Molly Fuller Receives Distinguished Morphet Award

Disponible en: Español

Dr. Molly J. Fuller, the program director of Head Start and Early Head Start Program at AISD’s Child Development Center, has been named winner of the 2020 Morphet Dissertation of the Year Award. The award is presented by the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership (ICPEL) to recognize scholarship in the dissertation stage of advanced academic work in educational administration.

ICPEL, which presented the Morphet awards during its annual national conference on August 6, lauded Fuller for “her passion is to provide programs committed to diversity and equity.”

Fuller holds a bachelor’s degree in English and literature from Southwestern University, a master’s degree in elementary education and training, and a doctorate in educational leadership and administration.
She began her career in 1984 as a teacher in Goose Creek CISD. Fuller joined Aldine ISD in 1996, where she has served as a grant writer and principal before her current role.

Fuller found her niche in education in 1998 when she was appointed the Aldine ISD program director for Head Start. Seventeen years later, an Early Head Start program was added so that children have a continuum of comprehensive services from infancy to prekindergarten. She has oversight of both programs and advocates for an equitable approach to education. This system emphasizes social-emotional learning alongside rigorous academics. Fuller’s vocational passion is to provide programs committed to diversity, equity, and inclusivity that honors each individual’s uniqueness.

As a life-long learner, Fuller took a circuitous journey to her present position. She wanted to be a leader in education. Forty-nine years after her first college graduation, she received her Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership from Texas A&M-Commerce. In addition to fulfilling this dream, Fuller co-authored a journal article with her dissertation chair, Dr. Nathan Templeton, for the 2019 fall issue of Educational Leadership Review. The article is titled, Principal as Servant-Leader: An Embedded-Descriptive Single Case Study of One Prekindergarten School’s Efforts to Build Teacher Capacity in Foundational Skills.

A voracious reader, an avid gardener, and seamstress, of all her accomplishments, Fuller is the proudest of being a mother and grandmother. She wants to be known as someone who pursues her dreams and considers others more important than herself.