CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Mid-American Conference will announce the 12 institutional winners for the Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success this week. This marks the fifth year that the award has been given out to recognize the outstanding efforts of MAC faculty to support and develop students both inside and outside of the classroom. 
 
This student-focused award is distinguishable from academic or research-based awards as it celebrates the commitment of the MAC to a holistic student experience and the creation of an environment that supports success in school and in life.  
 
Eligibility for this award is broad in nature in an effort to identify a wide range of outstanding means by which faculty are significantly impacting students, and to create an opportunity to recognize the various ways that student success is supported within the MAC.  It is the hope of this award that the twelve nominees represent a diverse community that demonstrate support for student success throughout their entire collegiate experience.

The list of the institutional winners from each MAC school can be found below. The winner of the 2024 Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success will be announced on Friday, March 8.  

2024 Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success Institutional Winners



Dr. Jadwiga Carlson, Bowling Green State University
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Dr. Jadwiga A. Carlson is a teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science at Bowing Green State University. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Southern Illinois University and the Master of Science in Computer Science, Master of Business Administration, and Doctorate in Education in Leadership Studies degrees from Bowling Green State University.  Jadwiga is passionate about encouraging women to pursue computer science (CS) and continues to foster community and inclusion for women in STEM. She has been a faculty advisor for the BGSU Women in Computing student organization (ACM-W student chapter) since 2010. In 2016, she developed CODE4her™ CS Mentorship Program for Girls, allowing undergraduate female computer science students to mentor middle school girls. Jadwiga was appointed an inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Fellow in her college and chaired the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She received the 2017 College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Lecturer award and the BG Center for Leadership 2018 Women of Distinction award. In 2018, Jadwiga was sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and was selected to attend the HERS Leadership Institute. In 2021, she was selected as a Mid-American Conference (MAC) Academic Leadership Development Program (ALDP) cohort member. Before joining BGSU in 2003, Jadwiga worked for over 15 years as a software developer and holds the Professional Scrum Master (PSM I & II) certifications.



Dr. G. Glenn Lipscomb, University Toledo
Distinguished University Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Dr. Glenn Lipscomb has been a vibrant presence at The University of Toledo since joining as an assistant professor in 1994. Progressing through the ranks to become a professor and chairing the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering from 2004 to 2019, he has left an indelible mark on his students, the campus, and the local community. With a B.S. from the University of Missouri at Rolla and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Lipscomb specializes in biofuels production and membrane separation science and technology. His dedication to community engagement earned him the Edith Rathbun Outreach and Engagement Excellence Award in 2020, while his outstanding teaching garnered the UToledo Outstanding Teaching Award in 2013. A prolific researcher, Dr. Lipscomb has authored over 55 articles, coauthored a book, and secured six patents. His research, backed by substantial funding from entities like the National Science Foundation and Nissan, has received recognition through prestigious awards such as The University of Toledo President's Award for Excellence in Grantsmanship and the College of Engineering Outstanding Research Award. As a testament to his impact, students praise Dr. Lipscomb's exceptional teaching, emphasizing his generous, personal attention and commitment to their success. In 2021, he was named a Distinguished University Professor, solidifying his status as an influential educator and researcher.



Dr. Richard L. Londraville, University of Akron
Professor of Biology
Dr. Londraville received his B.S. in marine biology in 1987 from Long Island University, and an M.S. (1989), and Ph.D. (1994) in Zoology from University of Maine.  He was a Postdoctoral Fellow for 2 years at Stanford University before joining the University of Akron in 1996. He has been a Full Professor in Biology since 2009.  His research focuses on the evolution of fat metabolism in animals, and includes publications on fish, lizards, birds, mice, and even whales from Antarctica to Tahiti. His team's work is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, The National Institutes of Health, and SeaGrant. Dr. Londraville is actively involved in practicing and disseminating inclusive teaching practices, and is currently Co-PI on a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant for Inclusive Excellence (Drs. Janet Bean PI and Jutta Luettmer-Strathman Co-PI).  He is a strong advocate of undergraduate research experiences, having mentored >70 students in his lab and is the founder of the longstanding Norbert Tamosovich Biology Undergraduate Research Symposium.


Dr. Rebecca VanMeter, Ball State University
Associate Professor of Marketing

Dr. Rebecca VanMeter (Dr. V) joined Ball State as an assistant professor of marketing in 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. Dr. V.’s research focuses on issues related to social media, consumer behavior, servant leadership, ethics, advertising, branding, and research methods. Her work has been published in Journal of Interaction Marketing, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Personal Sales & Sales Management, Academy of Marketing Science Review, Marketing Education Review, Journal of Marketing Education, and Journal of the Academy of Business Education. Dr. VanMeter hasbeen involved with the academic community by serving most recently as the President for the SMA, the guest editor, serving on several editorial review boards,and enjoys getting rejuvenated while attending conferences. Dr. V. has a passion for helping students to view the world around them through the lens of marketing. She teaches a variety of courses in both the graduate and undergraduate programs. In Summer 2017 she co-taught an MBA course with Kabul University,Afghanistan. She is looking forward to leading her first study abroad in Italy in Summer 2024. Dr. V received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pikeville where she played volleyball. She earned her MBA from the University of Kentucky,and her doctoral degree in Marketing with a minor in statistics from the University of Texas–Arlington.


Dr. M. Courtney Hughes, Northern Illinois University
Associate Professor of Public Health, FAR
M. Courtney Hughes is dedicated to improving population health and cultivating the next wave of public health scholars. Her research examines health behavior risks and enhancing quality of life for seriously ill individuals and their caregivers. Of her 38 papers since joining NIU in 2019, 25 include student authors. She teaches undergraduates through doctoral-level students and her grants have funded 24 students during her time at NIU.

Courtney is the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) at NIU, where she brings experience as a former collegiate tennis player at the University of Notre Dame and her expertise in health and wellness to focus on student-athlete well-being. In 2023, she received the Sullivan Award for Excellence in Research and was awarded the Research Scholar designation in the College of Health and Human Sciences. She was an Associate Editor of BMC Health Services Research from 2019 through 2023 and is an active member of the Illinois Family Caregiver Coalition and Illinois Aging Together initiative.
 
Courtney has helped enhance the curriculum at NIU by serving on curriculum committees every year and has disseminated best practices to the field by publishing education strategy articles in Pedagogy in Health Promotion. She is currently working on a dozen projects, all with student researchers, with a main goal for each student to discover their passions and experience success. Courtney received her doctorate in Health Services from the University of Washington School of Public Health and her master’s degree in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan.
 

Dr. Kathryn Wilson, Kent State University
Professor, Economics
Dr. Kathryn Wilson has been a faculty member in Economics at Kent State University since 1996. Her passion is teaching Economics, and her courses challenge students while providing them an environment where they can be successful. Her accomplishments as a teacher were recognized with the 2023 Distinguished Teaching Award at Kent State, the highest teaching honor provided at the University. Dr. Wilson’s impact on student success also extends beyond the classroom. She served from 2004-2022 as KSU’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) where she twice chaired the athletics’ strategic planning process, established a Gender Equity Committee as a proactive way for the institution to be reflective on how they could ensure the athletics programs were operating in an equitable fashion, and was an active participant at the conference and NCAA level. A second major area impacting student success is her work chairing a comprehensive University-wide Climate Survey initiative, including personally conducting detailed additional data analysis of each college and division at KSU and implementation of data-driven strategies to ensure that all students have an inclusive learning environment. Dr. Wilson’s leadership in the FAR role at the conference level is evidenced by Chairing the Infractions Committee and Chairing the MAC FARs; her work on campus climate was recognized with KSU’s Diversity Trailblazer Award. Finally, Dr. Wilson’s dedication to inclusion and equity has influenced her academic research. Her 29 publications focused on poverty, inequality, social mobility, and health disparities have been cited almost 1,000 times and are well respected in the Economics discipline.


Marybeth Minnis, Central Michigan University
Asssistant Professor of Basson, and Assistant Director, School of Music
Marybeth Minnis is the Assistant Director of the School of Music and Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Central Michigan University. She has been Principal Bassoonist of the Saginaw Bay Orchestra since 1985 and frequently performs with other area orchestras. An active chamber musician she performs and tours with the Powers Woodwind Quintet. Professor Minnis has performed and/or presented at several International Double Reed SocietyConferences, TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association), the Michigan Music Conference, regional CBDNA Conferences, and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago. She received degrees from Central Michigan University (BME) and the University of Michigan (Masters in Bassoon Performance). Her teachers include Lewis Hugh Cooper and Robert Barris. Marybeth Minnis can be heard on Flights of Fancy, (Centaur Records 2603,) Bremen Town Musicians, (Centaur Records 2774,) Gems for Woodwind Quintet, (White Pine Music,) The Clarinet Chamber Music of Alvin Etler (Centaur Records) and just released, Hidden Gems (Centaur Records).


Kenneth Joseph, University at Buffalo
Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
Kenneth (Kenny) Joseph is an assistant professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University at Buffalo, where he directs the Computation and Equity Lab (cUBelab). Before UB, he spent time at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. He completed his Ph.D. in the Societal Computing program at Carnegie Mellon University. Kenny has researched with over three dozen undergraduate and over a dozen graduate students. He has published this research in various venues, including Science, The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Children and Youth Services Review, and a number of top-tier computer science conferences. Student work has been covered in media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Wired. In addition to conducting research with students, Kenny is his department's Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. He is developing new methods to help measure and improve student retention and well-being in the department. Kenny's work and teaching have been funded by the National Science Foundation (includingaCAREERaward), Amazon, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.


Dr. Dyann C. Logwood, Eastern Michigan University
Assistant Professor, Women's and Gender Studies and Co-Director, Mentor for Success Initiative
Dr. Dyann Logwood is an educator, activist, poet, and writer whose commitment to enhancing the lives of marginalized populations is demonstrated in her teaching, research, and service at Eastern Michigan University. Before becoming a professor, she was the first African American director of the EMU Women’s Resource Center. Her current academic endeavors include providing students with the opportunity to mentor middle school youth through her Mentoring Youth in Urban Spaces course, as well as writing on Black feminist mentorship, belonging, and critical classroom practices. She is also the chair of the Annual Women of Color Symposium. Dr. Logwood’s shortened vita is ill-equipped to chronicle her value to EMU and the emotional labor she routinely performs in and outside the classroom, as she continually works with campus resources to design initiatives focused on students. For example, she recently created The Mentorship for Success Initiative, which is designed to address cultural deficiencies in meeting the needs of underserved students by creating a learning community of ethnically diverse faculty—who now work as interdisciplinary co-mentors of vulnerable students. Due to her mentorship and equity work, she was recruited by the Faculty Senate Task Force on Campus Climate, Race, and Diversity Issues to work on the three-partseries, Creating a Culture of Belonging at EMU. Other efforts include leading student diversity listening sessions, hosting numerous Faculty Development Center workshops, and expanding mentorship access to area youth. As result of her labors, EMU has expanded efforts to enhance the lives of underserved communities. 


Dr. KC Chen, Western Michigan University
Professor of Computer Information Systems, and Director of Center for Business Analytics
Dr. Kuanchin Chen is Professor of Computer Information Systems, Director of the Center for Business Analytics, and John W. Snyder Fellow at Western Michigan University. He has more than twenty-five years of research, teaching, and consulting experience.Since he joined WMU in 2001, he has created twelve new courses, and several key academic programs. He has given close to be sixty seminars focusing on various educational topics, including cultivation of AI expertise, making technical topics relevant and useful for non-technical students, enhancing student research excellence, tying classroom skills to industry demand, innovation in teaching preparation, and academia-industry collaboration. Many of these efforts have received funding, media attention and awards. 

Dr. Chen works in the areas of data analytics, AI, social networking, privacy &security, online behavioral issues,and human computer interaction. His expertise lies in the intersection of technical, psychology and behavior disciplines.He has been an editor, associate editor, and editorial board member of several highly regarded scholarly journals. Dr.Chen has received several research and teaching awards, including awards given by the scholarly community, academic institutions, journals, and the U.S. Fulbright program.He has frequently been invited to give research talks or key notes at conferences, universities, government agencies and other institutions. Dr. Chen's recent effort focuses on education and research initiatives through human-AI symbiosis to create a more resilient workforce facing the ever-advancing AI development. He is an internationally recognized scholar who studies and commits to an inclusive culture.

Dr. Ryan C. Johnson, Ohio University
Assistant Professor of Management (College of Business)
Dr. Ryan C. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Managementin Ohio University’s College of Business, is an experienced educator, coach, and organizational well-being scientist focused on creating healthier employees and successful innovative organizations. This mission begins in the classroom with experiential learning, and through basic and applied research, organizational consulting, and leadership development, Ryan passionately promotes organizational and individual success via healthier work. Ryan is currently the Director of the Integrated Business Cluster (IBC), a rigorous undergraduate experiential learning program designed to provide 700+ students per year with the unique skills they need to be both successful lifelong learners and competitive professionals. His research focuses on healthy leadership and organizations, stress and well-being, inclusion and belonging, pedagogy/andragogy, and family-friendly human resource policy and has been published in some of organizational science's top journals including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Journal of Vocational Behavior. 

Ryan is also co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of the Global Work-Family Interface (2018) and serves on the editorial boards of Occupational Health Science and Journal of Vocational Behavior. Before joining the Department of Management in Ohio University's College of Business, Ryan was an assistant professor and PI/Director of the NIOSH-funded Occupational Health Psychology doctoral program in OHIO's Department of Psychology. Outside of work, Ryan lives in beautiful Athens with his partner and their two dogs. They enjoy the wonderful outdoor activities Athens has to offer, but never miss an opportunity to travel and eat all over the world.

Dr. Mark Krekeler, Miami University
Associate Professor, Geology & Environmental Earth Science and Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Dr. Mark Krekeler is a dedicated, student-oriented associate professor in the Department of Geology & Environmental Earth Science and the Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. His research is focused on applied and environmental mineralogy, sedimentary materials, urban pollution, geotechnology, and defense science. Dr. Krekeler creates a welcoming and collaborative environment for undergraduates and graduate students to succeed at high levels. He has mentored over 250 undergraduates and over 20 graduate students in research throughout his career. His students have earned over 100 major awards or accomplishments with over $400,000 in student funding. He has mentored 10 Miami University Provost Student Academic Achievement Award winners, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduates Fellowship winner, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Winner, two Goldwater Scholarship awardees and one Astronaut scholarship awardee, among other major awards. He has over 60 publications, 4 U.S. patents with career research funding over $1.6 million. He won Miami University's Excellence in Career Development Award and regularly interacts with companies in multiple roles including consulting, workforce development, and creating job opportunities for Miami University students. He coordinates annual department-wide gift drives for the Bunker Hill Haven for Boys and for Women Helping Women. Dr. Krekeler originated from eastern Clermont County, Ohio and later graduated from Colerain High School on the west side of Cincinnati. He obtained a B.S. and M.S. in geology from the University of Cincinnati and a Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering and earth sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago.