Distinguished Maine Professor
Sandra Caron, Professor of Family Relations, is an exceptional educator and a productive and gifted scholar. Her involvement and contributions to the UMaine campus community and beyond have touched countless lives.
Caron’s popular classes regularly have high enrollment, with about 1,000 students enrolling in her courses in family studies and human sexuality each year. Since joining the faculty in 1988, she has taught more than 25,000 students. Despite the challenges of teaching such large numbers of students, her class evaluations are among the highest in the College of Education and Human Development.
Caron employs a variety of dynamic teaching methods, from films, music, and guest lecturers to present a breadth of material and range of perspectives. She dons historic clothing to role-play historic characters, such as Queen Victoria, in order to present the history of a given topic. For her creative educational approach, she received the University of Maine Presidential Outstanding Teaching Award in 1998 and a Faculty Excellence Award from the UMaine Alumni Association in 2017.
Caron has mentored many students, chaired more than 50 graduate committees, and served on more than 100 thesis and dissertation committees. She has written several books and nearly 50 scholarly publications, which have focused primarily on the social-sexual development of young people.
Besides teaching and conducting research, Caron has contributed to the UMaine community. She has served on academic, departmental, and administrative committees. For two decades she wrote a weekly column in The Maine Campus, hosted a radio show on the campus radio station, and she continues to host a national website, collegesextalk.com. She has devoted countless hours to projects that advance a more inclusive and socially just campus and society.
A licensed clinical professional counselor, she also founded three nationally recognized peer education programs: Athletes for Sexual Responsibility, Male Athletes Against Violence, and the Greek Peer Educator Program.
2019 Distinguished Maine Professor Award Sponsored By:
