The Board of Governors of the multi-campus University of North Carolina has selected 17 of its most outstanding faculty, including chemistry professor Linda Spremulli in the College of Arts and Sciences, to receive the 18th 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 Phillip R. Dixon of Greenville. The awards will be presented by a Board of Governors member during the spring graduation ceremony on each campus.
Winners include professor Elaine O’Quinn, department of English, Appalachian State University; associate professor Ravi Paul, department of management information systems, East Carolina University; professor Ebere A. Oriaku, department of Accounting, Elizabeth City State University; associate professor Linda Wilson-Jones, department of education leadership, Fayetteville State University; professor Teresa Jo Styles, department of journalism and mass communication, NC A&T State University; associate professor Ira T. Wiggins, director of jazz studies, department of music, North Carolina Central University; and professor Stephen P. Reynolds, department of physics, NC State University.
Other winners are associate professor Ellen Holmes Pearson, department of history, UNC Asheville; Spremulli, department of chemistry, UNC-Chapel Hill; professor L. Howard Godfrey department of accounting, UNC Charlotte; professor Hephzibah Crawford Roskelly, department of English, UNC Greensboro; associate professor David H. Nikkel, chair, department of philosophy and religion, UNC Pembroke; professor Michael Messina, department of chemistry and biochemistry, UNC Wilmington; artist faculty/instructor Eric Larsen, chair of Piano Area, School of Music, UNC School of the Arts; associate professor Lisa Thomas Briggs, department of criminology and criminal justice, Western Carolina University; professor Lee David Leggette, department of Fine Arts, Winston-Salem State University; and Elizabeth E. Moose, Dean of Humanities and instructor of English, 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 http://www.northcarolina.edu/bog/teaching_awards/2012/index.html on the University of North Carolina website.
