UNO
Alumni Association
W.H. Thompson
Alumni Center
University of
Nebraska at Omaha
Omaha, NE
68182-0010
• Tel (402)
554-2444
• Fax (402) 554-3787
• Toll-free
UNO-MAV-ALUM
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www.unoalumni.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: April 2, 2003
Contact: Anthony Flott
aflott@mail.unomaha.edu
(402)
554-2989
(OMAHA, NE) —
The University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni Association will present its seventh
annual Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards to nine faculty members at the
Faculty Honors Convocation Breakfast April 10. The awards were established in
1997 to honor distinguished teaching in the classroom.
“Through their leadership and expertise, these faculty members inspire
students to important academic achievements,” said Kevin Naylor, the
association’s chairman of the board. “Through their instruction they can make
life-long impacts on students.
“In this period of cutbacks and budget struggles, we are fortunate to
have them on our faculty.”
Committees of peers in each college chose award
recipients, each of whom receives a $1,000 award. Naylor will announce the
awards and present certificates to the recipients during the Faculty Honors and
Awards Convocation Breakfast. He also will present them with commemorative
plaques during the UNO Alumni Association’s June 6 Founder’s Day Luncheon.
The
2003 UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award recipients:
Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, College of Arts & Sciences; Political Science;
Dr. Bahador Ghahramani, College of
Information Science and Technology, Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis;
Dr. Valentin Matache, Arts & Sciences, Mathematics;
Dr. John J. McKenna, Arts & Sciences, English;
Dr. Rebecca Morris, Business
Administration, Marketing and Management;
Bonnie Pratt O’Connell, College of Fine Arts, Art and Art History;
Dr. Rebecca Pasco, College of
Education, Teacher Education;
Amanda Duffy Randall, College of Public Affairs and Community Service, Social
Work;
Dr. Clarence Waters, College of
Engineering and Technology, Architectural Engineering.
College of Arts & Sciences
Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, Political Science
Benjamin-Alvarado
is an assistant professor of political science with an emphasis on comparative
politics and Latino politics. He has taught at UNO since 2000, arriving after
teaching for two years in the University of Georgia’s Department of Political
Science. He also is a visiting senior research associate with the University of
Georgia’s Center for International Trade and Security, specializing on Latin
American economic development issues. Benjamin-Alvarado has conducted research
related to Cuba’s efforts to develop a nuclear energy capability and broader
infrastructure and energy development issues. He is recognized as one of the
United States’ leading specialists in this issue area. His first book, “Power
to the People: Energy and the Cuban Nuclear Program” (2000), was published by
Routledge, Inc. He has another book forthcoming in 2003 with the University
Press of Florida: “Cuba’s Energy Strategy: Economic Structures, Technological
Choices, and Sustainability.” Benjamin-Alvarado earned his doctorate from the
University of Georgia in 1998. He earned his master’s degree (with honors,
1993) and bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude, 1991) from the Monterey Institute
of International Studies.
College of IST&E
Dr. Bahador Ghahramani, Information Systems and
Quantitative Analysis
Ghahramani is an associate
professor in the Department of Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis.
He joined UNO in 2001 after teaching at the University of Missouri–Rolla for
five years. He also has held appointments at Moravian College in Bethlehem,
Pa., (1988 to 1995), California State University in Fresno (1984 to 1985)
Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., (1973 to 1985) and Louisiana State
University. Prior to joining academia, he was a Distinguished Member of
Technical Staff (DMTS) at AT&T-Bell Laboratories. Ghahramani has extensive
R&D experience. He holds seven patents and has applied for and maintains
copyrights on five AT&T global system designs. Ghahramani received a Ph.D.
in Industrial Engineering from Louisiana Technological University (1984); an MS
in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Southern University (1984); an
MBA in Information Systems from Louisiana State University (1983); an MS in
Industrial Engineering from Texas Technological University (1973); and a BS in
Industrial Engineering and Management from Oklahoma State University
(1971).
College of Arts & Sciences
Dr. Valentin Matache, Mathematics
Matache is an assistant professor of mathematics specialized
in mathematical analysis. His research focuses mainly on “operators on function
spaces.” His
research is in Operator Theory, a branch of mathematical analysis. He studies
composition operators—operators acting on function spaces by composition with a
fixed transform. A Romanian citizen who speaks six languages, Matache
graduated from the University of Timisoara with a bachelor’s degree in 1982
having majored in mathematics. He
taught math in junior high and high school, then was an instructor, later an
assistant professor, at the University of Timisoara (1985-1994). Matache next
was a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Kansas (1994-1998) and
an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Puerto Rico
(1998-1999) before joining UNO as an assistant professor of mathematics in
1999. He has earned two doctorates, his first in mathematics from the
University of Timisoara in 1994, then one from the University of Kansas in
1998.
College of Arts & Sciences
Dr. John J. McKenna, English
McKenna is a professor of English
and teaches classes in contemporary American, English and Irish literature, as
well as classes in writing and publishing creative nonfiction. McKenna is a
creative writer whose poems and essays have appeared in a wide variety of
literary, academic and commercial journals and magazines. He is co-director of
the graduate certificate in Advanced Writing and an associate editor of “Eureka
Studies in Teaching Short Fiction,” an academic journal devoted to the pedagogy
of teaching short stories. McKenna’s articles on effective and innovative
teaching have appeared in numerous nationally recognized journals in the field
of pedagogy. McKenna earned his bachelor’s degree in 1965 from Allegheny
College (Meadville, Pa.) and his doctorate from Ohio University in 1970.
College of Business Administration
Dr. Rebecca Morris, Marketing and Management
Rebecca Morris is an associate professor of marketing and
management. She “challenges business students to ‘think strategically”— to
critically evaluate a situation from a strategic perspective and to creatively
develop and implement solutions that will be successful in a rapidly changing
business environment. Believing that a
global perspective is also critical to business success, she supervises
international consulting projects with Executive MBA students and coordinates
an annual study abroad experience to Ireland. Morris uses her business and
international experience to bring the “real world” into the classroom.” Morris
first began teaching at UNO in 1983 as an instructor in decision sciences,
becoming an assistant professor in 1989. Prior to that she was a senior
systems analyst at Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society, where she began
working in 1978. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Creighton University in
1978, then an MBA from there in 1982. She earned her doctorate in business
administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1988.
College of Fine Arts
Bonnie O’Connell, Art and Art History
O’Connell is an associate professor of art and art history.
She teaches book arts and mixed media courses at UNO, where she produces fine press
limited editions of contemporary poetry for Abattoir Editions. Her current
publication project is the forthcoming “Gutter Flowers,” a collection of poems
by Nebraska poet Don Welch. She also maintains The Penumbra Press, a private
press imprint with a 30-year background in literary fine printing. In recent
years she has issued mixed media letterpress works on social and art issues, as
well as sculptural books and assemblages. Her first offset artist’s book, “The
Anti-Warhol Museum: Proposals for the Socially Responsible Disposal of
Warholia,” was co-published with Nexus Press, Atlanta in 1993. She has taught
numerous book arts workshops, and exhibited her unique bindings and edition
books in libraries, galleries and art centers throughout the country. Her
essays on the book arts have appeared in Books at Iowa and Abracadabra.
O’Connell earned her bachelor’s degree in art from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison (1969) and her master’s from the University of Iowa (1985).
College of Education
Dr. Rebecca Pasco, Teacher Education
Pasco’s primary focus is library
science and library education. She has taught at UNO since 1999. She
coordinates two undergraduate and two graduate library science education degree
programs at UNO. One of the graduate programs is a new cooperative master’s in
Library Science degree in partnership with the University of Missouri at
Columbia through which students interested in leadership and management
positions in public or academic libraries can attain the necessary degree. Pasco’s
original research addressed the use of critical ethnography with at-risk
students in public education. Her writing since has focused on technology,
outreach and information literacy efforts in libraries. Prior to arriving at
UNO, Pasco was an instructor for four years at Emporia State University in
Emporia, Kansas. She also has taught for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and
for Lincoln Public Schools. Pasco holds degrees from Emporia State University
(Ph.D., Library and Information Management; master’s, library science),
Nebraska Wesleyan University (educational media specialist endorsement) and UNL
(bachelor’s).
College of Public Affairs and Community Service
Dr. Amanda Duffy Randall, School of Social Work
Duffy Randall is an assistant
professor in UNO’s School of Social Work. Her teaching is concentrated in the
advanced graduate program, primarily in the areas of teaching the theory and
practice of therapy with adults, families, and groups. In addition, she teaches
the course on research methods in clinical practice, and courses in
health/mental health and sexuality. Her research interests include mental
health practice with the deaf and hard of hearing, and research on attachment
issues and family structures. Duffy Randall first taught at UNO in 1984 as an
adjunct faculty member, serving in that role for 13 years. From 1997 to 2002
she was an instructor, earning promotion to assistant professor in 2002. She
also has taught at Creighton University and the University of Nebraska Medical
Center. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1974 from Michigan State
University, her master’s degree in social work from UNO in 1983 and her
doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2002.
College of Engineering
Waters
is an associate professor of architectural engineering. His scholarly
activities are in lighting and power distribution systems for buildings. He
joined UNO in 2000, first as a senior lecturer. Prior to that he was on the
faculty of Kansas State University in architectural engineering from 1986 to
2000. He was the head of the Department of Architectural Engineering and
Construction Science at KSU for four years. Prior to his academic career,
Waters served more than seven years as an electrical project engineer for
Professional Engineering Consultants in Wichita, Kansas. He currently is or has
been licensed in 21 states and has received two International Lighting Design
Awards of Merit. Waters is involved with the Architectural Engineering Institute
(AEI), where he served on the Board of Governors, and the Illuminating
Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), where he has chaired and serves
on many technical committees. Waters has a Ph.D. in architectural engineering
from Pennsylvania State University (1993). His bachelor’s (1978) and master’s
degrees (1988) are in architectural engineering from Kansas State University.
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