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College of Arts and Sciences News
Article Details
College Names Outstanding Teachers
Award Winners
Dr. Patrice Olsen,
Dr. Bob Broad, and
Dr. Saad El-Zanati
The College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award Committee has announced this year's Outstanding College Teachers: Dr. Bob Broad, Associate Professor of English; Dr. Saad El-Zanati, Professor of Mathematics; and Dr. Patrice Olsen, Assistant Professor of History. Each year the committee selects one winner from each of the College's three divisions: humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Winners of the award are eligible to be nominated in future years for the Outstanding University Teacher Award. According to Professor Nancy Lind, chair of the Teaching Award Committee, "The Teaching Awards Committee had an exceptionally difficult job this year because we have never had so many qualified candidates for the awards. Even those who were not selected for a College award should be exceptionally proud of their accomplishments. I wish we could have given an award to each applicant."

Dr. Bob Broad served as English's coordinator of teacher education for several years, shepherding many students through the complex process of becoming teaching professionals. As is evidenced by his teaching statement, he values engaged, cooperative learning, and "real research valued by real audiences." True to this philosophy, he has recently become editor of the Bulletin of the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. His recently published book, What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing, is a major contribution to the field.

Dr. Saad El-Zanati, by his own admission, gave up "striking it rich" in computers because he fell in love with teaching. That dedication is evident in the courses he teaches. As frequent coordinator of first-year calculus, he instills a "can-do" attitude in his students. In a recent pilot of "Introduction to Undergraduate Research in Mathematics," four students contributed original work that will result in three publications. As an outgrowth of this course, Dr. El-Zanati and a colleague have proposed a proof-of-concept project to the National Science Foundation to investigate the role of undergraduate research in teacher preparation programs.

Dr. Patrice Olsen makes tangible the cultures and history of Latin America through a variety of primary sources and discussion of current events in historical context. She involves students in her research and her travels, notably through a successful Cuba Study tour. Students describe Professor Olsen's teaching with words like excellent, incredible, passionate, erudite, energetic, demanding, as well as kind and respectful. Her chair notes that she has "transformed the teaching of Latin American History at Illinois State and has gained a university-wide reputation as a truly superb teacher." Her passion for her subject is evidenced both in her nationally respected scholarship and her teaching.

In addition to announcing this year's Outstanding College Teachers, the Teaching Award Committee also announced its nominees for the University teaching awards. The committee nominated Dr. Raymond Clemens (History), Dr. Roger Day (Mathematics), Dr. Sadri Hassani (Physics), Dr. James Kalmbach (English), and Dr. David Malone (Geography-Geology) for Outstanding University Teacher, Category I. Jodi Hallsten (Communication), Kathryn Kerr (English), and Dr. William Reger (History) are the College's nominees for Outstanding University Teacher, Category II. The committee also nominated Dr. Kyle Ciani (History), Dr. Jon Friesen (Chemistry), Dr. Hilary Justice (English), Dr. William Perry (Biological Sciences), Dr. Aaron Smith (English), and Dr. Marion Willets (Sociology) for the Teaching Initiative Award. Graduate students also compete for university teaching awards. The committee nominated Catherine Houghtaling (Communication) for Outstanding Graduate Student: Level I Masters; Angela Pollard (Biological Sciences) for Outstanding Graduate Student: Level II Masters and Doctoral with lab direction; and Heidi Oldenburger (English) and Joseph Staples (Biological Sciences) as Outstanding Graduate Student Level I Doctoral.
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