Faculty Fellows Program Ensures Continuation of Excellence

Chattanooga State Community College employs some of the most qualified and dedicated faculty in the nation. To recognize past and current faculty for excellence in teaching, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Kimberly McCormick, created the Faculty Fellows program. The Faculty Fellows program highlights excellence from of the six academic divisions and honors former faculty who demonstrated scholarship and dedication to teaching and student learning. The following inaugural fellows were honored as namesakes for each division:

• Engineering Technology: The Richard K. Lamerand Fellow
• Social & Behavioral Sciences: The Bea Lyons Fellow
• Mathematics and Sciences: The Dr. Gladys Crates Fellow
• Humanities and Fine Arts: The Amanda Wynn Fellow
• Business and Information Technologies: The Floyd Eaves Fellow
• Nursing and Allied Health: The Dr. Howard Yarbrough Fellow
• Adjunct Faculty: The Dr. Herbert Hooper Fellow

The purpose of the Faculty Fellows Program is to promote innovative curricular and co-curricular change, provide infrastructure for faculty to share pedagogical strategies and practices, support exploration of formative and summative assessments that can be applied in the classroom, build a campus learning community of scholarship and leadership, and provide an incentive and reward system that communicates the value and importance of quality curriculum development and instruction.The goal of the Faculty Fellows Program is to engage faculty in a learning community that supports teaching and learning scholarship to promote student mastery and engagement. Indiana University Professor Emeritus George Kuh says, High impact scholarship requires an educationally purposeful investment of time and energy that results in positive effects on student engagement and learning.Faculty Fellows applications for the 2014-15 academic year were recently reviewed by the Faculty Senate Fellows Selection Committee. Recipients will receive a $2,500 scholarship, an expense-paid trip to the annual League of Innovation Conference in Boston, Mass., and be presented with the John and Susanne Roueche Excellence Award upon completion of the Fellowship during the League Conference. Six tenured faculty members and one adjunct faculty member will be selected each year.Beth Ruta, Department Head & Professor, Engineering Technology, the Richard K. Lamerand Fellow, will enrich and maintain high quality in the Associate of Applied Science General Engineering degree program using three specific strategies: team teach Introduction to Engineering Computation with Mathematics and Sciences Fellow Sherri Barnes, restructure the Introduction to Engineering Design course and collaborate with an adjunct instructor and high school career and technology teacher on this same course.David, Wollert, Associate Professor of Biology, a Dr. Gladys Crates Fellow, has writtena documentary that takes a very broad view of religion, focusing on common themes within eastern and western faith tradition while also examining science, and knowledge in general, from a unique philosophical framework.Sherri Barnes, Associate Professor of Math, a Dr. Gladys Crates Fellow, is co-author and team-teaching Engineering Computations with Engineering Fellow Beth Ruta to develop the numerical methods portions of the course.Shawn Brabham, Associate Professor of English, the Amanda Wynn Fellow, will design a capstone and service-learning honors course as part of the interdisciplinary Global Scholars series. As the epilogue to the Global Scholars journey, this seminar provides a safe environment for students to explore their own roles in society, and their responsibility to the world. The course combines and integrates the students academic achievements by culminating in a service-learning project that is documented through the use of ePortfolio.William (Bill) Shifflett, Associate Professor of Accounting & Business, the Floyd Eaves Fellow, plans to develop a process to recruit minority students into majoring in accounting and enhance their success rate in completing a degree in accounting and obtaining employment in the field.Jody Hancock, Program Director and Associate Professor, the Dr. Howard Yarbrough Fellow, plans her research project that is based on the 90 percent musculoskeletal injury rate within the sonography profession and the fact that no instructional recommendations have been made to address this issue, beyond awareness that the problem exists.Andrew Maginniss, Adjunct Faculty, Physics Laboratory Technician, the Dr. Herbert Hooper Fellow, will focus on redeveloping the Physics 2010 curriculum to be based off of an active learning environment where students will be guided as groups to discover the principles of physics through hands-on activities.The Bea Lyons Social and Behavioral Sciences Fellow also was established, but not awarded this year.For more information about the Faculty Fellows program, contact Dr. Kimberly McCormick, Kimberly.mccormick@chattanoogastate.edu or call 423.697.2402.