Dec. 11, 2009
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Jessica deVega |
Sharlene Georgesen |
Heather Reid |
Morningside College has awarded the 2009 Sharon Walker Faculty Excellence Awards to Dr. Jessica deVega, assistant professor of religion; Sharlene Georgesen, assistant professor of nursing; and Dr. Heather Reid, professor of philosophy.
Morningside President John Reynders presented the awards during the annual faculty banquet held Dec. 11 at the Sioux City Country Club. The recipients, selected from a field of nominees by a panel of three outside evaluators, will each receive a $10,000 honorarium and $3,000 to use for faculty development.
The Sharon Walker Faculty Excellence Awards are funded by a gift from Morningside alumni Jim and Sharon Walker of Wayzata, Minn.
Criteria for selection include: teaching excellence, effective advising, scholarship, and service to Morningside College. The awards are based upon the accomplishments and activities of a faculty member during the previous academic year.
DeVega began teaching at Morningside in 2007. She has a bachelor’s degree in religion and education from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla.; a Master of Divinity degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio; and a doctorate from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. In her Walker Award citation, the evaluators praised deVega for “moving beyond the traditional, centralized view of learning to a more collaborative approach where the student is involved as a teaching/learning colleague.”
Georgesen has been teaching in various capacities in Morningside’s nursing department since 2000. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., and a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Missouri-Columbia. The Walker Award evaluators commended Georgesen “for her outstanding achievement in training nurses but more importantly providing outstanding education in the liberal arts to Morningside students.”
Reid joined the Morningside faculty in 1996. She received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy, English language and literature from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree and doctorate in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Walker Award evaluators cited Reid for being one of the “most respected and productive faculty with regard to teaching energy, commitment to values, recognized scholarly production, broadening campus horizons and university leadership.”
Evaluators for the 2009 Sharon Walker Faculty Excellence Awards were Dr. Leslie A. Gregg-Jolly, associate professor of biology and associate dean of the college, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa; Dr. Thomas N. Howe, Herman Brown Professor and chair of art and art history, Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas; and Dr. William N. Withers, Grant L. Price Department Chair and associate professor of communication arts, Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa.
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