UW Engagement Fellowship Awarded to Tiger Robison

Tiger Robison, a music education assistant professor in the University of Wyoming Department of Music, is among four recipients of the 2020-21 Faculty Engagement Fellowship awards.

Robison was awarded the Office of Engagement and Outreach (OEO) Faculty Engagement Fellowship that will help expand early childhood music education across Wyoming. A series of workshops and free resources are part of his project.

The other three UW recipients are Alyssa McElwain, a human development and family sciences program option assistant professor; Nga Nguyen, a Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering assistant professor; and Reshmi Singh, a social and administrative pharmacy associate professor.

The fellowship competition attracted proposals from a broad range of disciplines across UW, from people working in public engagement, engaged teaching, engaged scholarship and outreach focused on community impacts.

The awards are for faculty members working on projects during the 2020-21 academic year. Fellows receive a stipend of $10,000 and up to $2,000 to support outreach programs and travel expenses. Recipients will work with OEO Director Jean Garrison and members of the UW Engagement Council to develop their projects and organize at least one significant outreach program series both on and off campus. Projects focus on faculty development or enhancing engagement and outreach in their respective fields of study.

This is the second faculty engagement fellowship competition.

“This year, our new cohort of Engagement Fellows comes from a wide variety of backgrounds and presents new ideas and solutions to problems around the state and the world,” Garrison says. “We look forward to working with the new fellows and seeing their creative solutions for engagement during this time of uncertainty.”

She adds that the fellowships, along with UW’s Marvin Millgate Awards for faculty, staff, students and community partners, are the top awards given by OEO.

Robison’s project, titled “Building Capacity for Great Early Childhood Outcomes in Wyoming Through Music,” is to help improve Wyoming’s national exposure for early childhood outcomes. He hopes to visit 26 Wyoming locations to give clinics and professional development sessions on improving outcomes through early childhood music sessions, while also giving UW music education and elementary education students field experiences.

Robison plans to collaborate with Wyoming community colleges and other groups such as public libraries, K-12 schools and child care centers to bring his early childhood music education to every Wyoming county.

Public school teachers and child care workers will be incentivized to attend the workshops with a partnership with the Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board and the Statewide Training and Resource System to offer professional development credit at no cost to the teachers, Robison says. He also will share free online resources to increase awareness of the importance of early childhood education.

“Tiger has been a committed partner of the Wyoming Early Childhood Outreach Network since its inception,” says Nikki Baldwin, the network’s director. “Tiger provides essential expertise on music and young children that has filled a significant knowledge gap in the state.”