Outstanding faculty honored at excellence celebration
(Sept. 8, 2008) The Downtown Campus faculty at UC Denver are some of the best in the nation, and the best of the best were honored by their peers Friday, Sept. 5, a the fifth annual Celebration of Faculty in the North Classroom Atrium.
“Faculty are the brains of the university and arguably the heart of the university,” stressed Chancellor M. Roy Wilson to a group of about 60. “If you aspire to be a great university – as we do – you have to have great faculty.”
The excellence awards stand out among many faculty honors. “These awards are selected by your peers,” Wilson said. “And peers can be very difficult in terms of judgment.”
Winners of the campus-wide awards include:
Excellence in Research and Creative Activities:
Andrew Knyazev, associate professor in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, has been at UC Denver since 1994. He is a leader in the area of numerical linear algebra, with a concentration on the development of algorithms for solving eigenvalue problems. His contributions span both the theoretical aspects and the applied areas of computational mathematics.
His publication record is extensive. Since he began his academic career, he has published more than 50 refereed articles, books, refereed symposia proceedings, and translations of books—with many additional non-refereed publications, conference presentations, and works in progress. In the period covered by this award (last three years), he has produced approximately 12 articles, presentations and reports. He also is the main developer of a popular software package, BLOPEX, which includes Locally Optimal Block Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient Method (LOBPCG) for eigenvalue problems. He maintains several Web pages, which are visited often by students and scholars.
The impact of Knyazev’s work is seen in the high number of citations—not just from articles published in mathematical journals, but also in journals in engineering, chemistry, physics, computer science, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. Further demonstrating impact is the high number of conferences, workshops, seminars and symposia to which he is invited to present his research.
Excellence in Teaching:
Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor
Dorothy Garrison-Wade, assistant professor of administrative leadership and policy studies in the School of Education and Human Development (SEHD), has been a member of the UCD faculty since 2004. Prior to joining the faculty, she held a variety of positions in K-12 schools—as teacher, assistant principal, and principal in middle schools and high schools. In 2002, she was selected as the Principal of the Year in New Hanover County, North Carolina. She also recently won the Colorado Teacher Education Division (TED) Excellence in Teacher Educator Award in 2007.
Garrison-Wade teaches courses in two programs in the SEHD. Her primary responsibilities are in the Administrative Leadership and Policy Studies graduate program that prepares principals for public school positions. In addition, she teaches in the doctoral program in Educational Leadership and Innovation. She has co-designed three new courses; advises many graduate students; serves on doctoral students’ committees and is the faculty advisor for the Doctoral Students of Color organization; revised the school improvement performance-based assessments; serves on three international accreditation teams; is a professional development consultant for Advancing Excellence in Education Worldwide; and serves as a grant reviewer for the U.S. Department of Education Teaching Incentive Fund.
Among Garrison-Wade’s highest priorities is establishing, maintaining, and nurturing positive and productive working relationships with her students. Her student evaluations are very positive, and specific comments repeatedly reflect her accessibility and responsiveness to students’ needs.
Senior Instructor/Instructor/Lecturer
Kyle Hurst, instructor in the Department of Economics, has been at UC Denver since 2005. Prior to that, Hurst taught at the University of Bridgeport, the University of New Haven, and Baylor University.
Hurst teaches courses in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Theory, Public Finance, and Sports Economics. The latter began as a Special Topics course. It was so popular with students that it is now an approved elective course. During the development of the course, Hurst contacted some of the professional sports teams who were so impressed with the analytical approach to their industry that they have begun to develop internship opportunities for some of his students. Hurst teaches eight courses per academic year, yet sees his role as teacher extending beyond the classroom. He mentors the undergraduate Economics students, helps them obtain internships, and provides informal career advising. In recent exit interviews with senior economics majors, Hurst was mentioned by 60 percent of them as a “Professor of Influence.” He is currently teaching at the University of Colorado Denver program in Beijing, China.
The members of the selection committee noted the overwhelming support he received from students, his many outside activities and efforts, and his use of a variety of teaching methods. As one member said, “He demonstrates the ‘art and passion’ of teaching.”
Excellence in Service:
Ann Martin has been an associate professor of accounting in The Business School since 1994. Martin’s service record is extraordinary – including contributions at the school and university levels as well as service to her discipline, professional organizations and the community. In addition to her nomination for this campus-wide award, she received the 2006 Business School Laube Award for Community Service.
An overall highlight of Martin’s service contributions is her continuous and strong commitment to undergraduate education at UC Denver. This has been demonstrated in numerous activities, including serving as chair of the Core Curriculum Oversight Committee (CCOC).
Other indicators of Martin’s strong commitment to undergraduate education include her service on the Quality Undergraduate Education (QUE) initiative since 2004, and her current service on the Honors Program Steering Committee. In addition, she has been an active member of the Outcomes Assessment Advisory Committee for many years; in this capacity, she has worked hard to help faculty see the value and importance of creating relevant assessment methods and using the data to make curricular decisions and improvements.
The nominators and members of the selection committee were especially impressed with the impact of her work at all levels, and particularly commended her work to improve undergraduate education on our campus and her work with SafeHouse Denver. In Martin’s own words, service involvement is a “cornerstone” of her personal and professional life.
Excellence in Librarianship
Jeffrey Beall, assistant professor and the Metadata Librarian, has been at the Auraria Library since 2000. He also is the Interim Head of the Cataloging Department. He is a member of the Faculty Assembly and has served on many library and university committees—including the Diversity Committee, Faculty Personnel Committee, Tenure Standards and Criteria Subcommittee, search committees in the library and several committees that worked on aspects of the university’s Academic Master Plan and the recent Strategic Plan. He is also involved in professional associations such as the American Library Association, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, the Library and Information Technology Association, and the Colorado Library Association. Beall is currently the editor of the Journal of Library Metadata and has served as an editor and member of the editorial board for Cataloging and Classification Quarterly.
Since 2000, Beall has published eight refereed articles, nine refereed reviews of electronic resources, 34 book reviews, and 15 non-refereed articles; and he has presented five papers or seminars and professional association meetings.
Interim University Library/Director Teri Switzer notes Beall’s willingness to help other departments with problems involving cataloging and the ways in which he makes materials accessible to students. “Our libraries are only as good as the people who work in them. Jeffrey's dedication to both the Auraria Library and the profession are admirable and greatly appreciated.”
Photos of faculty excellence winners dating from 1988 can be seen on the North Atrium Wall.