Malone Receives ACPA Outstanding Graduate Student Award

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 16, 2014) — Dana Malone, a University of Kentucky graduate student and Academic Enhancement staff member, was presented with the Outstanding Graduate Student Award at the 2014 American College Personnel Association (ACPA) conference in Indianapolis on March 30.

The award is presented to a graduate student who has shown outstanding work in the field of academic support. The individual must be currently enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program at an accredited college or university.

Jim Breslin, interim executive director of Academic Enhancement and chair of the ACPA Commission for Academic Support in Higher Education, nominated Malone for the award. 

“Her insight, intellectual acuity, and passion for students give Dana a determination and dedication for supporting students that I genuinely admire," said Breslin. "She lives the role of a scholar-practitioner each day and my own work and career are better for having had the opportunity to work with her. Dana is so much more than what is typically expected of a graduate student in an academic support unit.”

Malone recently defended her doctoral dissertation in the Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Department in the UK College of Education. She has a master’s in school counseling and a bachelor's in psychology. Malone began her higher education career in residence life, working at various private colleges as a student affairs administrator. For the past four years, as she has been completing her PhD, Malone has worked in assistantship roles in Academic Enhancement, first as an EPE 174 instructor and more recently as the department’s assessment coordinator.