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Dec. 15, 2006
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The 2006 Walker Faculty Excellence Award recipients are, from left to right: Dean Stevens, Jackie Barber, and Lillian
Lòpez. |
Morningside College awarded the 2006 Sharon Walker Faculty Excellence Awards to Jacklyn Barber, associate professor of nursing education; Dr. Lillian Lòpez, associate professor of political science; and Dean Stevens, assistant professor of mathematical sciences.
Morningside President John Reynders presented the awards during the annual faculty banquet held Wednesday, Dec. 13, 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 the purpose of faculty development.
The Sharon Walker Faculty Excellence Awards, presented for the first time in 2003, were funded by a generous 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.
The evaluators were Dr. Ann R. Cannon, associate professor of statistics and mathematics, Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa; Dr. Stephen F. Davis, professor emeritus, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kan.; and Christopher P. Gilbert, professor of political science, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn.
Barber, who teaches a number of nursing education courses, began teaching at Morningside in 1997. She is currently the director of the Palmer Undergraduate Student Research Symposium.
Barber has made a variety of presentations at numerous health care facilities in the Siouxland area throughout her career. She independently consults for rural hospitals and long-term care facilities by developing and implementing in-service presentations on a wide variety of health topics.
Barber serves as secretary and executive committee member of the board of directors for the Siouxland Chapter of the American Red Cross. She is a member the Healthy Siouxland Initiative and the End of Life Task Force.She is also a committee member of the Siouxland Disaster Action Team and an active volunteer for the Siouxland Art Center.
Barber hold’s a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Morningside and a master’s degree in nursing from Creighton University, Omaha, Neb. She is a member of the American Association of University Professors, the American Nursing Association, the Iowa Nursing Association, the National League of Nursing, the Oncology Nursing Society, and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.
Lòpez came to Morningside in 1990 as an instructor in the foreign languages and history and political science departments. She teaches several political science courses, as well as a May term course entitled “Experiencing Puerto Rican Culture,” in which students travel to Puerto Rico for two weeks to gain an understanding of the culture, history, and politics of the country.
Lòpez is the director of international student services, the academic advisor for legal studies students, coach and coordinator for Morningside's Mock Trial teams, and the advisor for the International Students Association. In 2005 she was voted “Faculty Member of the Year” by the students in the Morningside chapter of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), a leadership honor society.
Lòpez received an award for Latino Leadership in Education during the third annual Siouxland Latino Leadership Recognition Banquet this past fall. She serves as a volunteer attorney for Justice for Our Neighbors Project-Immigration Law Clinic as part of the United Methodist Global Ministries, is a presenter for the Leadership Program for Hispanics, and is a member of the Grievance Commission of the Supreme Court of Iowa, and the board of directors for La Casa Latina, Inc.
Lòpez holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, a master’s degree in political science from the University of South Dakota, and a Juris doctorate from the University of Puerto Rico. She is a member of the Latin American Studies Association and the Puerto Rican Bar Association.
Stevens has been at Morningside since 2001. He teaches a number of computer science courses, as well as “Passport,” a course for first-year students. He is also a frequent participant with the Interdepartmental Honors program, in which faculty members choose a topic and sit down with students to discuss a reading about the chosen topic.
Stevens founded the student chapter of Association of Computing Machinery at Morningside and led the group to the national organization’s annual programming conference as the faculty advisor. He has served on the Curriculum Policies Committee, has been a faculty member of ODK, and is currently a member of the Faculty Development Committee. He has interviewed prospective students for Celebration of Excellence Scholarships and has interviewed students as a part of the application process to study abroad.
He is a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and performs various jobs for the Grace United Methodist Church Youth Group.
Stevens holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from Morningside and a master’s in computer science from Iowa State University. He also taught computer science courses at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn. He is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery.
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