|
The recipients of the 2006-2007 Faculty Excellence Awards are:
Craig Fryhle, Professor of Chemistry
Professor Craig Fryhle is a master teacher of organic chemistry.
Students and colleagues comment on his lucid lectures, clear
explanations, and ability to "involve students in problem solving." He
bring high expectations to the organic chemistry classroom and
challenges students, as one put it, "every step of the way." In his
laboratory sections, said one, "He was eager to help us understand what
we were doing, and in this, his enthusiasm for the subject matter was
contagious. It was like there was no greater vistory than elucidating a
product or understanding the exact mechanism of its formation."
Professor Fryhle initiated "active learning strategies in the organic
chemistry classroom, receiving praise from his students about the
design of group learning assignments." Subsequently, he led the
Division of Natural Sciences in the use of on-line discussion groups,
eCourse, and quick response clickers. Colleagues and students note how
seamlessly he has integrated these pedagogical strategies into his
courses and how powerful they are in advancing students' learning. For
his record of inspiring teaching and pedagogical innovations in organic
chemistry, Pacific Lutheran University recognizes Craig Fryhle as the
2006-2007 recipient of the Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching.
Fern Zabriskie, Assistant Professor of Business
Advising
is part of the work of every faculty member. Professor Fern Zabriskie
excels at it. She is committed to students’ learning “in and outside
the classroom.” Students describe how well she listens to them and
guides them to find their own paths. “She truly cares,” wrote one.
Colleagues and students note Professor Zabriskie’s availability,
generosity, flexibility, and good humor. She is approachable, caring,
and credible. Effective at helping students navigate their academic
programs, Professor Zabriskie is especially skilled at advising them
against the horizon of the world of work. She coaches students on how
to “conduct negotiations” and supports them in making “smooth
transitions” into positions in their fields. Former students appreciate
that Professor Zabriskie did not let them discount their own abilities
or underestimate their career opportunities. She is an “ardent, active
supporter of Beta Alpha Psi,” the national honorary for students in
accounting, finance, and information systems. Colleagues appreciate
Professor Zabriskie’s “care and attention to students, her willingness
to share her professional experiences, and her ability to instill
confidence in them.” For her effectiveness as an academic advisor, her
willingness to extend herself on behalf of her students, to be, in
their language, a “professor of life,” Pacific Lutheran University
recognizes Fern Zabriskie as the 2006-2007 recipient of the Faculty
Excellence Award in Advising.
Clifford Rowe, Professor of Communication
Wise
mentors convey respect, inspire imagination, facilitate growth, and
galvanize vision and capacity. For twenty-six years, Professor Cliff
Rowe has been a wise mentor to scores of students, immersing them in
the “life world practice of journalism.” Once launched in their lives
and careers he has sustained mentoring relationships with them.
Testimonies to his powerful mentoring came from far and wide--Bremerton
to Boston and London to Sacramento. A decade and more out, former
students ask, “What would Cliff say about my coverage of this story?”
One spoke for many, “Cliff taught me something I never expected to
learn in his class – how to believe in myself.” As another put it, “his
best mentoring quality, and the reason why he was a good journalist,
was his uncanny ability to listen. In the uncommon quietness of a
trademark conversation with Cliff, so different from the rest of the
world, one’s own voice and spirit came through.” Former students marvel
at how Professor Rowe extended himself on their behalf, be it driving a
van to Los Angeles for a conference, drawing on his professional
networks to help them pursue internships and positions, conveying his
confidence in them, or his taking genuine pleasure in their successes.
A journalist of impeccable ethical integrity and deep compassion,
Professor Rowe’s former students aspire to emulate his standards. For
his unfailingly generous and generative mentoring of students,
graduates, and colleagues, Pacific Lutheran University recognizes
Professor Cliff Rowe as the 2006-2007 recipient of the Faculty
Excellence Award in Mentoring.
Samuel Torvend, Associate Professor of Religion
Since
his tenure-track appointment in the fall of 2000, Professor Samuel
Torvend has established himself as one of PLU’s most talented faculty
members, one “who offers powerful educational experiences informed by
his wide-ranging scholarship.” In addition to maintaining a heavy
schedule of invited lectures, many of them conference keynote
addresses, Professor Torvend has authored more than ten articles in the
past six years. He also has co-edited Through a Child’s Eyes: Poems and
Stories of War (2001), and authored two books, Daily Bread, Holy Meal:
Opening the Gifts of Holy Communion (2004), and the soon-to-appear
Gathered Fragments: Early Lutheran Responses to the Hungry Poor. The
Luther Institute in Washington, D.C., named Professor Torvend its Edgar
and Margaret Schick Fellow in Religion and Public Life for 2005-2006 in
recognition of the significance of his work on Lutheran theological and
ethical responses to hunger. Currently he is working on a book on early
Lutheran art through the friendship between Martin Luther and the
artist Lucas Cranach. For scholarship of exceptional quality that
directly addresses the university’s mission and makes explicit the
power of its theological roots, Pacific Lutheran University recognizes
Samuel Torvend as a recipient of the 2006-2007 K.T. Tang Faculty
Excellence Award in Research.
Sid Olufs, Professor of Political Science
Since
joining the faculty in the fall of 1982, Professor Sid Olufs has
developed a “steady, coherent, and cumulative record of scholarly
publications.” His scholarship covers a wide range of topics in
political science and is directly related to the content of his
teaching. Professor Olufs is the author or co-author of five books,
including A Preface to Politics (1992); Public Administration in the
United States (1993); Diversity on Campus (1995); The Making of
Telecommunications Policy (1999); and most recently, The War Against
the Public Good (2006). In this last, he explains the dependence of the
nation’s economy and society on government, especially “the stability,
services, and initiative of the public realm.” Colleagues describe his
scholarship as “rigorous and substantial,” and “engaging the
“cutting-edge” of “methodologies in political science.” Another noted
the breadth of his research across subfields. Currently Professor Olufs
is at work on another book manuscript, “Lying in Politics: Is There
More of It?” For his consistent record of scholarly production that
contributes directly to his teaching and the benefit of his students,
Pacific Lutheran University recognizes Sid Olufs as a recipient of the
2006-2007 K.T. Tang Faculty Excellence Award in Research.
Faculty Excellence Award in Service Ann Kelleher, Professor of Political Science
During
her twenty-six years at Pacific Lutheran University, Professor Ann
Kelleher has distinguished herself as a visionary leader in
international education and as an effective administrator. In the early
1980s she helped to create the Global Studies major, “one of the only
international and interdisciplinary majors with a focus on pressing
world issues.” As Director of the Center for International Education in
the mid-1990s, she developed the January term model for study abroad
that is now in effect. Further, she “got faculty and administrators to
begin to see the need for more integrative and pedagogically insightful
approaches to international education.” She authored four successful
grants that contributed significantly to expanding and improving the
coherence and quality of the university’s global education initiatives.
Professor Kelleher’s vision and collaborative skills helped to realize
the PLU-Norway-Namibia collaboration. She is nationally recognized for
her expertise in international education and has consulted with over
thirty institutions and done program evaluations at eleven others. As
one colleague put it, Professor Kelleher’s “ability to see a problem,
devise a solution, and bring disparate faculty together toward a joint
resolution is unequalled on the PLU campus.” Those abilities allowed
her to strengthen the Division of Social Science when she served as
dean from 1996-2000. They also have contributed to her service on
numerous elected and ad hoc faculty committees. For her twenty-six
years as “the intellectual and spiritual leader of the
internationalization of the PLU curriculum,” for her generosity in
securing grants for program development, for her effective and
collegial leadership of the Division of Social Sciences, and for her
generosity to faculty peers across the university, Pacific Lutheran
University presents the 2006-2007 Faculty Excellence Award in Service
to Ann Kelleher.
|
|