Teaching Academy to Induct New Members

Six University of Arkansas faculty members were recently invited to membership in the Teaching Academy.

Dub Ashton is an associate professor of marketing and logistics. He has received the university wide Faculty Distinguished Award for Teaching from the Arkansas Alumni Association. He has also been recognized as the 2009 Outstanding Teacher of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and in 2009 was named the Walton College’s outstanding teacher by Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society. In 2007 he was named the faculty member of the year by the Order of Omega. He has also received awards from the Walton College for outstanding advising. Ashton is a nationally recognized expert in marketing research, and is well known for his teaching of the marketing strategy class. From 1981 to 1986 he served as the chair of the department of marketing and transportation.

Ed Clausen is a professor of chemical engineering in the College of Engineering, and has served on the faculty for 29 years. He is a three-time winner of the Outstanding Teacher Award in the department of chemical engineering. He has also received the John Imhoff Award, awarded by the College of Engineering to the outstanding teacher of the year. He has twice received the university’s outstanding mentor award. Over the past five years Clausen has taught primarily freshmen and sophomore classes in chemical engineering. He also served as the honors program coordinator and for the past two years has served as associate department head. Clausen has also taught in workshops for the Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers as well as in programs with high schools in northwest Arkansas.

Andrew McKenzie is a professor of agricultural economics in the Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences. He has received numerous awards for his outstanding teaching, including the 2008 Outstanding Teacher of a Course award from the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, the outstanding teacher award from Gamma Sigma Delta, and most recently the Jack Justus Teaching Award, the top teaching award in the Bumpers College. His reputation in the business community is such that several employers of Bumpers College graduates have offered scholarships with the stipulation that the recipients take courses taught by McKenzie. He is well known for having developed computer software (“Basic Trader”) which simulates storage and selling strategies of grain.

Carol Reeves is an associate professor of management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Reeves was the founder of SAKE (Students Acquiring Knowledge Through Enterprise), an entrepreneurial class in which Walton College students run an actual business. In recent years she has become known nationwide for her guidance of University of Arkansas students in business plan competitions. Her students have won regional and national competitions and have received more than $700,000 in awards and prizes. Recently she received the Faculty Distinguished Award for Teaching from the Arkansas Alumni Association. She was also named the outstanding teacher in the Walton College for 2010.

Gay Stewart is an associate professor of physics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Her primary teaching focus is on new students entering the physics program in the Fulbright College. As a result, the undergraduate physics program is held up as a national model by the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers. Stewart has received Master Teacher and Master Advisor awards from the Fulbright College, and in 2009 was named a fellow of the American Physical Society. She has taken on a leadership role in a program operating in 42 school districts in Arkansas and Oklahoma to train teachers in physics and mathematics.

Daniel Sutherland is a professor of history in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. He has served on the faculty for 20 years, and has won numerous teaching and advising awards at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In 2010 he received the Fulbright College’s outstanding teacher award. Sutherland’s area of expertise is the Civil War and general military history. He has produced 10 doctoral students who have received faculty appointments at a variety of institutions. At the undergraduate level Sutherland developed several of the cornerstone courses of the history department, including civil war history and military history. He is also a prize-winning author, having received the Tom Watson Book Award from the Society for Civil War Historians for his recent book on guerrillas in the Civil War.

The president of the Arkansas Teaching Academy is David Gay of the Walton College. These six new members will be inducted into the Teaching Academy at the annual induction banquet on Monday, Dec. 6.