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News Release

Sept. 5, 2019

Northwest announces Carr as 2020 Governor’s Award winner, 6 honored as Faculty Excellence Award recipients


Northwest Missouri State University during its opening meetings Aug. 16 honored six individuals as recipients of its 2019 Faculty Excellence Awards in recognition of their teaching, scholarship and service during the last year.

Continuing the institution’s long-standing tradition of naming one of the honorees as Northwest’s Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education recipient, the University announced John Carr, an instructor of emergency and disaster management, will receive the 2020 award next spring. Carr, who joined the Northwest faculty in 2014, specializes in disaster preparedness, response and recovery as well as disaster psychology and humanitarian relief.

Their outstanding work in the areas of research, service and teaching moves the benchmark for excellence just a little bit higher each year.

“It’s important to recognize those who are models of our faculty’s commitment to quality and excellence in academics,” Provost Dr. Jamie Hooyman said. “Their outstanding work in the areas of research, service and teaching moves the benchmark for excellence just a little bit higher each year.”

The Governor’s Award is sponsored by the Missouri Council on Public Higher Education and presented annually to an outstanding faculty member of each of Missouri’s four-year public institutions. Northwest’s recipient is chosen from faculty members who receive the University’s Faculty Excellence Award for teaching.

For the Faculty Excellence Award, one recipient is selected in each of the three categories of teaching, scholarship and service from nominees representing Northwest’s six professional schools, and one recipient is selected in each category from nominees representing the five academic departments comprising the College of Arts and Sciences, for a total of six award winners.

All full-time faculty holding a Board of Regents-approved appointment at the University are eligible for Faculty Excellence Awards.

The 2019 recipients and a summary of their nomination forms are provided below.

Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching

John Carr

John Carr

John Carr, instructor of emergency and disaster management in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Carr provides students, especially those in emergency and disaster management (EDM), with exemplary experiences and consistently achieves evaluation means significantly higher than department and discipline means. Students frequently report on his passion, engagement and course design in positive ways. Additionally, he exhibits a deep and genuine concern for the well-being of his students.

As the coordinator of EDM programming at Northwest, Carr’s teaching extends beyond the classroom and University. He coordinates internships and field experiences for EDM students, in addition to organizing Missouri Hope – which was redesigned last year from a domestic exercise to an international one – and participating in Florida Hope.  He also is responsible for organizing C-Cert, a 24-hour Federal Emergency Management Agency course designed to educate citizens about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their communities.

As a Maryville volunteer firefighter, he is an active practitioner in the field, completing several trainings that allow him to bring lived experiences into the classroom. Additionally, he serves as an advisor and partner with Guthrie County, Iowa, and Nodaway County to identify existing emergency management needs. 

He is consistently looking for ways to keep the EDM program relevant and began significant work in redesigning the program, as well as a couple of his courses, to meet the changing demands and realities of the field. He also has been instrumental in developing curriculum for Camp CAT-astrophe, a summer camp offered to high school students for the first time this summer. 

Dr. Stephen Ludwig

Dr. Stephen Ludwig

Dr. Stephen Ludwig, assistant professor of accounting and director of the Melvin D. and Valorie G. Booth School of Business

As the director of the Booth School of Business, Ludwig is required to teach one course each semester but teaches additional courses due to a lack of accounting faculty. In spring 2018, he taught three classes, and he taught three classes and an internship with a total of 168 students in fall 2018. His student reflection ratings for each course were high and reflective of his thoughtfully designed pedagogy.

In each of the courses he teaches, Ludwig carefully crafts relevant teaching methodologies appropriate for the course. He incorporates PowerPoint presentations, practice problems, homework assignments, cases, videos, quizzes and exams. Ludwig writes cases based on real-life examples and uses case studies from the academic journal, “Issues in Accounting Education.” Ludwig returns class exercises and exams by the next class period so students may review them while the material is still fresh in their minds. He guides students through exercises to ensure they can observe and practice each step of the process. To further help students understand material, he spends countless hours reviewing and finding suitable online material that students may access for free to supplement their learning.

Business connection, one of the courses Ludwig co-developed, helps students explore and decide on a business major suitable for their career. The course includes daily readings, short quizzes and covers a variety of business areas to help students better understand each of the business fields. In the 2018-19, among a group of 30 business meta-major students, about half decided on a specific business major by the end of the semester.

Faculty Excellence Award for Scholarship

Dr. Oscar Perez-Hernandez

Dr. Oscar Perez-Hernandez

Dr. Oscar Perez-Hernandez, assistant professor of agricultural sciences in the School of Agricultural Sciences

Perez-Hernandez showed a commitment to his research efforts in 2018-19. Among his achievements are six papers either published or in review as well as four presentations. He also has played a role in securing several grants and external funding opportunities, totaling nearly $40,000.

Perez-Hernandez was invited to present in May at the American Phytopathological Society-Caribbean Division, the 20th Congress of the Latin American Phytopathological Association, and the Third International Seminar on Animal and Plant Health, in Varadero, Cuba.

Dr. Eva Wu

Dr. Eva Wu

Dr. Eva Wu, professor of geography in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Wu has an active research agenda that makes her a continued contributor in her discipline. During 2018-19, she co-edited and published a book, “Recent Advances and Applications in Remote Sensing,” in which she co-authored a chapter, titled “Use of historical Google Earth images to create likelihood of aquatic plants along segments of Ohio River.”

Additionally, she published an article in International Journal of Geoinformatics, titled “Effect of metrolink light rail stations on residential property values in St. Louis County, Missouri, USA” and an article in Higher Education Studies about teaching online, titled “Online students, where are they and when do they do homework? Case study from an online MS - GIScience program.”

Faculty Excellence Award for Service and Student Support

Dr. Joni Adkins

Dr. Joni Adkins

Dr. Joni Adkins, associate professor of computer science and information systems in the School of Computer Science and Information Systems

Adkins works tirelessly to provide extraordinary service in the School of Computer Science and Information Systems, at the University level and beyond. During the fall of 2018, she managed the Master of Science program in information systems in addition to serving many important capacities related to recruiting graduate students and serving as assistant director of the School during the spring semester. 

She also works with the School’s Professional Advisory Team, two annual KCP&L competitions, and participates in School activities. She served on the University’s Designated Curriculum Matters Committee and contributed to the field of information systems by serving as president of Delta Mu Delta national organization. Her involvement in that capacity has distinguished Northwest as a leader in the business and information systems field.

Dr. Robin Gallaher

Dr. Robin Gallaher

Dr. Robin Gallaher, assistant professor of English and chair of the Department of Language, Literature and Writing

Gallaher played a significant role in Northwest’s successful re-accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission. As a provost fellow, she helped write Northwest’s HLC accreditation report. Her expertise in assessment helped the University initiate its program outcomes project and assess the early stages of that effort as it moved beyond the project’s significance in the HLC visit. 

In addition, she was selected as the next chair of the Department of Language, Literature and Writing. She serves on the Designated Curriculum Matters Committee, the Assessment Committee, the Provost’s Council and is chair of the department’s Expository Writing Committee. She has served as a liaison on the MDHE English Co-Requisite Taskforce and has served as a course reviewer for the MOTR Core 42 Initiative. She also serves as a faculty sponsor for the student organization KIDS. 



Contact

Dr. Mark Hornickel
Administration Building
Room 215
660.562.1704
mhorn@nwmissouri.edu