Outlook Magazine - Fall 2025

Fulbright Future Marriage and family therapy professor picked for prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program

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W-Stout Associate Professor Fullbri will embark on a professional and personal odyssey in 2026 as a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award. Maier, clinical director and associate professor in the M.S. marriage and family therapy program, will teach during the spring semester at Istanbul Bilgi University in Istan bul, Turkey, courtesy of the U.S. State Department and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Maier is eager to embark on a cross-cultural experience that will allow her to teach overseas and collaborate with Turkish colleagues and graduate students to continue research on couple and family therapy teaching and super vision methods. “There are a lot of new initiatives here in the U.S. in terms of modernizing the field, making it more inclusive to all kind of families,” said Maier, a licensed clinical therapist. “I really look forward to being humbled by how trainees are taught and to take a step back and see where people are coming from.” “UW-Stout’s portfolio of counseling programs, including the instructors and faculty, is noteworthy,” Provost Glen dalí Rodríguez said. “The Fulbright application process is highly selective, and Dr. Maier’s selection demonstrates

the caliber of UW-Stout scholars and applied learning as Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University.” From February to June 2026, Maier will teach at Istan bul Bilgi University, one of the largest higher education institutions in Turkey’s largest city. Istanbul Bilgi’s mar riage and family therapy program is the first of its kind in Turkey. Maier has visited Turkey in the past, and she’s also formed connections with a Turkish scholar, Yudum Söylemez, who leads Istanbul Bilgi’s marriage and family therapy program. While in Turkey, Maier expects to teach two courses – one about family and group dynamics and another on children and adolescents – as well as to face the challenge and excitement of living internationally. “When I return to Stout, I hope to extend new collabora tions I form with faculty and students at Istanbul Bilgi with our program at Stout through guest lectures and shared research projects,” she said. “Fostering enhanced cross-cultural understanding for myself and my students is a goal that I aim to embody, not through just a one-time experience, but a lifelong identity as a Fulbright Scholar.”

Read the full story at UWStout.edu/Fulbright

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University of Wisconsin-Stout