• About UANews
• Sign up for News
• Resources for Media
• Calendar
• Contact Us

Charlene M. Kampfe will receive the Rehabilitation Teacher of the Year Award this month.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
February 6, 2008

Charlene M. Kampfe's work in rehabilitation education has been so important to her field and her students that she has received numerous awards at The University of Arizona, by state organizations and national associations.

And she has another one coming.

The National Council on Rehabilitation Education – the only organization in the nation focusing on issues and research in rehabilitation education – is giving Kampfe, an associate professor at the UA, its Rehabilitation Educator of the Year award.

"It just means everything to me because that's how I see myself – as a teacher first," said Kampfe, who teaches in the UA College of Education's special education, rehabilitation and school psychology department. “It was a kind of passion that never left."

She will receive the award, which is presented to those who have "demonstrated outstanding ability" in the field, on Feb. 16 during the Council’s conference in San Antonio.

Her passion for teaching came at an early age. As a child, Kampfe would gather all the other neighborhood children around and teach lessons in her garage. Eventually, she went on to earn an undergraduate degree in education and a master's degree in counseling.

Kampfe's research focuses on rehabilitation education strategies and how to improve teaching. She has also studied the stress deaf individuals experience and how they cope, aging issues in the disabled community as well as creative counseling. Consequently, she has published more than 60 articles on various research topics.

Since the 1990s, Kampfe has received a number of awards from several organizations for outstanding efforts and ability in research, teaching, service, mentorship and for being a counselor educator advocate.

The College of Education has recognized her in the past for her teaching and Kampfe also has received the Sarah Folsom Memorial Award from the Arizona Rehabilitation Association and the Association for Deafness and Rehabilitation's "outstanding journal article" award. In 2006, the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association formally established the Charlene M. Kampfe Student Scholarship Award.

Kampfe, who was nominated for the teacher of the year award by S. Mae Smith – an associate professor in the same department as Kampfe – said her teaching style is one of “firmness, fairness and consistency.” Her priorities, she said, are listening to her students and making time for them.

"If they need some help I will sit down and write with them instead of working on my manuscript," said Kampfe, a nationally certified counselor who earned her doctorate from the UA in 1984 and has continually taught at the University since 1990. “I put them first.”