On October 16 Lois Hetland was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa for her groundbreaking research in art education.

Lois graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Special Studies degree in visual arts and music, which she followed with a fifth year of teacher education preparation.  Her father, Mel Hetland, was an Education Professor at Cornell.

After nearly two decades of classroom teaching Lois undertook doctoral studies at Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she is a Research Associate in Project Zero. 

Lois has shared the results of her research on how students learn in six books, more than seventy papers and articles, and at many professional conferences.  Her work has been featured on National Public Radio and PBS and in the New York Times.  Now, as a Professor of Art Education at MassArt, Lois is the co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation project examing whether visual arts learning improves geometric reasoning. 

Read the full text of the Cornell President’s remarks and see a video of Lois accepting the award here.

Lois as a Cornell College student, thirty+ years before winning its highest alumni award.