Distinguished Teaching Award given to Kent professor

Staff report

CHAMPION

Kent State University at Trumbull geology professor David Hacker has been named as one of three recipients of the Kent State Alumni Association’s 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award.

Sponsored by the Kent State Alumni Association, the DTA is the university’s most-prestigious honor in teaching. The award is presented annually to three full-time faculty members who demonstrate extraordinary teaching in the classroom and a devotion to touching the lives of students. Qualified nominees include Kent State tenure track faculty who are employed by the university.

Hacker, along with Maureen Blankemeyer (life span development and educational sciences) and Mark Kershner (biological sciences), will be honored Friday, at the University Teaching Council Conference President’s Luncheon in the ballroom of the Kent Student Center.

The trio joins an elite group of 144 Kent State faculty members who have already been awarded the DTA honor, which was established in 1967 by the Alumni Association to recognize faculty for excellence in classroom teaching.

Eligibility requirements for the DTA are:

A faculty member must have been on a full-time teaching contract at any Kent State University campus for a minimum of seven years, including the current academic year.

A faculty member must have taught at least one course in two of the three semesters during each of those seven academic years. (For purpose of the awards, summer sessions are considered one semester and the academic year extends from the beginning of fall semester through summer session of the following calendar year.)

Current Distinguished Teaching Award recipients are not eligible.