Mary Jo Trepka, Department or Epidemiology, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work

Excellence in Research and Creative Activities Award

Mary Jo Trepka is an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work. Dr. Trepka received her B.A. in Chemistry and German at Grinnell College, her M.D. from the University of Minnesota School Of Medicine, and her M.S.P.H. from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She is board certified in Preventive Medicine and Public Health and a fellow in the American College of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Trepka served in the Epidemic Intelligence Service Program at the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention and was the Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control for the Miami-Dade County Health Department before joining Florida International University in 2003.

Dr. Trepka’s research focuses on the social determinants of infectious diseases. In 2008 she was awarded a 5-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities to study the role of poverty, racial residential segregation, and rural/urban residence in racial disparities in AIDS survival. In 2010 she was nominated by the National Institutes of Health for the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering for work on this study. This award extended her R01 grant to a total of 7 years and $1.8 million. She has over 45 peer-reviewed publications including publications in leading journals in her discipline such as the American Journal of Epidemiology, the American Journal of Public Health, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Trepka is also the Principal Investigator of the Research Education and Training Core of FIU’s Center for Substance Use and HIV/AIDS Research on Latinos in the United States (C-Salud). In that role she trains and mentors doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows and community leaders in research and grant writing skills.

Excellence in Teaching Award

Peter Machonis, Department of Modern Languages, College of Arts and Sciences

Peter Machonis earned his B.A. in Modern Languages in 1974, with high honors at the University of Notre Dame, his M.A. in French Language and Culture in 1976, at the Pennsylvania State University, and his Ph.D. in French Linguistics in 1982, at the same institution. He has been teaching at Florida International University since 1983 in the Department of Modern Languages, as well as in the Honors College since 1995.

Dr. Machonis is author of two books on the history and evolution of the French language and over 30 articles on the diversity of socio-linguistic situations where French is spoken outside of France, Lexicon Grammar and Corpus Linguistics involving idioms, phrasal verbs, and Natural Language Processing, and City as Text pedagogy. He is also the editor of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) monograph, Shatter the Glassy Stare: Implementing Experiential Learning in Higher Education (2008). He is a frequent presenter at the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) annual convention and facilitator at NCHC pedagogical workshops for faculty.

At Florida International University, Prof. Machonis teaches a variety of courses in French language and linguistics, including a Global Learning-designated course, La Francophonie, where students are exposed to French in real-life situations outside the classroom by interviewing locals in Little Haiti and Hollywood, Florida, which has a large Quebecois population in the winter months. He has also created an upper-division interdisciplinary Honors course on the Florida Everglades, which has been taught since 1997, the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the Everglades National Park (ENP), America’s first biological national park. This class not only studies the intricacies of this ecosystem, but also the politics surrounding its conservation, and literature and art about the Everglades. Class involves discussing literature on location, identification of flora and fauna, as well as hiking, biking, canoeing, and slough slogging, while accompanied by their professors, park rangers, artists, and scientists. Students also develop individual research projects which are presented as a public poster display at the ENP Coe Visitor Center during the month of April, thus exposing tourists to FIU student research. Many of his students have given national, state-wide, and local presentations of their research at conferences, as well as presentations to the neighboring Sweetwater Elementary School. He has mentored over 100 undergraduate Honors students for the annual Advanced Research and Creativity in Honors (ARCH) research conference at FIU.

Moses A. Shumow, Department of Journalism and Broadcasting. School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Excellence in Engagement Award

Moses Shumow is an assistant professor in the department of journalism and broadcasting in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. His work focuses on the production and consumption of immigrant media in transnational communities and globalized geographies, and has been published in Media, Culture, & Society, Journalism: Theory, Practice, Critique, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, The Taiwan Journal of Democracy and International Journal of Communication, among others. His is also the editor of the forthcoming

volume Mediated Communities: Citizen Engagement, Empowerment, and Media Literacy in the Digital Age (Peter Lang, 2015).

Moses Shumow has masterly transferred his scholarly research on the production and consumption of immigrant media from the college campus to the local community. As part of the Education Effect, he addresses the digital divide in Liberty City by creating a Digital Commons. Also, this Spring, he and English Professor Tanja Lopez launched the Humans of Liberty City project, for which 12 FIU students mentored approximately 30 Miami North-Western High schoolers during the creation of short media profiles of community members who traditionally do not receive media attention. Through this outreach project of students-teaching-students, Dr. Shumow’s scholarship exemplifies what it means for FIU to be community-engaged and Worlds Ahead. Prior to earning a PhD from the University of Miami, Moses spent nearly a decade in documentary film production, working to create nationally broadcast programming for channels such as Discovery Channel, PBS, and National Geographic. He earned his M.A in Bradcast Journalism at Emerson College in 2001 and his B.A in Spanish and Journalism at New Mexico State University in 2000. He currently resides in Biscayne Park with his wife and two children.

Larry Purnell, Department of Nursing FEP, Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Excellence in Adjunct Teaching

Dr. Purnell is Emeritus Professor from the University of Delaware where he coordinated the graduate programs in nursing and healthcare administration and taught culture. His Model, the Purnell Model for Cultural Competence has been translated into Arabic, Flemish, Korean, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish. His textbook, Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach won the Brandon Hill and American Journal of Nursing Book Awards. Dr. Purnell has over 100 refereed journal publications, 100 book chapters, and 14

textbooks. He has made presentations throughout the United States as well as in Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, England, Italy, Korea, Panama, Russia, Scotland, Spain, and Turkey. He is the U.S. Representative to the European Union’s Commission on Intercultural Communication resulting from the Salamanca, Sorbonne, Bologna, and WHO Declarations. He is on the International Editorial Board, for six journals. Dr. Purnell is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Transcultural Nursing Scholar, Luther Christman Fellow, and is in the Rosa Parks Wall of Fame for Teaching Tolerance. He has been teaching Culture and Advanced Nursing Practice at FIU since 2009 as well as consulting on Health Resources Administration Grants and providing a workshop on Structuring and Publishing Cultural Research data.

Ju Sun, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing

Excellence in teaching Award

Dr. Ju Sun joined FIU in 2004 after one-year postdoctoral training at the Center for Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas Medical Branch. Her postdoctoral research focused on the development of multimodal nonlinear optical imaging techniques for biomedical applications using ultrafast laser. Dr. Sun received her PhD and Master’s degrees in the Department of Mechanical Engineering from Stony Brook University - the State University of

New York in 2002 and 1999 respectively. She received her BS in the Department of Thermal Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, China in 1994. Her research interests focus on the investigations of novel ultrafast laser-based techniques for materials processing, microfabricating, measuring, and nonlinear imaging of biomedical and microscale engineering systems.

Through the combination of her undergraduate and graduate experiences, Dr. Sun has been given both an excellent engineering education and inspiration to give back to the university community through academic service. Ever since she joined FIU as an Instructor, Dr. Sun has taught a pyramid of undergraduate Mechanical Engineering courses such as Statics, Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Design of Thermal/Fluids Systems, Principle of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, etc., and received very positive feedback from the students. In many cases, her evaluation as an instructor reaches over 90% in the very good and excellent categories of the university faculty evaluation form. She received the Excellence in Teaching Award from FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing for the 2011-2012 academic year, and was promoted to the position of Senior Instructor in 2012. Dr. Sun believes that a good teacher not only delivers knowledge to students but also can motivate students and engage them in learning. This is what she will continuously implement in her teaching to give back to the university and the community.

Jinlin Zhao, Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Excellence in Advising and Mentorship

Dr. Jinlin Zhao is Professor, Director of Graduate Program and Director of Asia & Pacific Development in Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University (FIU), Miami, Florida. He came to FIU in fall, 2000 and was tenured in 2005. He earned his bachelor's degree in English at Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute in

1979, and remained to teach at the institute until 1987. After he came to the United States in fall of 1987, he completed his Master degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1988. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management at Virginia Tech in 1994. He started his teaching career in U.S. in fall, 1992, when he became an assistant professor and coordinator of special studies in hospitality management at Western Carolina University. Three years later, the degree program was approved by the State of North Carolina in 1995. He was granted tenure and promoted an associate professor in 1999 at WCU.

Dr. Zhao’s area of research lies in competitive methods, the international environment and impact analysis, and multinational corporate strategy. He co-edited the book-- Handbook of Hospitality Strategic Management, London, Elsevier, in 2008. He co-contributed a book chapter to the same book. He was the author of Instructor's Manual to Accompany-Strategic Management in the Hospitality Industry, 3nd edition in 2008. He has also published more than 25 refereed articles in several research journals and six books or manuscripts and five book chapters, other publications, and gave more than 90 presentations at international hospitality conferences. In 2005, he and his two colleagues received funding for the research of Employee Retention Programs for the Lodging Industry from FIU. Dr. Zhao has guided and served as dissertation committees on five Ph.D. dissertations and directed 30 Master degree student projects. Dr. Zhao has guided and mentored graduate students to do research, which result in many publications in high-rank academic journals and presentations at international conferences.

Dr. Zhao has provided services at school, university, community and international levels. He has been involved in pro-bono consulting activities in China. He has given hotel management seminars and presentations in China since 1995. He also took the opportunity to work as a foodservice manager during the 1996 Atlanta and 2004 Athens Olympic Games. In 2008, he used his sabbatical leave to work as Training Manager for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Catering Project, in which he was in charge of recruiting and training 7000 temporary employees. He also worked a Human Resource expert for 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. He has worked with Great Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau to conduct researches.

Jean Muteba Rahier, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies

Research and Creative Activities Award

Jean Muteba Rahier is Professor of Anthropology and African & African Diaspora Studies at FIU, where he also serves as director of the African & African Diaspora Studies Program. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the Université de Paris X, at Nanterre, France. He is the author of La Décima: Poesía Oral Negra del Ecuador (Quito, Ecuador: Abya-Yala, 1987); Kings for Three Days: The Play of Race and Gender in an Afro-Ecuadorian Festival (The University of Illinois Press, 2013); and Blackness in the Andes:

Ethnographic Vignettes of Cultural Politics in the Time of Multiculturalism (Palgrave-Macmillan 2014); and the editor or co-editor of four books: Representations of Blackness and the Performance of Identities (Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 1999); Problematizing Blackness: Self-Ethnographies by Black Immigrants to the United States (Routledge, 2003); Global Circuits of Blackness: Interrogating the African Diaspora (The University of Illinois Press, 2010); and Black Social Movements in Latin America: From Monocultural Mestizaje to Multiculturalism (Palgrave-Macmillan 2012). He has authored more than 70 articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries and was, from January 2002 until the summer 2007, the Editor of the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology: the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (within the American Anthropological Association or AAA). Along the years, he has been conducting intensive research in the Belgian colonial archives for a project on the intersections of race, power, and sexuality in the context of Belgian colonization of the Congo, where he was born (he grew up in Belgium). He has also engaged in research on roots/heritage tourism in West Africa.

Herman Watson, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Excellence in Teaching Award

The primary professional teaching challenge is to inspire students to be creative and develop their own learning skills and maturity within the brief time we are jointly members of the educational process shared at Florida International University.

My own personal mission is three fold:

• To do the best job possible preparing students for productive careers as electrical and computer engineers

• Provide a personal example for the students as a role model and someone they might want to be like

• To work with a diverse and multifaceted faculty to continuously improve and update the curriculum provided by the department undergraduate program

I have prior experience in the biomedical industry for more than 27 years prior to teaching at Florida International University. I served administratively as the Corporate Vice President plus I directed product Research and Development for a publicly traded medical products manufacturing company while working with and directing people of many different disciplines and skills.

I integrate my personal life experiences in industry into the content of my lectures, course materials, and examples to make the learning experience of students more rich and interesting.

I consistently receive excellent and very good student evaluations and feedback on my courses. This is a reflection of the fact that I love the interaction and opportunity to teach and spend time with students. It is a privilege to have their attention and time dedicated toward my teaching efforts.

I am confident I can continue to make a positive contribution of growth and quality to the program at Florida International University. I strive to continue to be an asset for the students in preparation of their careers.

Elizabeth Cramer, College of Education, Department of Teaching and Learning

Excellence in Service

Liz Cramer is an Associate Professor and the Program Leader of Special Education.

To maintain her commitment to the academic community and to improving outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse children with disabilities, she has been actively engaged in the area of professional service throughout her career. On an international level, she has served as President-Elect, President,

and, currently, Past President of the Council for Exceptional Children Division for Diverse Exceptional Learners, the premiere international organization in her field. At the national level, she has been actively engaged with the USDOE as a grant reviewer, a mentor to grantees, and as a member of the OSEP Project Director’s Conference Planning Committee. She has worked with numerous universities across the country providing professional development for faculty.

At the state level, she recently completed a five-year commitment ranging from Vice-President to Past President of the Florida Council for Exceptional Children.

At the community level, she has been actively eng

aged with Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent’s Advisory Board for Students with Disabilities. This powerful group meets monthly to advise the superintendent. She also sits on subcommittees of this group where she plans educational initiatives focused on improving educational outcomes for children with disabilities. Additionally, she provides professional development for a consortium of private schools to prepare teachers to work with growing numbers of children with disabilities.

At FIU, she serves on university-wide committees such as University Graduate Council. She chairs the FIU Special Education Community Advisory Board and is faculty sponsor for the FIU Student Organization for Exceptional Children. In her college, she chairs the Graduate Policies Committee and is program director for four special education programs at B.S., M.S., and Ed.D. levels. She has helped grow her programs over the past ten years by obtaining eight personnel preparation grants totaling ~$7million.

Cheng-zhong Li, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Biomedical Engineering Excellence in Research and Creative Activities Cheng-zhong Li earned his M.Sc. in electrochemistry and PhD in bioengineering from Kumamoto University (Japan) in 1996 and 2000. He completed post-doctoral training at University of British Columbia in molecular biology as well as a research associateship in chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan. Before joining FIU in 2006, he held a position as a Research Officer at the Nanobiotechnology lab in the

Canada National Research Council (Montreal). Dr. Li has made significant impact in the areas of clinical point-of-care diagnostics, biodefense and environmental related applications of biosensor technology, specifically, sensors incorporating whole cells and those used for disease-related biomarker analysis. His research employs the interfacing of bioengineering with cell electronics, bio-nano conjugations, functional nanomaterials, and device fabrication. As a member of the FIU faculty, he has secured over 4.5 million dollars in external support as Principal Investigator and co-Principal Investigator, among these 1.2 million dollars are directed to his lab. The impact of his work is documented in 7 granted patents, 2 provisional patents, about 90 peer-reviewed journal papers and proceedings, 3 books, 7 book chapters, over 140 presentations at National/International conferences including more than 90 keynote/invited lectures and seminars. As of January 2014, his publications have been cited approximately 1500 times, for an H index of 25, as calculated by the ISI web of science. Several publications have been highlighted on journal cover pages, in numerous third-party publications and on websites including Materials Today, http://www.nanowerk.com/, and http://nanotechweb.org/. Dr. Li has established broad international research collaboration with top level research groups in China, Japan, India, Turkey and Kazakhstan, all of which are financially supported by government agencies including NSF (USA), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Indo-USA foundations (India), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Science and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Tübitak) and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MESKZ). He is the associate editor of 4 scientific journals including Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, the Biosensors Journal, PLOS one, and Chemical Sensors. He also serves on several editorial boards including Nanomedicine NBM, the American Journal of Biomedical Science, the Journal of Nanoscience Letters, Patents on Nanomedicine, Journal of Neuroscience and Neuroengineering and the International Journal of Nanomedicine. In recognition of his work, Dr. Li has received several awards and honors including the Kauffman Professor Award in 2009 and 2011, 2012 International Resource Award from Indian National Dairy Institute, the 2013 FIU Collage of Engineering and Computing (COC) Outstanding Faculty Award in Research, and 2014 JSPS (Japan) Professor Fellowship Award.

Brice Dupoyet, College of Business, Department of Finance Excellence in Teaching Award Since earning his PhD in Finance at the University of Washington in 2003, Dr. Brice Dupoyet has earned in a very short time a reputation for teaching excellence at the Undergraduate, Master’s, and PhD levels in the College of Business here at Florida International University. Within the first three semesters of his tenure track, he handled a wide variety of challenging courses: an Undergraduate course in Risk Management, an MBA course in Capital Budgeting, a Master of Science in Finance course in Portfolio Management, a PhD course in Derivative Securities, and a Master of Science in Finance

course in Advanced Financial Risk Management. He was subsequently voted "The Best Professor" or “The Best Course” eighteen times in the College of Business value-added Master of Science in Finance (MSF), having started teaching in it in 2004, with the last two awards (Best Professor and Best Course) having been awarded as recently as this last August (2014). He was also voted the "New Professor of the Year" by the local chapter of the Financial Management Association International (FMA). This award is almost invariably given to a professor whose teaching effectiveness is beyond excellence among all the teachers who teach in the undergraduate program. He also received the “Best All Around Professor” award by the same organization, the local chapter of the Financial Management Association International (FMA). Dr. Brice Dupoyet is one of those rare professors whose evaluations are consistently in the high 4’s, no matter what the subject taught. He has proven to be very effective at explaining complex theories through the use of intuition, since remarkably, he teaches courses in which students normally struggle with the quantitative nature of the material. His approach of combining the theory with clear and immediate applications in Excel has truly resonated with the students over the years.

David Barton Bray, Department of Earth and the Environment, College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Research and Creative Activities David Barton Bray began at FIU in the Fall of 1997, hired as Chair and Associate Professor in the former Department of Environmental Studies (now Department of Earth and Environment). His Ph.D in Anthropology is from Brown University and he previously served in academic positions at Tulane University and in international development at the Inter-American Foundation in Washington, DC. He served as Chair from 1997-2002 and in 2003 was promoted to Full Professor. He was Associate Chair of the merged Dept. of Earth and Environment

(2008-2010) His field is natural resource management in Latin America and specifically community forest management in Mexico. He has become widely recognized as the leading authority globally on a subject which has major implications for forest management in the world. His research has been recognized by 1.51 million dollars in 11 different research grants since arriving at FIU. He also won a Fulbright Research Award for a sabbatical year in Mexico in 2010-2011. His funding has come from the Ford Foundation (multiple grants), the Hewlett Foundation (two grants) and USAID (two grants). His productivity as a scholar is documented by the 1,979 citations received in Google Scholar, almost all of them since 2002, with 1,131 citations made since 2009. His interdisciplinary reach is evidenced by the fact that he have published in important journals in disciplines from conservation biology to anthropology. He was cited in several publications by the late Dr. Elinor Ostrom, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics, including several articles after she won the prize. His national and international status as a scholar has been demonstrated by invitations to speak at some of the most important environmental forums and major research universities nationally and internationally. These include invitations to speak at the Aspen Environmental Forum in Aspen, Colorado, at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, before high-ranking Chinese forest officials in Beijing China, the Secretary of the Environment of Mexico, keynote speaker at a conference in Montpelier, France, Duke University, Yale University, Harvard Forest, and Manchester University (UK).

Michaela Moura-Koçoğlu, College of Arts & Sciences, Center for Women’s and Gender Studies

Excellence in Adjunct Teaching

Dr. Moura-Koçoğlu is a highly respected teacher and valued colleague among the CWGS faculty and displays a profound commitment to advancing the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies in terms of curriculum development, student engagement, multicultural literacy, and pedagogical excellence and innovation. She has substantially contributed to improving the Center’s course offerings. She developed three approved Global Learning courses: WST 3106 “Introduction to Global Diversity” and WST 3015 “Introduction to Global Gender & Women’s Studies.” The latter she transitioned into a fully online course using Blackboard, teaching it very successfully onsite as

well as fully online. Also, she developed “Global Women’s Writing: Gendered Experiences Across Societies and Cultures,” which will be offered to students in 2015.

Dr. Moura-Koçoğlu is an active scholar and participates in local and national conferences in her primary field of research, postcolonial women’s studies. She is the author of Narrating Indigenous Modernities: Transcultural Dimensions in Contemporary Māori Literature (2011). Dr. Moura-Koçoğlu’s research focus is on Indigenous Women’s Studies; Gender Dynamics of Globalization in Postcolonial Literature; and Anglophone & Lusophone Women Writers. She has also published on Postcolonial Studies and Multicultural Children’s Fiction. She has been council member of the New Zealand Studies Associations, and advisory board member of the Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies, as well as peer reviewer for the research journal Postcolonial Text.

Juliet Pinto, Department of Broadcasting and Journalism, College of Journalism and Mass Communication

Excellence in Research and Creative Activities

Juliet Pinto, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Broadcasting in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Dr. Pinto studies environmental communication in Spanish- and English-language media. She has developed classes in environmental journalism and communication, and has taken students to the Galapagos to report on issues pertaining to resource use and management there, as well as scuba dived down 62 feet to watch NASA astronauts train at the underwater Aquarius Reef Base in the Florida Keys. Her award-winning documentary on sea level rise, "South Florida's Rising Seas," aired in January 2014 and was

repurposed by PBS NewsHour for their national newscast, as well as featured in the Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald.

Dr. Pinto's research has been published in journals such as Science Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, and Communication Law and Policy, among others, and she has won awards in service, research and achievement. A member of the Beta Chapter of Alpha Epsilon Lambda honor society, she earned her doctorate in communication from the University of Miami, her master’s in marine affairs and policy from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Boston University.

Sarah J. Hammill, Library Operations, FIU Libraries Excellence in Librarianship Sarah J. Hammill has been with FIU since 2001. In 2004 she developed the Distance Learning Librarian position after she noticed students taking classes online or from remote locations because students were constantly being passed around the library because no one knew quite what to do with them. Since 2004 Sarah has worked closely with FIU Online and online faculty to ensure that students in any location have equitable access to the library services and resources. Additionally in 2006 she proposed the original library chat service resulting in over eight years of successful outreach to

students when and where they need help. In 2009, Sarah received a Master of Science in Foreign Language Education: Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from FIU. This demonstrates her commitment to “librarian as teacher” one who goes beyond simply collecting books in a physical space. The degree increased her understanding of how to be effective pedagogically in both face-to-face and online environments. Her national and state service to the profession further illustrates her understanding that instruction need not be only in a classroom but also in one-to-one interactions and online learning environments. Sarah’s service in the American Library Association (ALA) and the Florida Library Association (FLA) has spanned the length of her professional career. She has been heavily involved in the Reference Services Section (RSS) of ALA in which she was elected to serve as chair of the section in 2012. Furthermore at the state level she was elected and served as a Member at Large for FLA and currently serves in the elected position of Treasurer for the organization. Her other contributions to the library profession include research and scholarship. Sarah has authored peer-reviewed articles on distance learning library services, usability testing and assessment of student training. Her many presentations include topics ranging from usability and user-centered design, distance learning library services in Florida, computer-mediated communication, how gender, language, and culture impact learning, and embedded librarianship.

Kathleen Sparrow, Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education Excellence in Adjunct Teaching Dr. Kathy Sparrow has been an adjunct professor at Florida International University (FIU) since 2008, teaching Elementary Science Methods and classes in the Graduate Certificate program. She is also a member of the Faculty Learning Committee and co-authored the chapter “Using an Historical Lens and Reflection to Establish Our Vision of Teaching Pre-Service Elementary Teachers Content and Methods of Science” with George O’Brien in the book Structuring Learning Environments in Teacher Education to Elicit Dispositions as Habits of Mind (Dottin, Miller, O’Brien, eds.,2013). She is also an active member with

the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and serves as an online advisor to the Learning Center. Dr. Sparrow has recently presented sessions at NSTA Regional Conference (2009); NSTA National Conferences (2012, 2013, 2014); NSTA Webinar (2014); ASTE International Conference (2011, 2012, 2014); AACTE Conference (2013); and Visible Learning Conference (2014). Presentation proposals have also been accepted at NAAEE Conference (October, 2014) and ASTE (2015). Dr. Sparrow previously worked as the Science Supervisor for Akron Public Schools and was active on state committees, especially dealing with urban schools. She was also an adjunct for The University of Akron, teaching graduate courses in both Educational Foundations and Curriculum & Instruction. She was also Co-Director and Consultant for the Ohio Science Licensure Program Grant and Coordinator of Student (practice) Teaching for grant for The University of Akron. Dr. Sparrow served as president of the National Science Education Leadership Association (NSELA) and president of the University of Akron chapter of Phi Delta Kappa. She was awarded the Distinguished Award of Council for leadership in community, technical and professional activities by the Akron Council of Engineering and Scientific Societies and the Friend of Science Award from the Science Education Council of Ohio for work with the Ohio Hazardous Waste Removal Project. Kathy was also awarded the Outstanding National Science Supervisor Award in 1999.

Bianca Premo, Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences

Excellence in Research and Creative Activities

Professor Premo has researched topics ranging from Andean women and the Spanish colonial economy, to the history of childhood, to African slavery in the Americas, to state policy, law and creole writings during the last decades of Spanish rule. What binds her diverse research interests is a desire to understand how Spanish Americans lived colonialism every day. Her first book, Children of the Father King: Youth, Authority and Legal Minority in Colonial Lima (2005), reveals how Lima’s children were socialized into colonial hierarchies and how adults viewed and practiced their roles

as authority figures over children in a legal culture that favored elite fathers and distant kings. She has also co-edited Raising an Empire, a volume of historical scholarship about children and childhood in early modern Spain, Portugal and colonial Latin America, and is the author of various articles and book chapters on women, children and the law in colonial Peru. For her second monograph, Prof. Premo is undertaking a comparative study of civil litigation in Peru, Mexico and Spain in the eighteenth century.

Professor Premo teaches undergraduate survey courses on the history of Latin American civilization in addition to specialized upper-level courses on gender and colonial Latin American society. At the graduate level, she shares with students her longstanding fascination with everyday forms of colonial rule, gender and generation, along with newer interests in Spanish history, colonial and postcolonial theory, and the eighteenth-century Atlantic World.

Mahadev G. Bhat, Department of Earth and Environment, College of Arts and Sciences

Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Mahadev Bhat is Professor of natural resource economics in the Departments of Earth and Environment and Economics. Dr. Bhat’s research focusses on economic and policy issues related to natural resources. He has more than 150 publications. Dr. Bhat has built a multi-faceted teaching portfolio not only for his Department, but also across the university and the Miami-Dade K-12 education. He co-founded the FIU Agroecology Program with the aid of over ten USDA grant programs (close to FOUR million in total), which aims to train under-represented students in agricultural sciences and prepare them for professional career. The program provided more

than 300 students with financial assistance for experiential learning, national and international internships, leadership development, and community engagement. His most recent grant from USDA helped establish a multi-university consortium for training over 75 Hispanic students in South Florida and Puerto Rico. Dr. Bhat co-established the FIU Organic Garden, which serves as an important teaching tool in agriculture. The Garden was designated as a People’s Garden by USDA for having promoted sustainable agriculture education and benefited the FIU student community. Dr. Bhat made a key contribution to the University’s efforts on receiving the USDA national designation of Hispanic-Serving Agriculture Colleges and University, one among 72 colleges in the country. Dr. Bhat contributed to other university teaching missions, including the development of one of the first global learning foundation courses, and assistance to the Office of Engagement in establishing the agroecology and aquaponics project at Miami Northwestern High School. Dr. Bhat received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee.

Eva Maria Frank, Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education

Excellence in Advising and Mentorship

Originally from Germany, Ms. Frank moved to the US in 1994 with her parents and brother. In 2003, her parents returned to Germany but she stayed in the US and pursue her goal of completing her bachelors in Athletic Training. In 2007, she graduated from Valdosta State University in Georgia after completing a capstone internship at Mississippi State University. She later became an FIU alumna in 2009 when she graduated with her masters in Physical Education.

While at FIU, Eva worked as a Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer for FIU Athletics. During her time as a Graduate Assistant, she fell in love with teaching courses specific to physical education and athletic training. That’s when she knew that teaching at the university level was what she wanted to do. In 2010, she was hired full time as an Instructor at FIU and is currently the Program Leader for the bachelor’s in Physical Education program as well as Faculty Advisor for the 372 undergraduate students currently in the program. Through her mentorship, she has been able to increase the four year graduation rate for her program. Ms. Frank is the faculty advisor for FIU’s Sport Science Organization which is an organization that assists students in developing as professionals as well as “Tutoring Tuesday” which provides students with the tools needed for studying and encourages peer tutoring. She facilitates student success through establishing avenues for peer instruction, networking with professionals and volunteering in the community. There is always a line of students outside her door. Eva is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Florida Atlantic University and she expects to graduate in Spring 2016. Her dissertation topic is on simulation-based instructional strategies.

Lynne Miller, Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education Excellence in Teaching Dr. Lynne D. Miller, Associate Professor in Reading Education, currently serves as Chairperson of the Department of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education. She also teaches pre-service and in-service teacher education candidates in the BS in Elementary Education (K-6 with ESOL Endorsement) and the MS in Reading Education (K-12) programs. Dr. Miller began her career in education as a middle-school Spanish teacher in Southern California. She earned her BA in

Spanish and subsequent teacher preparation from the University of California, Santa Barbara. While working as a Spanish Teacher in Oxnard, California, she earned an MS degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Reading from California State University, Northridge. Upon completion of her master’s degree, Dr. Miller was accepted into the Ph.D. in Reading Program, with a minor in Counseling, at the University of Arizona, Tucson. During her doctoral program she was fortunate to study under and work with leading educators in reading, such as Drs. Judy N. Mitchell, Wilber S. Ames, Kenneth Smith, Patricia Anders, and Kenneth S. and Yetta M. Goodman, and with leading educators in counseling, such as Drs. Roger J. Daldrup (Psychiatry and Psychology), Harley D. Christiansen, (Educational Psychology, and Bill W. Hillman (Counseling and Guidance). Dr. Miller’s scholarly work focuses on the effective teaching of literacy and on best practices to support students’ literacy learning. More recently, this work includes an emphasis on the integration of habits of mind as an integral aspect of teaching and learning. As an outgrowth of work within a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) in the college, she collaborated with over 17 fellow FLC members in the writing of Structuring Learning environments in Teacher Education to Elicit Dispositions as Habits of Mind: Strategies and Approaches Used and Lessons Learned (Dottin, E., Miller, L. D., & O’Brien, G., Eds., 2013). In the area of teaching, a major contribution includes her long-standing, active involvment in community engagement through the Community Literacy Club (CLC). This FIU/COE/MDCPS summer program brings together graduate teacher education candidates in classes she teaches in the MS in Reading Program with struggling readers on-site at local elementary schools for intensive one-on-one tutoring. The tutoring is free for the students, and both candidates and students gain immensely, academically and affectively, from their shared experiences.

Sherry Johnson, Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences

Excellence in Advising and Mentorship

Professor Johnson’s research and teaching interests include Cuba and the Caribbean, environment and climate change, disasters such as hurricanes, medicine, women and gender, and social history. In her first book, The Social Transformation of Eighteenth Century Cuba, we discover a reinterpretation of the political events of the late eighteenth-century in Cuba based upon the emergence of two political factions. Borne of rivalries of the reforms of 1763, she concludes that many nineteenth-century intellectuals, especially Padre Felix Varela, came to their political positions regarding Cuban independence because of social and political processes set in motion in the previous

century. Her current project “El Nino’s" Atlantic World Repercussions in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1810,” should appear shortly. Other projects include an examination of how ordinary summer fevers contributed to the British victory at Havana in 1762; a comparison of two smallpox epidemics in the Hispanic Caribbean in 1769 and 1776; a study of domestic violence in Cuba from 1766-1800; the publication of a ship’s log kept in 1821-1822 with an introductory essay, and the translation of one volume of a travel diary in the United States kept by nineteenth century Cuban intellectual Eusebio Guiteras. She regularly offers a Latin American history survey and a course on Cuban history. Other courses include upper-division courses in Latin American women's history, Caribbean and Florida history. She directs a variety of graduate readings and research seminars including Readings and Research in Latin American history, and Florida history. A new course is currently being developed that will focus on Latin American environmental history, reflecting her newest project on hurricanes and disasters in the Caribbean basin.

Ediberto Roman, Law, College of Law President’s Council World’s Ahead Faculty Nominee Ediberto Roman is a leader in the fields of immigration, citizenship and critical legal theory. A founding faculty member of the FIU College of Law, a former associate dean for Academic Affairs, and current director of the College’s Immigration Initiatives, Professor Roman’s work has had an impact on public policy debates, particularly in the area of immigration, a subject upon which he has been called to testify in court and on which he has spoken before governmental bodies. In addition to being a sought after public intellectual on these issues, he founded and serves as series editor for the prestigious New York University Press series “Citizenship and

Migration in the Americas.” In this position, he has contracted over a dozen books from several of the country’s leading scholars. In that role, he also actively reviews and edits book proposals and advises the press’s board. In the past few years, he has written four books, six law review articles, numerous legal essays and encyclopedia entries, several dozen other essays for his Huffington Post column, and a host of op-eds throughout the country. His first book, The Other American Colonies, was selected as a finalist for the Law & Society Associations James Willard Hurst Prize for Best Work in Legal History. His second, Citizenship and Its Exclusions, was praised as a highly readable and trenchant discussion of historical and contemporary citizenship. His most recent book, Those Damned Immigrants, will surely receive similar acclaim. In addition to regularly working with scholars in his role with the legal academy’s leading law series, his articles have been cited hundreds of times by the country’s leading law reviews written by many of the most prominent legal scholars and historians.

Thomas Breslin, Department of Politics and International Relations, College of Arts and Sciences President’s Council World’s Ahead Faculty Nominee Thomas A. Breslin, Professor of Politics and International Relations, received his Bachelor’s degree in history from Fordham University and his Master’s and Doctorate in American and Chinese History from the University of Virginia. He came to Florida International University in January 1976 as a Visiting Assistant Professor in History. In 1977, Dr. Breslin became an Assistant Professor in the International Relations Department and Associate Dean of International Affairs. From 1980 to 1982, he was also a member of the Board of Advisers of the University Presses of Florida and chair of the University’s Research Committee.

From 1982 to 2003, he headed research at FIU. In 2000, FIU joined the circle of “Research I” institutions, a distinction it held for the next five years. From 2003 to 2006, he led the University’s successful effort to gain approval for a medical school. In 2008 and 2010, the Faculty Senate elected him to two-year terms as Senate Chair and a member of the FIU Board of Trustees. In 2012-13 he was Interim Dean of the University Libraries. He has received the Gregory Wolfe Faculty Member Award from the Maidique Campus Student Government Association and the University Service Award. He has authored three books and co-authored a fourth in his field. The most recent is The Great Anglo-Celtic Divide in the History of American Foreign Relations. In the community, he has served on the boards of the Center for Health Technologies, the Dr. Antonio Jorge Social and Economic Development Council, and the Neuroscience Centers of Florida Foundation.

Patrick “Chip” Cassidy, Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management President’s Council World’s Ahead Faculty Nominee Professor "Chip" Cassidy's wine experience began over 40 years ago in New York. Working in a wine shop through college led to the head sommelier's position at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. Currently the wine buyer for a large chain of wine stores, Crown Wine and Spirits, Chip worked previously at Sunset Corners, a large volume wine shop.

A member of the entering class of FIU's inaugural year, Chip graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Hospitality Management.

His teaching career began in 1984. Professor Cassidy has a wide range of expertise which includes advertising, merchandising and inventory control, wine buyer, wine consultant and wine judge. The only experience that rivals his teaching expertise is his talents as wine connoisseur. He has approximately 30 years of experience as a wine judge for over 50 competitions throughout the nation which includes, the Sonoma County Fair and the Eastern International Wine Competition in California; the American Fine Wine Competition in North Miami and Boca Raton; the International Wine Review in Virginia and Vin Italy in Italy . Today he teaches Wine Technology, The Business of Wine and recently has developed a Wine Certificate Program offered to professionals already working in the wine or related fields.

A noted speaker and fundraiser, Professor Cassidy was instrumental in developing the concept to build the Southern Wine and Spirits Beverage Management Center, a state of the art wine teaching laboratory. A man of many "hats", Chip is a decorated Vietnam War veteran, avid reader, passionate fisherman. Today he resides in South Miami-Dade County with his wife Christine and beloved golden lab, Darius.