Congratulations to Dr. John Nally, the Director of Education for the Indiana Department of Correction, for receiving the 2019 CEA Lifetime Achievement Award.  Dr. Nally received the award at the CEA Conference in July. His career in adult education has spanned six decades, beginning as a GED instructor at the Indiana State Farm (now Putnamville Correctional Facility) in 1967.

Throughout his career, Dr. Nally has taught in male and female adult correctional facilities and male and female juvenile correctional facilities.  Before becoming the IDOC Director of Education in 2003, he also served as the IDOC Education Technology Director and the IDOC Director of Special Education.

Nally collaborated with his colleagues, Dr. Susan Lockwood, and Dr. Taiping Ho, to publish over 12 peer-reviewed research articles specific to the impact of formal education on recidivism.  In addition to his role at the Indiana Department of Correction, he has served on the Indiana Department of Education’s State Advisory Committee for Special Education for 20 years and provided national leadership within the Correctional Education Association (CEA) as the President of the Council of State and Federal Directors and a member of the CEA Executive Board.  Dr. Nally received the “President’s Award” in 2008 and 2013 recognizing his national leadership within CEA. He is also a past recipient of the IAACE (Indiana Association of Adult and Continuing Education) Administrator of the Year award.

Dr. Nally was an invited participant at the prestigious Reentry Council at John Jay College in 2008. He is a sought-after advisor to the US Department of Education’s Office of Correctional Education, providing data and insight to a variety of its federally funded research projects.  As an example of this, Nally was part of a select group of practitioners who collaborated to develop the “Reentry Education Model” with the US Department of Education. Additionally, he was an invited panelist for the 2016 unveiling of a report released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the US Department of Education, “Highlights from the US PIAAC Survey of Incarcerated Adults: Their Skills, Work Experience, Education, and Training: Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 2014” in Washington, DC.

In 2017, Dr. Nally was instrumental in the release of a national report from CLASP, funded by the Lumina Foundation, titled, “Incarceration to Reentry: Education & Training Pathways in Indiana.” This report has been widely distributed and utilized in jurisdictions across the country.

Since becoming the Director of Education for the Indiana Department of Correction, the total number of high school diplomas, high school equivalency certificates, literacy certificates, vocational certificates, Associates and Bachelors Degrees earned by individuals in Indiana adult correctional facilities has totaled 60,581.  High School Equivalency Certificates alone total 20,206.

Join IAACE in our congratulations to Dr. John Nally’s on this award, and his far-reaching impact on correctional education in the State of Indiana.