Dozens of Eastern Kentucky University instructors were honored at the second annual Noel Faculty Awards program at a ceremony held in early April.
The Noel Studio for Academic Creativity offers annual faculty awards through the Noel endowment.
This year’s Faculty Awards recipients are as follows:
The 2018-2019 High-Impact Practice Teaching awards went to Dr. Ryan Baggett, School of Safety, Security and Emergency Management and Dr. Anne Cizmar, Dept. of Government.
The 2018-2019 Faculty Innovation in Teaching Award went to Dr. Betsy Matthews, School of Justice Studies and Dr. Bradford Wood, Dept. of History, Philosophy and Religious Studies.
The 2018-2019 Faculty Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Award went to Dr. Cynthia Resor, Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction.
The 2018-2019 Faculty Leadership Award went to Dr. Dustin Wygant, Dept. of Psychology.
The endowment supports these awards to promote excellence in teaching in an effort to enhance student engagement and success at EKU.
Faculty awards highlight successful teaching practices that lead to enhanced student learning. Award recipients showcase their approaches throughout the year so that we can learn from–and model–strategies that have proven engaging and successful.
Critical Reading and Critical Thinking awards are presented through EKU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The current plan, Read with Purpose, seeks to develop critical readers across all disciplines and all levels of our curriculum. As such, it also builds upon the previous QEP, which focused on critical thinking.
The QEP provides leadership and initiatives that support student learning and success. Hundreds of faculty and staff have participated in critical thinking and critical reading professional development to enhance their teaching skills and, thanks to their efforts, students across campus, from first-year to graduate students, are learning to become more active, metacognitive, critical readers and thinkers.
These awards are presented to EKU faculty members who challenge students to improve their critical reading and critical thinking. Faculty are nominated for the award by students through a university-wide survey. The QEP Professional Development Committee then selects the winners based on the specificity and quality of students’ comments.
Students nominated more than 120 instructors for one of the two awards.
The winners were: Dr. Anne Callahan, Professor Kristin Sajadi, Dr. Sallie Powell, Dr. Bill Staddon, Dr. Connie Hodge, Dr. Michelle Gremp, Dr. Bradford Wood, Dr. Clint Pinion, Professor Julie Hensley, Dr. Joanne McGlown, Dr. Dominic Ashby, Dr. Christina Dewhurst, Professor Margaret Frozena, Dr. Jacqueline Jay, Dr. Wardell Johnson, Dr. Jason Marion, Dr. Jerome May, Professor Jordan Newman, Professor Carl Root, Dr. Bob Houston, Professor Julie Lasslo, Dr. Clint Pinion, Dr. Michelle Smith and Dr. Rob Weise.