Walls, professor and program coordinator of music education in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, is the College of Education's second recipient of the honor. Dr. Bruce Gladden, a Humana-Germany-Sherman distinguished professor in the Department of Kinesiology, was the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecturer in 1997-98.

A panel drawn from the 34 previous winners of the award selected Walls for the honor. Walls, the 2008 winner of the Emily & Gerald Leischuck Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, will deliver the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecture in fall 2009.

Walls earned the designation on the basis of her service from 2004-08 as graduate program officer for the Department of Curriculum and Teaching (one of Auburn's largest graduate programs) and her innovative research. In addition to chairing the committees of 71 music graduate students, Walls designed and continues to oversee the college's graduate distance learning program for practicing music education professionals.

Walls, whose research specialty is the application of technology in music classrooms, has been as an officer in a number of national organizations in her field. She has served as vice president of the Association of Technology in Music Instruction  , chair of the Music Educators National Conference Music Teacher Education Special Research Interest Group and president of the Alabama Music Educators Association's   Higher Education Division. She also received an appointment to the National Advisory Board of the Technology Institute for Music Educators   (TI:ME).