Pitt Education Professor Wins Outstanding Service Award

PITTSBURGH—George J. Zimmerman, associate professor and chair of the Department of Instruction and Learning in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education, recently received the 2004 Outstanding Service Award from the Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation (AER) of the Blind and Visually Impaired.

The AER is an international organization of educators, rehabilitation specialists, and optometrists who serve the needs of children and adults who are blind or visually impaired. The Pennsylvania/Delaware chapter is one of many within AER.

Coordinator of Pitt's vision studies specialization in education, Zimmerman also was nominated as president-elect of AER International. Voting is under way with results to be announced in mid-June.

Zimmerman was a member of the AER board of directors from 1992 to 2000. He has served as chair of AER Division 17 in personnel preparation. In addition, he was a member of the Executive Committee of Division 9 in orientation and mobility (O&M), chair of the University Review Committee, chair of the AER board's Certification Review Committee, and vice chair of the Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals.

Zimmerman earned the Bachelor of Science degree in education of the visually impaired at Kutztown University in 1973, the Master of Arts degree in blind rehabilitation at Western Michigan University in 1976, and the Ph.D. degree in education and human development with an emphasis in O&M research at Vanderbilt University in 1987.

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