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TWU to honor faculty
at Honors Convocation
4/16/07
DENTON —
Texas Woman’s University will honor 10 faculty members
in a celebration of excellence Thursday, April 19 during Honors
Convocation. Ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. in the Margo Jones
Performance Hall, located at Oakland and Sawyer streets on
TWU’s Denton campus.
TWU faculty receiving
recognition are: Dr. William Cissell — the Cornaro Award;
Dr. Junehee Kwon and Dr. Toni Roddey, the Mary Mason Lyon
Award; the late Dr. Sterling Smith — the Humphries Award;
Dr. Anne Simpson — Distinction in Service; Dr. Nora
White — Innovation in Academia; Dr. Jody Oomen-Early
— Distinction in E-Learning; and Dr. Ann Malecha —
Distinction in Scholarship. Recognition also will be given
to Dr. Ron French, professor of kinesiology and TWU’s
nominee for the Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award; and
Dr. Glen Jennings, professor of family sciences and TWU’s
nominee for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching.
The Cornaro
Award — Dr. William Cissell
The Cornaro Award
recognizes an outstanding faculty member for excellence in
teaching, scholarship and achievement. The award is named
in honor of Elena Lucrezia Cornaro de la Piscopia, the first
woman ever to receive a doctoral degree (University of Padua,
1678).
The 2007 recipient
is Dr. William Cissell, professor of health studies.
One of his nominators
said Dr. Cissell “is one of the founding fathers of
the health education field as it stands today.” He was
a member of the task force that established the National Commission
for Health Education Credentialing, and is listed as one of
the “pioneers of health education” in journals
and books about the history of the health education field.
He often is asked to speak at international and national conferences
regarding his contributions to the competency standards for
health education. He also is a member of the Health Education
Hall of Fame of the American Alliance for Health, Physical
Education, Recreation and Dance.
Dr. Cissell has
directed community programs related to HIV/AIDS and secured
millions of dollars in grant funds to develop and implement
programs relating to HIV/AIDS prevention.
Dr. Cissell joined
the TWU College of Health Sciences in 1989, and served as
chair of the health studies department from 1995 to 1998.
He will retire from the university in May.
The Mary
Mason Lyon Award
The Mary Mason
Lyon Award is presented to faculty members who are developing
excellent records of teaching, research and service. Award
recipients this year are Dr. Junehee Kwon, associate professor
of nutrition and food sciences, and Dr. Toni Roddey, associate
professor of physical therapy at the TWU Houston Center.
Dr. Junehee
Kwon
Dr. Kwon began
teaching at TWU in 2000. Since that time, she has published
eight research-based articles in peer-reviewed journals, and
has been the author or co-author of more than 20 abstracts
presented at national meetings.
In 2006, Dr. Kwon
was the recipient of a summer research stipend award funded
by the TWU Institute for Women’s Health — Women’s
Health Initiative. She was named a TWU Chancellor’s
Research Fellow in 2003-04 and again in 2004-05. She served
two terms on the TWU Faculty Senate, and has served on several
committees within the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences.
One of her nominators
wrote of Dr. Kwon, “Her ability to successfully provide
top-quality courses, individualized academic advising and
relevant and award-winning research, while also balancing
campus-wide, community and familial obligations, has motivated
me individually as well as other students.”
Dr. Toni
Roddey
Dr. Roddey received
her doctorate in physical therapy from TWU in 1999 and joined
the faculty at the university’s Houston Center in 2000.
Since that time, she has been a leader in physical therapy
instruction and research.
Dr. Roddey has
an extensive research background in shoulder dysfunctions
and currently is working on pioneering new research focusing
on lower back pain and the use of the core abdominal muscles
to strengthen the back. She has authored or co-authored more
than 20 articles in The American Journal of Public Health,
The Journal of Orthopedic Sports Physical Therapy, The Journal
of Strength Conditioning Research and others.
One of her nominators
wrote, “Dr. Roddey is passionate about challenging her
students to a higher level of clinical excellence. She brings
enthusiasm and passion to her research and serves as an invaluable
resource for other clinicians’ research endeavors as
well. Her knowledge and experience are irreplaceable.”
The Humphries
Award — Dr. Sterling Smith
The Humphries Award
for Dedication to TWU is presented to faculty who have, through
their loyalty and actions, proved to be a model to all and
a treasure to TWU. This year’s recipient is the late
Dr. Sterling Smith, professor of biology.
In his nearly 30
years at TWU, Dr. Smith worked with all students seeking certification
to become science teachers in the public schools. One of those
students wrote of Dr. Smith’s guidance, “When
things seemed overwhelming, he never failed to help build
my confidence with thoughtful words of encouragement.”
Dr. Smith served
14 years on the TWU Faculty Senate and was elected speaker
four times. He also served more than 40 years as a leader
of the Boy Scouts of America, and served 18 years with the
Denton Kiwanis Club. He also held office in the National Society
for College Science Teachers, and in the Northeast Region
of the Texas Council of Faculty Senates.
At the time of
his death in a mountain-climbing accident in 2006, Dr. Smith
was preparing to serve on the Denton Independent School District
Board of Trustees. His seat on the board was filled by his
wife, Dr. Jeanetta Smith, who will accept the Humphries Award
in his honor.
The Distinction
in Service Award — Dr. Anne Simpson
The award for Distinction
in Service is presented to a faculty member who has developed
an exemplary record of service to one’s component, the
university, one’s professional field of study and/or
the community. This year’s recipient is Dr. Anne Simpson,
associate professor of reading and director of TWU’s
Reading Recovery Center.
As director of
TWU’s Reading Recovery Center — one of only 22
Reading Recovery Training Centers in the nation — Dr.
Simpson assists more than 100 school districts in their implementation
of Reading Recovery, an early-intervention program for first-graders
who are at risk of failure in learning to read.
She and a team of faculty and staff organize the annual Billie
J. Askew Reading Recovery/Early Literacy Institute, which
attracts more than 2,000 Reading Recovery educators and early
literacy teachers from throughout the United States. Dr. Simpson
currently serves as secretary of the Reading Recovery Council
of North America, a professional organization with more than
7,500 members in the United States and Canada. She also serves
on the editorial review board for the Journal of Reading Recovery.
Dr. Simpson also
makes many contributions to her community. She regularly volunteers
at the Presbyterian Night Shelter and The Samaritan House
in Fort Worth, serving meals to the homeless and the sick.
She also has provided more than 500 volunteer hours as a tutor
to first-graders in the Denton Public Schools since 2002.
One of her colleagues speculated that “service”
is Dr. Simpson’s middle name.
The Innovation
in Academia Award — Dr. Nora White
The award for Innovation
in Academia is presented to a faculty member who has influenced
the university in a manner that continually contributes to
new growth and progress. The 2007 award recipient is Dr. Nora
White, associate professor of reading.
Dr. White’s colleagues called her “a woman of
vision.” That vision led to the opening of the Center
for Qualitative Inquiry, a resource that has proven invaluable
for TWU students and faculty alike.
Prior to the center’s
opening, access to many of the research tools necessary to
collect and analyze qualitative data was limited. Because
many of these resources are quite costly, Dr. White wanted
to make them available to all student and faculty researchers
at the university. The center opened in 2005.
Since that time,
it has become a key resource for qualitative researchers at
TWU. Faculty throughout the university use the lab for their
research and teaching, and more than 100 graduate students
have utilized its high-tech tools.
One of her colleagues
said the lab “is an outstanding example of how one dedicated
educator can make a lasting difference to the academic quality
of life.”
The Distinction
in E-Learning Award — Dr. Jody Oomen-Early
The award for Distinction
in E-Learning is presented to a faculty member who has made
distinguished contributions to e-learning through program
or curriculum development or teaching. This year’s recipient
is Dr. Jody Oomen-Early, assistant professor of health studies.
Since joining the
TWU Department of Health Studies in 1999, Dr. Oomen-Early
has been a pioneer in developing the department’s online
bachelor and graduate health studies programs. Begun in 2001
with only two courses, the online bachelor of health studies
program has grown into an outstanding e-learning model that
is emulated by other universities throughout the United States.
Dr. Oomen-Early
has received consistently high accolades for her online courses
and teaching methods. She also helped launch the online master’s
of healthstudies
program and is working to bring the doctoral health studies
program online. Under her leadership, both the online bachelor’s
and master’s in health studies programs have grown by
an average of 28.3 percent annually. Her research on providing
feedback in the virtual classroom recently was accepted for
publication in The International Journal of E-Learning.
Many of those who
nominated Dr. Oomen-Early for this award were students. One
wrote, “Through emails and other correspondence, I felt
personally connected as part of the class. Dr. Oomen-Early
was able to convey her genuinely warm and caring personality
with infectious enthusiasm through a much de-personalized
cyberspace.”
The Distinction
in Scholarship Award — Dr. Ann Malecha
The award for Distinction
in Scholarship is presented to a faculty member who has evidenced
a distinguished record of scholarship and dedication to improving
knowledge and understanding in their discipline. The 2007
recipient is Dr. Ann Malecha, associate professor of nursing
at the TWU Houston Center.
Dr. Malecha began
her TWU career as a doctoral nursing student at TWU’s
Houston Center, focusing her research efforts on violence
against women. Her research continued as a faculty member
at TWU. Her recent research extends to studying the national
nursing shortage in relationship to the stresses that confront
nursing students and nurses in the early years of their career.
Under Dr. Malecha’s leadership, this pioneering research
project involves 40 nursing students from all TWU campuses.
Dr. Malecha’s
work has been published in the Journal of Women’s Health,
Issues in Mental Health Nursing, The American Journal of Nursing,
Nursing Research, The Journal of The American Academy of Nurse
Practitioners and numerous other periodicals.
As research director
for TWU’s Nelda C. Stark College of Nursing in Houston,
Dr. Malecha gives support and expert advice in research design,
methods, analysis and manuscript development to nursing students
and faculty. As one nominator said, “Dr. Malecha is
the type of colleague and professional that all nurses wish
to work with. She inspires us to keep striving to reach our
highest potential.”
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For Further
Information Contact:
Karen Garcia
Senior Copywriter
Tel: (940) 898-3456
e-mail: kgarcia@twu.edu |
