UNC Board of Governors Announces University-wide Awards for Teaching Excellence
Joni B. Worthington
April 17, 2013
The Board of Governors of the multi-campus University of North Carolina has selected 17 of its most outstanding faculty to receive the 19th Annual Awards for Excellence in Teaching. Each award winner will receive a commemorative bronze medallion and a $7,500 cash prize. The 17 recipients, representing an array of academic disciplines, were nominated by special committees on their home campuses and selected by the Board of Governors Committee on Personnel and Tenure, chaired by John C. Fennebresque of Charlotte. The awards will be presented by a member of the Board of Governors during the spring graduation ceremony on each campus. Winners include Professor Joseph Lisowski, Department of Language, Literature and Communication, Elizabeth City State University. "This award is one that I will hold in trust, an honor that would be shared with my students, past and present, my colleagues and mentors, past and present, and certainly my soul and heart’s inspiration, Dr. Linda Lisowski. Also, I am deeply gratefully for the committee who chose me for this accolade," said Joseph Lisowski. Other winners include Associate Professor D. Scott Hunsinger, Department of Computer Information Systems, Appalachian State University Associate Professor John W. Stiller, Department of Biology, East Carolina University Professor Carole Boston Weatherford, Department of English, Fayetteville State University Associate Professor Stephanie L. Luster-Teasley, joint appointment, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Department of Chemical, Biomedical and Bioengineering, NC A&T State University Associate Professor Susan E. Hauser, School of Law, NC Central University and Professor Rupert W. Nacoste, Department of Psychology, NC State University. Other winners are Associate Professor Linda Cornett, Chair, Department of Political Science, UNC Asheville Professor Darryl J. Gless, Department of English and Comparative Literature, UNC-Chapel Hill Associate Professor Joanne Maguire Robinson, Department of Religious Studies, UNC Charlotte Associate Professor Lisa C. Tolbert, Department of History, UNC Greensboro Professor Tim Ritter, Department of Chemistry and Physics, UNC Pembroke Professor Peter W. Schuhmann, Department of Economics and Finance, UNC Wilmington Artist Faculty/Instructor Geordie MacMinn, School of Drama, UNC School of the Arts Associate Professor Chris Cooper, Department Head, Department of Political Science and Public Affairs, Western Carolina University Professor Dennis R. Sherrod, Forsyth Medical Center Endowed Chair of Recruitment and Retention, Division of Nursing, Winston-Salem State University and Maria L. Hernandez, Instructor of Mathematics, NC School of Science and Mathematics. Established by the Board of Governors in 1994 to underscore the importance of teaching and to reward good teaching across the University, the awards are given annually to a tenured faculty member from each UNC campus. Winners must have taught at their present institutions at least seven years. No one may receive the award more than once. Award citations and thumbnail photos for all 17 award recipients can be found at https://www.northcarolina.edu/bog/teaching_awards/2013/index.html on the University of North Carolina website. The oldest public university in the nation, the University of North Carolina enrolls more than 220,000 students and encompasses all 16 of North Carolina’s public institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees, as well as the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nation’s first public residential high school for academically gifted students. The UNC Center for Public Television, with its 12-station statewide broadcast network, the UNC Health Care System, and the NC Arboretum are also under the University umbrella.