Even though she serves in many roles, it's her conviction that "everything is teaching" that grounds Dr. Amanda "Mandy" Cleveland, Associate Professor of Psychology at Lander University.
For becoming the personification of that broad view of what encompasses teaching, Cleveland has been named Lander's Distinguished Professor of the Year for 2020.
Since arriving on the Lander campus in 2011, Cleveland has immersed herself in instruction, research and service roles. From professor, student advisor and chair of the Lander University Faculty Senate, to presenter at scholarly conferences and board member of the Greenwood Humane Society, Cleveland has been a powerful force for positive change and growth.
"Every piece of my workload is encompassed by my teaching. Teaching is what we do at Lander," she said. "For example, when my students see me wearing a suit, I explain to them that I attend the Board of Trustees meetings as part of my role as faculty senate chair. As I field the inevitable follow up questions about what the role entails and how I came to be in the role, I am teaching about shared governance. More importantly, I am modeling female leadership, something that is still woefully uncommon in 2020."
Cleveland's abnormal psychology, personality theory, and theories and techniques of psychotherapy classes are highly popular among students and routinely reach their class size limit. In addition, she supervises undergraduate student psychology internship placements, advises approximately 30 psychology students each semester and co-leads study abroad trips.
A huge component of Cleveland's approach in her research is to involve students in the scholarly process. In wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cleveland led a study on social distancing that was recently shared on social media as well as the faculty list serve. For the study, she enlisted the assistance of Morgan Ferqueron, a rising psychology honors student from Hodges.
"The creation of this study highlights one of the best things about Lander, the culture of collaboration," said Cleveland. "Each collaborator brought their expertise and experience to the creation of the study. Morgan was brought in to provide her perspective as a student. She authored many of the questions in the student section of the survey. In addition to research skills Morgan will gain the experience of working closely with a multidisciplinary team of faculty."
Earlier in the fall semester, Cleveland celebrated when she learned that research carried out by her and Mekensie Therrien, a psychology honors student from Gray Court, had been accepted by the American Psychological Association Annual Convention (APA). "This national convention is schedule to be held in Washington DC," explained Cleveland. "We will be presenting alongside graduate students and professors. This will also be my first time presenting at APA and I could not be prouder to be doing so with such a talented student on a project we spent three semesters working on."
Cleveland is a native of Indiana, and she received her master's and doctoral degrees at Ball State University (Muncie, Ind). The teaching roots run deep in her family. Her father is a retired high school guidance counselor, and her mother retired as a high school teacher. Her father-in-law served as a superintendent and her mother-in-law was an elementary teacher.
It's Cleveland's ability to make her difficult subjects relatable to her students that makes her stand out. "Dr. Cleveland receives rave reviews from her students, who describe her as 'funny and relatable,' 'respectful and helpful,' and "understanding and kind.' She incorporates students in her research, weaves her service and professional experiences into the classroom, and often gives professional presentations related to her classes," said Dr. Kevin Witherspoon, Professor of History and Chair of this year's Distinguished Professor Committee.