The Teaching Academy announces the induction of six new fellows: Leslie D. Edgar, associate professor agricultural communications; Kate Mamiseishvili, associate professor of higher education; Michael Pierce, associate professor of history; Manuel Rossetti, professor of industrial engineering; Carole Shook, instructor in the department of supply chain management; and Ronn Smith, associate professor in the department of marketing.

The new fellows will be initiated into the Teaching Academy at its annual banquet, which will be rescheduled due to the inclement weather and will be announced soon.

Leslie D. Edgar, who began her position in 2007, has developed 15 courses in agricultural communications and education and converted six courses for asynchronous delivery. She developed curriculum for five graduate courses, which have been instrumental in the AECT offering a distance, web-based M.S. degree. In 2011, Edgar initiated an international student exchange and internship program with the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and the University of Ghent in Belgium. This program has served 17 students to date.

Edgar currently serves as the director of international programs for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. Edgar has received four teaching, awards since beginning her position. In 2013, she was the National Awards Program for Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences –– New Teacher Award recipient, awarded by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the US Department of Agriculture. Edgar has authored or co-authored 27 peer-reviewed research articles, with 20 focused on teaching or teaching innovations. She has chaired/advised 11 M.S. graduate students and six undergraduate research projects. Dr. Edgar has served as a committee member on 19 Ph.D. or M.S. degrees and one undergraduate research project.

Kate Mamiseishvili

Kate Mamiseishvili, in addition to her professorial duties, is interim head of the department of rehabilitation, human resources and communication disorders in the College of Education and Health Professions. She joined the University of Arkansas in August 2008 after completing her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri.

From early in her career, she became actively engaged in a variety of leadership roles nationally in her professional associations as well as at the University of Arkansas. In 2008-2010, Kate was the managing editor of the NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education. In 2012, she served as the chair of the International Division of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the co-chair of the conference program planning committee. Furthermore, she recently completed her two-year term as an elected at-large member of the College Council in the College of Education and Health Professions and is currently serving in the Faculty Senate at the University of Arkansas. In recognition of excellence as a new faculty member, Kate received a 2010 Rising S.T.A.R. Award from the College of Education and Health Professions. She was also recognized with a 2012 S.T.A.R. Faculty Award as an outstanding all-around faculty member in the college.

Michael Pierce

Michael Pierce has been teaching United States history at the University of Arkansas since 2001. He teaches additional courses in labor history, Arkansas history, and New Deal History. Before arriving in Fayetteville, he spent a year on the faculty of Ohio State University's Marion Campus. Fulbright College awarded him its Master Teacher Prize earlier this year, and he has also been recognized at the ASG-Student Alumni Board's Annual Faculty Appreciation Banquet.

Pierce is the author of Striking with the Ballot: Ohio Labor and the Populist Party and his essays have appeared in Labor History, Agricultural History, The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, and various edited volumes. He is currently writing a history of the labor and civil rights movement in postwar Arkansas.

Manuel Rossetti

Manuel Rossetti, associate department head in industrial engineering, received the Charles and Nadine Baum Faculty Teaching Award in 2013. Rossetti joined the University of Arkansas faculty in August 1999, after completing his doctorate in industrial and systems engineering at Ohio State University. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, and is an internationally known researcher in the field of industrial engineering.

Rossetti's peers and colleagues recognize him for his achievements in teaching courses in computer simulation, inventory control, probability and statistics, database design, and transportation and logistics. He has been named outstanding teacher by the industrial engineering department three times, was voted best teacher by undergraduate students twice, received the John L. Imhoff College of Engineering Outstanding Teacher Award in 2011 and was elected a fellow for the Institute of Industrial Engineering in 2012. His primary research and teaching interests include the design, analysis and optimization of logistics, manufacturing, health care and transportation systems using computer simulation and operations research techniques. Rossetti said his mission is to be "a world-class scholar who promotes innovative teaching and research within an environment that values learning, hard work, intellectual curiosity and collaborative research."

Carole Shook

Carole Shook won the 2013 Walton College Outstanding Teaching Award and was named a finalist for the Imhoff Teaching and Mentoring Award. Past teaching and advising awards include the University of Arkansas Outstanding Faculty Advising Award, the Student Alumni Board/Associated Student Government Outstanding Teaching Award, the Walton College Diversity Award, the Order of Omega Outstanding Faculty Member, the Beta Alpha Psi Outstanding Teaching Award, the Chi Omega Outstanding Teaching Award, the Arkansas Advising Network Outstanding Faculty Advising Award, the Region VII National Academic Association Outstanding Faculty Advising Award, and the Walton College Outstanding Advising Award.

Ronn J. Smith

Ronn J. Smith teaches an introductory marketing course titled Markets and Consumers and at the graduate level he teaches a Marketing Theory doctoral seminar. He is a two time recipient of the New Faculty Commendation for Teaching Commitment awarded by the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center. For the 2012-2013 academic year he received the Outstanding All-Around Faculty Award from the Walton College of Business for his accomplishments in research, teaching, and service.

His research interests predominately revolve around topics related to consumer behavior and consumer psychology. His work has been published in numerous journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Business Logistics, and International Journal of Logistics Management, among other journals and national conference proceedings.

The Teaching Academy is a society committed to excellence in teaching at the University of Arkansas. It was established in 1988 by Dan Ferritor, at that time Chancellor of the University of Arkansas. The Academy's mission is to advocate and represent teaching interests, promote and stimulate an environment of teaching and learning excellence, and encourage recognition and reward for exceptional teaching.

The Teaching Academy consists of faculty members who have been recognized by their peers, colleges and the university for their excellence in teaching, including excellence in classroom teaching. Other criteria for being selected to the Academy include a professor's ability to establish a special rapport with students, to instill in them a love for learning, and to encourage them to go beyond the expectations of the classroom and to explore their disciplines for themselves.

The Teaching Academy logo represents a drop of water falling into a pond creating ripples spreading out in all directions, having an effect which can neither be controlled nor predicted. So it is with the effect of outstanding teaching on students. For more information on the Teaching Academy, see http://uateach.uark.edu/events.