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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Leah Jackson (jacksonl@nsula.edu)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
9/18/2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - Six outstanding educators at Northwestern State University will be recognized for their contributions to the university and their individual colleges are recipients of this year's NSU Excellence in Teaching Awards. The six honorees, who were selected by their peers, will be presented at the annual Homecoming banquet on Friday, Oct. 27 and recognized during half-time of the Homecoming game on Saturday, Oct. 28.
The faculty and their respective colleges are Dr. Laura Carwile Aaron, College of Nursing; Dr. Barbara Duchardt, College of Education; Dr. Paula Furr, College of Liberal Arts; Dr. James A. Means, Louisiana Scholars' College; Dr. Patricia N. Pierson, College of Science and Technology; Dr. Mark Schaub, College of Business;
Aaron is program director and assistant professor of NSU's radiologic technology program. She teaches physics, anatomy and radiographic classes and has contributed to the development of her program's curriculum. Carwile began her career in practice as a staff technologist, performing chest and orthopedic x-ray exams, before devoting her career to instruction. Over the last 10 years, she has worked with NSU as an instructor of radiologic technology, and has served as faculty supervisor and evaluator and program evaluator. She has also taught on-line radiologic technology courses, including culture and ethics, and research and has served as a relief technologist performing diagnostic x-rays for emergency room and trauma patients, and fluoroscopy in clinical settings.
Aaron has written several grants, published articles in several peer-reviewed journals and made presentations on her area of expertise at state, regional, national and international forums. She is actively involved with several professional organizations. She has served as an officer for the Louisiana Society of Radiologic Technologists for several years, including a current second term as president. She was the recipient of the Rapides Regional Medical Center Radiologic Technology Endowed Professorship in 2003-05 and in 2004 was inducted into the Lambda Nu Honor Society for the Radiologic and Imaging Sciences.
Duchardt is a professor of special education and is a Certified
International Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) Professional Development
Leader. She has worked in the field of special education since
1971. A member of the NSU faculty since 1991, she was the 2001
and 2006 recipient of the Arthur C. Watson Endowed Professorship.
She has won several research awards, including the Louisiana
Governor's Award, the Phi Delta Kappa Outstanding Academic Achievement
Award and Outstanding Special Education Teacher of the Year.
During her career, she has completed several research projects
to improve effective instruction and student performance in classrooms
for students with exceptional learning needs.
.
Dr. Duchardt has authored numerous grants to aid further instruction
and research for students with exceptionalities and has developed
strategies for teaching parents and families of exception students
about early intervention. She has published numerous articles,
made countless presentations and acted as a consultant in her
field, while holding offices in professional organizations that
protect exceptional children. She is also involved in service
at NSU by serving on numerous committees responsible for accreditation,
student appeals and faculty issues.
Furr is the acting department head and associate professor in the Department of Journalism. She teaches public relations, mass media writing, reporting and editing, layout and design. Her research interests are educational technology and methodology of teaching effective writing. Furr has been a member of NSU's journalism faculty for six years. She developed Blackboard integration for courses and designed and taught an online public relations course for Northwestern's College of Education on school-community relations. Furr has also been faculty advisor for NSU's student radio station and student newspaper. In 2002 and 2004, she was selected for Who's Who of America's Teachers. For the past 11, years, Furr has served as a faculty consultant for the Educational Testing Service Advanced Placement English exams. Since joining NSU's faculty, she has been credited with approximately 30 professional publications and 40 presentations, including four international presentations and publications.
For six years, Furr was on the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in the Department of English as an instructor/executive officer, assistant professor/department executive officer and assistant professor/advanced composition course director. Among her duties were developing and directing Army Executive Professional Writing Seminars and producing and hosting a weekly community information television series. Furr also served as command information officer for the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, N.C., command information officer/personnel officer at Fort McClellan, Ala., 8th Infantry Division personnel officer in Baumholder, West Germany, and 4th Infantry Division protocol/personnel officer in Fort Carson, Colo.
Means is associate professor of English in the Louisiana Scholars' College. A specialist in 18th and 19th century English literature, Means taught at the Université Laval in Canada for 15 years before joining the NSU faculty in 1991. After several years at NSU, he made the move to the Scholars' College in 1995. Author of some 35 monographs and articles, Dr. Means' most recent research and publications have focused on Victorian fiction, particularly the novels of Anthony Trollope and the short fiction of Sheridan LeFanu. In 1999 he was selected as the NSU Alumni Association's Outstanding Teacher for the Scholars' College.
Dr. Means is a Life Member of Birkbeck College, London, a recipient of a Grant-in-Aid from the American Council of Learned Societies, and a former National Merit Scholar. He is a Marshall Scholar to Britain, as well as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a Danforth Fellow. His name is listed in Who's Who in American Education and Who's Who in the South and Southwest. In addition to Texts and Traditions and Democratic Vistas, Dr. Means teaches Shakespeare and Major Fgure courses on Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner.
Dr. Pierson is associate professor and head of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. Since that time, she has published articles and made presentations on a variety of topics, such as student work ethics, business etiquette and life skills and has written numerous grants to fund technology enhancement and classroom programming. Dr. Pierson is actively involved in professional service as a member of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and the Louisiana Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, which she served as president from 2002-03. She serves on several university committees, coordinates all FACS-related tests for Northwest Louisiana Literary Rally and participates in numerous recruiting events.
Dr. Pierson earned her bachelor's degree in home economics education and master's degrees in home economics at Northwestern and began her career as a high school teacher and girls basketball coach. She was head women's basketball coach at Northwestern from 1978-87 and returned to NSU in 1992 as an instructor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and the College of Education. She is currently a non-faculty girls' basketball coach at St. Mary's High School in Natchitoches.
Dr. Schaub is associate professor of finance, teaching corporate finance, financial management, international finance and principles of investment, among other subjects related to money, banking and economics. Since he became part of the NSU faculty in 2002, Schaub aided in the development of a minor in finance, conducted a feasibility study to develop the only certified CFP program in the state and has helped develop new courses, along with recruiting and advising students. He has authored or co-authored numerous refereed journal articles, published several papers and made numerous presentations at professional conferences. He regularly serves as a speaker at business seminars and is involved with several university committees, including the College of Business strategic management committee and accreditation committee.
During his time at NSU, student scores on exit exams in finance has increased. Schaub has a strong interest in researching personal and consumer finance and his work has strengthened the College of Business's reputation for excellence by producing research publications. He was awarded the Hibernia Endowed Professorship in 2004 and is the current area coordinator of finance and economics. Earlier this year, he earned NSU's Mildred Hart Bailey Faculty Research Award.