Texas Tech University

Rona Pogrund wins President’s Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Award

Robert Stein

April 10, 2019

Rona Pogrund poses with Texas Tech University President Lawrence Schovanec and Birgit Green, director of University Outreach and Engagement at Texas Tech.

Rona Pogrund, a professor in the Special Education Program and coordinator of the program for teachers of students with visual impairments in the Virginia Murray Sowell Center for Research and Education in Sensory Disabilities, received the Texas Tech University President's Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Award.

The award recognizes Texas Tech faculty for a long-term project or initiative that demonstrates a significant and sustained commitment to addressing a community need or larger social issue through active collaboration with community partners. It carries a monetary prize of $2,000.

Titled "Stakeholder Partnership to Impact Educational Services for Children with Visual Impairment," Pogrund's winning project developed data-driven ways for orientation and mobility specialists and teachers of students with visual impairments to determine appropriate types and amounts of service time for students.

She was honored Wednesday (April 10) at the 2019 Regional Engaged Scholarship Symposium on Texas Tech's campus.

Rona Pogrund presenting her award-winning work at the 2019 Regional Engaged Scholarship Symposium on the Texas Tech University campus 
Rona Pogrund presented her award-winning project at the 2019 Regional Engaged Scholarship Symposium on the Texas Tech University campus.

"I was surprised and delighted when I found out that I was a recipient of the 2019 President's Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Award," Pogrund said. "My primary research, service and teaching focus in my work as a professor at Texas Tech is around engagement with the community and with stakeholders to improve services to students with visual impairments, so this acknowledgement of my engagement is particularly meaningful to me and the work that I do."

Pogrund has over 40 years of experience in the field of visual impairment as a teacher of students with visual impairments, an orientation and mobility specialist, a special education administrator, a staff development trainer and as a faculty member. She joined the Texas Tech faculty in 2005.