Each spring, the Regents recognize outstanding faculty in a special awards presentation. There are five categories of activity for award nominations presented to individual faculty members:
- Teaching
- Scholarship, Research, or Creative Activity
- Public Service
- Mentoring
- Innovation
Towson University’s Institutional Faculty Nominating Committee submitted its recommendations to Interim President Chandler for consideration. Final nominations of outstanding TU faculty whose efforts have fueled exceptional teaching, research, service and innovation were then forwarded to the USM Office of Academic Affairs for final selection. TU’s 2016 Regent’s Faculty Award nominees are as follows:
- Dr. Sheryl Cooper
Dr. Cooper is nominated for the Public Service Award. Her contributions to the non-profit world include establishing and leading an organization that raised money to buy technology for deafblind people (Advocates for Communication Technology, Inc.), resurrecting a defunct chapter of an international humanitarian organization that enhances the health and education of people worldwide (Howard County Hadassah), and serving on the Boards of Beth Shalom Congregation and the Jewish Federation of Howard County. She has also chaired the American Association of the Deafblind Conference on TU’s campus in 2006, bringing 1,000 deafblind individuals and interpreter-guides to our campus. Her volunteerism also includes service in leadership roles with the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and on the Boards of the Potomac Chapter of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the Metro-Washington Chapter of the American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association. In 2012, she chaired the MD American Sign Language Teachers Association Conference on campus.
- Dr. Matthew Hemm
Dr. Hemm is nominated for the Mentoring Award. During Dr. Hemm’s six years at TU he has developed his mentoring program to better accommodate large numbers of students while maintaining high standards for student success. He has modified one of his courses so that it functions as a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience. This course allows more students to be involved in research at once than in a traditional setting in a faculty member’s lab, and with proper guidance, the students experience the research process from start to finish. Dr. Hemm has made an effort to provide research opportunities for students who do not have high GPAs but who show passion and interest in the biological sciences. In this way he is reaching individuals who may be shut out in other settings but who show great promise. This approach ensures that these students are not diverted from a STEM career because of an early period of adjustment. Currently, Dr. Hemm is developing a proposal to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for an introductory CURE in the Department of Biological Sciences, again leading the way to engage and retain more students in STEM fields.
- Dr. Rommel Miranda
Dr. Miranda has been nominated for the Teaching Award. Since 2007, Dr. Miranda has organized and facilitated 87 events, which include planetarium shows, star parties, classroom visits, and science fairs in local schools and communities with TU undergraduate students. He estimates that through these experiences he and his students have directly impacted approximately 7,500 students in six Maryland school districts. He strives to enable students to develop lifelong habits of curiosity, integrity, honesty, persistence and passion for the pursuit of knowledge that will ultimately help them to become responsible STEM leaders, equipped with practical skills to create a more humane and just world. Dr. Miranda has been recently recognized through the Fisher College of Science and Mathematics (FCSM) Award for Excellence in Teaching (2011) and the FCSM Business and Community Outreach Award (2012). He was also recently honored by Morgan State University as an Outstanding Alumni for his “exceptional contributions to the field of science education.”
- Dr. David Vocke
Dr. Vocke’s nomination is for the Teaching Award. For almost 30 years, Dr. Vocke has taught undergraduate students pursuing a career as a secondary school teacher. During his career he has received teaching awards that include Maryland’s Professor-of-the-Year, as selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the College of Education’s 2013 Gloria A. Neubert Award for Excellence in Teaching. In addition to his on-campus classroom instruction, Dr. Vocke also engages TU students in classrooms at a local middle school with a significant population of English Language Learners, and has worked with this school for more than 15 years. He has also been involved in several pre-collegiate intervention programs with the Baltimore City Public School system, bringing diverse middle and high school students from high-poverty schools to TU for experiences designed to inspire them to enroll in college. This involvement also includes outreach with parent-teacher organizations at the schools to inform parents and guardians about the process for gaining access to higher education.
- Dr. Jane Wolfson
Dr. Wolfson is nominated for the Public Service Award. Dr. Wolfson has developed the Towson Opportunities in STEM (TOPS), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), to enable at-risk students from underserved Baltimore metropolitan schools to succeed and graduate with a STEM degree. TOPS instills participants with a set of common values and a sense of mutual responsibility and provides community, peer and academic support, as well as financial support. Through 2014, these students succeeded as STEM majors at rates higher than their peers. Dr. Wolfson has also facilitated collaboration across various previously disconnected campus groups with a shared interest in on-campus sustainability efforts including Towson University’s Annual Environmental Conference. These shared interests have created a more sustainable campus, which now serves as a model within our region. Dr. Wolfson is also working to integrate climate literacy into many TU courses as a lead for the Maryland and Delaware Climate Literacy Education Assessment and Research (MADE-CLEAR) with the goal of increasing student awareness of the major challenges presented by climate change and engaging them creatively in the challenges of mitigation and adaptation.
This notice can also be found on the Provost’s Office website under “Announcements”
