Peckham will receive $5,000 through a grant from Charles B. and Mary Jo Locke Hedrick. The award is named in honor of Charles Hedrick’s father, Charles E. Hedrick, a former history professor and later chair of the Graduate Council, and one of the founders of Marshall’s graduate program.
Marshall’s Center for Teaching and Learning today announced the Hedrick Award and three others honoring five faculty members. They are:
Marshall & Shirley Reynolds Outstanding Teacher Award: Dr. Jill Treftz, an associate professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts.
- Pickens-Queen Teacher Award: Dr. Timothy Bryan, assistant professor of accounting and legal environment, Lewis College of Business; Dr. Mehdi Esmaeilpour, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Sciences; Dr. Megan Marshall, assistant professor of English, College of Liberal Arts.
- The Council of Chairs Award for Excellence in Teaching: Dr. Laura Stapleton, instructor of mathematics, College of Science.
Here is a look at the awards and the winners:
Charles E. Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award
This award recognizes a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member who has a minimum of seven years teaching experience at Marshall and has a record of outstanding classroom teaching, scholarship, research and creative activities.
Dr Rachael Peckham has been teaching at Marshall since 2009, when she joined the English department. She also served as a guest faculty member in 2017 for the West Virginia Wesleyan College’s low-residency Master of Fine Arts program. She specializes in teaching writing courses such as creative nonfiction and literature courses such as Women Writers and American Literature since 1914.
“As a teacher, Dr. Peckham is both popular among students and known to maintain scholarly rigor and high standards in her classes,” said Dr. Allison Carey, chair of the Department of English at Marshall. “Her students—undergraduate and graduate alike—consistently win awards and publish the writing which has been shaped by Dr. Peckham’s mentoring. English majors and M.A. students seek out Dr. Peckham as a mentor, because they know she will inspire them to produce their best work. Students that Dr. Peckham has taught (or mentored) go on to publish in literary journals, are accepted to prestigious graduate programs (including, most recently, Yale Divinity School), and win national writing awards.”
“Dr. Peckham’s class was organized, productive and focused on the course objectives,” said Dr. Kelli Prejean, associate professor of English and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, who observed one of Peckham’s classes during the award application process. “ … Dr. Peckham has an excellent rapport with students, and students obviously respect the creative and professional activities in which they are engaged.”
“Dr. Peckham really goes above and beyond,” said one of her students in a course evaluation. “Each of her lessons was interesting and actually made me excited to go to class each day. If anyone asked what I thought about taking one of her classes, I would tell them to do it immediately.”
“Dr. Peckham is the best professor I’ve had at Marshall!” said another student.
Peckham earned her B.A. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan; her M.F.A. from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia; and her Ph.D. from Ohio University.
Marshall and Shirley Reynolds Outstanding Teacher Award
This award includes a $3,000 stipend, and all tenured or tenure-track faculty members who have completed six or more years of service at Marshall are eligible.
Dr. Jill Treftz has been teaching at Marshall since 2009. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate literature courses, ranging from science fiction to British romantic poets to Sherlock Holmes.
“Jill Treftz comes alive in a classroom,” said Dr. Laura Michele Diener, associate professor of history and one of Treftz’s colleagues in the College of Liberal Arts. “I’ve been lucky to have witnessed her teaching on multiple occasions, both in her own classes and as a guest in mine, and each time, I come away dazzled and delighted. She possesses a flair for drama, a warm eloquence and an infectious charisma that energizes students.”
“Dr. Treftz consistently uses her scholarship to reinvigorate her teaching and to benefit her students,” Carey said. “[Her] scholarship on Victorian women poets was recognized by a John Marshall Scholar Award … her scholarship [is still ongoing] to compile an edited collection of this poetry … Meanwhile, Dr. Treftz brings such cutting-edge scholarship into her classes and guides her students (undergrads and grad students alike) as they do their own original research.”
“Dr. Treftz is highly knowledgeable about the information that she teaches,” said one of her students in a course evaluation. “She provides ample context that gives us additional information and makes it easier to connect with, and be interested in, the texts we read for class.”
Treftz earned her B.A. from the College of Wooster in Ohio and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Penn State, all in English.
Pickens-Queen Teacher Award
Each of these three award winners receives a $1,000 stipend. The award honors outstanding junior faculty. All faculty members teaching on a full-time, tenured or tenure track appointment who have completed one to five years of service at Marshall are eligible.
Dr. Timothy Bryan has been at Marshall since 2019, when he was hired as an assistant professor of accounting in the Lewis College of Business.
“Tim’s background as a professional CPA enhances his teaching effectiveness,” said Dr. Jean Price, department chair for accounting and legal environment. “In class, he shares examples from practice; students appreciate the sneak peek of what the ‘real world’ is like …Students find him very approachable.”
Bryan has B.A. and M.S. degrees in accounting from the University of Southern Indiana, and his D.B.A. from Jacksonville University in Florida.
Dr. Mehdi Esmaeilpour, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has taught at Marshall since January 2018. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in heat transfer, thermodynamics, design of thermal systems, computational fluid dynamics and finite element method.
“Student success is of [the] utmost importance for the mechanical engineering department, and Dr. Esmaeilpour contributes to achieving this through his lectures/communication skills and personalized attention to students,” said James McIntosh, chair of mechanical and industrial engineering. “… due to his positive attitude and reputation as a teacher, Dr. Esmaeilpour has been called upon to teach new courses that necessitated a fresh course preparation.”
Esmaeilpour earned his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering in Iran, at Mazandaran University and Ferdowski University, respectively, and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, also in mechanical engineering.
Dr. Megan Marshall has taught at Marshall as an assistant professor of English since 2017. She also has served as coordinator of composition since 2020.
“Dr. Marshall is an exemplary teacher and mentor,” said Carey. “I’ve seen how frequently students seek her out for mentorship or to chair their M.A. capstones … I know that under her guidance, students who take her how-to-teach English courses (at both the undergrad and graduate levels) go on to become successful professional educators.”
Marshall received her B.A. in English from the University of Southern Maine, and her M.F.A. in creative writing and Ph.D. in literacy education from the University of Wyoming.
Council of Chairs Award for Excellence in Teaching
The Council of Chairs Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes teaching excellence in Marshall’s full-time term and temporary faculty. Each fall, members of the Council of Chairs (excepting the School of Medicine) are permitted to nominate up to two candidates from a given department. A $1,000 cash award is presented each year. Full-time term or full-time temporary faculty with at least two years’ full-time teaching at Marshall University are eligible.
Dr. Laura Stapleton has taught mathematics at Marshall since 1998.
“Laura is an excellent teacher and well-spoken [of] by her students and colleagues,” said Dr. Alfred Akinsete, professor and chair of the department of mathematics. “She is a dedicated and hardworking teacher who is student-centered. I had worked with her on many occasions on curriculum matters and always valued her contributions and expertise. She had made tremendous contributions to the development of the programs in the department, particularly the general education courses.”
Stapleton has an M.A. in mathematics from Marshall and her doctorate in instructional designs and technology from Old Dominion University.