IUP Values Me
Student Spotlight: Lilly Haugh
Lilly is majoring in general studies with a pre-occupational therapy concentration and is pursuing a dance minor. Her senior project will combine both her major and her minor to research the ways in which dance can be used for occupational therapy with children. Lilly is a member of the IUP Dance Team, IUP Dance Theater, Sign Language Club, and National Student Speech Language Hearing Association, as well as the Best Buddies organization, which pairs students with people in Indiana County who have intellectual and developmental disabilities. She has been on the Dean’s List since fall 2020 and was on the 2023 Homecoming Crimson Court as the University College representative. Lilly was featured in an Office of Annual Giving article about the University College Dean’s Innovation Fund. Following graduation this May, she will complete a graduate degree in occupational therapy at Shenandoah University in Virginia. We thank you, Lilly!
Staff Spotlight: Cathy Dugan
Cathy is a faculty member and director of the Department for Disability Access and Advising (D2A2). She started the department more than 35 years ago. Since then, D2A2 has moved from serving a handful of students to more than 1,100 students representing a wide swath of types of disabilities. Cathy has appreciated the opportunity to work with the SGA Disability Interest senator on disability issues and to have participated with IUP students in student panel discussions, department and office trainings, presentations to local groups, work with the ARIN Transition Council, a traveling disability exhibit, the Six O’Clock Series, and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. She has also appreciated working with department staff on continuing education readings, such as “Reversals,” “Being Heumann,” and “Disability Visibility.” Cathy thinks the best part of her job is that she gets to work with almost everyone on campus—from students to faculty and staff—and that no two days are alike. She appreciates her department colleagues and that faculty and staff see access not just as a D2A2 mission/passion, but as their mission/passion as well. She is excited that so many students are involved in all aspects of campus life and that disability in no way affects that. We thank you, Cathy!
A note about IUP Values Me: Each week, we highlight one student and one staff member to “shine a spotlight” on their leadership and involvement in campus programs and their great work assisting our campus community with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and/or civil rights awareness. If you have a suggestion for an IUP community member to feature in this section, please email social-equity@iup.edu.
