MORGANTOWN — Six WVU faculty members were selected for the 2018 Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching, which honors exceptional professors who go above and beyond to inspire their students. This year’s honorees are:
- Malayna Bernstein, director, learning sciences programs.
- Edward Flagg, assistant professor, physics and astronomy.
- Todd Hamrick, teaching associate professor, fundamentals of engineering.
- David Martinelli, professor, civil and environmental engineering.
- Carrie Rishel, professor and director, integrated mental and behavioral health training program.
- Dana Voelker, assistant professor, sport and exercise psychology.
Established in 1985 by the WVU Foundation, the Outstanding Teaching Award honors faculty who are particularly effective, inspiring teachers or who have established patterns of exceptional innovation in teaching methods, course and curriculum design and instructional tools.
Bernstein directs the Learning Sciences Program and co-directs undergraduate educational psychology, both in the College of Education and Human Services. She teaches courses in qualitative research methods, educational psychology and English education and facilitates professional development for both professors and K-12 teachers. During her five-year tenure as co-director of the National Writing Project at WVU, Bernstein helped K-12 teachers develop skills to teach writing effectively across different focus areas.
Flagg has taught the entirety of the undergraduate quantum mechanics curriculum to scores of students. He describes his own teaching as having dramatically “evolved” when he turned away from the traditional lecture format to pursue more innovative techniques first developed by the physics education research community for introductory physics courses. Flagg has used these teaching tactics to reform three different courses.
A WVU alum, Hamrick joined the faculty in 2011 after a 22-year career in the engineering industry. He is a long-time mentor for youth organizations including Boy Scouts, 4-H, First Robotics and the award-winning Mountaineer Area Robotics. Hamrick is also a faculty member of Community Engagement of Science Through Art, a program that brings artists, scientists and engineers together for the design and construction of science-based educational art exhibits.
Throughout his 27 years at WVU, Martinelli has promoted collective learning and individual engagement through an emphasis on critical thinking and the incorporation of guest speakers. In the classroom, he demonstrates the importance of contextual awareness through problem-solving in situations like traffic congestion, highway safety, energy dependence and infrastructure investment.
As the director of the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training Program within the Masters of Social Work program, Rishel prepares students to apply a prevention-focused approach to meeting the behavioral health needs of rural and underserved populations. Through her teaching, she strives to support development that enables students to become leaders in implementing new service delivery models. She has been nationally recognized for her teaching scholarship and been awarded three federal grants from the US department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration to support the development of this program.
Voelker is committed to enhancing the psychosocial well-being and performance of athletes and exercisers through the integration of evidence-based knowledge, leadership and pedagogy. She conducts community outreach and publishes in the area of leadership development. Her applied efforts include contributions to five student-athlete enrichment programs across three states. Voelker received a 2016 NCAA Innovations in Research and Practice grant to support a multi-site evaluation of Bodies in Motion, an educational program designed to promote positive body image in female college athletes.
Each of the six honorees will receive a $5,000 honorarium from the WVU Foundation and be recognized by President Gordon Gee and Provost Joyce McConnell at the upcoming faculty and staff awards dinner at Blaney House.
