“Everybody welcome here” is simultaneously the motto that Deanna Kay Rice has hung beside her desk on her office wall and one that she has lived by for the past 60 years.

Rice is an assistant professor in the College of Education. She is a teacher educator whose discipline is special education.

Rice taught in a self-contained special education classroom at the K-12 level before entering the world of being a college professor and teacher educator.

“I’m a deep-dive person, not a shallow-end person. And so when you are working in a self-contained setting with seven students, and you have them in your class for multiple years, you know them very, very well. You get to know their families,” Rice said.

Life and education have led Rice all across the country. From Arkansas to Missouri, Louisiana to Oklahoma and even Arizona. 

“I don’t know where I’m originally from,” Rice said.

She was born in Fort Smith while her father was at Fort Chaffee. Her family had land in the Delta in Arkansas County, near DeWitt and Stuttgart. Her elementary school years were spent in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they had moved for her father to learn aviation. She graduated from high school in Monroe, Louisiana, where her father was employed as a pilot.

Rice attended Southern Nazarene University for her undergraduate degree, which she received in marketing. 

“Marketing in 1981, or 82, was the most creative business career, and so I majored in marketing. I had a career in various areas of marketing for 15 years before becoming a teacher,” Rice said.

She later continued her education, receiving a master’s degree from UCA and Louisana State University. She also received her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Louisiana State University.

She has spent several years of her life either in college or teaching at the college level.

“I love college. I love the atmosphere of a college campus. So it was just a natural progression for me,” Rice said. 

Despite her long road to finding her passion for teaching and special education, Rice said inclusion has always been a part of who she is. 

“You have the essence of you as the same person, kindergarten, high school, undergrad, now,” Rice said.

Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, Rice saw the lack of inclusion in the school system and public places.

“Things were still very segregated when I was a child,” Rice said. 

She said growing up she never understood why not all children could go to the same school just because of the color of their skin. She also said she never remembers seeing children in school who were disabled or needed special education; however, in retrospect, she believes several children would’ve benefitted from special education as they had undiagnosed learning disabilities. 

Rice would volunteer with special Olympic-type events while in school and has always been an advocate for equal education and accessibility rights for all.

“I was advocating for inclusive practices, you know, way back before I even knew what that term meant, just because, well, shouldn’t everybody be here,” Rice said.

Rice said even when she isn’t in the classroom, she still loves to learn.

She enjoys reading novels and also newspapers and magazines. She is subscribed to the New York Times, Washington Post and Vogue.

“Vogue magazine helps keep me caught up on things,” Rice said.

Rice loves keeping up with the latest pop culture and is a newfound Taylor Swift fan.

She has plans to attend a show in France over the summer with a group of friends and already has an outfit that matches one of Swift’s plans.

She still brings out her creative side as an avid art museum-goer. Rice said she is a member of both the St. Louis Art Museum and Crystal Bridges.

All art inspires her, but she particularly loves modern art and appreciates how art can be whatever people want it to be.

“I can look at the Renaissance and you know, it’s great, but then I love tagging and things like hip hop, graffiti,” Rice said.

One of her favorite art exhibits was discovered while she was at an art museum in Baltimore. The exhibit, “The Culture,” was made up of sculptures and pieces of fine art made by Black artists. 

Rice said she enjoys this art style because it inspires her and keeps her young, which she loves.