Faculty members with specialties that range from nanoscience to dance were recognized for their contributions to students and the University through annual faculty awards.
Thanks to an endowment established by former UNM Regent Cyrene Mapel, faculty and teaching assistants earn from $400 to $2,000 for the recognition.
The Provost's Office coordinated the selection of two 2001-2002 Outstanding Teachers of the Year, two Presidential Teaching Fellows, one Adjunct Teacher of the Year and six Teaching Assistants of the Year.
The Outstanding Teachers of the Year are:
l Steve Hersee, an Electrical and Computer Engineering professor, is a full-time member of the Center for High Technology Materials and senior member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He regularly teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels and has contributed frequently to course and curriculum development.
Since 1991, Hersee has advised one master's of science and eight doctoral students. Hersee and his students have co-authored 37 publications, delivered 34 presentations at scientific meetings and have been awarded $4.9 million in research contract funding.
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Hersee also views his research program in semiconductor nanomaterials as a powerful teaching tool. He emphasizes technical discussions of research topics to empower students to explore beyond material covered in the classroom.
l Dance professor Jennifer Predock-Linnell received her master's degree and doctorate from the University of New Mexico College of Education and her bachelor of fine arts at the Julliard School of Music.
She has choreographed more than 60 works produced regionally, nationally and internationally. Her dance and video works have been performed in the United States, Australia, France, Israel, New Zealand and Portugal.
In 1975, professor emeritus Clinton Adams asked Predock-Linnell to create and lead the dance program in the Department of Theatre and Dance at UNM. During her appointment she created the bachelor's of fine arts and bachelor's of arts degrees in Dance.
Predock-Linnell has received more than 23 grants and awards for her choreography, research and teaching.
The Presidential Teaching Fellows program promotes excellence in teaching by establishing a core group of faculty recognized for their effective teaching.
The title presidential teaching fellows stay with the recipient for the duration of their UNM careers. During the two years after receiving the award, fellows receive a cash award of $2,500 and $1,000 added to their base salary.
The Presidential Teaching Fellows are:
l Professor Elen Feinberg earned a bachelor's of fine arts degree from Cornell University, with a major in printmaking and painting and her master's of fine arts degree from Indiana University.
Feinberg is the recipient of numerous awards and artist-in-residencies, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting, a Fulbright Scholars' Award and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. She recently earned international residencies in Austria and Malta.
Her exhibits are in the collections of numerous distinguished museum, corporate and private collections in the United States and abroad.
Since coming to UNM in 1978, Feinberg has been honored for her teaching, including being on the President's List for Excellence in Teaching throughout the 1980s. In 1991, she earned a Burlington Fellowship, and in 1996 she was awarded a Regents' Professorship.
l Professor Karen Foss earned her doctorate in speech and dramatic art from the University of Iowa in 1976 and taught at Humboldt State in northern California for 16 years before coming to UNM in 1993. The Communication and Journalism professor also has been director of Women Studies and chairwoman of the Communication and Journalism Department.
Her research focuses on the rhetoric of marginalized groups. She co-wrote five books including "Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric, Feminist Rhetorical Theories" and "Inviting Transformation: Presentational Speaking for a Changing World" to translate her scholarship into practice in the classroom. She has advised more than 25 master's degree and doctoral students and has worked on 25 additional graduate committees.
Her teaching specialties include rhetorical theory, rhetorical criticism, feminist rhetorical theory, gender and communication and public speaking. Foss also sponsors bi-monthly writing groups for her students.
This marks the second year the University has named an Adjunct Teacher of the Year. The award goes to L. Ralph Dawson, from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
He earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1962. After working for two years at the Northrop Space Laboratories in the area of plasma and gas dynamics, he returned to graduate school at the University of Southern California in 1964, where he earned his master's degree in electrical engineering in 1965 and his doctorate in the same field in 1968.
Dawson worked at Bell Laboratories, where he continued research in the area of compound semiconductor growth. In 1976, he transferred from Bell Laboratories to Sandia National Laboratories, which was a sister company to Bell Laboratories. At Sandia, he initiated the compound semiconductor materials and devices program.
Dawson was involved with the teaching program at UNM through short courses offered by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department under National Science Foundation Sponsorship and also, beginning in 1990, through the Distinguished UNM/Sandia Labs Professor Program.
Staff Report
