Norfolk State Inaugurates the Elaine P. Witty

Lecture Symposium Series

Norfolk, Va.—Norfolk State University will launch the Elaine P. Witty Lecture Symposium Series at 8 a.m., Saturday, April 25 in the Bozeman Education Building. The symposium and lecture series is named in honor of Elaine P. Witty, the former dean of Norfolk State’s School of Education. The symposium series is focused on meeting the needs of professional educators, and education students and administrators.

Witty, who retired from NSU in 1999 after 30 years of service, was dean for 18 years and head of the elementary education department for 10 years. Additionally, she served as acting associate vice president for academic affairs and was the founder and director of the Center for Excellence in University Teaching.

She developed the award-winning Norfolk Teachers Corps Project for training teachers. In the 1980s, Witty’s pioneering work raised the nation’s awareness of the declining number of minority teachers. At NSU, Witty sponsored 10 national conferences on the preparation and survival of African-American teachers.  

Sen. Yvonne B. Miller, who worked at Norfolk State for more than 30 years as a School of Education faculty member, was inspired by Witty. Miller provided an initial gift of $10,000 to help fund the lecture series and symposium. Additionally, Verizon recently gave $10,000 to help fund the series and symposium.

Symposium highlights include keynote addresses by Rod Paige, chairman of the Chartwell Education Group and former U.S. Secretary of Education; Michael T. Nettles, Educational Testing Services; Joyce Harris, Equity Center Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, and Salome Thomas-El, Readers’ Digest author and Philadelphia school principal.

For more information, contact the Office of Communications and Marketing at (757) 823-8373.