Edward S. Shapiro, Lehigh’s professor of school psychology and director of the Center for Promoting Research to Practice, died March 23, according to an email from Lori Friedman, Lehigh’s director of media relations. Shapiro was 64 years old.
Shapiro came to Lehigh in 1980 as an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Education, according to a Lehigh News article by Linda Harbrecht. He was fully tenured in 1986, and in July 1998, Lehigh appointed him as chair of the department of education and human services.
Students and colleagues nominated Shapiro for the Perry Zirkel Distinguished Teaching Award, according to the article. Harbrecht wrote he was credited by those who knew him with exemplifying every criterion and standard of teaching that is valued in the College of Education. Shapiro will receive posthumous recognition for this award at a university awards ceremony in May.
According to the article, Shapiro led the development of the College of Education’s nationally recognized school psychology program. He was published in a number of academic journals, and he authored and co-authored several books on academic skills assessment and intervention. He promoted children’s health and the importance of identifying learning disabilities, Harbrecht wrote. He also developed the widely used Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools software system.
In his time, he received numerous honors and awards, including the Pennsylvania Psychological Association’s Distinguished Contribution to School Psychology and Lehigh’s Eleanor and Joseph Lipsch Research Award for outstanding research contributions. He also has received the Lightner Witmer Award and Senior Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association, according to the article.
Shapiro received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, his master’s at Marshall University in West Virginia and his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh.
Before coming to Lehigh, Shapiro was an assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Arizona and an instructor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.
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