Academic Affairs

Dennis Cheatham, Department of Art

 Dennis is exceptional and more than deserves this honor. He makes it clear to us in the MFAxd program; our success is his success. He creates a socially and culturally relevant experience design curriculum that aligns perfectly with the outside world and the program's degree and learning outcomes. Dennis provides exceptional and timely feedback. He guides us, pushed us hard, and expects a lot, but by ensuring he is clear and timely with feedback, he empowers students to learn and grow. My BFA was earned at Miami University, and I can sincerely say Dennis is the physical embodiment of Love and Honor.

Sara Acevedo, Department of Educational Psychology

It is nearly impossible to find the words to describe Dr. A. I have taken classes with her pre-COVID, as well as a class this semester that met synchronously online. The resilience and determination that Dr. A showed this semester in working to make sure the class was doable, and also still engaging, is unrivaled by any of my other professors. One of the best parts of the semester was when she created an incredibly unique assignment where we got to have a virtual meeting with one of her colleagues in the Disability community. It clearly took a lot of time and commitment on her end to make this assignment possible, effort that she did not have to put into this class. Thanks to one single assignment, I have made a professional connection with one of her colleagues all the way in Oregon! While the assignment due date came and went, the new relationship that came from it is still ongoing, and I am so grateful that Dr. A introduced me to someone who is such an incredible resource! It is clear that Dr. A excelled as a professor this semester and rose to meet the challenges that online learning presented. However, she was my favorite professor in the entire world before COVID, too. She genuinely cares for each and every one of her students and respects us as learners and human beings, which is evident through her teaching style, classroom policies, and demeanor. When a student has a teacher who its rooting for them to succeed, it makes achieving success a lot easier. I am so thankful for the support, respect, kindness, and compassion that Dr. A has shown me, and I know she has shown it to every student she has ever had.

Brendan Mooney, Department of GRAMELAC

I don't think I will have another professor who goes out of his way and cares about his students the way Dr. Mooney does. My Russian language education has not been impacted by the pandemic at all because of the ideas Dr. Mooney put into practice. We have a new Google doc for every class, and every student gets to type out and answer questions in real time. Every single person participates, and I think more so than there would be in class. He has asked us so many times what he can do better and what he can add to help us, and he actually makes adjustments accordingly. By using breakout rooms to practice our speaking, he gets to answer individual questions and make critiques a lot more easily. It is the class that I look forward to every week- the one I get excited about and it is all because of him. Our class groupchat is filled with messages about how we never want him to leave and that we are so happy we get to have him again next semester. He revises and corrects every single thing turned into him quickly, which is impressive because we turn things in almost every day. He is invested in us, wants to know how the things he writes recommendation letters for go, and it genuinely happy for us. He does all of this with a new-ish baby in the house. Dr. Mooney has made my college experience what it is. I am excited about something I thought I'd dread to the point where I am minoring in it. I will remember him for the rest of my life. He is an amazing person and an incredible educator.

Amber Franklin, Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology

I appreciated the understanding and flexibility that Dr. Franklin exhibited throughout the semester. She acknowledged the additional challenges that this semester has held due to the circumstances and she adjusted her course to better suit her students during these times. Throughout the semester it was consistently obvious that Dr. Franklin genuinely cares for us as her students and more importantly, as human beings.

Eric Marinich, Department of Accountancy

Professor Marinich did an excellent job teaching me effectively through an online asynchronous class. He was constantly available and accessible and did something I did not think was exactly possible. He was able to get me to enjoy accounting and enjoy it through an asynchronous class. This is extraordinarily impressive to me.

Emily Davie, Department of Kinesiology, Nutrition & Health

She has been so helpful throughout this whole semester. She truly loves her students. She makes time for her students and are always willing to help.

Michael Zmuda, Department of Computer Science & Software Engineering

Dr. Zmuda always tried to engage students through creative ways. Dr. Zmuda would use Zoom and switch to his phone camera to show in-person class models which were very helpful.

Harshini Siriwardane, Farmer School of Business

Professor S. has excelled in bringing her class experience. She has been a tough but fair professor who has made her expectations clear and made every effort to make every one of her students as capable as they can possibly be.

Jay Shan, Department of Information Systems & Analytics

He encourages his students, instead of making them feel like they are constantly failing. Fair exams, great teaching style, and most of all he's a very nice person. I really enjoyed his class, because he provides so much material to study, but it does not feel overwhelming.

I feel like he really cares about his students and understands if they are struggling.

Stephanie Nicely, Department of Nursing

Professor Nicely genuinely cared for all of her students. Not only was she a great communicator and educator during our lectures but she was wonderful with outside communication as well. It was clear she wanted all of her students to succeed in the classroom but also outside of the classroom. She gave us her cell phone number and allowed us to text her or call her with any questions/concerns/ or if we simply needed someone to talk to. Her caring nature meant so much to my peers and I and it was very refreshing to have a professor truly care and even change certain aspects or layouts of the class to better meet our needs during this crazy time.

Tom Mays, Department of Commerce

Dr. Mays was a professor that I had the pleasure to have in two classes at Miami. I was thrilled to have him again as a professor during my final semester at Miami. He is very engaging with his students, and always is making connections with the content we are learning to the real world. It was very evident he was passionate about the content he was teaching. His positive and welcoming virtual environment never made me feel nervous or embarrassed to answer a question in class. If someone's microphone or camera was not working, he was patient with students and gave them time to talk in the chat. Believe it or not, there have been classes where professors refuse to look in the chat. This was impactful because he was utilizing the material we are learning (team building, communication, etc.) and showing us how it is done, even though he may not realize this. I had a summer internship for a large company last summer, and I was working with Excel documents. I was able to enhance the companies excel documents in ways they did not know and complete my work more efficiently solely through the knowledge I gained while taking a Microsoft class with Dr. Mays. He is an amazing professor, and I will take the content I learned from his course with me for the rest of my professional career. I can say with confidence he was my best professor at the university.

Norm Krumpe, Department of Computer Science & Software Engineering

Dr. Krumpe has gone above and beyond to take full advantage of the capabilities of Zoom and to work around COVID restrictions. He has turned his basement into a studio, using multiple camera angles, screen capturing, and green screens to teach and explain topics. While you don't get the "in-person experience" the way he conducts his Zoom would be equivalent to being in the best seat of a lecture hall if we were "in-person". When we code as a class together, he is able to have his body appear in the lower left hand corner of the Zoom call so we can see his face and hand movements as we code along with him. Since he is using a green screen, we only see his upper torso and the background seamlessly turns into his desktop. When he needs to explain a topic using drawings or write a mathematical expression, he has a camera dedicated to a white board that he can switch to use. He also understands that not all students are in the same timezone and that even students in his timezone may have other more pressing issues. He posts all of his Zoom recordings, notes, and in-class activities in a Google Drive folder that all students have access to. He also encouraged students to explore topics that really interested them for their final project. All projects had to be approved, but he wanted us to explore a topic we were passionate about. In these trying times, students can feel drained of energy which can impact their ability to learn and further explore topics covered in class. Dr. Krumpe has put in the effort to combat this issue through his basement studio setup and by choosing topics that excite students. He has set the gold standard for online teaching, and Miami should provide the resources and training for every professor to emulate his example.

Achievement in Research for the Teaching & Learning of Chemistry

Stacey Lowery Bretz, University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, recently earned the American Chemical Society’s Award for Achievement in Research for the Teaching & Learning of Chemistry, sponsored by the ACS Exams Institute.

Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame

Miami’s Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology Emerita Doris Bergen was inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame. Bergen was among 12 individuals inducted during a ceremony in the Ohio Statehouse Atrium in June 2019.

Tao House Fellow

In April, 2019, Katie Johnson, a professor in the Department of English, was selected as one of three Tao House fellows for the 2019 Travis Bogard Artist in Residency program. 

AAA Outstanding Service Award

In June, Dr. Anne Farrell, Miami’s PricewaterhouseCoopers Professor in Accounting, was selected as one of only two accountancy educators in the country to be honored with the American Accounting Association (AAA) 2019 Outstanding Service Award.

Cornell Society for Humanities fellowship

In the spring 2019 semester, Yu-Fang Cho, associate professor of English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and an affiliated faculty of the Asian/Asian American Studies Program in the Global and Intercultural Studies Department, was the recipient of a Cornell Society for Humanities fellowship appointment for the 2019-2020 year.