“This influenced my thinking; I had not considered anything more than teaching at a high school until that time,” said Dr. Dozier.

Originally, she wanted to be an English teacher because of her love for grammar, diagramming sentences and the mechanics of writing, but to her it seemed more practical to study family and consumer sciences for the life skills.

“Its focus is on improving the quality of life for others. Basically, if you learn and use all these skills, you’re going to be a great parent and spouse, skilled employee, contributing citizen and an overall healthy person,” said Dr. Dozier.

After she finished her educational leadership doctorate in Colorado, she saw ENMU’s opening for a family and consumer sciences position that prepared students to teach.

“I believed I could combine both my passion for ‘improving the quality of life of families, individuals and communities,’ the FCS mission, with my research about effective teaching. Then, when I visited ENMU and met Dr. Harmon, Dr. Olmsted, Dr. Stuckey and Dr. Ervin, I was impressed with their professionalism and respectfulness. I believed I would be a good fit and could contribute to strengthening the FCS/Ag department, so I accepted the FCS assistant professor position,” explained Dr. Dozier.

Before ENMU she worked in K-12 education in Colorado.

“I was a high school administrator in a small private high school, a director of a teen parent program, and taught English, language arts, science, religion, physical education and family and consumer sciences in K-12 public, private and alternative schools,” explained Dr. Dozier.

She is fascinated with educational evaluation tools, especially those used to measure effective teaching. Her personal belief is that “as an educational leader, when you want someone to succeed, you identify the criteria for success and then make sure that person knows what it is.”

She loves watching how her students apply all the skills they learned in class to help others.

She is native to Colorado, and both her parents were teachers so they always traveled in the summer in a station wagon pulling a trailer.

“This allowed me to see all of the continental U.S., Canada, Mexico and Alaska. Because my father loved nature, we spent a lot of time camping in the Rocky Mountain National Park during the fall and winter after the tourist season. I remember cooking pancakes outside on the camp stove and listening for bugling elk during mating season,” explained Dr. Dozier.

She married her high school sweetheart, Dan, and they have been together for 37 years. Dr. Dozier met him in 10th grade.

“He was the smartest, most attractive and respectful guy in my class, and he bought my box lunch on Valentine’s Day. We married six years later,” said Dr. Dozier.

They have two married daughters: one is a middle school math and science teacher and the other works for the University of Portland. She said they are fortunate in that their parents are still living in Colorado and are a significant reason for their return.

“My husband is a software designer and data analyst for Hewlett-Packard. He is a perfect example of someone who gets paid for doing his hobby, and he finds great fulfillment telling a computer what to do,” said Dr. Dozier.

When she isn’t teaching she loves to experiment with new recipes and entertain guests, construct suits from Pendleton wool, plant marigolds and squash, hike in the Rocky Mountains, watch snow fall while reading a good book and drinking hot chocolate, watch Deep Space 9 and Matt Damon “Bourne” movies with her husband, play the piano, and attend concerts and plays. She also has a deep love for miniature dachshunds and owns two.

Dr. Dozier and her husband came to Eastern six years ago and fell in love with the community, the students and the faculty.

“I leave with wonderful memories of ENMU: the collegiality with ENMU faculty, Physical Plant’s service in the FCS building and painting my office, serving on faculty senate and collegially working with faculty leaders for the good of ENMU, seeing my students successfully completing their internships and then representing ENMU in their FCS careers, attending faculty meetings with Dr. Gamble greeting each person by name, celebrating graduations and retirements, eating delicious meals at the CUB, traveling to Italy with the Paulks and the choir, and the humbling privilege of influencing a mother to choose life for her unborn baby and then hugging that little boy who is now 3 years old,” explained Dr. Dozier.

“Teaching at Eastern has been a privilege. I will truly miss the faculty and staff with whom I have served.”