“The Teaching Awards Committee is pleased to note that all of the applicants for this year's teaching awards were exceptionally qualified, and it is likely that they will all win the award at some point in the future,” said Professor Nancy Lind, chair of the Teaching Award Committee. “Illinois State University has a long reputation of outstanding teaching, and it is showcased in the outstanding teacher competition every year.”
Professor Jordon has amassed an outstanding record of teaching since coming to Illinois State in 2002. She teaches linear and abstract algebra, calculus, number theory, and graph theory, and her research interests include graph theory, combinatorics, and graph decompositions. She challenges students and engages many graduate students in her research. She is also a mentor to both undergraduate and graduate mathematics students. She in involved with the Discrete Mathematics Group at Illinois State—a group of professors active in research and professional service as well as in providing enthusiastic and dedicated teaching for students—and she also plays a prominent role in the DIMACS Research and Education Institute, based at Rutgers University, which operates with the approach that research and education should work hand-in-hand.
Professor Kiser has a long career of excellent teaching. Since coming to ISU in 1974, he has served tenures as the university's pre-law advisor and acting director of legal studies and legal internships. He has also directed and taught the LSAT prep course, advised the Law Club, and served on the Board of Directors of Students’ Legal Services and as Illinois State's representative to the Legislative Internship Program in Springfield. He teaches course on the courts and constitutional law. Prominent judges and lawyers return to him for advice long after their graduation. He also prides himself on his accessibility to students, saying he will meet them whenever they want to meet. According to his statement of teaching philosophy, he never lets a moment pass by when he has a chance to teach students. He also treats each class as a new experiment and adjusts his assignments to keep pace with changing legal trends.
Since coming to Illinois State in 1997, Professor Simonds has excelled in her own teaching while also promoting excellence in others’ teaching. She teaches courses in communication education and instructional communication. She also serves as co-director of the communication and critical inquiry sequence in the General Education program at Illinois State. As such she trains graduate students how to successfully deliver the introductory communication course to approximately 3,000 incoming students each year. The training model she helped to develop at Illinois State is now be emulated by other universities across the United States. Simonds won the University’s Teaching Initiative Award in 2001 and the Central States Communication Association’s Outstanding New Teacher Award in 2000. She is also viewed as a leading researcher in the scholarship of teaching and learning.
In addition to announcing this year's Outstanding College Teachers, the Teaching Award Committee also announced its nominees for the University teaching awards. For Outstanding University Teacher, Category I, the committee nominated Ray Clemens (History), Sadri Hassani (Physics), and Kirstin Zona (English). For Outstanding University Teacher Category II, the committee nominated Claire Lamonica (English), Doug Jennings (Communication), Pilar Mejia (Chemistry), and William Reger (History). For the Teaching Initiative Award, the committee nominated Jonathan Druker (Foreign Languages), Kristin Dykstra (English), Elizabeth King (Geography-Geology), John McHale (Communication), Craig McLauchlan (Chemistry), Toure Reed (History), and Steve Van Der Hoven (Geography-Geology). Graduate students also compete for university teaching awards. The committee nominated Anna Carmon (Communication) for Outstanding Graduate Student Level I Masters, and Susan Spangler (English) as Outstanding Graduate Student Level I Doctoral.