<p>Major props to Professor Brashier on winning the "Outstanding Baccalaureate College Professor of the Year" awardamajig. Big ups all around, sir. </p>
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CASE, Carnegie Name Top U.S. Professors of the Year; Winners Saluted for Commitment to Undergraduate Education</p>
<pre><code> WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- A champion of community colleges, a leading scholar on Chinese studies, the world's most cited astronomer, and a forensic anthropologist who takes students on crime scene investigations are this year's national winners of the U.S. Professors of the Year Award.
Sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and administered by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the awards recognize professors for their influence on teaching and their outstanding commitment to teaching undergraduate students.
The Professors of the Year will be honored today at a luncheon at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. The four national winners will speak at the luncheon after being introduced by a former or current student. The professors will be available for interviews.
The four national winners are:
Outstanding Baccalaureate Colleges Professor: K.E. Brashier, associate professor of religion and humanities, Reed College, Portland, Ore. A foremost scholar of the Chinese ancestral cult, Brashier brings his enthusiasm for the discipline to his students through personal insights, poetry and humor. During his seven years at Reed, Brashier has consistently received top marks in student evaluations, an accomplishment supported by colleagues who agree that he has a rare ability to translate his scholarly accomplishments into teaching excellence. His innovative teaching methods encourage even the quietest of students to participate in the discussion. Brashier has received many honors, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and was both a Rhodes Scholar and Harry S. Truman Scholar.
Outstanding Community Colleges Professor: Mark Lewine, professor of anthropology, Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, Ohio. Lewine's commitment to promote community college education is evident in his teaching, both inside and outside of the classroom. During the past 35 years, he has worked to dispel stereotypes associated with community colleges and has encouraged graduate students and community college students to work together on archaeological digs, during which educational differences disappear. Lewine's teaching style is engaging, accessible, and demanding - qualities that drive students to achieve their best work. He established the Center for Community Research, a community-linked research program that helps inner-city students learn about their city's past and acquire higher education skills. Lewine is a recipient of the President's Award from the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges.
Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor: Alex Filippenko, professor of astronomy, University of California, Berkeley. Filippenko's love of astronomy and passion for teaching developed at a young age. Since then, he has combined the two interests into a successful teaching career that has been marked with awards and accolades. Filippenko is noted for a teaching style that reaches beyond the traditional classroom lecture, employing music, visual props, and digital media to heighten the experience and engage his students. He has served as a mentor of numerous undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom have gone on to become leading researchers at top-tier institutions. Beyond the classroom, Filippenko has the distinction of being the world's most highly cited astronomer (1995-2005) and has received numerous awards for his research.
Outstanding Master's Universities and Colleges Professor: Donna C. Boyd, professor of anthropology, Radford University. As a leading forensic anthropologist, Boyd brings her dedication, encyclopedic knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject to the classroom. She has inspired and mentored numerous students, many of whom have gone on to prominent careers in the field. Boyd has received a rating of "outstanding" for teaching, research and service for each of her 16 years at Radford University. Her methodology takes students far from the classroom-she includes her students in real-world experiences, allowing them to accompany her on crime scene investigations, and her homework assignments include case studies of actual human remains. Her style is to be approachable and available to her students while holding them to her own high standards.
The U.S. Professors of the Year program, created in 1981, is the only national initiative specifically designed to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.
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