October 29, 2012
For Immediate Release
Contact: Shirley Bolin
Tel.: (407) 931-6838
Email: Bolin.S@att.net

Bolin Receives Prestigious Roy L. Lauter Distinguished Service Award

Sheila A. Bolin, CEO and President of The Regal Swan® Foundation, Inc., was presented with the Roy L. Lauter Distinguished Service Award on Friday, October 26, during the annual Southeast Regional Association of Teacher Educators (SRATE) Awards Banquet held in Little Rock, Arkansas. Bolin was honored for her cumulative and significant contributions to SRATE and education for more than 20 years.

Bolin has served on several SRATE Committees and has been instrumental in procuring funds for the publication of the SRATE Journal. In addition to providing professional consultation, Bolin and team members of The Regal Swan® Foundation, Inc., including Dr. Fanchon F. Funk, Dr. Elsa Price, Dr. Maryanne Ehle, and Sherry Bowen, have developed and presented seminars for ATE, (Association of Teacher Educators), SRATE and FATE,(Florida Association of Teacher Educators), in an effort to provide classroom teachers with current materials needed to teach important science, math and reading skills K-12.

SRATE, a regional collection of 15 southeastern states, is a professional organization affiliated with the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE). Its purpose is to improve teacher education, broadly conceived, in the Southeastern United States and directly or indirectly throughout the nation by its affiliation with the ATE. All persons who are members of the ATE unit of any member states are entitled to membership in SRATE. Member states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Bolin is a co-founder of The Regal Swan® Foundation, Inc. and serves as the Foundation’s CEO and President. She has co-authored three books and numerous articles and serves as “Ask-the-Swan Specialist” for the Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada based website (www.stanley-park-swans.com). In October 2010, the world’s oldest conservation organization--the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)--named Bolin as, “Scientist of the Month,” for her knowledge and accomplishments in the conservation of swans. Bolin and the Foundation are Jefferson Award Recipients, U.S. Presidential Daily “Point of Light” Award Recipients and a Florida Governor’s Daily “Point of Light” Award Recipients.

The Roy L. Lauter award was developed in an effort to honor Lauter for his many years of distinguished service to SRATE. He served as executive director, board member, president and past-president, and as a member of the association. SRATE established the annual award in 2003 to recognize persons who have made cumulative significant contributions to SRATE over a period of at least 10 years for their service to the organization and their contributions to teacher education in the SRATE region.

Photo below: Sheila Bolin