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Dr. Paul Wright

Each year, the Fulbright Scholar Program sends some 800 U.S. faculty and professionals to 140 countries to lecture, research, or participate in seminars. At the same time, approximately 800 foreign faculty members come to the U.S. Awardees lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.

Wright’s was the only award given for Spain in this round.

Wright is the seventh faculty member from the University of Memphis and the first from the College of Education to receive a Fulbright Research Award since 2000.

“I am very honored to win this Fulbright Award,” Wright said. “The support it provides will allow me to spend six months working directly with researchers at the University of Valencia. We have had an ongoing collaboration for more than a year already, but we will be able to accomplish much more with this amount of focused time and face-to-face interaction.

“This model, developed in the U.S., has been my area of specialization since graduate school. My primary aim in the research project in Valencia will be to conduct an implementation study of their program and provide consultation to balance a high degree of fidelity to the original model with the need to make cultural and linguistic adaptations. This model is now used in several different countries, so studying its implementation internationally is a new, but very exciting, line of research.

“In addition to being a great honor and an exciting opportunity for international exchange, this award will allow me to expand my current program of research in new directions that are very timely and relevant.”

Wright earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He joined the U of M faculty in 2002.