Joy Gaston Gayles, Margareta Thomson Named University Faculty Scholars

NC State College of Education faculty members Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles and Dr. Margareta Thomson have been named 2018-19 University Faculty Scholars. This program recognizes outstanding faculty members for their significant academic achievements and contributions to NC State.

Gayles is a professor of higher education who joined the college in 2007. Her research focuses on the college student experience and how those experiences impact desired outcomes of undergraduate education, particularly for student-athletes as well as women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.

Her research has been published in the Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and Journal of College Student Development, among others. Most recently, she co-edited New Directions in Institutional Research volume 179, a new volume that synthesizes and advances the field’s knowledge on undergraduate gender gaps in STEM published in February 2019.

In 2018, she was elected as an at-large member to the Board of Directors of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and was awarded the Zenobia Lawrence Hikes Woman of Color in the Academy Award.

Thomson is an associate professor of educational psychology who joined the college in 2008. Her research focuses on investigating teachers’ and students’ motivations and beliefs, teacher development and STEM learning.

She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Learning Systems from Florida State University in 2008 and joined the NC State College of Education faculty the same year. Her research focuses on investigating teachers’ and students’ motivations and beliefs, teacher development, and STEM learning. Work from her research has been published in major peer-review journals, and is currently funded by prestigious funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A 2018-19 U.S. Core Fulbright Scholar, Thomson is currently in Romania investigating motivational aspects and the impact of a school-wide STEM mentorship program for teachers and students at the elementary level.

Since NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson began the University Faculty Scholar program in 2012, there have been 11 faculty within the College of Education selected as scholars, including Gayles and Thomson. NC State Education’s other University Faculty Scholars are Soonye Park (2017-18); Margaret Blanchard and Audrey Jaeger (2016-17); Karen Hollebrands (2015-16); Eric Wiebe (2014-15); Hollylynne Lee and Alyssa Rockenbach (2013-14); and Jessica DeCuir-Gunby and Bonnie Fusarelli (2012-13).

Nominations to the University Faculty Scholars Program are limited to assistant professors who have been re-appointed for a second term, all associate professors and professors within the first three years of appointment at that rank.