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UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award

The Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards were established in 1997 to honor distinguished teaching in the classroom. Peer committees in UNO colleges chose recipients, each of whom receives a $2,000 award and a commemorative plaque. With the 2023 awards, the association has issued $257,000 through the program.

UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award 2023 Recipients

Counseling
College of Education, Health and Human Sciences

Ashley J. Blount is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Dr. Blount specializes in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and her research is focused on Women’s Health, Athletes and Coaches, and Counselor Education and Supervision. Dr. Blount’s primary focus is Counselor Education & Supervision and training future Counselors. Dr. Blount specializes in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and teaches a variety of master’s-level classes including Introduction to Counseling, Advanced Clinical Mental Health, Diversity and Wellness, and Counseling Internship. Coinciding with teaching, Blount mentors many student researchers and supports students in conducting research and publishing original pieces within the counseling and related health fields. 

Political Science
College of Arts and Sciences

Elizabeth L. Chalecki is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Nebraska Omaha, a Research Fellow in the Environmental Change & Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and a Research Chair with Fulbright Canada. Her expertise lies in the areas of climate change and security; international environmental policy; and the intersection of science/technology and IR. Dr. Chalecki has authored groundbreaking research on geoengineering and just war, and has published more than 25 books, articles, and book chapters on diverse topics such as climate change and Arctic security; environmental terrorism; climate change and international law; public perceptions of environmental issues; and water in outer space. She also serves as an environmental security subject matter expert for NATO.

Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences

Michele Marie Desmarais is a Métis, Dakota, and settler poet and scholar from the lands now known as Canada. Desmarais is an Associate Professor in Religious Studies and a teaching faculty member in Native American Studies, Medical Humanities, and International Studies. She was the founding director of UNO’s Medical Humanities program, which began with a Medical Humanities minor and publishes on Indigenous and non-Eurocentric perspectives in the health humanities. Dr. Desmarais’ poetry has appeared widely in literary journals and more recently in her poetry chapbook, “owlmouth”. She received a Ph.D. in Asian Studies (Sanskrit and Indian philosophy) from the University of British Columbia. She developed and facilitated the internship course in Religious Studies including a paid internship with the Tri-Faith Initiative. She is a passionate advocate for inclusivity, diversity, equity, and Indigenization in education.

Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering (UNL)

Jongwan Eun is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). He received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Eun has more than 15 years of professional and academic experience in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Before joining UNL, he was a research faculty at New York University Abu Dhabi. His research interests are waste containment systems, contaminant transport and radioactive disposal facilities. His research has been published in more than 50 national and international journal papers and proceedings. He is also an associate editor for the KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering and a reviewer for several journals.

Computer Science
College of Information Science and Technology

Bob Fulkerson has taught and coordinated undergraduate courses at UNO for nearly 30 years, including computer literacy, Honors theses, web development, and introductory computer science. Over the past decade, he has played a key role in rethinking how introductory computer science courses are taught at UNO. His work with other faculty has led to the CS1 course being taught using peer instruction for large sections, which has resulted in a 20% drop in the DFW rate for the course each semester.

Marketing and Entrepreneurship
College of Business Administration

Mary J. Hallin teaches business statistics and tutors in the CBA Statistics Lab. She brings an international and interdisciplinary background including health care, business and medical anthropology to her teaching. She places a high value on student learning and believes she learns from her students as they learn from her. Dr. Hallin has brought CAPS leaders to Scott Campus to conduct Gatekeeper suicide prevention workshops. Beyond the classroom and UNO, she organizes international sessions and gives international presentations on teaching remotely and teaching across cultures. She is a board member of the Teaching Anthropology Network (TAN) and is chair of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) Commission on Documentation. Dr. Hallin helped establish the Catholic University of Cameroon Bamenda (CATUC) library by donating books from book drives she organized.

Public Administration,
College of Public Affairs and Community Service

Nuri Heckler focuses his research on whiteness and masculinity in public organizations including nonprofits, social enterprises and government. Using experimental, qualitative, historical and theoretical research methods, he examines the mechanisms that reinforce inequities and inefficiencies in public organizations. As a Maryland barred attorney, his research also examines the role law plays in the work of public administrators. His research can be found in Administrative Theory & Praxis, Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, Administration & Society, Journal of Public Affairs Education, Urban Affairs Review, Public Integrity, and the Oxford Handbook on Jane Addams, among others. 

World Languages and Literature
College of Arts and Sciences

Patrice J. Proulx is professor of French and director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha and holds affiliated faculty status with The Goldstein Center for Human Rights. Her primary teaching and research interests include contemporary French and francophone literature and film; cultural studies; and the literature of immigration in France and Quebec. Dr. Proulx serves as a French and WGS student advisor, is a co-organizer of the French Club and created and directs the Summer Study Abroad Program in Quebec City, Quebec. 

Music Technology
College of Communication, Fine Art and Media

Seth Shafer is a composer and researcher whose work focuses on real-time notation, interactive music, and algorithmic art. His compositions have been performed internationally in London, South Korea, Athens, Hamburg, Shanghai, Kraków, Spoleto and Rio de Janeiro and across the US in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Dallas. His sound installations have been shown at Kaneko (Omaha), the Perot Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas), and the Long Beach Museum of Art. Dr. Shafer is an assistant professor of Music Technology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and holds degrees from the University of North Texas and California State University, Long Beach. 

Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award Recipients

1997: Loree Bykerk, Deb Irvin, Susan Jacobs, Susan Maher, Yong Shi, Daniel Sullivan, Frances E. Thurber, Frank Zahn

1998: Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, Jack Armitage, W. Kenton Bales, Donald Grandgenett, Judith Harrington, Gordon Mundell, Peter Wolcott, James Wood

1999: Robert Carlson, JoAnn Eickhoff-Shemek, Robert Fulkerson, Roger Hoburg, Kermit Peters, Philip Reeder, Paul Sather, David Volkman

2000: John Bartle, Richard Duggin, Michael Hilt, Gary Krause, Darryll Lewis, Laura Schulte, Robert Shuster, Paulus J.A. van Vliet

2001: Gary N. Hartzell, Kevin Houser, James B. Johnson, Jeremy H. Lipschultz, Don A. Nielsen, Cindy Melby Phaneuf, Leah R. Pietron, Larry Stephens, Barbara V. Weitz

2002: Donna Dufner, David Helm, John W. Hill, Lisa Kelly-Vance, Richard Lonmeth, Patrice J. Proulx, Amy R. Rodie, Hamid R. Sharif-Kashani, Ethel Williams

2003: Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, Bahador Ghahramani, Valentin Matache, John J. McKenna, Rebecca Morris, Bonnie Pratt O’Connell, Rebecca Pasco, Amanda Duffy Randall, Clarence Waters

2004: Melissa Berke, Shereen G. Bingham, William W. Holmes, Gary S. Marshall, Tatyana Novikov, Maury W. Schooff, Nicholas Stergiou, Dr. William Tapprich, Janet M. West

2005: Chris W. Allen, Paul E. Barnes, Stuart P. Bernstein, Christopher S. Decker, Carolyn Gascoigne, Harmon D. Maher Jr., Julie L. Masters, Douglas L. Paterson, Pamela S. Specht

2006: W. Meredith Bacon, Joseph S. Brown, Kathy Everts Danielson, Gregor P. Henze, Dennis E. Hoffman, Jonna L. Holland, Lotfollah Najjar, John T. Price, Sherrie L. Wilson

2007: Phani Tej Adidam, Randall Adkins, Ann Fruhling, Neal Grandgenett, Gary L. Krause, Dora Matache, Jody Neathery-Castro, Barbara Pickering, Lisa Sample

2008: Pauline Brennan, Steven Bullock, Scott Copple, Michele Desmarais, Bill Mahoney, Juliette Parnell, Roger Sash, Karen Weber, Saundra Wetig

2009: Nora Bacon, Frank Bramlett, Lyn M. Holley, June L. Mecham, Michael J. Messerole, Massoum Moussavi, Joanne Sowell, Sandra L. Vlasnik, David A. Volkman

2010: Timi Barone, Melanie Bloom, Bruce Chase, John Erickson, Won Mee Jang, Carol Mitchell, Hugh Reilly, Pete Simi, Kerry Ward

2011: Sarah Edwards, Angela Eikenberry, James Fawcett, Kath Henebry, Peter Madsen, Michael Matthews, Brian McKevitt, Steve Nugen, Roger Sash

2012: Jennifer Blaskovich, Daniel Hawkins, Dennis Hoffman, Elizabeth Leader-Janssen, Stacie Petter, Marshall Prisbell, Hamid Sharif-Kashani, Andrew Swift, Steven Torres 

2013: Laura Beal, Lisabeth Buchelt, Alisa Gilmore, Carson Holloway, Jodi Kreiling, Anna Monardo, Patrick O’Neil, Elliott Ostler, Stanley Wileman

2014: Gwyneth Cliver, Robin Gandhi, Claudia Garcia, Laura Ilcisin, Kay Keiser, John McCarty, Nicholas Newman, Lim Nguyen, Troy Romero

2015: Robert Blair, Douglas Derrick, Alan Gift, Angie Hodge, Wilma Kuhlman, Paul Landow, Holly Miller, Erin Pleggenkuhle-Miles, Yaoqing (Lamar) Yang

2016: Kiran Bastola, Kerry Beldin, Stuart Bernstein, Ana Carballal, Dora Matache, Doug Paterson, Julie Pelton, Birud Sindhav, Franklin Thompson III

2017: Jessica Hagaman, Christopher Kelly, Tammie Kennedy, Abhishek Parakh, Martina Saltamacchia, Roopa Venkatesh, Miles Waggener, James Wilson, David Yuill

2018: Jeremy C. Baguyos, Melissa Cast-Brede, John Conrad, Christine Cutucache, Dale Eesley, Elizabeth G. Jones, Ramazan Kilinc, Rebecca Lutte, Shelby VanNordstrand

2019: Ashlee Dere, Shari DeVeney, Ramón Guerra, Matthew Hale, Jillian Poyzer, Todd Richardson, Chungwook Sim, Paige Toller, Laura Walls

2020: Alecia Anderson, Samantha Clinkinbeard, Michelle Eble-Hankins, Kristin Girten, Kelly Gomez-Johnson, Jennifer Harbour, Howard Paine, Ryan Schuetzler, Angelika Stout

2021: Samantha Ammons, Jodi Benenson, Abby L Bjornsen-Ramig, Robert Darcy, Paul Davis, Seunghee Kim, Briana Baker Morrison, Hugh Reilly, Jamie Wagner

2022: Erin Bass, Danielle Battisti, Bede Bolin, Kate Cooper, George Hunt, Roxi Kellar, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Adam Weaver, Steven Williams

2023: Ashley J. Blount, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, Michele Marie Desmarais, Jongwan Eun, Robert Fulkerson, Mary J. Hallin, Nuri Heckler, Patrice June Proulx, Seth Shafer