MARTHA LALLY: PSYCHED TO TEACH

Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Award recipient and Psychology Instructor Dr. Martha Lally didn’t begin her career wanting to teach, yet educating students has become her passion.

“When I started out, I wanted to be a practitioner,” Lally said. “I always taught as an adjunct as I did my practice. I taught at least one course each semester thinking that at some point, I would probably want to teach full time. And in 2008, a er teaching part time at CLC for seven years, that’s exactly what I did.”

As a licensed clinical psychologist, Lally’s focus was abnormal psychology and the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders. She also specializes in brain and behavior, and lifespan development.

Lally’s psychology training directly informs her teaching method. She is driven by the interpersonal relationships she develops with students and values the use of evidence-based research. She builds relationships by being involved in the Psychology Club, which she helped start in 2010, and communicating with students a er they graduate.

“Connecting with my students is very important to me,” Lally said. “I care about my students. I work with them, and I want them to succeed.”

Another example of Lally’s commitment to student success is her leadership as co-chair of the Lancer Success Council. Among this group’s goals is to nurture and empower colleagues to support student success through individual actions and college-wide projects.

Lally loved the feeling she got when she learned about winning the outstanding faculty award.

“It is just a tremendous feeling because it’s the students who nominated me,” Lally said. “When the students do something like that, you know you’ve made a di erence in their lives.”

As this year’s CLC award recipient, Lally was also nominated for the 2023 Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA) Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Award and in April, learned she is a co-recipient of the award. Next, she’ll be nominated for the 2023 Association of Community College Trustees Central Region Faculty Member Award.