Honors College Awards Teaching, Leadership

Kathleen Condray

Jamie Hestekin

T.K.S. Kumar

Timothy Nutt

Gretchen Oliver

Jennie Popp

Molly Rapert

Korydon Smith

Nan Smith-Blair

Duane Wolf

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Wrap your head around this: honors German professor Kathleen Condray has written more than 650 letters of recommendation for her students since coming to the University of Arkansas in 1999. Writing letters, preparing honors courses and mentoring honors students one-on-one are just some of the ways that University of Arkansas faculty go above and beyond their regular teaching and research work to participate in the Honors College. To recognize their hard work and dedication, the Honors College has developed the Distinguished Faculty Award and the Distinguished Leadership Award. Each recipient will receive a bronze medal currently being designed by sculptor Hank Kaminsky and $1,000 to support undergraduate research.

The inaugural group of honorees was announced at the annual Honors College faculty reception on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

“Many honors faculty members will tell you that the reward for their work lies in engaging with bright students,” said Bob McMath, dean of the Honors College. “While that is certainly true, we believe it’s important to recognize those faculty members whose teaching and service have been exceptional. This first group of professors has set the bar high.”

“In addition to teaching and mentoring our students, honors faculty also spend a great deal of time ‘behind the scenes’ evaluating fellowship and grant applications, writing recommendation letters and, in general, pitching in whenever help is needed,” said Carol Gattis, associate dean of the Honors College. “We deeply appreciate all of the ways these faculty members have worked to support honors studies at the University of Arkansas.”

The inaugural group of Honors College Distinguished Faculty Award recipients includes:

Kathleen Condray, program head and associate professor of German in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Assigning a four-minute video summary of modernism for a final exam exemplifies the unorthodox teaching strategies used by Condray, an alumna and former Sturgis Fellow. Condray has mentored five honors students and has served on 25 thesis committees, as well as the Sturgis and Honors College Fellowship selection committees. Her letters of recommendation have helped eight students receive Fulbright awards and 12 students win internships to work in German industry and doctoral labs. She has participated in teaching the Honors Humanities Project course since 2010 and is currently teaching the honors colloquium Deutsche als Auslander/Auslander als Deutsche. Condray received the 2007 Fulbright College Master Teacher Award and recently was selected as “one of the most creative teachers in the South” by Oxford American magazine.

Jamie Hestekin, associate professor of chemical engineering and holder of the Jim L. Turpin Professorship in Chemical and Biochemical Separations in the College of Engineering. Hestekin’s quest to produce biofuels from algae has sparked keen interest among numerous honors students. He and his team of undergraduate engineering students recently won recognition as co-winners of Planet Forward’s Innovator of the Year in a contest that aired on public television stations around the country. Hestekin has mentored 22 honors students working on their theses, and partnered with more than 25 honors students on grant-funded projects. He teaches the honors section of the Design II lab, in which students submit their work in competitions, and has published three papers and one book chapter coauthored with honors students. Hestekin has won numerous teaching awards, including, most recently, the John L. White Convocation Award in 2010 and the University of Arkansas Most Outstanding Faculty Member in 2011.

T.K.S. Kumar, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry in Fulbright College. Kumar’s research embraces a wide range of topics, including the exploration of molecular mechanisms involved in cell growth, cell differentiation, wound healing and the onset of cancer; and the design of new antifungal and anticancer drugs. His work has drawn numerous honors students to his research lab: Since 2006 he has directed 20 honors theses and served on 15 additional defense committees. Currently he is overseeing the preparation of seven research manuscripts coauthored with honors students for submission to peer-reviewed journals. Kumar regularly teaches honors biochemistry courses, and he is serving on the Honors College strategic planning committee. Kumar’s daughters Gaya and Vasu are both Honors College Fellows.

Timothy G. Nutt, manuscripts and rare books librarian and assistant head of the special collections department of the University Libraries. Nutt has published extensively on the subject of Arkansas history and also writes, directs and acts in history reenactments for the Washington County Historical Society. He has shared his passion for Arkansas history with 16 honors student interns who have worked with a variety of original historical materials in special collections, from the papers of Diane Blair, Dale Bumpers and Fay Jones to Quapaw Tribe materials. Nutt works closely with his students, teaching them the standard archival techniques and procedures. Nutt’s student interns have created displays of historical materials and assisted in the development of a template used to produce online finding aids.

Gretchen Oliver, assistant professor of kinesiology in the College of Education and Health Professions. Oliver, a University of Arkansas alumna, focuses on the mechanics of the body’s movement in her research. She conducts motion analysis research with students using computer software called the MotionMonitor, a real-time 3-D motion-capture system that is being used to prevent injury and enhance athletes' performance. Since 2009 Oliver has mentored 12 honors students and has published three papers coauthored with honors students. She is an active member of her college’s honors council and is also helping the Honors College plan for the future as a member of the strategic planning committee. Oliver has received two outstanding research awards and one outstanding service award from the college’s department of health, human performance and recreation. She was awarded the college’s Rising Star Award for 2009-10, which recognizes the most outstanding all-around new faculty member.

Jennie Popp, professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. Peace Corps service in West Africa inspired Jennie Popp’s interest in agricultural economics. In particular she is concerned with managing natural resources to improve soil and water quality and the development and implementation of agricultural and environmental policy. Popp helped create the agricultural component of the university’s interdisciplinary service-learning program in Dangriga, Belize, which was initially funded with seed money from the Honors College. Under her leadership, students created demonstration gardens at a local school and city park and distributed Moringa tree seedlings, a fast-growing “superfood” that could help relieve some of the nutritional needs of the community. Last summer, the students built a seedling house that will allow an agricultural high school to propagate their own seeds, expand their school farm and generate some income. An active member of Bumpers College’s honors committee since 2007, Popp has directed five honors theses that resulted in three national student awards from the American Agricultural Economics Association. She has also served on five additional honors defense committees and played a critical role in developing the new interdisciplinary sustainability minor.

Molly Rapert, associate professor of marketing in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Rapert, an alumna of the University of Arkansas, has mentored 22 honors students on thesis topics ranging from the social and environmental impact of plastic grocery bags to micro-financing opportunities in Africa. Statistics support the effectiveness of her mentoring: 67 percent of her thesis students have received grant funding and a fifth of them have won Walton College thesis awards. Her readings-based, seminar-style undergraduate courses, designed in collaboration with an advisory board of 20 executives, are popular with honors students, and she has taught an honors course focused on consumers in China and sub-Saharan Africa. Rapert has won advising, service and teaching awards, including, most notably, her selection in 2010 as top marketing professor in the nation by the Marketing Management Association. Each summer she teaches in a study abroad program in Paderno del Grappa, Italy.

Korydon Smith, associate professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School of Architecture. Smith’s research focuses on architectural theory and the roles that design, especially housing, play among marginalized groups. He has directed honors student research on topics ranging from cardboard’s potential in furniture design to a plan for a modular kit of parts that could be assembled into mobile home additions such as a porch or carport. In addition to mentoring 12 honors students, Smith has taught Honors Architectural Research Methods, which is a primary honors thesis preparatory course, and also offered an honors section of Diversity and Design, an entry-level general education course open to students across campus. He received the department of architecture’s Outstanding Teacher Award four times, as well as the School of Architecture’s Outstanding Academic Advisor Award.

In addition, two faculty members have been recognized with Honors College Distinguished Leadership Awards:

Nan Smith-Blair, associate professor of nursing and director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing in the College of Education and Health Professions. As director of honors studies in her college from 2002 to 2011, Smith-Blair nurtured the development of a robust program that currently includes 229 students, a 25 percent increase since 2010. She co-developed Health Teams Abroad, an interdisciplinary study abroad program initially funded by the Honors College that enables students to see health care at work in the United States and Sweden. Smith-Blair also co-teaches an interdisciplinary lab that has engaged a number of honors students, including pre-med students from Fulbright College, in her grant-funded research designed to improve the lives of patients who suffer from emphysema. During her tenure, Smith-Blair directed 20 honors theses and served on approximately 50 thesis committees. “Nan has done an amazing job of building our honors program,” said Tom Smith, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions. “I’m very pleased that she has been recognized for her hard work on behalf of honors students.”

Duane C. Wolf, University Professor of crop and soil sciences in the Bumpers College. Under Duane Wolf’s leadership as director from 2002 to 2011, the Bumpers College honors program more than quadrupled in size. For 10 years Wolf led the Honors Orientation class for first-year students, and he has also co-taught the Honors Proposal Development class. He has attended nearly all Bumpers College honors thesis defenses and reviewed all honors theses produced during his tenure as director. “Duane Wolf has been both the ‘face’ and the ‘heart’ of the Bumpers honors program for the last decade and is among the most respected faculty in the college,” wrote horticulture professor Curt Rom, who has succeeded Wolf as director of the honors program.