University News
Outstanding Teachers, Adviser Recognition Reception November 29
November 19, 2004
MACOMB-MOLINE, IL - - Western Illinois UniversityÂ’s Faculty Development Office has announced the Outstanding Teachers and Adviser for 2004.
Outstanding teachers are Harold Hart, physics professor and chair emeritus, College of Arts and Sciences, WIU-Macomb; James Patterson, associate professor of management, WIU-Quad Cities; John Vana, associate professor music, WIU-Macomb; and John Q. Adams, professor of educational and interdisciplinary studies, WIU-Macomb. The outstanding academic adviser is Kathleen “Kitty” Miller in the psychology department.
The recipients receive a recognition plaque and a $250 award to be used for teaching/advising activities from Faculty Development and a $250 stipend from the WIU Alumni Association. They will be recognized Monday, Nov. 29 at an invitation-only reception at the University residence.
Hart, who retired following the Spring 2004 semester with 35 years of teaching and service at Western, received the College of Arts and Sciences 2004 Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching. He often taught a full-time course load in addition to his 20-year tenure as department chair. Throughout the past decade, Hart secured more than $500,000 of education-related grants to create WesternÂ’s Secondary Physics Instrumentation Laboratory, which extended the departmentÂ’s teaching role to high school teachers and their classes. Hart earned his bachelorÂ’s degree from the University of Utah and his Ph.D. from Brigham Young University.
Patterson, who joined Western IllinoisÂ’ Quad Cities management faculty in January 1995, has built on his military training and successful business career to become an outstanding teacher. He credits logistics (supply chain management) training in the Marine Corps and a dozen years of management experiences with Avon, Coca-Cola and Nestle companies as the foundation to his teaching philosophy which emphasizes critical thinking and understanding concepts. In addition to management courses, Patterson teaches six different undergraduate courses in supply chain management though the marketing and finance department. In 2002 he earned the designation of Lifetime Accredited Purchasing Practitioner (A.P.P.) from the Institute for Supply Chain Management. Patterson earned a bachelorÂ’s degree in accounting from Western Kentucky, a masterÂ’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California, an MBA from the Western Michigan University Haworth College of Business and a Ph.D. from the Michigan State University Eli Broad Graduate School of Management.
Vana, an associate professor of music in saxophone, joined WesternÂ’s faculty in 1989. He directs WesternÂ’s Saxophone Studio and Saxophone Quartets and also teaches woodwind techniques and jazz history. Vana, a founding member of WesternÂ’s Hopper Jazz Sextet, has presented world premieres of works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison and Prix de Rome Prize-winning composer Larry Thomas Ball, among others. He is a former member of the San Francisco Quartet and has played with WesternÂ’s Camerata Woodwind Quintet as well as symphony orchestras in Peoria (IL); and Ann Arbor, Flint and Saginaw (MI). Vana also has presented recitals and master classes at locations including the New England Conservatory, the University of North Texas, McGill University (Canada) and the National Taiwan College of Arts (Taipei). Vana earned his bachelor of music degree from DePauw University and his master of music degree at the University of Michigan.
Adams, professor of educational and interdisciplinary studies, specializes in multicultural education. He designed the PBS telecourse “Dealing with Diversity,” which is taught at more than 150 colleges and universities nationwide. Adams, who has taught at Western Illinois since 1988, is co-director of the Illinois Cultural Diversity Association (ICDA) housed at Western, which is part of an Expanding Cultural Diversity Project supported by a Higher Education Cooperation Act (HECA) grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education. He is co-editor of “Cultural Diversity: Curriculum, Classroom and Climate” and co-director of an annual statewide diversity institute. Adams earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies and psychology from Grand Valley State College (MI), a master’s degree in alternative education and psychology from Indiana University and his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Illinois.
Miller began in 1997 as the first professional adviser in the College of Arts and Sciences and the psychology department. She advises all psychology majors and minors, more than 450, and registers all new students in the major. Since Miller has been associated with the psychology department, student satisfaction in advising has jumped from 66 percent to 93 percent.
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J.Q. Adams (Download Print-Quality Image) | Hal Hart (Download Print-Quality Image) | Kitty Miller (Download Print-Quality Image) |
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Jim Patterson (Download Print-Quality Image) | John Vana (Download Print-Quality Image) |
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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