Five faculty selected for university awards
Five faculty members were honored for excellence in teaching and mentorship at the Provost/Faculty Senate Spring Awards Ceremony recently. They are:
Glenn Tsunokai, Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award: Glenn Tsunokai, associate professor of Sociology, earned his doctorate from the University of California at Riverside in 2003. His current research interests focus on love and hate. Regarding the former, Tsunokai examines patterns of racial and ethnic inclusion/exclusion by Internet daters. Concerning hate, he investigates how technological innovations in computer-mediated communications have helped hate groups transform themselves into virtual communities. He has co-authored three articles with undergraduate students on these topics. His teaching interests include race and ethnic relations, research methods and stratification/inequality. His students praise him for keeping his lectures relevant by incorporating current discussion topics, new technology and making an effort to engage every person in class.
WWU alumni may nominate any current faculty member for the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, which was given for the first time this year.
Kristen B. French, Excellence in Teaching Award: Kristen B. French, assistant professor of Elementary Education, graduated from Western with bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology (with a minor in Native American studies) and Elementary Education. She earned a master’s degree in Bilingual, ESL and Multicultural Education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. While in Massachusetts, she taught in an urban magnet Montessori school, coordinated the Elementary Teacher Education Program and taught the Introduction to Multicultural Education course at University of Massachusetts, where she earned her doctorate in Language, Literacy and Culture. French is director of the Center for Education, Equity and Diversity. Her return to Western has provided her the opportunity to put the theories of social justice into practice by giving back to the university and students where her journey began 21 years ago.
The Excellence in Teaching Award includes a $1,500 stipend for teaching, research or professional enhancement made possible by the WWU Foundation. Nominations for the award, presented to faculty members from Huxley, Woodring or Fairhaven colleges, the College of Fine and Performing Arts, or the College of Business and Economics, are solicited from faculty, students and alumni.
Ed Love, Excellence in Teaching Award: Providing applied, socially responsible marketing education is at the core of Ed Love’s work. An assistant professor in Finance and Marketing, Love earned his bachelor’s degree from The Evergreen State College in 1990, an MBA from University of Arizona in 2001 and a doctorate in Marketing from the University of Washington in 2008. He first developed significant experience in teaching and training in the late 1990s as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Ivory Coast, where he started a program that provided business training and health education to women’s cooperatives. He takes a unique approach to teaching by focusing on innovation, application, integration and accessibility. He finds the majority of his students to be ambitious and intellectually curious. Working with them to develop their proficiencies in marketing has been among the most satisfying experiences of his life.
The Excellence in Teaching Award includes a $1,500 stipend for teaching, research or professional enhancement made possible by the WWU Foundation. Nominations for the award, presented to faculty members from Huxley, Woodring or Fairhaven colleges, the College of Fine and Performing Arts, or the College of Business and Economics, are solicited from faculty, students and alumni.
Spencer Anthony-Cahill, Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching Award: An associate professor of Chemistry, Spencer Anthony-Cahill was born and raised in the Seattle area and attended second through 12th grade in Issaquah schools, except for two years as a student in Konstanz, Germany. After graduating from Whitman College with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, he went on to earn his doctorate in Bio-Organic Chemistry at University of California at Berkley, and later carried out a National Institute of Health postdoctoral fellowship at DuPont Central Research. He spent five years as a research scientist in the biotech industry before accepting an assistant professorship at Western in 1997, where he teaches General Chemistry, Biochemistry and Protein Biophysics. His lab is currently working to develop a hemoglobin-based blood substitute. For him, the best thing about Western is the enthusiasm of the students for getting a real education.
The award includes a $1,500 stipend from the WWU Foundation for research and teaching expenses and recognizes Peter J. Elich and his years of service as dean of the former College of Arts and Sciences. Faculty from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Sciences and Technology are eligible for recognition.
Cole Taratoot, Ronald Kleinknecht Excellence in Teaching Award: Cole Taratoot, visiting assistant professor of Political Science, was born in Atlanta. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and his master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of West Georgia and his doctorate in Political Science from Georgia State University. His research focuses on the federal judiciary, bureaucracy and public law with a specialty in administrative law. Previously an assistant professor at Western Kentucky University, he teaches courses on criminal procedure, constitutional law, civil rights and liberties, judicial process, law and society, law and stratification, American government, bureaucratic politics and statistics. Currently, Taratoot teaches in both the Sociology and Political Science departments at Western. His favorite thing about teaching at Western is the high-quality students.
The award is given each year to a non-tenure-track faculty member from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and includes a $1,000 stipend. Candidates are asked to submit materials that speak to their teaching such as student evaluations, copies of syllabi, reading lists, writing assignments, final exams, and any related materials used in their courses.
