Pictured, seated, from left, Dr. Tatyana
Novikov, Shereen G. Bingham, Janet M. West, Melissa Berke, Ph.D. Standing, from
left, Dr. William Tapprich, Ann Stergiou (wife of AOTA recipient Nicholas
Stergiou), Gary S. Marshall, Ph.D., Maury W. Schooff, Alumni Association
Chairman Steve Bodner. Photo by Tim Fitzgerald/University Relations.
Alumni Teaching Awards issued for eighth year
The University of Nebraska
at Omaha Alumni Association presented its eighth annual Alumni Outstanding
Teaching Awards to nine faculty members at the Faculty Honors Convocation
Breakfast April 1.
Stephen Bodner,
Association chairman of the board, presented the awards, established in 1997 to
honor distinguished teaching in the classroom.
"Many alumni can cite at least one professor from their days as a
student who was instrumental in their career development," said Bodner. "This
is one way our graduate body is able to thank those instructors who make
meaningful, tangible differences in lives."
Peer
committees in each college chose the award recipients (listed below), each of
whom receives a $1,000 award. Bodner presented 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 4 Founder's Day Luncheon.
Since the program's founding in 1997 the UNO Alumni Association
has issued $68,000 in Alumni Outstanding Teaching Awards.
The 2004 UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award
recipients:
Melissa Berke
Ph.D., College of Fine Arts; Music
Shereen G. Bingham, College
of Arts & Sciences; School of
Communication
William W. Holmes, R.A., College of Engineering and
Technology;
Construction Systems
Gary S. Marshall,
Ph.D., College of Public Affairs and Community Service; Public
Administration
Dr. Tatyana Novikov, College
of Arts & Sciences; Foreign Languages
Maury W. Schooff, College of Information
Science and Technology; Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis
Nicholas Stergiou,
College of Education; Health Physical Education andRecreation
Dr. William Tapprich, College of Arts & Sciences; Biology
Janet M. West, College of
Business Administration; Economics
Melissa Berke
College
of Fine Arts; Music
Melissa Berke is UNO's
coordinator of Music Education with specific expertise in the area of early
childhood and elementary general music. Her primary responsibilities include
courses in music education methods for music education and elementary education
majors. She also is responsible for the supervision of student teachers. In
addition to her work with undergraduates, Berke serves as the advisor for
graduate students in the music education concentration. She is a nationally
recognized clinician in the field of integrating music and children's
literature.
Dr. Shereen Bingham
College
of Arts & Sciences; School of Communication
Shereen Bingham's
primary focus is on the theories, research, and skills of human communication.
She has developed courses in conflict mediation, group facilitation and public
dialogue, and gender communication. Service-learning, a form of experiential
education in which students apply course content to serve community needs, is
an important element in many of her courses. Bingham's teaching incorporates
her volunteer work as a community and family mediator, as well as her research
on sexual harassment prevention, conflict mediation, and creating a supportive
classroom climate. She is the editor of Conceptualizing Sexual Harassment as
Discursive Practice and has published her research in journals such as Human Communication Research, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science,
and Sex Roles.
William Holmes
College
of Engineering and Technology; Construction Systems
William
Holmes is an associate professor of Construction Systems (CS) at UNO. His
primary research areas include energy conservation in building design, precast
concrete floor and enclosure systems in residential construction and
information technology in construction design and documentation. He was
chairman of the Construction Systems Department from 1985 to 1998. He also consults part time for Kenneth Hahn Architects in
Omaha.
Dr. Gary Marshall
College
of Public Affairs and Community Service; Public Administration
An associate professor of public administration
at UNO, Marshall teaches in the areas of public administration theory,
organization theory and behavior, organization development and public policy
dispute resolution. His work has been published in Public Administration Review, the American
Review of Public Administration, and The
American Behavioral Scientist. His current research focuses on human
identity as it relates to work in public agencies. He holds a Ph.D. in public
administration from Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration and
Policy.
Dr. Tatyana Novikov
College
of Arts & Sciences; Foreign Languages
Novikov's primary
focus is Russian studies. She teaches all levels of the Russian language, as
well as upper-division courses in Russian literature and culture. A few courses
are taught in English and are cross-listed with other departments, such as
Russian Masterpieces (Russian Literature in Translation) and Women in Russian
Society and Culture. Novikov also is actively involved with the Women's Studies
Program, where she teaches one of the core classes, Women in the Humanities, on
a regular basis. Her research interests include Russian symbolist poetry,
contemporary Russian women's writing and the utopian/anti-utopian literary
tradition.
Maury Schooff
College
of Information Science and Technology; Information Systems and Quantitative
Analysis
Schooff is an
instructor and lecturer at the Peter Kiewit Institute who joined the ISQA staff
in 1996. He previously had spent 25 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a
colonel, and more than 11 years with an Omaha-based Fortune 500 company, where
he was the Director of Strategic Information and Financial Systems. He received
his master of science degree in Operations Research/Systems Analysis from the
Naval Postgraduate School.
Dr. Nicholas Stergiou
College
of Education; Health Physical Education and
Stergiou is director
of the Biomechanics Laboratory at UNO's School of Health Physical Education and
Recreation. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the Exercise
Science curriculum, including Human Anatomy and Physiology, Biomechanics,
Advanced Biomechanics, Research Methods, and Motor Learning and Control. He
mentors and advises students interested in biomechanics and exercise science,
helping them achieve quality careers in the private sector or in pursuing
further graduate education. Stergiou has an active research agenda that focuses
on the variability of human movement and has published extensively at the
national and international levels. He also has been successful in securing
funding for students who work in the laboratory.
Dr. William Tapprich
College
of Arts & Sciences; Biology
Tapprich is an associate professor of biology, conducting research
into the fundamental mechanisms of viral infection while teaching molecular
biology, biochemistry and virology. Throughout his research career, Tapprich
has explored the role of RNA molecules in cell function, work funded by grants
from the National Institutes of Health. In collaboration with the enterovirus
research laboratory at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Tapprich's
current research seeks to determine the role of RNA structure in viral
virulence. Tapprich developed the biotechnology degree program at UNO, which
now has more than 100 majors. Much of the instrumentation to develop the
laboratory curriculum for this program resulted from a grant from the National
Science Foundation. Tapprich also is the UNO project director for the
Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network sponsored by the NIH. Chief among
the goals of this grant are strengthening biomedical research in Nebraska and
enabling Nebraska students to access careers in biomedical research.
Janet Mason West
College
of Business Administration; Economics
West, who has spent more than 35 years teaching primarily
undergraduates, has many former students in businesses and agencies not only in
Omaha, but throughout the country. She is known across the UNO campus as a
faculty member who has created programs and courses when she sees a need. In
the early 1970s, West was co-director of a VISTA-sponsored service-learning
program on the UNO campus. In the 1990s she developed an Introduction to
Economics course for social work and education students and an Introduction to
Business course for freshmen entering the College of Business Administration.
This first-year experience course was designed to assist students adjusting to
the rigors of college. Most recently, West created a program with Dr. Rebecca
Morris called CBA in Ireland. UNO students in this course have the opportunity
to travel to Ireland and visit American companies that have operations there
and to visit Irish companies that export to the United States. During the past
four years, almost 200 UNO students have taken advantage of this program.
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