Long before the study of international business became a mainstay of the educational process, John B. Ford, professor of marketing and international business, pursued adding it to Old Dominion's curriculum. His belief now and then is that for students to compete in a global marketplace when they graduate, they need to understand what is happening internationally and develop an appreciation for various cultures.
After introducing such topics in his classroom, diligently validating his belief through research and by increasing his service to the international business community, Ford was successful in his quest.
Even after the international business major was in place and an international component was added to the master's and doctoral programs, Ford remains committed to increasing student and corporate awareness of international business and marketing opportunities in Virginia, all the while supporting Old Dominion becoming "Virginia's International University."
Ford is a challenging and inspiring teacher and an internationally recognized and respected marketing scholar. His teaching excellence has been recognized by the Outstanding Teaching Faculty Award from the College of Business and Public Administration.
He has been one of the major contributors to the doctoral concentration in marketing since its inception, directed the dissertations of many of the marketing graduates from the program; helped develop the original program and redesigned the curriculum with an international marketing focus. He also was responsible for designing the international business concentration for the M.B.A., providing students some sensitivity to the international environment of business.
Ford was the first coordinator for the international business program and served as the adviser for all its majors. He helped build the major from 40 to more than 100 students during 1994-96, making this one of the fastest growing and most desirable majors in the College of Business and Public Administration. In course evaluations semester after semester, Ford's students commend his commitment to excellence in the classroom while acknowledging his support, approachability and thorough knowledge of and passion for his subject.
His internationally recognized research has been published in leading national and international marketing and advertising journals.
A nationally recognized leader in the field of special education, Robert A. Gable, professor of special education and an eminent scholar, has spent his career serving students with special needs and their parents, and training countless numbers of educators to do the same. He does this daily, not only in the classroom, but through his example.
Gable teaches students who are preparing for careers as classroom teachers in both general and special education. Students applaud his "passion and dedication," routinely attributing his remarkable success as a teacher to his attitude of caring and his infectious sense of humor. While his students say Gable is "incredibly well prepared" and "knows his subject matter cold," they say he focuses on his students first and provides them practical learning experiences that will serve them well beyond a single class or semester.
If his student evaluations are any indication, Gable certainly has achieved that goal. Student after student has testified that Gable has "stirred me intellectually and inspired me emotionally to become a better teacher."
Another unique quality they cite is his ability to skillfully integrate his own classroom teaching, administrative experience and scholarship to prepare new teachers for the numerous challenges they will face in the schools. As his students attest, Gable is among the talented few who are able to successfully integrate teaching and research to challenge, stimulate and educate tomorrow's teachers. Perhaps a student described it best: "Dr. Gable models good teaching in every respect; he practices what he teaches."
Indeed, his commitment to his students goes well beyond the university classroom. He is described by current and former students as always being ready to share his time, talent and insight to help them to become better teachers. He builds professional relationships that do not end with the course. Educators who once learned in his classroom, whether last semester or a dozen semesters ago, regularly call on him for advice, assistance and mentorship.
In addition to his work in the classroom, Gable has been effective in securing state, federal and foundation grants to help support teacher preparation efforts. His record in producing top-quality grants puts him at the top of his discipline. Of special significance is the fact that, individually and in collaboration with colleagues, Gable has been able to obtain a substantial amount of tuition assistance for students and other support that has enabled them to develop and enhance their professional skills.
Katharine Kersey, one of only 15 Old Dominion faculty members designated as a University Professor, is also professor of early childhood education. She has defined the model of energetic and inspiring teaching, exceptional service and valuable scholarship during her 30 years at Old Dominion.
Her students describe her as "an excellent teacher who thoroughly knows her subject," "an awesome role model" and "an inspiration to the education profession."
In l985, former President Joseph Marchello challenged Kersey, then a newly appointed department chair, to raise funds for a Child Study Center addition. She was told that if the department could raise $1 million, the university would obtain the rest of the money necessary. Kersey took the challenge and began making appeals to any group or person who might be interested in extending the center's offerings.
Ten years and more than a million dollars later, her mission was accomplished and current President James V. Koch persuaded Virginia's governor and General Assembly to provide an additional $2 million for the addition to the Child Study Center. In August 1997, the dream came true when the new and renovated Lions Child Study Center was dedicated.
The expanded center made it possible to enhance existing programs and establish new ones. It houses up-to-date classrooms, a state-of-the art Scottish Rite Children's Speech and Language Center, the Kiwanis Parenting Center, parent library, children's play room and clinical settings for children with disabling conditions. The programs provide affordable services for children and adults in the community as well as excellent field placements and research opportunities for students in many disciplines.
Kersey also was invited to plan and operate Old Dominion's first child care center. The Child Development Center opened in 1994 with 13 children, five full-time master's level teachers and an administrative assistant. In four months, the Child Development Center had grown to full capacity and today houses 90 children and has added two more teachers and a part-time cook to the staff. Kersey is responsible for center operations.
Kersey is committed to her students and the university. Despite a heavy administrative load as a department chair and graduate program director, she maintains close ties to her students and has willingly taught more courses than is expected of her each semester. She advises 150 students each term.
Dedicated, compassionate, approachable, patient - all are terms often associated with nurses and other caregivers and certainly all describe Linda Lilley, R.N. To stop there is to but scratch the surface of a dedicated professional faculty member committed to helping students become the finest nurses they can be.
As one student noted, "This instructor is the epitome of excellence. She is always prepared and always willing to help the student understand the material she teaches. The university is very lucky to have her, but not as lucky as the students."
Lilley, one of seven faculty members designated in 1999 as a University Professor for excellence in teaching, is an associate professor of nursing. She is devoted to teaching and nursing and demonstrates an energetic motivation, inspirational persona and true love for her work. During her career as a faculty member in the School of Nursing, which began in 1985, Lilley has made significant contributions to student learning and the development of her profession.
She is an acclaimed teacher as demonstrated by the awards and recognition she receives year after year for her excellent performance in the classroom and clinics. She has also been identified as being an inspiration to some of the most outstanding students in the School of Nursing, College of Health Sciences and Old Dominion University. These awards include being selected repeatedly as an Outstanding Faculty Member by those graduating seniors included in "Who's Who Among American College Students." She has also been recognized several times with the "Most Inspiring Faculty Award," presented by the university based on selection by the top graduate in the College of Health Sciences.
Lilley's students continually provide comments in their course evaluations that describe her as inspirational, enthusiastic, committed, challenging, using outstanding teaching methods, being demanding but also adding humor, humility and empathy to each lecture she delivers.
Said one, "Linda Lilley has been a superb instructor and role model to my classmates and me this semester. She has constantly maintained professionalism, good organization skills and approachability in a clinical setting. It is obvious that her base of scientific knowledge is very broad. She has also been very sincere and honest in offering constructive criticism, but still shows genuine concern for the needs of individual students. "
It's rare to find students who feel lucky to be in a class where a 30-page paper is an introductory lesson. That is, unless the students are in a class taught by nationally acclaimed author Janet Peery. "She opens doors in students' minds," said one student.
Peery, an assistant professor of creative writing, teaches classes and conducts fiction workshops in which the students range from novice to accomplished writers. These include undergraduates at the beginning of their reading and writing lives - students who have never written a short story - to the more accomplished M.F.A. candidates in the Creative Writing Graduate Program.
Peery manages her classes with a rigorous attention to craft and technique, as well as humor and grace. Into these workshop/seminar classes the students often bring more than the simple manuscript; they bring heart and soul and imagination. They bring their hopes. The challenge before the teacher is to say what needs to be said, but to say it in a way the student can hear it with dignity and be able to put it to work in the future, and to say it in a way that other students will gain from it. Peery does just that.
For each student story, she writes detailed letters recounting the manuscripts strengths and weaknesses. Her standards are high, but rare is the student who doesn't rise to the challenge, learning, in the process, something he or she didn't think they knew.
Although Peery came late to teaching and to the formal study of writing and literature, finishing her M.F.A. degree in l992, the quality of her creative work has been honored by several of the most prestigious literary awards in the country. While still a student, she received a highly prized National Endowment of Arts Fiction Fellowship. A year later she was awarded two prestigious awards. The Whiting Award, for which there is no application process, is sometimes called a "mini-MacArthur," and is given to "writers of exceptional promise at the beginning of their careers." The Rosenthal Award, presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is given "for a work of literature which while not a commercial success is nonetheless a considerable literary achievement."
In l996, Peery's first novel, "The River Beyond the World," was selected as one of five finalists for the National Book Award and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Literature.
In an e-mail to Ramamurthy Prabhakaran a recent graduate wrote, "In this world, there are millions of professors; however, there are only a handful of teachers. Thank you for taking your time and teaching me and the rest of the students the way it really should be done. You are without a doubt the best teacher I ever had at ODU."
Such comments are the norm for Prabhakaran, eminent professor of mechanical engineering who, for 20 years, has brought national and international recognition to Old Dominion through his work and research in composite materials and experimental mechanics.
Despite higher education's focus on research, Prabhakaran still considers teaching - his first love - to be his most important activity. He consistently is rated as an excellent and exceptional teacher. Earning these accolades while being described in the same breath as tough and demanding shows his ability to combine high standards of performance with skillful methods of teaching. He received the 1995 Outstanding Faculty Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Student Chapter.
Prabhakaran believes that wherever possible, lecture courses should be enhanced and enlivened by appropriate experiments and demonstrations. His introductory lecture in his Modern Engineering Materials course never fails to capture the attention of his students. They sit in fascination as he stretches a metallic helical spring beyond the yield limit, holds a lighted match to it and lets it shrink back to its original length, thus illustrating the "shape memory effect" and imbedding the concept in the students' minds. It is also of note that Prabhakaran proposed this course two years before ABET's Accreditation Committee recommended such a course, thus illustrating his understanding of the future of his field.
Prabhakaran is a firm believer in the integration of research and teaching. He initiated new courses based on his research in modern engineering materials, fatigue and fracture, composite materials and experimental stress analysis. He also "adopted" the undergraduate Solid Mechanics Laboratory and started and developed a teaching/research laboratory for composite materials and experimental mechanics.
His earliest research involved pioneering work in the field of optical stress analysis of composites. He has broadened his research to include fatigue, fracture, bolted joints, pultruded composites, viscoelastic behavior, compressive behavior, development of new test methods, and crack propagation in aircraft and helicopter materials.
Ask any student of the arts whether they can learn more from a professor with passion for the subject matter and some real-world experience or one who has spent years in a classroom mastering technical know-how, and you'll find passion and experience will win every time. That's not to say the technique is unimportant, on the contrary, but it is most effective when a complement to more.
To say that John Toomey strikes the appropriate balance is an understatement. He can produce music at a caliber most concert professionals would envy and can explain the complexities of notes, chords, harmonies and improvisation to a class of jazz novices so they not only understand the structure of the music, but actually enjoy the experience.
Donna Koch, a faculty member at Tidewater Community College and Old Dominion's first lady, says that Toomey's style "personifies the elegant nonchalance of jazz." His students describe him as dedicated, caring, humorous, enthusiastic, highly organized and truly interested in seeing them succeed. Students also note that Toomey dedicates many hours outside the classroom for those needing extra guidance.
Taking into consideration that he teaches a minimum of four classes a semester, including at least one via TELETECHNET, Toomey's high student evaluations are all the more remarkable. He was selected as the 1995 TELETECHNET Professor of the Year based solely on student evaluations.
Named a University Professor last year in recognition of teaching excellence, Toomey is described by students and colleagues as an extraordinarily talented musician whose gifts of performance are outweighed only by his teaching ability. He dispels the myth, "those who can't do, teach."
Toomey came to Old Dominion having already established an international reputation as keyboardist and music director for jazz trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson, with whom he recorded two compact discs. He has achieved outstanding success in his research and creative work in music technology and jazz performance.
Toomey recently composed and performed the acclaimed scores for two documentaries now airing on national television. "Tuskegee Airmen, American Heroes," hosted by Ossie Davis, airs nationwide on NBC. His score for "Jamestown Rediscovered," hosted by Roger Mudd and regularly featured on The History Channel, won a 1999 Telly Award. His efforts have brought international recognition to the university.
Hampton Roads business leaders feel like they know Gilbert R. Yochum. They certainly know about his economic forecasting and economic impact research. However, the only way to truly know Yochum is to experience him in the classroom and bear witness as economic novices go from wishing the Wall Street Journal had photos to wondering how they ever lived without it.
By title, Yochum is a professor of economics, project director of the university's Economic Forecasting Project and chair of the economics department. By reputation he is "Da Man" for any student trying to understand the economy. He is as adept at explaining the basics of microeconomics to an 18-year-old freshman as he is at forecasting trends with a 55-year-old Ph.D. student and corporate executive. Throughout his 24-year career at Old Dominion, students have consistently rated him as the one of the best faculty members in their college experience.
Despite the fact that his 200-student mass lecture section Principles of Macroeconomics course is rated as one of the toughest at Old Dominion when measured by grades and that students have the option of enrolling in smaller sections of the course, this class is always oversubscribed and his students consistently rate the class as one of their best learning experiences.
The hallmark of Yochum's teaching style is his ability to bring his classes "alive" through the application of economic theory to currently unfolding economic events. In the recent words of one of his M.B.A. students, "I've had the good fortune of attending an Ivy League undergrad institution and a top 10 law school prior to entering ODU and I can say that this class is among the best - if not the best - course that I have taken at any level of my education." Outside the classroom Yochum is also effective in helping his students enter the job market and graduate school.
Yochum's research has focused on the application of economic theory to a wide range of practical problems and issues. The Forecasting Project's National Economic Forecast is distributed across the United States by the Dow Jones news service. A recent research project conducted with Professor Vinod Agarwal, which ranked price-adjusted per capita income across U.S. metropolitan areas, was reported in more than 150 newspapers and other media outlets across the country. The project has been cited by legislators as a basis for determining state and federal aid to less well-off metropolitan areas in Colorado, Washington and Texas.
