paddock and henderson lauded

Thu., Apr 24

Board of Trustees Announce Recipients of Connecticut State University System Teaching and Research Awards

Faculty at Southern, Central, Eastern & Western Honored for Achievement

A Fulbright Scholar recognized for her work in literature at Eastern Connecticut State University and an historian at Southern Connecticut State University known for exploring the connections between education, public discourse, and national identity have been selected to receive system-wide recognition by the Board of Trustees of the Connecticut State University System.

Lisa Rowe Frastino, associate professor of English at Eastern, received the Trustees Teaching Award, and Troy Paddock, associate professor of history at Southern (left), received the Trustees Research Award.  They were selected from a field of four candidates for each award, all of whom received university-level Trustees award in recognition of the caliber of their teaching and research.

The awards were presented by the Board of Trustees at a recent meeting at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.  The annual teaching awards were presented for the second time; the research awards were inaugurated two years ago. The award competition is open to assistant and associate professors in tenure-track or tenure positions.

Fraustino is recognized for her work including award winning children and young adults literature, the creation of a high enrollment writing minor and courses for the new liberal arts curriculum at the university, her attentive and effective advising and mentoring of students, her support for learning beyond the classroom, her work with high schools and pedagogical contributions as a Fulbright Scholar.

Paddock is recognized for his work in the interplay among education, public discourse, and the development of national identity resulting in the anti-Russian propaganda between 1890 and 1914 in Germany, his meticulous interdisciplinary emerging research work on the effect of geography on the construction of identity and historical events.

"The quality of teaching and level of research throughout the university system is truly remarkable, and the scholarship by these faculty members is both inspiring and significant," said Board Chairman Lawrence D. McHugh. 

"These awards provide a means of recognizing the exemplary work of the highest promise being done by our up-and-coming faculty. They are all demonstrating an impact on their academic field, our students and our state," added John A. Doyle, chair of the Trustees' Academic Affairs Committee. 

Receiving the Trustees Research Award at the university level are:

• Robert M. Dowling, associate professor of English at Central Connecticut State University, recognized for his work in the field of American Literature, including publishing a book focusing on how literary works transformed moral threats into cultural treasures in New York City from 1880 to 1930, and a reference book and critical anthology on Eugene O'Neill, uncovering never before cited or published text by this author, as well as writing approximately 40 articles in journals, critical anthologies and reference texts, and presenting at prestigious conferences.
  
  
• Kenneth McNeil, associate professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University, has been nationally and internationally recognized for his work in English literature and the British writers of the Romantic period, including writers of the Scottish Highlands such as Sir Walter Scott and women authors such as Ann Grant and Queen Victoria. He has enriched the notions of national and ethnic coherence through original research and his conceptualizations of the interplay between cultures, extending to Mexican-American ballads.
  
  
• Shane M. Murphy, associate professor of psychology at Western Connecticut State University, recognized for his work in the psychology of sports participation and achievement, including recognized assessment tools relating psychological skills to human performance, the contributions to the development of visualization techniques to the enhancement of human performance, and the contributions to the translation of research into accessible language to improve lifestyle behaviors and promote better health.

Receiving the Trustees Teaching Award at the university level are:

• Robin C. Flanagan, an associate professor of psychology at Western Connecticut State University, recognized as an engaging and effective educator, inspiring and guiding students to produce and present original research, valued mentor for students considering advanced studies, key contributor to programmatic improvements in her department including the latest advances in the field, and a key member of numerous university-wide committees enhancing the educational process at the university.

• Nicole M. Henderson, associate professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University (right), is recognized as a gifted pedagogue and mentor, a leader in the development, institutionalization, direction and assessment of the university's First Year Experience Program, a critical player in revamping of the academic advising system for first year students, and an engaging collaborator able to contribute to create a coherent campus culture that promotes educational improvement.

• Cara Mulcahy, assistant professor of Reading and Language Arts at Central Connecticut State University, recognized as a model teacher able to engage students in deep thinking, problem solving and creativity, effective in systematically building upon her students' previous learning, and successfully interweaving her research and teaching, resulting in exemplary work in critical literacy and the use of technology to resolve the challenges facing marginalized high school students.

Eligible for the Trustees Teaching Award are faculty who have "distinguished themselves as outstanding teachers for at least five years and have a minimum of two years track record of promoting instructional improvements for their programs or departments."  The Trustees Research Award can be granted to faculty who are conducting "research work of exceptional promise."  Nominees are expected to demonstrate substantive contributions or achievements and scholarly activities in their academic field of study during the last five years.

Using local processes and following general guidelines, each university accepted nominations and selected the university-level nominees, one per university, early this year.  Nominees were then considered for the system-wide awards by a panel consisting of Connecticut State University Professors, a designation earned by no more than three senior faculty members at each university.  Their recommendations were forwarded to the Board's Academic Affairs Committee, and then to the full Board.  Each of the recipients' universities will receive an award of $1,000, with the system-level recipient receiving an additional $1,000 award for their university.

The Connecticut State University System is Connecticut's largest public university system, with more than 35,000 students attending Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Connecticut State Universities.  The system is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2008, although its member institutions each have a distinguished history of academic accomplishment dating back more than a century.