Top Teaching Award Winners Recognized at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama National Alumni Association has announced the 2007 recipients of the University’s highest honor for excellence in teaching, the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Awards.

This year’s four recipients include Dr. John Baker, associate professor in the College of Engineering, Dr. Beth S. Bennett, associate professor in the College of Communication and Information Sciences, Dr. James F. Cashman, professor in the College of Commerce and Business Administration, and Dr. Kevin H. Shaughnessy, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The 2007 OCTA recipients were recognized Wednesday, Oct. 10 by UA President Robert E. Witt at the fall UA Faculty/Staff Meeting in the Bryant Conference Center.

A presentation of awards to this year’s winners is also held Oct. 10 at a reception at NorthRiver Yacht Club with UA National Alumni Association President Melanie Chambliss making the presentation.

Established in 1976, OCTA recognizes dedication to the teaching profession and the positive impact outstanding teachers have on their students.

The National Alumni Association, which gives the annual OCTA awards, is made up of more than 29,000 active alumni and friends of the University organized into more than 100 local chapters nationwide. The association stimulates interest in and supports the betterment of the University and awards more than $2 million per year in academic scholarships.

The 2007 OCTA winners are:

Dr. John Baker joined the UA College of Engineering in 2001 after serving as a mechanical engineering faculty member at UAB. At UA, Baker teaches an introduction to thermodynamics course and graduate level thermodynamics and heat transfer courses. He teaches elective courses in rocket propulsion and other space exploration-related topics.

Baker is the campus director for the Alabama Space Grant Consortium, through which he has helped a number of undergraduates with their space-related research and design projects. One of these projects resulted in the Student Space Systems Program, a program dedicated to helping the next generation of engineering students meet the challenges associated with space exploration.

An active researcher, Baker has served on 63 thesis and dissertation committees, 25 of which he was the major adviser, and he has authored or co-authored more than 55 research papers and presentations.

Baker is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Engineering Educators.

Dr. Beth S. Bennett joined the UA faculty in 1981 as an assistant professor in the department of speech communication, now communication studies. As a faculty member she has taught more than 18 courses ranging from foundational undergraduate courses, such as rhetoric and society, to core courses in the department’s master’s program and in the C&IS doctoral program.

She has directed 12 master’s theses, two of which were recognized as the Outstanding Thesis from C&IS in 2004 and 2005. In 1998, she was appointed graduate program director and in 2005 she was named department chair.

Bennett has been a member of the Alabama Speech Discipline Committee for the General Studies and Articulation Committees since 1996 and has helped set the criteria for a general studies speech course elective in the humanities. She has been a member of the Honors College Council since it was created and regularly teaches an Honors Critical Decision Making course. She also assisted in the launching of the Moral Forum initiative in 2006, under the direction of Stephen Black, lecturing to and helping judge student participants.

Bennett has given more than 40 scholarly presentations and published more than 25 essays in journals and books. She studies the historical development of rhetorical theory and practice from the classical period to the present.

Dr. James F. Cashman joined the UA faculty in 1975 as an assistant professor of management and since 1986 has coordinated the management area of the College of Commerce and Business Administration. He has researched the areas of leadership, team building and the management of change for nearly 30 years.

Cashman has held the position of visiting professor at the University of Northumbria, England, and he currently works with the Business School of Durham University in England. He is a John R. Miller Professor of Management at UA.

In the early 1980s, Cashman began working in the automotive industry with the Rochester Products Division of General Motors. During this time, he also consulted with the Saturn Corporation. With Saturn, he served as a member of the original Saturn development team that created and implemented the original Saturn concept. He has also worked closely with the country’s largest privately held paper company, Gulf States Paper Corp., where he was on the board of directors from 1993-2000. He consults regularly with the forestry, paper and paper packaging business.

Dr. Kevin H. Shaughnessy began working at UA in 1999 as an assistant professor of chemistry and was promoted to associate professor in 2005. At UA, Shaughnessy teaches organic chemistry at the graduate and undergraduate level, developing new pedagogical approaches and carrying out new research in organometallic chemistry.

He helped organize tutorial sessions for graduate students and symposia for undergraduate researchers in the chemistry department. In 2003, he received an Innovative Instructional Technology Grant from the UA Provost to develop a Web-based tutorial to help students learn organic reactions. He also provided content and edited the companion Web site to an organic chemistry textbook.

Shaughnessy has mentored some 30 undergraduate research students in his lab. He has served as dissertation chair for five students who have completed their doctoral degrees and is currently mentoring three candidates. He has also been a member of 50 additional dissertation committees and in spring 2007 re-established the UA Gamma Sigma Epsilon National Chemistry Honorary. He has published more than 30 papers on his research which has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Petroleum Research Fund and other industrial sources.

He is also a charter member of the Tuscaloosa Winds community band.