Awards and honors

Beth Whitaker, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, is one of five finalists for the 2015 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence.

Florence Martin, an associate professor in the College of Education’s Instructional Systems Technology program, is a 2015 recipient of a Crystal Award from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Division of Distance Learning.

The honor is for “an innovative and outstanding multimedia-based distance learning course or distance learning project,” according to the AECT. She will receive the Crystal Award formally during the 2015 AECT convention in Indianapolis on Nov. 6.

Mohamed Shehab, an associate professor in the Department of Software and Information Systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, is the fourth finalist for the 2015 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence being featured on Inside UNC Charlotte. The recipient will be named during a special awards ceremony on Friday, Sept. 18.

A professor of biology, Stanley Schneider is the third finalist for the 2015 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence to be featured on Inside UNC Charlotte.

Joyce Dalsheim, an assistant professor in the Department of Global, International and Area Studies, is the first recipient of the J. Murrey Atkins Library Faculty Engagement Award.

She will be honored at a reception on Thursday, Sept. 17, in the library’s Halton Reading Room; the event starts at 3:30 p.m.

Roy Fielding, senior lecturer in kinesiology, recently received the Special Citation for Exceptional Volunteer Service from the Board of Governors of the American Red Cross. The award recognizes Fielding’s “sustained performance that has substantially exceeded the volunteer’s original commitment.”

Moutaz Khouja, professor of business information systems and operations management, is the second of five finalists for the 2015 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence to be featured in Inside UNC Charlotte.

Social work professor Annelise Mennicke has earned a leadership and service award from a respected national organization in the field. She is the recipient of the 2015 student award for leadership and service from the Group of the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE).

Scott Kissau, an associate professor of foreign language education in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education, was named Foreign Language Teacher of the Year in higher education by the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina.

“Dr. Kissau distinguished himself from the other candidates by immersing himself in the education of languages and cultures and by demonstrating his in-depth involvement with growing and supporting world language teachers,” said Foreign Language Association of North Carolina (FLANC) Awards Chair Delynda Ramirez-Carter.

Yi Deng, dean of the College of Computing and Informatics, recently received the CIO Award for Academic Leadership from the Charlotte Business Journal.

Deng, along with a number of other Charlotte-area chief information officers, were recognized for “using information technology in innovative ways to optimize business processes, enable growth, create competitive advantages and improve customer experience.”