Annual IVLA Conference that was held virtually this past September. As the current President of the Association, Michelle has demonstrated immense leadership and passion for the promotion of visual literacy. Dana Statton Thompson, Wendt’s nominator, IVLA’s Vice President, and Research and Instruction Librarian at Murray State University wrote, “Michelle has gone above and beyond in keeping IVLA running, through the transition of creating a new website to dealing with the transition of the credit card and bank information to taking on the challenge of the technology difficulties of running an online conference. There would be no way that IVLA would have survived if she had not agreed to take on the mantle of President and the organization would suffer if she were not at the helm. She has single-handedly taken on this virtual conference and we could not do it without her”.
Wendt is only one of four scholars to win the Special Contribution Award since 1996. Nominations for the 2021 awards will be announced shortly. For any questions in the meantime, contact Dr. Kazuyo Kubo, Awards Committee Chair, at kkubo@lesley.edu.
###
Founded in 1968, the International Visual Literacy Association is an interdisciplinary organization of professionals working toward a fuller understanding of the way we derive meaning from what we see and the way we interact with our visual environment. For more information about IVLA, please visit https://ivla.org/.