Mary Blythe Daniels

BIOGRAPHY

Mary Daniels is an H. W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill professor of Spanish at Centre College, where she has taught since 1996. In 2015 she was named the Kentucky Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.  Recipients are recognized for their extraordinary dedication to undergraduate teaching.  That dedication can be seen in the wide range of courses Daniels has taught at Centre, covering at least five hundred years of literature in Spanish (as well as quite a bit of literature in English).  

Daniels was one of the first at Centre to use community-based learning in her courses; her students have worked in elementary schools, at literacy centers, and at North Point Training Facility helping with ESL classes. In 2004, Daniels received a grant from the 3M Foundation to start a community center which eventually became Danville’s Centro Latino. She has led study abroad programs in Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Mexico.  

Her investment in her students led Daniels to co-author two pedagogy books: A Concise Guide to Improving Student Learning: Six Evidence-Based Principles and How to Apply Them, and A Concise Guide to Teaching with Desirable Difficulties. Currently, she is completing a book entitled Unmasking the Women of the Spanish Golden Age Stage: A Study of Actresses and Autoras.  

Daniels earned her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, completed an M.A. at the University of Wisconsin, and received a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1998. At Centre, she has earned numerous distinctions, including being named both a Centre Scholar and an NEH Professor, and receiving the Kirk Award for Teaching Excellence.