For more than four decades, Dr. Elaine M. Bukowiecki has worked to expand literacy as a teacher, administrator, and organizational leader. Recently, those efforts earned her the 2017 Celebrate Literacy Award.
Dr. Bukowiecki, a professor of literacy education, and chair of the Department of Counselor Education, was selected for the honor by The Massachusetts Reading Association and its parent organization, the International Literacy Association. The organizations present the lifetime achievement award annually to recognize an individual for exemplary service in the promotion of literacy.
Dr. Bukowiecki was nominated for the award by the Massachusetts Association of College and University Reading Educators. It was presented at the Massachusetts Reading Association’s annual conference on April 6.
“It was truly an honor,” said Dr. Bukowiecki, who is also principal editor of the Graduate Review and acting director of the Graduate Writing Fellow Program at BSU.
In addition to her work as a literacy educator, Dr. Bukowiecki is a board member and past president of the Massachusetts Reading Association, and a past president of the Massachusetts Association of College and University Reading Educators.
Her contributions to literacy also include numerous presentations at conferences, the publication of three books and about 100 articles. She also serves on the board of two professional journals.
A 1970 graduate of Clark University, Dr. Bukowiecki spent 20 years as an elementary classroom teacher in the Shrewsbury public schools. Later, she served as a language arts consultant and district-wide language arts coordinator for the Putnam, Conn., public schools, and as an assistant professor at Lesley University, before arriving at BSU in 2003.
Along the way, she earned a Master of Arts in Teaching English in 1975 from Assumption College, and an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell in 1999.
Dr. Bukowiecki said she does not covet the limelight, but acknowledged it was exciting to be presented with the recent award before 800 of her peers.
“I’ve been in the field of literacy for a very long time and this is not the reason at all why you do it, but it was very very special,” she said. (Photo by Widmaer Fleuransaint, ’18)