About Sherry Vaughan

To honor late Education Director Sherry Vaughan's service to the teaching profession, the field of education, and Washington State University, her colleagues at WSU Vancouver have established the Annual Sherry Vaughan Distinguished Lecture in Education.

Sherry Vaughan joined WSU in 1983 as an assistant professor in literacy education at WSU Pullman. She was promoted to associate professor and in 1991 became associate dean of the College of Education. In 1994, she came to Vancouver to serve as education programs coordinator. Under her leadership WSU Vancouver's Master's in Teaching program became one of the most robust in the university system. She retired after 18 years of service to WSU.

Vaughan was the 2001 recipient of the Dean's Award for Service to WSU Vancouver and was recognized in 2002 as a YWCA and Clark College Woman of Achievement. She is remembered by her colleagues as a shining example of those qualities she instilled in her students: integrity, perseverance, commitment, rigor and respect for diversity. Vaughan died of cancer in 2003.

To contribute to the Sherry Vaughan Distinguished Lecture in Education, contact the Office of Campus Advancement at
(360) 546-9600.

About the Speaker

Jonah Edelman, Ph.D., is executive director and CEO of Stand for Children, an advocacy group committed to achieving statewide policy changes for children and education.

His personal stand for children began when he taught a six year old bilingual child in New Haven, Connecticut to read. He has since run a teen pregnancy prevention speakers’ bureau, founded a mentorship program for middle school students and served as administrator of an enrichment program for children living in public housing.

Edelman graduated from Yale University in 1992 and attended Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, where in three years he earned a master’s and a doctor of philosophy degree in politics.