VA-LEND Faculty Marie Anzalone, ScD, Receives 2011 Fulbright Scholarship

July 8, 2010

The Fulbright Program, America's flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

Marie E. Anzalone, ScD., assistant professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to spend June through December 2011 as a visiting lecturer and researcher at University College Cork in Ireland where she'll help to bring a shift from a research to a clinical doctorate program and introduce on-line methods of instruction for students. She'll also work with occupational therapists on implementing and evaluating family centered interventions in Ireland's developing early intervention system.

"I am excited and thankful for the opportunity to experience a different culture and system of health care delivery. As an occupational therapist in the U.S., I was very active in implementing the federal mandate for family centered care in the early 90s," Anzalone said. "The opportunity to share those experiences and to learn from the Irish therapists during their implementation of a national system will become a capstone to my career."

Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has provided nearly 300,000 students, teachers and scholars worldwide with the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about others' political, economic, educational and cultural institutions. The Program operates in 155 countries.

Dr. Anzalone is one of four VCU faculty to receive a 2011 Fulbright Scholarship.