Emeritus Faculty: Mary Verbout

Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania

If you have additions or corrections to this page, please contact the College Archives at 928-776-2274 or archives@yc.edu.  We are especially looking for:

• Nomination materials of faculty for Emeritus status
• Classes taught by individual Emeritus faculty 
• Evidence of their superior teaching at YC
• Their involvement in committee work and special projects
• Photographs of them during their time at YC
• List of written works published, public artwork, music written and performed

Dr. Mary Verbout's Career at Yavapai College

Academic Advisor: 

August, 1993-April, 2000 Advised and helped students develop their schedules to meet degree plan requirements in all academic disciplines as well as specializing in helping international students.

International Student Club Advisor: 1993-2000 Assisted student leaders in creating a space where international and local students could learn about cultures and have fun.

Innovative Teaching Strategies:

2001-2007 - Worked to create developmental learning communities. The initial community was Starting Block, which included Basic Writing, Reading Improvement, Fundamentals of Math, Becoming a Master Student and Keyboarding. Other communities were the Preparatory Science (Intro Comp, Basic Skills in Lab Science, Career Discovery). Biology Learning Community (College Reading, Biology 100, Intro Comp). Sociology 101 and Intro Comp.

Fall 2013 -Had students read articles about the effect of texting while driving; then worked with the Campus Police Office to create an obstacle course (using information from Turnofftexting.com) for students to drive while texting. Students timed each other and observed the driving quality. Students then compared their experience with the information in the articles and wrote argument papers with the data.

Assessment: 2008-2015 Co-directed the English Department Assessment and Standards Project. Worked with full-time, adjunct, online, and high school instructors to assure that Yavapai College composition standards were upheld in all locations across all venues. This required designing portfolio reading and grading sessions attended by 35-45 English instructors, many times twice per semester.

Presentations at Conferences:

• 1996 Yavapai County English Teachers Conference
• "Teaching Instructions/Process Papers"
• 1999 PUSD In-Service Day "Help with Grading: Using a Rubric"
• 2001 Two-Year College English Association "Putting it All Together for Developmental Students: A 5-Course Cohort Model"
• 2001 YC Paralegal Program "Resources for Instructors to Improve Student's Writing"
• 2001 YC Faculty "Tips for Evaluating Writing"
• 2005 Rocky Mountain TESOL "Aviation ESOL"
• 2007 Yavapai College "Steps to Writing a Successful Scholarship Application Letter"
• 2009 Two-Year College English Association "Academic Integrity: Institution-wide Strategies
• 2012-2014 YC New Faculty Orientation "Issues of Student Integrity: Bullying the Instructor"

Awards: 2001 Barbara McClurg Award Nominee

Significant Curriculum Development:

• Developed on-line Technical Writing Course ENG136
• Developed with Connie Gilmore courses to address the needs of English Language Learners
• Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Speaking and Listening
• Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Reading and Writing

Committee Work:

Developed and taught ENG091, ENG092, and ENG093- Lab courses which allowed students to skip a developmental writing course and accelerate toward achieving their degrees.

Faculty Association President (1999-2000), Faculty Association Secretary (2000-2001), Faculty Affairs (2 years), Faculty Senate (5 years), Standards Committee (1 year), Founder and Chair of Developmental Education Committee (2012-15), Assessment Committee (2014-2015), Probationary Faculty Review, Dual Enrollment Faculty Review, a number of hiring committees.

Conferences Attended: 1995-Third Annual Fall Navajo Nation Education Conference

Dr. Mary Verbout retired in 2016 and was given Emeritus Faculty status in 2018.

The College Seal was adopted in Sept. 1969.