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ASU Black History Month: Thalia Coleman |
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Tuesday, 14 February 2006 |
 | Thalia Coleman
Years at ASU: 12
Position at ASU: Professor |
The Appalachian celebrates Black History Month by profiling prominent African American figures on the ASU campus
Dr. Thalia Coleman has struggled against difficult odds her entire life, but those did not keep her from becoming the first African American woman to gain tenure at Appalachian State University.
Coleman, the first person in her family to go to college, graduated from South Carolina State University with a bachelor’s in speech correction. She went on to earn a master’s degree of arts in speech pathology and audiology from Pennsylvania State and a doctorate in communication processes and disorders from the University of Florida.
Coleman said her family was very poor, and said she remembers one year when the only way she was able to attend school was by her brothers and sisters working all summer in the fields to help her go.
“I had to face down stereotypes in every situation; I’ve always had go in proving I deserved to be there in school and the workplace,” Coleman said.
Coleman was recruited to Appalachian for the purpose of enhancing diversity and to help coordinate a department grant to increase the number of African American students in her profession.
Coleman has won several recognitions for her teaching. She was twice awarded “mentor of the year” by her colleagues and Student Government Association presented her with an “outstanding teacher award.”
She said one of her greatest senses of accomplishment has come from her work with non-traditional students who because of race, socioeconomic status and age have encountered unusual difficulties.
“My biggest sense of accomplishment of all is when I see students who were having difficulties and are now out and doing well in the workplace,” Coleman said.
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