2014 Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer

All lecturers, senior lecturers and other associated faculty who have taught undergraduate or graduate/professional courses in the last three years are eligible for this award.
Portrait of Lisa Cravens-Brown

Lisa Cravens-Brown

Department of Psychology

 


According to one nominator, Lisa Cravens-Brown should be known as the “student whisperer.” She is able to connect with honors pupils and the unmotivated alike and gets them engaged by selecting course materials that are highly relevant to their daily lives. In 2012, Cravens-Brown was named to Princeton Review’s list of the 300 best professors in the United States — most of whom were distinguished tenure-track professors.

She has instructed 1,720 students over the past three years and her student evaluations are always sterling; in the spring of 2012, Cravens-Brown received a top 5.0 score on all 47 student evaluations of her Psychology of Human Sexuality course.

“Clearly she is able to inspire students and make a difference in their lives,” a nominator wrote.

Cravens-Brown is a faculty honors advisor for the Department of Psychology and recently became program director for the department’s data analysis and research methods courses, getting the nod because of her strong teaching background. 

With an expertise in sexuality studies, Cravens-Brown helped develop the university’s major and minor programs in that area and serves on the programs’ oversight and awards committees. All of her efforts are directed at making the undergraduate experience more meaningful and to inspire students to embrace lifelong learning.

“Throughout my four years on campus, I have never heard a student mention Lisa without eight others chiming in on how much they love her and her courses,” a student nominator wrote. “I do not believe this can be attributed to anything other than Lisa’s dedication to her students and genuine concern for each and every one.”

She earned her PhD from The Ohio State University.

Portrait of Richard Daley

Richard Daley

Moritz College of Law

 


Richard Daley admits that after more than 30 years practicing real estate development law, he is more lawyer than professor. But by focusing on teaching his students the practical over the theoretical, he is adamant that they should be prepared to practice law immediately upon graduation.

Students flock to his three courses: Real Estate Development, Commercial Leasing and Drafting Business Contracts. The latter was so popular that Daley agreed to increase enrollment by 50 percent — and increase his workload — in order to accommodate the interest.

“Although a lot of work and time for only two credit hours, I would take this class again,” wrote a student. “It was one of the most valuable courses in all of my academic career.”

Voted on by students, Daley was named the Morgan E. Shipman Outstanding Professor of the Year for the graduating class of 2013, the first lecturer to receive the honor.

“When the award was announced to an auditorium full of students, there was a shout of delight and fists raised in the air before students gave him a standing ovation,” a nominator wrote.

Daley also serves as the founding advisor for the student-run Real Estate Law Association at Ohio State, his alma mater. The organization has maintained strong membership and regularly draws exceptional speakers to talk to students.

Daley spent 12 years in private practice and 13 years with The Pizzuti Companies as executive vice president and general counsel. He currently runs his own consulting business for private developers and corporate real estate departments.

Portrait of Anthony Shoup

Anthony Shoup

Department of Physics, Ohio State Lima

 


At Ohio State Lima, Anthony Shoup represents the entirety of the astronomy and engineering faculty, and that is in addition to his full courseload as a senior lecturer in physics. 

He single-handedly brought the first-year engineering program to the campus and was instrumental in securing a $35,000 grant to refurbish the lab and obtain equipment to teach the courses. Ohio State Lima will add a third engineering section for the 2014-15 academic year because of Shoup’s foundational efforts.

Shoup is considered “indispensable” by one nominator and an exceptional teacher on a campus known for outstanding instruction (10 Ohio State Lima faculty have received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching). 

With many first-generation college students in his classes, Shoup relates his own story of being the first in his family to graduate. And he uses his student evaluations to continually improve his teaching methods. The first astronomy course he taught, he received poor scores for having too much math and math that was too difficult to comprehend. He still uses equations in his teaching, but he doesn’t penalize students who struggle with math, focusing on the benefits of exposing them to the information.

Shoup wanted to give students a full astronomy experience at Lima. He worked to get a telescope donated to the campus, and he built the observation dome, installed the telescope and wrote the control software, which allows students to operate the device and take pictures from their home computers.

Nominations                    Previous Winners