Department of Curriculum & Instruction Texas A&M University - Commerce
PO Box 3011
Commerce, TX 75429-3011
Barbara.Hammack@tamuc.edu
(903) 886-5525
Dr. Hammack is currently serving as coordinator of the Early Childhood Education program for the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Texas A&M University – Commerce. She teaches early childhood computer-enhanced and online courses on campus and at our metroplex facility in Dallas. In addition, she has taught courses for us at Eastfield and Collin Colleges as well as in the Rockwall and Frisco ISDs. She has been active on campus in Faculty Senate for many years and has served as secretary for the past nine years.
Dr. Hammack has a wide range of teaching experiences. She has taught kindergarten through 4th grade in two large inner-city public school districts. She helped establish and taught mixed age (3, 4, & 5 year olds) in a laboratory demonstration program at the community college level. She was an instructor in the child development associate degree program at Eastfield Community College and has taught courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels of the university. Her educational background includes a BA in elementary education, and an MAT in institutional counseling from Oklahoma City University. She received the Ph.D. in early childhood education from Texas Woman’s University.
Dr. Hammack’s professional education interests include ‘best practices’ and classroom management. Currently, her research endeavors are focused on early childhood practices and family literacy influences as they impact the lives of young children. “Family Literacy Packs” was published in the national NAEYC journal Young Children May, 2012.
Dr. Hammack’s professional memberships include the Association of Childhood Education International, National Association for the Education of Young Children, North American Reggio Emilia Alliance and Phi Delta Kappa. Recent national presentations include the annual conferences of ACEI and NAEYC. She received a faculty development grant to study the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Currently, she is involved in a four year federal grant dealing with quality child care sponsored by the US Department of Education.
She was honored by the university as a recipient of the Paul W. Barrus Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award. She was selected as the first recipient of the James Vornberg Faculty Senate Award for Teaching and the Dallas Association for the Education of Young Children chose her as a recipient of the Pat Kennedy Teacher Educator Award. Most recently, Dr. Hammack was the first person from Texas A&M-Commerce to be inducted into the Chancellor’s Academy of Teacher Educators for the Texas A&M University System.
Dr. Hammack is active in her church altar guild, a board member of St Simon After-School Programs in the Dallas ISD, and with her church youth programs’ summer international mission trips and winter ski trips. She is married to Carl, a retired senior level administrator with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Student Financial Assistance.