Meet the Director
Stephen W. Kiefer,
Professor and former Head of the Department of Psychology, currently serves as the Director of the University
Honors Program. He joined K-State's faculty in 1982 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate
professor in 1986 and to full professor in 1992.
Dr. Kiefer has been recognized numerous times for excellence in teaching and research (view his complete curriculum vita in .pdf format). He won K-State's Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence in 1996 (the first year of this award) and the Senior Faculty Award for Research Excellence, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research the same year. In 1991, he received K-State's Award for Outstanding Teaching Undergraduate Education, and he received the William L. Stamey Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences in both 1989 and 1990.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. At Washington University, he completed his senior honors thesis which involved a research project examining the discrimination abilities of the echolocating bat, Eptesicus fuscus. He graduated magna cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. His master's and doctorate are from Arizona State University. He did postdoctoral work at the University of California, Los Angeles, before joining K-State in 1982.
Dr. Kiefer is married to Nancy
F. Kiefer, who currently teaches English as a Second Language at the Adult Learning Center in Manhattan.. They celebrated their 37th anniversary this year.
They have two sons: Zachary (23) who graduated from Tulane University in Finance, Legal Studies, and a minor in Spanish
and Brian (21) who is a junior at the University of Oregon and who is interested in anthropology. The youngest member of the family is Farfel, a Spaniel mix (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Cocker Spaniel: a Cockalier!).