2012 College Awards
The 2012 CLA Awards Ceremony was held April 26 in the Honors Hall Lounge.
Staff Award
Administrative Professional Excellence Award
Arlene Parkay
Academic Coordinator, College of Liberal Arts
Ms. Parkay's duties focus on student counseling, recruitment, and retention and on college promotion. Much of what she does is off-campus, on weekends and evenings, at events not attended by CLA faculty and administrators. She has been key in supporting the diversification of our student body and making CLA a leader in this area. She organized student focus groups that resulted in a series of initiatives, including the new Student Ambassadors program, and plans to institute a series of career-oriented training workshops to support the development of specific professional skills. Ms. Parkay also oversees the awarding of CLA undergraduate scholarships and the Outstanding Senior ceremony. From the design of CLA T-shirts for advisors and staff to the meticulous revision of handouts and other CLA marketing elements and her constant interaction with all departments and student groups, she serves as an excellent ambassador for the college and our departments and programs. She exemplifies devoted service beyond expectations and job descriptions.
Professional & Institutional Service Awards
Excellence in Institutional Service
Thomas J. Whitacre
Director of Advising, College of Liberal Arts
Associate Director, General Studies & Advising Center
Mr. Whitacre is a role model and leader in the field of professional advising. In addition to his role overseeing the General Studies Program, he has been critical to the development and implementation of the centralized CLA Advising System, recognized as a model for the University. His initiatives resulted in an advising web page, student satisfaction survey, and training and support programs for the professional advisors with whom he works. For his unceasing hard work and service, he received the National Academic Advising Association's "Outstanding Advising Award" in the Academic Advising Administrator category in 2009 and the WSU Academic Advising Association's "Outstanding Advising Award" in the same category in 2008, in addition to numerous other WSU and College of Liberal Arts awards for his work with students.
International Award
Outstanding Achievement in International Teaching, Research/Creative Activities, and/or Service
Otwin Marenin
Professor, Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology
Dr. Marenin's research focuses on international and comparative security and criminal justice, examining police reforms and practices spanning the globe from Australia to Serbia, from Nepal to Nigeria, and from the Solomon Islands to the countries of the European Union. He has authored or coauthored seven books, two commissioned papers, and several dozen peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Especially noteworthy is his service as an international expert to the Office of Development Effectiveness's High Level Reference Group, part of the Australian Foreign Aid Office, and since 2007 as a founding member of the United Nations International Policing Advisory Council. Through his research and teaching, Dr. Marenin has significantly contributed to the internationalization of WSU and its global reputation.
Scholarship Awards (Research & Creative Activities)
Early Achievement in Scholarship
Keri McCarthy
Assistant Professor, School of Music
Dr. McCarthy is an oboist who plays with a rich sound, dazzling technique, and highly sophisticated sense of musicality and expression. Since coming to WSU in 2006, she has toured Asia twice—in 2008 on a WSU New Faculty Seed Grant, and last year on a Fulbright fellowship, giving nearly 30 performances in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, and Korea. Dr. McCarthy has commissioned and premiered more than 10 new works for oboe from distinguished Asian and American composers, has performed for the International Double Reed Society, and has a CD pending release.
Brendan Walker
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. Walker is being recognized for his research on the neurobiology of alcohol addiction, specifically neurobiological changes caused by long-term alcohol or drug use. Since coming to WSU in 2008, he has produced 23 peer-reviewed articles and given nearly 40 conference and other presentations, nationally and internationally. In addition, he has received an NIH grant for $1.125 million, remarkable for a scientist at the early career stage, as well as grants from a private foundation and pharmaceutical company. As a result, last year he received a Young Investigator Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Outstanding Career Achievement in Scholarship
Bryan Vila
Professor, Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology, WSU Spokane
Dr. Vila has a distinguished and diverse interdisciplinary career. He served in the military in Vietnam, as a police officer in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and as director of the Trust Territory Bureau of Investigation for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Micronesia), a cabinet-level position. Moving to academia, he received a $250,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice and the Police Executive Research Forum to study the effect of fatigue on patrol officers, resulting in the publication of Tired Cops: The Importance of Managing Police Fatigue, considered the seminal text on police fatigue. In 2002, he served as chief of the Crime Control and Prevention Research Division at the National Institute of Justice in Washington, D.C., before coming to the Criminal Justice Program at WSU in 2005, where he also joined the WSU Sleep and Performance Research Center in Spokane. In recent years, Dr. Vila has received more than $3 million in grants and established the WSU Simulated Hazardous Operational Tasks (SHOTS) laboratory, enabling him to conduct groundbreaking human performance research.
Dean's Award
Dean's Outstanding Contribution Award
Gerald Berthiaume
Professor, School of Music
Dr. Berthiaume served as director of the School of Music from 2003 to 2011, where he provided excellent leadership. Over the years he has served on numerous departmental, college, and university committees and as institutional representative to the National Association of Schools of Music. He also served as chair of the Education Board for the Washington State Music Teachers Association. He is a pianist of the highest caliber, with a highly sophisticated sense of expression and a breathtaking technique. He has performed around the country and is featured on numerous CDs. At WSU, he has presented countless performances at university functions and is coordinator of the annual Piano Explorations Summer Camp that has, over the years, attracted hundreds of potential WSU students. He is a beloved teacher and colleague.
Teaching Awards
Excellence in Graduate Teaching & Mentoring
G. Leonard Burns
Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. Burns is a child clinical psychologist by training with additional expertise in psychometric measurement. He has mentored an extraordinary number of students, being chair or cochair of 32 doctoral committees, chair of 27 master's theses, and a committee member on a total of 57 doctoral theses and 45 master's theses. On the measurement side, he regularly teaches students from criminal justice, anthropology, and human development, as well as from engineering, computer science, sociology, and education, and as a result has served on dissertation committees in a number of these departments. He has presented papers with 38 graduate students, and several letters attest to his mentoring and encouragement long after graduate school. In his own words, he always puts the student first and sees mentoring graduate students as a serious responsibility and wonderful privilege.
William F. Mullen Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Julie Kmec
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Dr. Kmec teaches a range of undergraduate courses and is an enthusiastic teacher concerned with each individual student. Colleagues and students praise her teaching strategies that engage classes of 100 students in discussions and interactive learning activities and her ability to present both sides of sensitive and often difficult topics. She has worked extensively with students outside of class, publishing three articles with two of her students, and she has mentored three McNair Scholars. In 2008, she received the Berry Family CLA Faculty Excellence Fellowship to pursue the project "Involving Students in the Effort to Reduce Workplace Discrimination," in which three students joined her to compose a report for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. With her talent for teaching and passion for her curriculum—described by students as "infectious"—she serves as a role model for both graduate students and peers.
Distinguished Professorships
Lewis E. & Stella G. Buchanan Scholar in English & Writing
Christopher Arigo
Assistant Professor, Department of English
Augusta Rohrbach
Associate Professor, Department of English
Marianna Merritt & Donald S. Matteson Distinguished Professorship in Foreign Languages & Cultures
Rachel Halverson
Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages & Cultures
Promotions
Promoted to Clinical Associate Professor
Pamela Lee, Fine Arts
Promoted to Associate Professor
Kristin Arola, English
Maria DePrano, Fine Arts
Luz María Gordillo, Critical Culture, Gender, & Race Studies,
WSU Vancouver
Alair MacLean, Sociology, WSU Vancouver
Keri McCarthy, Music
Nickolus Meisel, Fine Arts
Jesse Spohnholz, History
Brendan Walker, Psychology
Xiuyu Wang, History, WSU Vancouver
Promoted to Professor
Kevin Haas, Fine Arts
Lori Wiest, Music
Recognition of Service as Chair
Eloy González, Foreign Languages & Cultures
George Kennedy, English
Richard King, Critical Culture, Gender, & Race Studies
Chris Watts, Fine Arts
Milestones
25 Years of Service to WSU
Francis Benjamin, Psychology
G. Leonard Burns, Psychology
Ann Marie Gooch, Social Sciences Division
David Jarvis, Music
Lisa McIntyre, Sociology
Elizabeth Siler, English
Marina Tolmacheva, History
Amy Wharton, Sociology, WSU Vancouver
Paul Whitney, Psychology
30 Years of Service to WSU
Pamela Lee, Fine Arts
Gregory Yasinitsky, Music
35 Years of Service to WSU
Eloy González, Foreign Languages & Cultures
Nicholas Lovrich, Politics, Philosophy, & Public Affairs
50 Years of Service to WSU
David H. Stratton, History
60 Years of Service to WSU
James F. Short Jr., Sociology
2011–2012 Retirees
Joan Burbick, English
Ann Christenson, Fine Arts
Jane Fredrickson, Wilson-Short Division
Alexander Kuo, English
Erich Lear, Music
Connie Rodeen, Northwest Division
Outstanding Dean Award
At the close of the awards ceremony, the associate deans stepped forward to present Doug Epperson with the Outstanding Dean Award.