Sharon A. Lynch Endowed Graduate Fellows

This endowment is being established by Edwin S. Davis in honor of Sharon A. Lynch, to provide financial assistance to selected students. Sharon Lynch was one of the early teachers of students with severe disabilities in Texas public schools. To learn how, to better teach her students, she pursued a Master’s Degree in Special Education from Sam Houston State and was .certified as a special education teacher and educational diagnostician. After working with students ·with severe disabilities as a teacher, speech-language pathologist, and educational diagnostician she began her doctoral studies under Dr. Michael Brady who directed the Severe Disabilities Training Grant at the University of Houston from 1988-1994. As a doctoral student Ms. Lynch served as a Field Supervisor in the Severe Disabilities Training Project, Testing Coordinator at the Diagnostic Learning Center, and the Project Coordinator for the Learning in Functional Environments (LIFE) Grant and consultant at Region IV Education Service Center. Dr. Sharon Lynch received her Ed.D. in Special Education and came to Sam Houston State University in 1993 where she taught courses to prepare teachers and educational diagnosticians until her retirement in 2014. Dr. Edwin S. Davis began his university teaching career at Sam Houston State University in 1966 with a newly minted Master of Arts in Public Administration, among the first degrees in public administration awarded in the state of Texas. Dr. Davis taught classes in public policy, organizational theory, research methods, Canadian studies, state and national government, and restorative justice until 2009. This scholarship has been established by Dr. Davis to honor his wife and to support those professionals in special education who are seeking greater expertise to serve children with disabilities in the state of Texas.