<< Back 5/1/02 Western presents top awards for teaching, research, service SMN Western Carolina University presented its top faculty and staff awards for teaching, research and service for the 2001-02 academic year at its annual spring General Faculty Meeting and Awards convocation Friday, April 26. Terry Nienhuis, professor of English, won the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. The Paul A. Reid Service Award for faculty went to Bill Ogletree, associate professor of human services, while the Paul A. Reid Service Award for administrative staff went to Judy Dowell, assistant to the chancellor. James Costa, assistant professor of biology, received the University Scholar Award for distinguished scholarly achievement. The honors were announced by Western Carolina Chancellor John W. Bardo. Other major awards recognized at the convocation include The University of North Carolina Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching, won by Kathy Ivey, associate professor of mathematics; the Collaborative Education Experience Award; and the Scholarly Development Assignment Program awards. The Collaborative Education Experience Award is designed to support well-rounded student learning experiences that go above and beyond traditional course requirements and support Western’s mission related to teaching and learning. Emphasis is on collaborative activities that promote holistic student development. The 2002 winners are Brian Railsback, department head and associate professor of English, and Steve Carlisle, instructor of theatre arts. They collaborated on creative writing and theatre experience classes in which students — simultaneously enrolled in both classes — wrote, produced and staged an original play, from start to finish. Recipients in the Scholarly Development Assignment Program are Peter Bates, associate professor of natural resources management; Robert Godfrey, professor of art; Frederick Hawley, professor of criminal justice; Paul Heckert, professor of physics; and Suzanne Moore, associate professor of modern foreign languages. The Scholarly Development Assignment Program provides leave from usual work commitments to full-time tenured faculty so they may pursue concentrated scholarly work. Recipients are chosen on a competitive basis by a faculty committee. Nienhuis, winner of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, has been a member of the Western faculty since 1972 and has served in the Coulter Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence for several years. He received the award in recognition of the way he thinks of each class as a “community of learners” that grows as students participate in lively and meaningful discussions during class, Bardo said in announcing the award. “After viewing a video of our recipient teaching one of his classes, the selection committee found it difficult to find the right words to describe the classroom discussion they witnessed,” Bardo said. “To say it was ‘lively and energetic’ was apparently an understatement. The selection committee saw a community in which the members were deeply engaged in learning, all with great enthusiasm. Particularly keen comments from the class were punctuated by booming laughter from the instructor, who considers himself a coach or cheerleader for the class.” Ogletree, winner of the Reid faculty award, has been a faculty member in the department of human services since 1992. He provides clinical instruction and direct services through Western’s Speech and Hearing Center and outreach sites, working across the region with people who have severe communication disorders, and with their families. He is recipient of a $1.4 million federal grant to help better prepare Western graduates and working professionals for the rigors of speech-language pathology. “But it is primarily for his work on behalf of our students that we recognize Bill Ogletree today,” Bardo said. “Of particular significance is that he teaches the earliest courses for entering freshmen and sophomores and the most advanced graduate courses, earning nothing but the highest ratings and recognition from his students as a quintessential teacher and learner both inside and outside the classroom. Quoting from his nominator, ‘Bill serves from the heart. He serves his university community, his state and his profession as he serves his family. Western is fortunate have Bill as one of its best ambassadors.’” Dowell, recipient of the Reid staff award, has been assistant to the chancellor at Western for 17 years, serving as “the right hand” to Bardo, former chancellor Myron Coulter and interim chancellor Jack Wakeley. In her role, Dowell has provided effective linkages between faculty and administration, and has embodied the very spirit of what former Western president Paul Reid had in mind when he created the award, Bardo said. “Dr. Dowell enjoys today the deepest respect, greatest admiration and sincerest friendships of anyone on the Western campus,” he said, quoting her nominator. “What is less evident to the campus community is the highest esteem in which she is held by state, national and international organizations, administrations and individuals to whom she represents the university — often being both their first contact and their most lasting and favorable memory. For all the university publics, both within and without, Dr. Judy Dowell is the person in the administration to go to. Few administrators, by the very nature of their positions, can enjoy what amounts to universal popularity, while remaining steadfast in meeting their administrative duties.” Costa, who won the University Scholar Award, has been a member of Western’s biology faculty since 1996. He has received funding from numerous agencies to support his scientific research, including grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “Jim has an impressive record of creative research, balanced with a distinguished teaching and service career,” Bardo said. “His research expertise encompasses social insect behavioral ecology, population genetics and molecular systematics. He has made significant contributions to our understanding of social evolution by virtue of his unique empirical studies, as well as his conceptual synthesis of previous work on the subject.” In presenting the Academic Award of Excellence, Bardo praised the department of educational leadership and foundations for its efforts to produce educators who are better prepared to work in school systems throughout the state and the western region. He singled out the department for establishing the university’s first doctoral program. “The department has had a widening impact on school leadership in the region. Our doctoral students have routinely been promoted to more senior positions either while in the program or upon graduation,” Bardo said. “The department also has been very responsive to potential educator shortages in the region and state through the development of alternative programs for both teaching and administration.”