16-04-2025
Literacy professor wins award for service
Apr. 15—When UTPB Assistant Professor of Literacy Shelly Landreth isn't teaching, she's busy giving back to the community.
Her work both at the University of Texas Permian Basin and in Odessa have earned her the President's Award for Service.
Although she knew she had been nominated, she didn't find out she'd won until the night of the event. They read a little biography and she thought some of it sounded familiar.
"It was really exciting and such an honor to be recognized in that way," Landreth said.
The literacy program is small, so she teaches a wide variety of literacy courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.
Landreth has been at UTPB for six years but was in public education for 23 years, even serving as a librarian.
She has a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in reading from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville.
Landreth also has a master's degree in library science and a doctorate in literacy, both from Sam Houston.
"When I moved into higher ed in 2019 it was a big transition. I was really naive about a lot of that. ... I've kind of learned over time how that works, but it's a different world for sure," Landreth said.
Her background is in secondary education. Before moving into higher education, she spent a number of years as a middle school and high school English language arts and reading teacher.
In higher education, she has taught a little bit of everything.
"I teach children's and young adult literature courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level," Landreth said.
She also has worked closely with UTPB's teacher residents in Ector and Midland County ISDs.
Some of her community service is connected to her background as a librarian. She is on the Friends of the Ector County Library Board and served as the Texas Library Association District 9 chair for a couple years.
That district goes up to Lubbock, down to this area.
"In that capacity, we hosted the District 9 fall meeting a couple of years ago," at the Midland County Public Library downtown branch, she said.
For the last three years, Landreth has served on the Texas Library Association Topaz Committee, a non-fiction reading list.
"I read a lot of non-fiction the last three years as a member of that committee," Landreth said.
She's on the Service Learning Advisory Committee at UTPB and they do a lot of service learning projects with students.
"Dr. Tara Wilson, my colleague ... kind of heads up the Service Learning Advisory Committee, and she sort of encouraged me to incorporate service learning into my coursework. ... What it does is it connects what they're learning in the classroom to some type of service," Landreth said.
This fall, she taught a children's literature course and wanted to connect what she was doing with her students to the STEM Academy.
They had a Bluebonnet contest at STEM. Several ECISD campuses had the contest previously, but STEM Academy hadn't participated.
Landreth was teaching her students to read aloud effectively and so they read Bluebonnet books aloud to third through fifth grade students there.
She was able to go with them and coach them.
A native of La Grange, she spent most of her years teaching in rural areas before moving here.
When she was a young teacher, Landreth never dreamed she would be teaching at a university. She said her professors had a huge impact on her and somewhere along the line, she began wondering about going into higher education.
"My husband actually encouraged me to consider going back for a doctorate, but I really didn't know what for and I wasn't really interested so much in educational leadership, being a principal, superintendent, that kind of thing, because I consider my home the classroom.
"That's my favorite place in all of education, is in a classroom with students. ... In exploring, I found a literacy degree at Sam Houston State University. I went back to Sam Houston to work on my doctorate while I was working as a teacher in a district," Landreth said.
That's what led her thoughts to going into teacher education. Sometimes she stops and thinks how lucky she is.
"You get caught up in all busyness of your day and all the meetings and all these things you have to do, and you can forget. But sometimes I ... stop and just think, wow, I get to work with people who are going to be in classrooms, teachers, future teachers. ... It's an amazing thing. It's very humbling, because I think teaching is one of the most important things a person can do," Landreth said.
It's very challenging, as well. She tells her pre-service teachers it's not easy especially in the current climate in schools.
"I feel like it's become increasingly more challenging, and that's evident in the number of teachers who leave the field. However, I tell them that if you're really passionate about it and you really want to do it, it's the most rewarding career you can have. Every day you walk into a classroom, you have the potential to impact lives for better or worse ... We need people who are impacting lives for better. ... While it is challenging, and there were times in my career where I thought, What am I doing?" Landreth said.
She could do something else and make more money, but she's in year 29 of her teaching career.
"And I would not have made a different choice. ... I still have some good years ahead of me, I think, to continue to make an impact," Landreth said.
Clark Moreland, UTPB Lecturer of English and director of The Heimmermann Center for Engaged Teaching, said Landreth was the perfect choice for the 2025 UTPB President's Service Award.
"She is a key driver for many of our service learning initiatives, leading her students to volunteer at local libraries and schools to help bolster our community's literacy rates. She is also part of our Open Educational Resources leadership team, supporting faculty who are creating more affordable and relevant course materials. She's got that can-do, wildcatter spirit that is representative not only of our faculty but of West Texas as a whole. We're lucky to have her on our team!" Moreland said.
