Susan Gray endowed chair

awarded to Ann Kaiser

Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development has created an endowed chair to honor one of its most influential faculty, the late Susan Gray. Ann Kaiser, professor of special education and psychology and deputy director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s Research Program on Families, has been named the holder of the new chair.

“Ann Kaiser excels in her roles as professor, scholar and colleague, and has established a record that deserves the high recognition involved with a chaired appointment,” Dan Reschly, chair of the Department of Special Education, said. “Dr. Kaiser is a superb scholar in the area of language interventions for children with developmental delays and disabilities. She is an unusually perceptive scholar and colleague. She is an outstanding university citizen who will carry the chair title with dignity and class.”

The establishment of the new chair was announced Oct. 20 during a lecture and reception in honor of Susan Gray, who died in 1992. The chair was created with funding from an anonymous donor.

During her tenure at Vanderbilt, Kaiser has served as chair of the Department of Special Education and as acting associate dean for graduate studies and research. She is the author of more than 125 articles and chapters on early language and behavior interventions for young children with disabilities and children growing up in poverty. Kaiser has been the principal investigator on research and training grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. Her primary area of research is early intervention for children with developmental disabilities and children at risk. She has received numerous awards for her research and mentoring, including the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professorship at Vanderbilt.

Kaiser received her Ph.D. in developmental and child psychology from the University of Kansas. She has been a faculty member at Vanderbilt since l983.

Susan Walton Gray earned her M.A. in 1939 and her Ph.D. in 1941 from George Peabody College. She returned to campus in 1945 to join the psychology faculty, where she remained until her retirement in 1978.

Gray was motivated by a deep concern for the education of underprivileged children. Highlights of her career include providing the intellectual framework for Project Head Start; collaborating on the development of the John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Education and Human Development; and founding and directing the Kennedy Center’s Demonstration and Research Center for Early Childhood Education. The Kennedy Center Experimental School was renamed the Susan Gray School in 1986 in recognition of Gray and her enduring contribution to the nation’s welfare.