After teaching in a regular classroom in New York, our second recipient of the Msgr. Alfred F. Horrigan Distinguished Service Award, Dr. Maureen Norris, moved to the Louisville City Schools to begin work in student assessment and as a special education resource teacher. She was hired by Bellarmine in 1980 as Assistant Professor of Special Education and promoted through the ranks to full professor. In 1999, Maureen was named Dean of the Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education until she retired last year. She was awarded the rank of Professor Emeritus.
In addition to her love of teaching in the classroom, Maureen is engaged in many important initiatives that advance Education as a field. As a sabbatical project, she became involved in working in the schools in Constanta Romania to assist teachers in integrating students with special needs in the regular classroom, through Beta's Blessings. This project is ongoing and last year she accompanied two former students and Bellarmine alumnae, Amy Lange and Kristen Wallitsch to Romania. Even in retirement, Maureen will return to continue the work on the project this fall.
She has received many awards including the 1996 Metroversity Instructional Development Award with Dr. Ruth Wagoner and, in 2000, she received the Susan Phillips Gorin Award from the International Council for Exceptional Children for exceptional service to future special educators.
Like so many members of the Bellarmine family, Maureen did not restrict her time to Bellarmine but was and remains actively engaged in the community. Maureen just finished serving on the Trinity High School Board of Directors and he also chaired the Seven Counties Board of Directors. Currently she is President of the KY Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
After teaching in a regular classroom in New York, our second recipient of the Msgr. Alfred F. Horrigan Distinguished Service Award, Dr. Maureen Norris, moved to the Louisville City Schools to begin work in student assessment and as a special education resource teacher. She was hired by Bellarmine in 1980 as Assistant Professor of Special Education and promoted through the ranks to full professor. In 1999, Maureen was named Dean of the Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education until she retired last year. She was awarded the rank of Professor Emeritus.