NEWS Sharon M. Kolb will be awarded an honorary doctorate at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Umeå University, in 2023. She has over thirty years of teaching experience and has been working with the internationalisation of higher education for many years.
Sharon M. Kolb, honorary doctor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Umeå University.
ImageSharon KolbSharon M. Kolb is Professor Emerita of Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW), USA. Her research has been in the areas of active problem solving, self-determination, and inclusive practices. She has developed practical techniques and strategies that teachers and counsellors can use to support their students and their families.
Sharon M. Kolb has a long history of close collaboration with Umeå University and the Department of Applied Educational Sciences. Among other things, she has contributed to the development of methodology in counselling courses for both the study and vocational guidance programme as well as the special needs teacher programme. She has also participated in courses given by the Swedish National Agency for Education, in collaboration with the Department of Applied Educational Sciences, with a focus on school health teams.
Between 2007 and 2019, Sharon coordinated UWW's Sweden Study Abroad Program and chaired UWW's International Education Program Internationalisation Committee. She was the main coordinator of the cooperation between the Umeå University School of Education and its counterpart at UWW and has been a driving factor behind UWW sending many exchange students to Umeå University. Sharon M. Kolb has also, together with colleagues at Umeå University, developed the unique opportunity for students in the study and career counselling programme to do their internships at UWW's career centre "Career & Leadership Development".
The appointment of Sharon M Kolb as honorary doctor will be recognised and celebrated at Umeå University's annual ceremony in October.