Faculty Awards Ceremony

Internal Awards

Due to the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spring 2021 Faculty Awards Ceremony has been canceled. Please recognize and celebrate with us the winners of this year's awards.

Celebrating faculty passion and expertise

Congratulations to all our 2021 Faculty Award winners from our Columbia and regional Palmetto College campuses, and to our newest Carolina Trustees professors.

This year's winners represent a wide range of disciplines and differ broadly in their individual styles and classroom methods, yet they all share a genuine commitment to their students and the ability to find creative, successful ways to convey their passion and expertise in the classroom.

Center for Teaching Excellence

Dr. Tia Andersen

Criminology and Criminal Justice
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Tia Andersen emphasizes providing direct experiences and exercises designed to complement traditional academic studies, which in Criminology and Criminal Justice often center on reading about, talking about, and writing about the realities being studied. An example of Dr. Andersen’s innovative teaching practices is her Adolescent Mentoring course. Through partnerships with local school districts, Dr. Andersen developed a course that pairs undergraduate students with at risk youth. Her students continuously speak of the significance of this class in their education, and many change their career trajectories after the experience. Several of the mentees have gone on to pursue college or start their careers after their time with their mentors.

Dr. Patricia Fabel

Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences (CPOS)
College of Pharmacy

Dr. Patricia Fabel is involved in the experiential teaching of pharmacy students and post-graduate learners (pharmacy residents). Specifically, she leads the Self Care & Complementary Medicine course (PHMY 750) in the College of Pharmacy while incorporating team-based TBL learning principles and methods into the curriculum. The experiential education she taught and developed has led to innovative training models throughout the state of South Carolina. She supports educational opportunities for pharmacy students to engage in entrepreneurial, innovative, practice-based project development, and a business plan is a core component of a successful entrepreneur.

Professor Naomi Falk

School of Visual Art and Design
College of Arts and Sciences

Professor Naomi Falk has emerged as a national leader on how art professors and teachers can continue to teach art in times of reduced capacity, reduced access to tools and equipment, and almost 100% remote instruction. She supports undergraduate students engaging in “beyond the classroom” activities and helps them gain professional experience in a professional artist studio. Both inside and outside the classroom, Professor Falk pushes the notion of what art is and can be, and how art connects to the broader world. She is pioneering a cross-disciplinary special topics course that enrolls Studio Art students as well as Media Art students on the theme of Art and Activism.

Dr. Samuel McQuillin

Psychology
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Samuel McQuillin is an internationally recognized expert in mentoring relationships — in particular, how these relationships influence the developmental and academic trajectories of young people. A central tenant of Dr. McQuillin’s program of research includes his expertise in training and skill transfer using technological innovations including “Just-in-Time” trainings and supervised rehearsal. Students in the Department of Psychology report a very engaging and innovative approach to teaching interpersonal competencies (e.g. active listening, strategic use of open-ended questions, empathetic reflections, etc.) where in Dr. McQuillin uses “Dungeons and Dragons” style role play experiences where students are required to adopt a character with prescribed personality traits to help their co-classmates navigate challenging and carried interpersonal styles. The style makes an impression on students as an engaging activity.

Dr. Brian Mihalik

School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management
College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management

Dr. Brian Mihalik is passionate about integrating 360 VR videos into both his hotel, restaurant, and tourism management and sport entertainment management classes. This technique does more than give students a ground level virtual view. Students use their smartphones and very inexpensive goggles to view both his videos as well as commercially prepared 360 VR content of international tour destinations. Additionally, he engages students in almost daily online communications via Blackboard and his trademark “Wake up Weather Reports with Dr. B”. Furthermore, Professor Mihalik has been a pioneer working on integrating cutting-edge technology into the classroom.

Dr. Shanna Williams

Biomedical Sciences
School of Medicine Greenville

Dr. Shanna Williams is an outstanding educator who exemplifies just what is means to embrace “the importance of teaching excellence among all faculty” and explore “new methods for fostering learning and improving teaching”. Her teaching pedagogy is influenced by blending the two lines of teacher-centered and student-centered teaching. She strives to be a catalyst for student success and the development of exceptional medical practitioners within the field of biomedical sciences — individuals whose knowledge, skill and compassion leave her comfortable and confident in their capacity to care for others.

Palmetto College

Dr. Christine Sixta-Rinehart

Political Science
USC Union

Dr. Christine Sixta-Rinehart is heavily involved in service to USC Union, Palmetto College, the University of South Carolina System, her profession and her local community. At USC Union, she currently serves as an advisor to approximately 20 associate program students, as well as students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in organizational leadership and liberal studies. She also serves as chief faculty editor for the Bantam Gazette student newspaper and as a member of the campus’ financial affairs committee. For Palmetto College, Dr. Rinehart is the academic program assessment coordinator, chair of the Palmetto College Provost’s Advisory Council and the immediate past chair of the Palmetto Colleges Faculty Senate. For the University of South Carolina System and Columbia campus, she serves as chair of the UofSC System Chairs Council and faculty co-chair of the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Women Initiatives on the Columbia Campus. For her profession, Rinehart serves as a board member of the Foreign Policy Division of the American Political Science Association and as an editorial board member of The Interdisciplinary Journal for Middle Eastern Studies. She is one of the creators of the APSA’s Foreign Policy conference section and worked to bring the initial conference to fruition. In her local community, Rinehart finds personal fulfillment as a painter and has a passion for the advancement of the arts. She is a member of Newberry Made, a local group of Newberry artists who encourage artist collaboration and scholarship in Newberry County.

Dr. Li Cai

Chemistry
USC Lancaster

Dr. Li Cai plays a critical role in the research environment at USC Lancaster, specifically in the form of mentoring undergraduate research students and disseminating research findings in the interest of promoting these students’ future careers and eventual acceptance into graduate programs. In fact, in just the past few years, Cai has served as mentor on three publications with undergraduate students, as well as two abstracts with undergraduate students who served as the presenting author at local or regional professional conferences. During the past three years, his scholarly accomplishments have been diverse, and are related to carbohydrate chemistry, chemical glycobiology and chemical education. Maintaining multiple lines of research has allowed him to maintain momentum with respect to the dissemination of knowledge across academic years. Maintaining that momentum has resulted in funding of ten research grants totaling $97,725 since 2018. Within the profession, he serves as associate editor for Chemistry Africa, as academic editor for the International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry and as an editorial board member for two other journals.

Dr. Fidele Ngwane

Mathematics
USC Salkehatchie

Dr. Fidele Ngwane’s dedication to his students and the profession is so great that when he was asked about teaching statistics to USC Salkehatchie students in 2017, he began taking classes toward a master’s degree in applied statistics. More impressively, he earned his second master’s degree from UofSC Columbia in 2019 while continuing to teach full-time. Years prior to the current COVID-19 pandemic that has forced most classes online, Ngwane worked with the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) to complete the online teaching certification. He also developed and taught the first-ever hybrid Math 111 course among the Palmetto College campuses in 2017. This made him able to adapt as the pandemic unfolded to meet the needs and learning styles of his students as courses moved to a completely online format. According to one student evaluation, he is “a professor who reaches out almost daily and pushes you to your best and understands that [what happens in] life outside the classroom is what makes a student more willing to learn.”

UofSC Columbia Faculty Awards

Dr. Kristen Hogan

Biology
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Kristen Hogan is an outstanding teacher who actively promotes a culture of integrity in her classes. From the first class session, Dr. Hogan discusses the honor code and the Carolinian Creed with her students and asks them to sign an integrity contract. She collaborated with the Office of Academic Integrity (OAI) and University Libraries to create detailed resources that help students build strong research, source evaluation and citation skills. Kristen also talks frankly with students about the consequences of academic dishonesty and works closely with OAI to report violations and provide appropriate follow-up. Both as a faculty member and BIOL 101L coordinator, Kristen is successfully building a community of students who value and practice academic integrity.

Dr. Leslie Lovelace

Chemistry
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Leslie Lovelace ensures success through academic advising in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry by always being available, approachable, inclusive, engaged, interested and knowledgeable. She assumes a sense of approachability by never making a student feel that their presence is in any way a nuisance and by always responding to emails or phone calls in a timely manner. She is knowledgeable of the institutional degree requirements and the career/professional goals of students and will aid in the process. Along with understanding requirements, increasing student awareness of support resources available on campus will help to ensure student success. She has the ability to guide the students on how to find the answers instead of giving them the answer and help the students see that sometimes what they think is the “end of the world” is really a new door opening.

Lauren Sanborn

Office of Student Services
College of Education

Lauren Sanborn aims to create a space where students can be honest about the challenges they face during their collegiate careers and then provides them with thoughtful responses. Sometimes this means opening up about how personal failure is part of the growing and learning, and she believes it can be helpful to model this for students. As student needs shifted and as she learned more about what students actually need, her focus has shifted from providing only factual information to addressing the holistic needs of each student. She is regularly complimented on her expertise and outstanding customer service. Her unique relationship building continues bolstering the reputation of the College of Education, and especially Gamecock Ed Quarters, as a positive and helpful department that is known across the UofSC campus.

Dr. Eboni Harris

Master’s Entry into Practice Nursing Program
College of Nursing

Dr. Eboni Harris’ philosophy of nursing education is shaped by her belief that all students are capable, desire to learn and improve, and bring unique experiences and knowledge to the classroom. She strives to empower students to channel their inner greatness and embrace the power that they hold as nurses or advanced practitioners. Specifically, she wants to empower students with knowledge to make clinical decisions based on current evidence to provide the highest level of care and become leaders in the profession. Dr. Harris uses clinical case studies which address the physiological, psychological, social and emotional needs of patients to develop critical thinking and allow instruction to be based on student need. This creates an active learning environment and engages students in self–directed learning.

Kathy Quarles-Moore

Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences (CPOS)
College of Pharmacy

Kathy Quarles-Moore currently teaches first year pharmacy students (P1) in the Pharmacy compounding lab and community dispensing lab. As an engaging professor, she walks around to each station and talks about not only what students are compounding or filling, but their lives as well. She adjusts her teaching style to accommodate those who struggle to learn the pharmaceuticals and has even had students come into the practice site, when she works one day a week, so that she can use the “Mrs. Kathy real world” study approach. Not only do they learn the drugs, but they learn how she interacts with her patients, as well as other health care practitioners.

Dr. Eliza Braden

Instruction and Teacher Education
College of Education

Dr. Eliza Braden is passionate about her work and it shows. She is skilled at challenging students’ thinking, motivating them to learn and making them feel as individuals. She teaches undergraduate courses in P-12 literacy education and culturally sustaining pedagogies and undergraduate courses in reading assessment and literacy instruction. In her courses, she seamlessly blends teaching with a strong research base to help her students explore social justice education. Despite inherent challenges, she embeds close attention to critical language and the literary practices of culturally and linguistically diverse young children into her course. The goal of her courses is to expand her students’ awareness, sensitivity, and understanding of how children from diverse backgrounds experience both school and literacy learning.

Dr. Melissa Moss

Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
College of Engineering and Computing

Dr. Melissa Moss works to build students’ self-confidence in their academic abilities. She challenges chemical and biomedical engineering students to independently tackle problems, so that they come to understand both the excitement and challenges of learning. She also simultaneously helps students nurture the curiosity that they inherently possess, which will motivate them to postulate novel philosophical and scientific questions for exploration. Dr. Moss is described as an “excellent guide when it comes to teaching her students research writing. She gives extremely thoughtful comments on the written drafts and provokes students to look more deeply.”

Dr. Lori Ziolkowski

School of Earth, Ocean & Environment
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Lori Ziolkowski has a teaching philosophy that is guided by cultivating students’ interest by making the science relevant to their lives and helping students learn how to clearly articulate their understanding of the material. Since her arrival at UofSC, she has been continuously working with undergraduate students in some capacity. For some students, she taught them applied analytical chemistry techniques in the laboratory. For other students, she has shown them what environmental field work looks like — from the oil impacted beaches of the Gulf of Mexico to the glaciers and permafrost in Alaska. Dr. Ziolkowski’s classes are consistently evolving. She knows when impactful scientific articles come out; she knows when important political developments occur; and she makes constant adjustments based on what happens in class.

Dr. Marketa Kubickova

School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management
College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management

Dr. Marketa Kubickova is described as energetic, enthusiastic, and very determined to provide students of the undergraduate and graduate levels with an education in the areas of lodging resorts and hospitality that surpasses anything that has been seen. She incorporates fundamental information, but encourages critical thinking, analyzing real-life scenarios, and creating a challenging, positive, and dynamic classroom environment. Her vision of teaching includes presenting a motivated learner with information, ideas and activities that are carefully designed with a particular outcome in mind. Her ultimate goal is to prepare her students to the best of their abilities for the real-life challenges of today’s work force environment and to become the best managers and executives they can be. Furthermore, she is guided by the teaching philosophy of setting and maintaining high, consistent standards. Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management students leave her classes on a path toward achieving their personal and professional goals.

Dr. Todd Shaw

Political Science
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Todd Shaw sees the goal of graduate teaching as not simply to produce well-trained students, but rather to produce future colleagues and fellow scholars. He does so by setting high standards and empathically encouraging his students at every stage of the process — from recruitment to classroom teaching, collaborative research, mentoring, the dissertation process, and finally, career placement. Dr. Shaw continually innovates in his Political Science courses, emphasizing critical discussion and collaborative learning as means of preparing students to ask interesting questions, sharpen their arguments, and develop the skills that will prepare them to develop excellent dissertations, publish their research, and effectively navigate the “pipeline” to a successful career. His career is a testament to his fundamental belief in students and their education and training. Perhaps the greatest evidence of his commitment and impact on graduate education is his involvement with the National Association of Black Graduate Students, initially as its inaugural President and later as a long-time faculty advisor.

Dr. Amanda Fairchild

Psychology
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Amanda Fairchild has served on both program and department level Curriculum Committees to improve the course offerings and educational experiences of graduate students in the Department of Psychology’s programs. She has served on program–level Policy and Awards Committees to enrich the student experience, as well as served on an Advisory Committee for Faculty Hiring Initiatives and an Instructor Review Committee to contribute to effective institutional processes. Additionally, she has served as a proposal reviewer for the Undergraduate Research Magellan Scholar Program and the Society for Prevention Research, as well as served as the Statistical & Methodical Advisor to the editorial board of the Journal of School Psychology. Her record demonstrates over a decade of sustained service efforts to the university, all with the common theme of elevating the experience of our students, improving institutional processes, and reinforcing the rigor of applied sciences.

Dr. Christine DiStefano

Educational Studies
College of Education

Dr. Christine DiStefano is an accomplished researcher in educational measurement and school psychology and participates in many additional activities to further research in educational and psychological measurement. Part of Dr. DiStefano’s mentoring extends to teaching the College of Education’s students how to conduct quality research. She provides her time teaching others how to conduct analyses, interpret results, and write scholarly works and grant applications. Dr. DiStefano is a member of many student committees in school psychology and serves as a formal mentor to one school psychology student as part of the School Psychology Review journal board. Her assistance in teaching research skills has been pivotal to students and junior faculty beginning their careers.

Dr. Daping Fan

Cell Biology and Anatomy
School of Medicine Columbia

Dr. Daping Fan is a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy in the School of Medicine. He has made important contributions to understanding the role of inflammation in atherosclerosis and breast cancer and published prolifically on these topics. His research has been exceptionally well-funded with grants from the National Institutes of Health. Moreover, Dr. Fan holds multiple patents as he works toward translating his findings into therapeutics. Additionally, he has recently developed a start-up company, AcePre LLC, that centers around his research on the potential therapeutic roles of plant-derived compounds in human disease. This has opened exciting new avenues for research funding for investigators and several pilot projects have been funded in collaboration with AcePre, LLC.

Dr. Susan Felleman

School of Art & Visual Design
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Susan Felleman is a scholar whose four books and many other publications on the relationship between art and film have had international impact on multiple generations of academics. Her work is grounded in an extensive knowledge of two major disciplines — art history and film and media studies — a nuanced understanding of the history of the 20th century, and an enviable facility with all major theoretical movements that inform visual culture. Her research focus is the theoretical, material, and historical aspects of art and film and how they inform one another, i.e., how art and artists are represented in film, film is incorporated into visual art, historical connections between avant-garde film and art history, and theoretical problems that bridge art, film, and media. She has lectured widely, contributed to exhibitions and film programs, and introduced and moderated screenings at a range of venues.

Dr. Susan Richardson

Chemistry
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Susan Richardson has published 180 papers in the peer-reviewed literature since 1986. One of her papers has been cited over 1700 times. She is truly unique in integrating chemistry with toxicology, epidemiology, and engineering to solve real-world problems whose solutions advance public health. Also, because of her excellent skills in analytic chemistry, there has been improvement in our understanding of the chemicals formed when source waters or wastewaters with varying characteristics are disinfected with oxidizing disinfectants. Dr. Richardson reaches across disciplines to develop new multi-disciplinary research efforts. She also leads multi-disciplinary teams of toxicologists, risk assessors, exposure analysts, statisticians and engineers to answer important questions on the benefits and the associated risks of water disinfection that can only be addressed by integrated cross-disciplinary research.

Dr. Michael Stöltzner

Philosophy
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Michael Stöltzner is internationally known as an innovative and creative philosopher of science. Uniquely, Dr. Stöltzner has authored more than 30 papers in top journals and 50 papers in typical well-read collections. Additionally, the piece de resistance of his work at UofSC is his work on the philosophy of elementary particle physics. He focuses on the important question of the role of effective field theories. His interdisciplinary work on the “Epistemology of the LHC’ is unique and increases UofSC’s scholarly footprint in the philosophy of science. At UofSC, Dr. Stölzner has reached out to the College of Engineering and Computing and taken a lead in developing educational courses on Engineering Ethics. More recently, he has started a reading group on the Philosophy of Chemistry and reached out to faculty in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Stölzner’s approach to tackling problems of philosophy of science and his desire to reach out to other disciplines make him an invaluable faculty member that warrants recognition.

Dr. David Matolak

Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering and Computing

Dr. David Matolak has built an outstanding national and international reputation for his electrical engineering research in the field of wireless communications — including design development, and deployment of terrestrial, vehicular, air ground and satellite systems. He has conducted research for federal agencies (NSD, NIST, DARPA, FAA and NASA) as well as private industry (Rockwell. Collins, L-3, Communications, and Texas Instruments). His research on aeronautical spectrum applications and datalink channel characterization/modeling is well received and he is considered an industry leader in this research. He is very engaged in his field work to ensure that he has real-world data that validates the models he produces. It is the reliability of his models that make his work so vital to government and industry organizations that are developing the standards for aircraft and vehicle communication systems.

Dr. Bruce Marlowe

Education
USC Beaufort

Dr. Bruce Marlowe is described as the type of teacher one should aspire to be. The way he engages University of South Carolina-Beaufort students encourages them to become as passionate about teacher preparation as he is. His teaching excellence is characterized by a dynamic, engaging and relevant pedagogy that can’t be accomplished through lecture alone. Instead, it requires the use of active learning approaches such as case studies, collaborative grouping, action research and fieldwork. Since his arrival at USC Beaufort in 2016, the Department of Education has seen tremendous growth. Under his leadership as Department of Education Chair, the department has doubled its number of graduates by increasing retention, and it added secondary certification programs in English and Biology. Correspondingly, the department created its first graduate program — a M.Ed. in Literacy — and restored USC Beaufort as a host site for the previously dormant Teacher Cadet Program.

Dr. Rosemarie Booze

Psychology
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Rosemarie Booze is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her distinguished contributions to the fields of psychology and neuroscience. Dr. Booze’s research continues to provide critical insights into the neurochemical and neuroanatomical mechanisms of cognitive and neuronal adaptations in the areas of aging, drug abuse and disease. These insights are critical to advancing the field. Similarly, her ongoing research involves discovering the neurochemical and neuroanatomical basis of dementia and other neurocognitive disorders. For instance, her focus is on identifying the neural basis of the cognitive deficits experienced by “long haul” COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Jamil Khan

Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering and Computing

Dr. Jamil Khan is a passionate and dedicated teacher with a sustained record of excellence influencing a large number of students. His dedication to teaching is evident through his proactive and deliberate efforts at improving his teaching skills, even from his earliest days at UofSC. He has been instrumental in growing the Nuclear Engineering Program, and in creating a new Aerospace Engineering Program — the only aerospace degree in the state of South Carolina. Under his leadership as the Mechanical Engineering Department Chair, the department’s tenure track faculty increased from 21 to 34. In addition, as department chair, he transformed the Mechanical Engineering Department from being predominantly focused on undergraduate education to focusing on both teaching and research.

Dr. Sanjay Ahire

Management Science
Darla Moore School of Business

Dr. Sanjay Ahire is a co-founder of the UofSC-Operations and Supply Chain undergraduate program. He has played a prominent leadership role in designing, implementing, growing and propelling the program within just 12 years to Rank 5 in North America in the 2020 Gartner Research Rankings of Undergraduate Supply Chain Programs. His teaching philosophy stems from the firm belief that undergraduate students are capable of much higher performance but are often victims of lower expectation. His vision of the UofSC-Operations and Supply Chain (OSC) Management program is quite simple and clear. The students are taught and mentored to develop a real passion for the OSC field and OSC careers. They are motivated and encouraged to be ambitious in terms of both the depth and breadth of their knowledge in the field, but also to acquire competencies that only seasoned professionals with years of experience possess. In addition, the program does everything in its power to help students achieve an unexpected level of capability and expertise in OSC through a systematic set of academic curricular and co-curricular processes.

Office of the Provost

Internal Awards