A joint retirement reception for professors Chris Marvin and Dixie Sanger will be 4 to 6 p.m. May 6 at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum. The reception is free and open to the public.

Marvin has served in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders for 31 years, primarily teaching and developing courses for the department’s graduate early childhood special education program.

Marvin has been a member of the university’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers since 2005 and recently served on the Academic Rights and Responsibilities Panel Committee. She is also the vice chair of the work group on digital education for the Nebraska’s budget response team.

Sanger has served in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders for 41 years. Her research efforts have focused on the communication skills of female juvenile delinquents and topics related to language and literacy.

She received the 2012 Editors’ Award for Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for her article “Oral Language Competence, Young Speakers and the Law.”

Sanger received her bachelor’s degree in speech-language pathology from Nebraska and returned to the university for her doctorate before becoming a full-time faculty member in 1981.