Elizabeth Crepeau, Professor of Occupational Therapy, Named to First England Professorship
 
By Beth Potier, Media Relations

Elizabeth Crepeau, professor and department chair of occupational therapy at the University of New Hampshire, has received the first England Professorship, announced James McCarthy, dean of the UNH School of Health and Human Services (SHHS). She will hold the professorship, which includes a stipend, for a three-year term starting this academic year.

“Professor Crepeau is—without a doubt—the most fitting first recipient of this award,” said McCarthy. “Her colleagues describe her teaching as having great depth and reflecting outstanding expertise and sophistication. Her scholarship is equally valued.”

Crepeau, a graduate of UNH, has served on the faculty since 1981. She received the Faculty Scholar’s Award in 1997, the SHHS Teaching Excellence Award in 2000, and the university’s Outstanding Associate Professor award in 2001. “This professorship is a great honor and an affirmation of my work over a fairly long career,” she said. Crepeau said the professorship will help her focus on her current research, collecting oral histories of older people living in Stratham, N.H.

The England Professorship was established in 2004 through the generosity of the England Family Fund. Valerie England is a loyal graduate of UNH’s Occupational Therapy Department. Three generations of the England family, starting with Valerie England’s aunt, Marian Cutts Mitchell, and continuing through her children (Jennifer England Decker ’77 and Hilary England Norman ’86), have been staunch supporters of students in the Occupational Therapy department at UNH, through both the Mitchell Scholars program and the England Family Scholars program.

“The generosity of their gift and what it will do not only for me but for other Occupational Therapy faculty in the future is wonderful,” said Crepeau, who has forged a friendship with the Englands over the past 20 years.

Elizabeth Crepeau is a resident of Newmarket, N.H. Valerie England and her husband Fred are residents of Durham, N.H.