Sally McCombie, a faculty member in the Human Development and Environmental Studies Department, has been recognized as the 2011 National Honorary Member by the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America.
Each year, the FCCLA honors one person whose professional responsibilities are not directly related to the association but who has made outstanding contributions and given continuing service to it.
The Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, Inc., a nonprofit national career and technical student organization, has as its mission to promote personal growth and leadership development through family and consumer sciences education.
McCombie, who coordinates the Family and Consumer Sciences Education program, received the Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher Educator of the Year award from the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences in 2009.
On November 3, 2011, IUP will host the FCCLA western region meeting, and McCombie will serve as the keynote speaker. The event, which will be held in the Crimson Event Center, will bring approximately eighty middle school and high school students and twenty classroom teachers to campus.
Her presentation is titled “Future FCS Teachers: The Keys to Strengthening the Bond Between FCSE and FCCLA.”
In 2000, McCombie was selected for the Outstanding Professional Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. She has served as president of the Pennsylvania Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, and, in 2008, she was one of thirty delegates sent from the United States to the International Federation of Home Economics World Congress in Lucerne, Switzerland. She represented the College of Health and Human Services and the Council of Administrators of Family and Consumer Sciences, a national organization for those who hold administrative roles in family and consumer sciences in colleges and universities.
McCombie also serves on the Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards Aligned System Committee for Family and Consumer Sciences. She has been elected to serve on the 2011 American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Nominating Committee.
Since 2001, she has acquired $255,000 in grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Education for the Family and Consumer Sciences Education program at IUP. She has worked with Governor's Institutes to bring Pennsylvania family and consumer science professors to IUP for continuing education courses and workshops.
A collaborative project with Homer-Center High School for IUP pre-student teachers was selected for publication in a 2007 issue of the national Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, the journal of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Under her leadership, IUP's Family and Consumer Sciences Education program has grown from eight to more than one hundred students. McCombie oversees all student teaching in the department in addition to her regular course work.
In recognition of her work at IUP, McCombie has been recognized with the 2006 University Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, the 2006 College of Health and Human Services Outstanding Teaching Award, the 2004 College of Health and Human Services Research Award, and the 2004 IUP Office of Housing and Residence Life Recognition of Superior Effort Award.
She served as a member of the Purchase Line School Board for eleven years, including as president and vice president.