Champlin, Boyce Retiring from UPB

Two members of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford faculty, Isabelle Champlin and Dr. Gillian Boyce, are retiring this spring.

Champlin, assistant professor of anthropology, has taught at Pitt-Bradford since 1971. A Bradford native, she first came to Pitt-Bradford as a student, attending during the 1964-65 school year before going on to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at George Washington University.

At the beginning of her Pitt-Bradford career, she taught not only anthropology, but also sociology. She also taught field archaeology for many years, exploring several sites in the Allegheny National Forest and earning the school the National Award for Excellence from the U.S. Forest Service for its contributions to the “Windows on the Past” program. She shared those sites with young students, also, including those at George G. Blaisdell Elementary School and in the Intermediate Unit 9 Summer Academy.

She has played a strongly supportive role in many campus activities, including the annual Cultural Festival and the Empty Bowls and Baskets dinner. She also began the annual Darwin Day observance on campus and was among the original paddlers making their way from Warren to Pittsburgh as part of the Allegheny River Scholars.

In recent years, she has served as the director of international studies, encouraging students to study abroad, overseeing various scholarship opportunities, leading trips and directing the annual Summer Intensive English Program, which brings students from Pitt-Bradford’s sister school, Yokohama College of Commerce, each summer to study English.

Dr. Holly Spittler, associate dean of student affairs, said, “She is fearless, fierce and bright. To me, she’s a Renaissance woman.”

In 2005, Champlin received the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association’s Teaching Excellence Award, and earlier this spring, she received the Chairs’ Teaching Award from the chairmen and chairwomen of Pitt-Bradford’s academic divisions.

Champlin plans to spend her retirement traveling, hiking, canoeing and gardening.

Boyce has been at Pitt-Bradford since 2000, when she came to be director of what was then the Academic Development Center.

She changed the name of that center to the Academic Success Center and expanded its services. Two major expansions were the addition of a federal TRiO Student Support Services program assisting first-generation and economically disadvantaged students and a TRiO Educational Talent Search to encourage local students in middle and high school to attend college.

“It was through Gillian’s efforts that we were able to get those TRiO programs,” said Dr. Livingston Alexander, president.

Dr. Steven Hardin, vice president and dean of academic affairs, said that in addition to securing federal grants for the new programs, Boyce developed the Academic Success Center by holding workshops for faculty on advising and further developing services and training within the peer tutoring program.

“She’s had the vision to plan big and the determination to follow through,” Hardin said.

Boyce plans to split her retirement between her native Ontario and Charleston, S.C., and continue her studies at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Pictured, Dr. Gillian Boyce, left, and Isabelle Champlin at their retirement reception held last week at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.