FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Teaching Academy awarded the fourth annual John and Lois Imhoff Award for Outstanding Teaching and Student Mentorship at its annual banquet Thursday, Nov. 13. The academy also inducted six new members from the university faculty.

Max Meisch, University Professor of entomology in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, was named this year’s Imhoff Award winner. The award is given to a faculty member who teaches entry-level courses and has proven to be an outstanding teacher and mentor. Meisch received a $1,000 honorarium and a memento of service.

Meisch began teaching at the University of Arkansas in 1970 and was named a University Professor in 1990. He has earned numerous teaching awards during his career, including the Justus Teaching Award from the Bumpers College, the Spitze Land Grant Faculty Award and the prestigious Arkansas Alumni Teaching Award in 1979. Meisch has excelled in teaching at all levels, from first semester freshmen to graduate students. He has also conducted teaching workshops for the Teaching Academy as well as for the Entomology Society of America in Georgia, South Carolina and Pennsylvania. He is a charter member of the Teaching Academy, serving for seven years as secretary and treasurer. Meisch is also a proficient researcher, specializing in bionomics and control of riceland mosquitoes and black flies using non-chemical approaches to integrated management programs. He has received grants totaling more than $1.5 million since joining the faculty at the University of Arkansas.

Meisch received his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. 

The Imhoff award was created by a gift from the John and Lois Imhoff Trust to the University of Arkansas Teaching Academy. The award recognizes university faculty members who teach introductory-level courses and have demonstrated consistent and committed excellence in teaching and mentoring, qualities central to the mission of a student centered institution. The recipients must be nominated by peers, including a member of the Teaching Academy, and reviewed by the Academy’s award committee.

Meisch was selected from a group of five finalists for the Imhoff Award. The other finalists, who were also recognized at the banquet, were Steve Boss of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Marianne Neighbors of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing in the College of Education and Health Professions, Molly Rapert of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and Jerry Rose of Fulbright College.

The University of Arkansas Teaching Academy was founded in 1988, and is celebrating its 20^th year of promoting and recognizing effective teaching and learning at the university. Currently there are approximately 75 active members on campus, elected to the academy by current members, with no more than six new members being admitted each year. In order to be considered for membership a candidate must have received a major teaching award from his or her college or discipline.

Members of the academy provide a variety of services to the teaching mission of the university. These include: editing Inquiry, the undergraduate research journal; sponsoring teaching workshops; mentoring new faculty; and generally providing guidance to faculty interested in improving their teaching effectiveness. Members meet once a month to discuss topics relative to teaching and learning.

The following six faculty members were inducted into the Teaching Academy on Thursday:

Mark Boyer, associate professor in the School of Architecture. He has received teaching awards from the Student Alumni Board, the Associated Student Government and the department of landscape architecture, where he was named the outstanding teacher in the department four times. He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and Associa tion of Flood Plain Managers.

 

 

Jeannine Durdik, professor of biology in Fulbright College. In 2006 she received the Fulbright College Master Teacher Award, and in the same year received the University of Arkansas Outstanding Mentor Award. She has served as vice chair of the department of biological sciences and recently was appointed associate dean in Fulbright College.

 

 

Janet Forbess, instructor in the department of health science, kinesiology, recreation and dance in the College of Education and Health Professions. She has been recognized three times as the outstanding teacher in her department, and in 2007 she received the college’s Outstanding Teaching Award. She is currently serving as faculty adviser to the Kinesiology Majors Club.    

 

 

Jefferson Miller, associate professor of agricultural and extension education in the Bumpers College. In 2005 he became the first faculty member to be recognized with both the John W. White Outstanding Teacher Award and the Alumni Society Outstanding Advising Award. In 2008 he received the college’s Jack Justus Award for Teaching Excellence, the most prestigious teaching award in the Bumpers College.

 

 

Michael Wavering, associate professor of secondary education in the College of Education and Health Professions. He received the College of Education and Health Professions Outstanding Teaching Award in 1997 and was recognized by the Arkansas Student Government and Student Alumni Board in both 2001 and 2003. He has served as program coordinator for the Secondary Education Program and in 2008 received the college’s Outstanding Overall Faculty Award.

 

 

Jeannie Whayne, professor of history in the Fulbright College. The past 10 years she served as chair of the history department. In 2008 she received the Fulbright College Master Teacher Award. She has been heavily involved in working with honors students on their theses and also has worked with numerous master’s degree students as they develop their theses. She is currently supervising five doctoral students.