Academics

M. Leigh Owens Funk, is from the piedmont of North Carolina and earned her undergraduate degree in the Administration of Criminal Justice from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991. While serving as a special education coordinator for the Halifax County School District in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, Leigh completed a masters degree in Special Education and Technology at East Carolina University in 1994. In 1999, Leigh embarked on a doctoral program in Instructional Design for Online Learning through Capella University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Leigh hopes to complete her doctoral program by the next millennium :-).

Professional

Leigh joined Kennesaw State University and the Bagwell College of Education in 1997. Prior to moving to Georgia, Leigh worked as the Curriculum Coordinator for the University of Delaware's Network for Education and Assistive Technology grant project designing web-enhanced instructional opportunities to support Delaware educators in using assistive technologies. Leigh brings knowledge and experience from both the K-12 and higher education arenas to the ETTC. Her specialty areas includes instructional design, online teaching & learning, and educational technology leadership.

Honors

2003 Georgia Governor's Teaching Fellow
Beginning Fall 2003, Leigh will serve as a Georgia Governor's Teaching Fellow with the Board of Regents Institute for Higher Education. As part of the fellowship, Leigh will undertake an institutional improvement project to research the challenges associated with adopting and implementing electronic portfolios in higher education.

2003 AACTE Award - Innovative Use of Technology in Education
The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education awarded the Kennesaw State University Bagwell College of Education the 2003 Innovative Use of Technology in Education award for the InTech: Integrating Technology Professional Development Framework. InTech was initially designed, developed and piloted at the KSU Educational Technology Center before becoming a state-wide collaborative program.

2001 Advanced Learning Technologies Intern
In 2001, Leigh was selected to serve as an online instructional design intern with the Advanced Learning Technologies division of the Georgia Board of Regents. The internship project included work on the e-Core project and the development of an online speech communication course for undergraduate education.

Leigh’s Favorite Quote:
"The distinctive task of the academic
profession is the pursuit of cognitive growth"
- Anonymous
Email: lfunk@kennesaw.edu
Leigh's Electronic Portfolio