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
(866-628-2586)
www.unoalumni.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Oct. 15, 2002
Contact: Anthony Flott
aflott@mail.unomaha.edu
(402)
554-2989
Nine Receive Alumni Teaching Awards
(OMAHA, NE) —The University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni
Association presented its sixth annual Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards to
nine faculty members June 6 at the Association’s Founder’s Day Luncheon. The
awards were established in 1997 to honor distinguished teaching in the
classroom.
“These awards are expressions of the alumni
body’s collective recognition of the importance and value of instruction in
higher education,” said Don Winters, the association’s chairman of the board.
“Faculty members such as these inspire classrooms and make positive, meaningful
differences in the lives of UNO students. We’re fortunate to have such
outstanding teachers on our campus.”
The awards were announced at the Faculty
Honors Convocation Breakfast. Each recipient was chosen by a committee of peers
in each college and received a $1,000 award. Olson presented the awards during
the Faculty Honors and Awards Convocation Breakfast in the Milo Bail Student
Center.
Professors receiving Alumni Outstanding
Teaching Awards:
Donna Dufner, Information Systems and Quantitative
Analysis, College of Information, Science and Technology; David Helm, Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts; John W. Hill, Special Education and
Communication Disorders, College of Education; Lisa Kelly-Vance, Psychology, Arts and Sciences; Richard Lonmeth, Chemistry, College of
Arts and Sciences; Patrice J. Proulx,
Foreign Language, Arts and Sciences; Amy
R. Rodie, Marketing, College of Business Administration; Hamid R. Sharif-Kashani, Computer and
Electronics Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology; Ethel Williams, Public Administration,
College of Public Affairs and Community Services.
Donna Dufner
Donna Dufner is an assistant professor in the
College of Information, Science and Technology’s department of Information
Systems and Quantitative Analysis. She earned her doctorate in 1995 from
Rutgers University in management (computer and information science). She also
has a master’s degree in computer and information science (New Jersey Institute
of Technology, 1995), an MBA (University of Chicago, 1977) and a bachelor’s in
sociology (DePaul University, 1975).
She previously earned the Outstanding Teaching
and Research award from the University of Illinois. Her research interests
include web-enabled collaborative technologies; group decision support systems;
information systems design, evaluation, planning, implementation and
optimization; information technology and telecommunications; and educational
program design and development.
David Helm
David Helm came to UNO in 1995 as an associate
professor of art and art history. He currently also is on the Exhibition
Committee and the Board of Directors and Exhibition Committee at the Bemis
Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He previously taught as a visiting assistant
professor of art at Wake Forest University. He earned his MFA from the
University of Illinois in 1984 and his bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College in
1981.
John W. Hill
John W. Hill is a professor and graduate
faculty fellow in the College of Education. He specializes in students at risk,
attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, assessment/evaluation, systemic
theory and behavioral intervention. He has a doctorate in learning disabilities
and education from The American University in 1974. He also earned his master’s
(special education; K-12 certification) and bachelor’s degrees (elementary
education; behavioral sciences) from The American University and an associates
degree in social science from Montgomery College in 1968.
Lisa Kelly-Vance
An assistant professor and graduate fellow in
the psychology department, Kelly-Vance earned bother her master’s and doctoral
degrees in educational psychology from Indiana University. She also has a
bachelor’s degree in psychology from Purdue University. She came to UNO in 1995
as a visiting assistant professor of psychology, two years later attaining her
present post. She teaches educational
psychology, assessment and problem solving, and exceptional children. Her
research interests are early childhood assessment, school reform, alternative
roles for school psychologists and autism.
Richard Lomneth
Richard Lomneth is an associate professor and
graduate faculty fellow of chemistry. He came to UNO in 1992, first as a
visiting assistant professor. Prior to that he was a faculty assistant at the
University of Wisconsin, Department of Chemistry. From 1978-1982 he as a
research chemical engineer for Procter and Gamble Company. He earned his
doctorate from the University of Cincinnati in 1988 and his bachelor’s degree
from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Patrice J. Proulx
Patrice J. Proulx is an associate professor of
French, focusing on 20th century French and Francophone literature,
contemporary women writers, literature of exile and immigration and cinema. She
earned her doctorate from Cornell University in 1991, one year after earning
her master’s degree from the same university. She also has a master’s and
bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine. She is director of UNO’s Study
Abroad Program to Quebec and vice chair of Women in French.
Amy R. Rodie
Amy R. Rodie is an assistant professor of
marketing in the College of Business Administration and teaches in the
department of marketing and management. She joined the UNO faculty in August
1994. Her research interests are in the area of consumer behavior, specifically
customer participation, attributions, and satisfaction in engaging service
contexts. Rodie received her doctorate from Arizona State University in 1995.
She earned her MS from Colorado State University in 1990 and her BBA from New
Mexico State University in 1979.
Hamid R. Sharif-Kashani
Hamid Sharif is an associate professor in the
department of Computer and Electronics Engineering. His focus is primarily in
the areas of QoS over wireless networks, IPv4-IPv6 compatibility, IP
multicasting, and Transmission of Video over high speed networks. He also is
involved in the implementation of IPv6, the implementation of an Access Grid
node at the University, Multicasting over the Internet2, and Video Transmission
and QoS over I2. Sharif earned his doctorate from the University of Nebraska at
Lincoln in 1996. He also has a master’s degree from the University of Missouri
(1984) and an associate’s degree from Des Moines Community College (1980).
Ethel Williams
Ethel Williams is an assistant professor of public
administration, appointed to that role in 1996. Her primary expertise is in
human resources administration, leadership and administration and public policy
design and implementation. Her current research is focused on citizenship
participation in policy making and diversity in organizations. Williams earned
her BA from Talladega College, her MPA from the University of Pittsburgh and
her doctorate from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
The Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards further
the association’s mission, established upon its founding in 1913, “To
concentrate the divided efforts of the graduates into one unit in order to work
more proficiently for the upbuilding of the school and to promote, as far as
possible, the activities of the school.”
—30—
