August 10, 2023 - Candice Hargons (2023 Great Teacher Spotlight)

Behind the Blue

LEXINGTON, Ky. (August 10, 2023) – The University of Kentucky Alumni Association started the Great Teacher Award program in 1961 to honor excellent teaching at the university. There have been more than 300 teachers honored since that first year. Nominations may only be submitted by current students.

To receive the award, a candidate must:

• Hold the rank of full-time lecturer or above and have been a member of the faculty for the past three years at UK.
• Have superior knowledge of the subject matter.
• Have original and innovative classroom presentations.
• Demonstrate concern for students, both inside and outside the classroom setting.
• Not have been a recipient of the award for the past 10 years.

A committee of the UK Alumni Association Board of Directors and a representative from the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa select the recipients based on objective rating and ranking of the eligible nominations submitted.

This episode of Behind the Blue spotlights one of the six 2023 Great Teacher Award winners. Candice Hargons is an associate professor in the Counseling Psychology program where she studies sexual wellness and healing racial trauma – all with a love ethic. She is the interim department chair in the Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology in the UK College of Education.

Hargons is a core faculty member of the Center for Health Equity and Transformation and a faculty affiliate of African American and Africana Studies and the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies. She serves on the American Psychological Association Board of Directors, is a Fellow in APA Division 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) and an APA Minority Fellow alumna.

Hargons has degrees from Spelman College, Georgia State University, Howard University and she earned her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia. She is the PI (person in charge) of the Neighborhood Healers Project and she leads the Big Sex Study, a community-based research project investigating Black sexual wellness.

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