UAS Faculty Excellence Awards and Promotions Announced for 2023

These awards recognize faculty excellence in teaching, research, creative activity, service, and advising. Recipients are nominated by UAS faculty, staff, students, and research colleagues within the University of Alaska System.

Juneau, Alaska

Date of Press Release: May 9, 2023

Provost Maren Haavig and Faculty Senate President Jennifer Ward are pleased to announce the 2023 Faculty Excellence Award winners for the University of Alaska Southeast:

• Excellence in Faculty Advising Award: Associate Professor William Urquhart
• Excellence in Open Educational Practice: Associate Professor Ali Ziegler
• Excellence in Service Award: Associate Professor Susie Feero
• Excellence in Teaching Award: Assistant Professor Angela Bowers

These awards recognize faculty excellence in teaching, research, creative activity, service, and advising. Recipients are nominated by UAS faculty, staff, students, and research colleagues within the University of Alaska System. The awards were presented during a celebration on May 8, 2023.

“Great professors are essential for student success,” noted Provost Maren Haavig, “This year’s recipients represent faculty committed to being outstanding teachers, advisors, and members of our university community.”

Excellence in Faculty Advising Award: Dr. William Urquhart, Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Social Sciences Department

Based at the UAS Ketchikan Campus, Dr. Urquhart primarily teaches online and serves as the Distance Coordinator for the online Bachelor of Arts in Social Science degree program. He teaches courses in sociology, general social science, humanities, and multicultural education. Nominator Dr. Glenn Wright noted, "Bill is a simply exceptional advisor who has taken on an extraordinarily heavy advising load for many years. As I note in my letter of support, it's difficult to imagine that any UAS faculty member could carry such a heavy load and yet advise so many students so effectively for so long."

Excellence in Open Educational Practice: Dr. Ali Ziegler, Associate Professor of Psychology

The award for Open Educational Practice is awarded to faculty who promote the creation and adoption of affordable or free course materials (including OER - open educational resources). This use of affordable course materials signals an awareness of rising textbook prices and an effort to select course materials with student cost and student success in mind. Nominator Jonas Lamb noted that in the past academic year, “Dr. Ziegler taught seven Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) sections which saved the 168 enrolled students an estimated $16,800 in course materials costs. During the Ketchikan Campus Enhancing Instruction Series titled “Faculty OER & ZTC Stories," Ziegler shared an example of open pedagogy that she had introduced for the first time to increase student agency and engagement in an asynchronous environment. She also shared her motivations for selecting zero-cost course materials which she has been doing for many years now.”

Excellence in Service Award: Susie Feero, Associate Professor, Health Information Management

Medical Assisting Program professor and program director Amy Samuel was one nominator of Susie Feero. She noted that, “Over her years of service to UAS, Susie has been a valuable colleague and touched many departments through her service. Susie is always willing to meet with me and share ideas, brainstorm, and listen. I greatly admire Susie for her diplomacy and calm demeanor in communication and interactions with students, staff, faculty, and administration. Over the years, Susie has served on countless committees, has served as a Career Education faculty leader, and recently as the Health Science Chair. She adapted from the Information Systems program into the Health Information Management program and supports it through helping maintain programmatic accreditation. Her service to UAS spans multiple campuses, departments, and programs. Susie has been a vital team member, respected colleague and valued mentor.”

Excellence in Teaching Award: Assistant Professor Angela Bowers, Assistant Professor, Applied Fisheries

In her nomination, Dr. Lauren Wild wrote about Bowers’ accomplishments: “Angie is an incredibly exemplary faculty member at the UAS Sitka Campus who is extraordinarily dedicated to her students' education and deserving of a faculty excellence award in teaching. She recently piloted an Alaska Aquaculture Semester at the UAS Sitka campus, covering recruitment, student interviews, assisting students with travel and housing in Sitka, putting together the curriculum, building and teaching the courses, and navigating all of this during a global pandemic that brought unique and unprecedented challenges. Her hard work and dedication to this program, the University, and the education of these students, is the only reason it was such a success. Angie is an exemplary teacher with a very relaxed and inclusive teaching style, setting students up with experiences and connections with industry partners in aquaculture and mariculture. She strives hard to make sure her students succeed, especially distance students, working with them at nights and over weekends if their schedules need be. Angie spends countless hours of her personal time piloting her own experiments so that when her students arrive she can help them successfully learn about mariculture. It has been inspiring and educational for me, a new faculty member with the applied fisheries program, to watch Angie teach, inspire her students, and watch them do amazing things in the workforce. I sincerely believe she is an outstanding faculty member at UAS, and we are lucky to have her at the Sitka campus.”

Faculty promotions and sabbaticals for the next academic year:

Promotions from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, with tenure:

• Terissia Bell, Health Information Management (Sitka)
• David Cox, Technical Services Librarian (Juneau)
• Kaia Henrickson, Library and Information Science (Juneau)
• Michael Navarro, Ph.D., Marine Fisheries (Juneau)
• Forest Wagner, Outdoor Studies (Juneau)

Promotion from Term Assistant Professor to Term Associate Professor

• Beth Hartley, Ph.D., Education (Juneau)

Promotions from Associate Professor to Full Professor:

• Jason Amundson, Ph.D., Geophysics (Juneau)
• Heather Batchelder, Ph.D., Education (Juneau)
• Carolyn Bergstrom, Ph.D., Marine Biology (Juneau)
• Megan Buzby, Ph.D., Mathematics (Juneau)
• Colleen Ianuzzi, Mathematics (Ketchikan)
• Daniel Monteith, Ph.D., Anthropology (Juneau)
• Heidi Pearson, Ph.D., Marine Biology (Juneau)
• Sanjay Pyare, Ph.D., Environmental Science (Juneau)
• Math Trafton, Ph.D., English (Sitka)
• William Urquhart, Ph.D., Sociology (Ketchikan)
• Jennifer Ward, Library and Information Science (Juneau)
• Glenn Wright, Ph.D., Political Science (Juneau)

Sabbatical Leave Awards for Academic Year 2023-2024

• Dr. Jason Amundson, awarded sabbatical leave: “Advancing knowledge of processes occurring along tidewater glacier boundaries.”
• Dr. Kevin Krein awarded sabbatical leave: “Guest editor of a journal, update of the ODS P&P manual, development of a course, and winter sports in the Alps.”
• Dr. Michael Navarro, awarded sabbatical leave: “Science to support emerging multimillion-dollar sustainable fisheries.”
• Dr. Alison Ziegler, awarded sabbatical leave: “Working as a mental health counselor at Women in Safe Homes (WISH) in Ketchikan, Alaska.”