UW-Stout Associate Professor Candice Maier will embark on a professional and personal odyssey early next year 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 Istanbul, 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 supervision 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,” added Maier, who is also 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.”
Maier was among approximately 800 Americans chosen to teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program this year.
“UW-Stout’s portfolio of Counseling programs, including the instructors and faculty is noteworthy,” UW-Stout Provost Glendalí 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. Having the opportunity to work and learn abroad is invaluable and I am confident that the positive impact of this experience – focused on the disciplinary area of counseling/therapy and well-being – will be significant.”
UW-Stout’s counseling, rehabilitation and human services department offers three bachelor’s degrees and five master’s programs – including M.S. marriage and family therapy, M.S. clinical mental health counseling, M.S. rehabilitation counseling, M.S. school counseling, and an M.S.Ed. and Ed.S. in school psychology. The university also offers school counseling licensure programs for both educators and mental health professionals.
Drawn to international experiences
Maier graduated in 2009 with a B.S. in human development and family studies from UW-Stout, and she also holds a master’s degree from North Dakota State University and a doctorate from the University of Iowa.
Maier had two opportunities to study abroad as a UW-Stout undergraduate, spending a semester in Norway and taking a three-week sociology course in Thailand. “Those were really terrific experiences, and I knew I wanted to do it again in some capacity,” she said.
Last year, she applied to be a Fulbright U.S. Scholar, and learned in May she had been selected for the honor. In early 2026, Maier and her family – her husband, Joshua Sanderson, assistant coach of UW-Stout’s women’s soccer team, and the couple’s two young children – will travel to Turkey, where from February to June she will teach at Istanbul Bilgi University. The private university is one of the largest higher education institutions in Turkey’s largest city. Among Istanbul Bilgi’s more than 150 programs is one in marriage and family therapy, 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. Maier said her existing relationship with a specific academic colleague and a particular university likely helped her Fulbright application stand out.
Professor receives national award for research on gender stereotypes in heterosexual relationships
Continue ReadingAlongside another American scholar, Maier and Söylemez co-authored an academic paper, published in 2022, about how feminist family therapists supervised trainees during the COVID-19 pandemic, detailing how they connected via digital means during a precarious time. While in Turkey, Maier said, “My hope is to work on extending the research around feminist-informed practices in couple and family therapy teaching and supervision through both traditional and online formats. The courses I’m teaching won’t specifically center around feminist family therapy but encompass family and cultural dynamics from a cross-cultural perspective.”
Assistant Professor Kevin (Somi) Hynes, director of the marriage and family therapy program, said Maier excels as an award-winning scholar, academic colleague, educator and supervisor who advocates for her students.
“Being selected as a Fulbright Scholar is a tremendous honor and speaks to Dr. Maier’s research agenda and teaching acumen,” Hynes said. “I believe it is in recognition of Dr. Maier’s collaborative work with international scholars and intentionality in working with difference.”
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. And the benefits of the Fulbright experience won’t end when she comes back to the United States.
“When I return to Stout, I hope to extend new collaborations I form with faculty and students at Istanbul Bilgi with our marriage and family therapy 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.”
Fulbright scholars include Nobel laureates, MacArthur fellows
Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel laureates, 93 Pulitzer Prize winners, 82 MacArthur fellows, 44 heads of state or government and thousands of leaders across the private, public and nonprofit sectors.
More than 800 individuals teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. In addition, more than 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program participants – recent college graduates, graduate students and early career professionals – participate in study/research exchanges or as English teaching assistants in local schools abroad each year.
Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program, which operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.
In the United States, the Institute of International Education implements the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.
