Program Links
For 50 years, Dr. April Haulman has served Oklahoma families and communities as a leader and advocate in bilingual and multicultural education.
Haulman, an education professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, is the recipient of the 2025 Medal for Excellence in Regional University Teaching.
Haulman has taught at UCO since 1983 and serves as co-coordinator of the university’s Bilingual Education/Teaching English as a Second Language Program. She has secured more than $9 million in grants for UCO to provide educational programming targeting teachers, and she was instrumental in establishing UCO’s Multicultural Education Institute, an annual professional development conference.
“With every dollar of her grants and every hour of her dedicated work, Dr. Haulman has helped teachers create spaces in which students from immigrant families feel belonging, recognition and encouragement to dream of better futures for themselves and their communities,” said former student Brian McKinney. “Like expanding ripples in the water, Dr. Haulman’s work has reshaped Oklahoma communities from the ground up.”
Haulman helped found the Oklahoma Association of Bilingual Education. She has served as the organization’s president and in other leadership positions.
Savanna L. Payne, a former student and colleague of Haulman’s, is now president of OABE. She said Haulman remained a mentor even after she left UCO for a position as an English language development program administrator for secondary schools in Oklahoma City Public Schools.
“I was always inspired by her wealth of knowledge, calm demeanor and endless positivity,” Payne said.
Haulman, whose hometown is Grand Junction, Colorado, earned her bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Oklahoma.
In addition to numerous awards from UCO, Haulman has received the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Award and the Professional of the Year award from Oklahoma Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
“Ultimately, the goal of education is not merely the transfer of knowledge but the cultivation of engaged, thoughtful citizens capable of navigating and contributing to a complex world,” Haulman said.
