Lea Cowles Masters Award

Marguerite Hare Browne, Dr. Arthur M. Lee, and other friends established the Lea Cowles Masters Award in memory of Lea Agnes Boyle, an outstanding graduate from the Brockport Normal Class of 1917, to recognize a student teacher at the primary level whose performance indicates exceptional creativity and commitment in teaching young children.

Lea Cowles Masters is the professional name of Lea Agnes Boyle. Following her graduation from the Brockport Normal School, Ms. Masters became an elementary school teacher in Port Jervis, NY. She received her bachelor’s degree in education from the Columbia University Teachers College in 1929, and in 1932 received her master’s degree in Child Development and Parent Education from Columbia. After receiving her graduate degree, Ms. Masters served as an associate in the Columbia University Child Development Institute, was an assistant teacher of three-year-old children in the Institute, and worked as a research assistant.

In 1934, she began serving as director of nursery schools for a series of entities, ranging from the Virgin Islands, to Puerto Rico, to the State of Virginia, and the State of Alabama. She joined the faculty at the University of Alabama, teaching child development in the School of Home Economics. While there, she established the Infant Laboratory for Observation and Training. She remained at the University of Alabama until 1962, taking a leave from 1947-48 to organize the nursery school in Lake Success, NY, for children of the staff of the newly organized United Nations.

In 1962, after 45 years as a professional educator and administrator, she became a consultant for child development programs for Native American communities in Oklahoma and Arizona. Her memoir, Ready to Roll: An Intrepid Teacher’s Journey in Education, 1982, is housed in the Brockport Digital Commons.

Eligible candidates for the Lea Cowles Masters Award are students enrolled in the Department of Education and Human Development who have completed at least two semesters at Brockport, and at least one field-based teaching assignment at the primary level.