Joyce E. Brooks of Canfield, an educator who has served in various leadership capacities through a career that has spanned more than 50 years, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree during Youngstown State University’s summer commencement 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15 in Beeghly Center.

Brooks graduated from Canfield High School in 1957, earned a bachelor’s degree in education from YSU in 1961, was an elementary teacher in the Greenford Local School District and then served nine years as a reading specialist in the Canfield Local School District. She later was the project director of the Right to Read Federal Project in the Canfield schools. Brooks earned a master’s degree in education from YSU in 1970.

In 1980, she became director of personnel services/staff development with the Mahoning County Office of Education, and nine years later she was named director of personnel for the Youngstown City School District, retiring in 1993.

At YSU, she has served as assistant to the dean of the Beeghly College of Education. She also was coordinator of the Mahoning Area Consortium Tech Prep, a member of Region 12 School—to—Work Executive Committee, an educational consultant with the Ohio Department of Education, coordinator of the Mahoning Valley Vision of Education, and a founding member of the Mahoning Valley Opportunity Center Governing Board.

In 1997, she was appointed to the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center, and she was elected to the Mahoning County Educational Service Center Governing Board, serving as president in 2008.

She is a member of several associations, including the Ohio School Board Association Board of Trustees, Northeast Regional Ohio School Boards Association Executive Council, Buckeye Association of School Administrators Project Outreach, Phi Delta Kappa Mahoning Valley Chapter and Delta Kappa Gamma, Gamma Pi Chapter. She is active in the Austintown Community Evangelical Covenant Church, the Youngstown Mahoning County Public Library, Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way and the Canfield Republican Women’s Club.

Last year, the MCCTC Conference Center was named in Brooks’ honor. She received the OSBA Award of Achievement in 2008 and 2009, the Industrial Information Institute Inc.’s Outstanding Educator Award in 2007, the Federated Women Community Service Award in 2005 and the Ohio Educational Service Center Association Outstanding Leadership Award in 2004.