The impact of Dwight Allen's creativity, scholarship and teaching has been felt across Virginia, from Norfolk and Brunswick County to Charlottesville and Reston, and across the world, from Europe and Africa to India, China and Australia.

His research and zest for innovation have created new opportunities for learning and literacy for those whose access is limited or denied. He continues to serve as a trusted adviser and consultant to governments and agencies in both developed and developing nations that are attempting to reform their educational systems. Most recently, he has proposed a renewed commitment to improving education in the United States through a massive annual investment by the federal government and the private sector.

Professor Allen developed the concept of the field-based master's degree program at Old Dominion, a program that has been offered in school districts throughout the region for nearly 20 years. It allows teachers to pursue master's degree study on site in their school districts. His $1 million grant, "Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers for Technology," incorporates one of the largest field-based master's programs and has demonstrated the potential to change undergraduate teacher preparation at Old Dominion through the infusion of more technology training for teachers.

Allen himself was an early user of new technology. His credits include teaching the first televised course at the university. He also developed and taught the first totally asynchronous online Web-based course offered via TELETECHNET.

In his more than two decades at Old Dominion, Allen has created and directed large-scale, school-based reform projects to help reshape Virginia schools. The PRIME project (Public School Reform focusing on Innovative Mainstream Education) with Norfolk Public Schools was a five-year effort in six Norfolk inner-city schools affecting 5,000 students.

Currently, Allen is principal investigator of a $1.3 million project, ACTT Now (Aligning Certification with Technology Training), funded by the U.S. Department of Education as part of its PT3 initiative (Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers for Technology). This project seeks to stimulate comprehensive reform in Brunswick County Schools, one of the poorest school divisions in Virginia.

Allen also has been among the most active in recruiting students from abroad, attracting more international visiting scholars and working professionally in more international venues than any other professor at the university.

With such innovations as videotaped "help sessions" for his thermodynamics classes, globalization of engineering curricula, internationally recognized research in solar energy, and recognition by NASA, it is no wonder Sushil K. Chaturvedi is seen as a role model for students and colleagues alike.

Chaturvedi has a reputation as an instructor who is demanding but fair. Students consistently identify him as one who will go out of his way to help them. They also appreciate the enthusiasm and excitement about the discipline he brings into the classroom

He considers it his personal and professional responsibility to educate his students to provide well-qualified engineers for industries in Virginia. To accomplish this goal, he sets tough standards, backed by an enduring commitment to help his students gain a conceptual understanding of the subject matter.

Chaturvedi is the recipient of 14 teaching awards and honors in the past 16 years. His contributions to engineering education were recognized in 2000 by the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers and four other engineering societies, which bestowed on him the Pletta Award as Virginia's outstanding engineering educator of the year. He also received Old Dominion's prestigious Tonelson Award in 1999.

An innovative teacher, Chaturvedi constantly looks for new techniques to further refine his teaching and mentorship. Using two university faculty development grants, he developed videotaped "help sessions" for students in his introductory and advanced thermodynamics classes. Used frequently by students as a supplementary tool, they provide opportunities to achieve a deeper understanding of many difficult concepts.

Chaturvedi was among the first faculty to offer televised courses at Old Dominion on the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program, a predecessor of TELETECHNET. And he has taken a leadership role at the university in globalizing engineering education. He recently chaired the College of Engineering and Technology's Global Engineering Taskforce.

His research in the area of solar energy has received national and international recognition, and his research in energy-conserving solar heat pumps has been adopted by industrial giants such as Sharp Corp. of Japan. He has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 25 research contracts valued at over $1 million. He was awarded two U.S. patents in critical areas of energy conservation and testing of the national aerospace plane models in hypersonic wind-tunnels.

Why is it important for a student to understand about art and education? Ken Daley's answer is that harnessing these forces together will provide students with both the skills and knowledge to achieve their life goals.

Daley is a professional artist who has devoted his creativity to his art and to the development of a well-formed educational process that serves as a context to enhance his students' skills and talents. His career represents the merger of creativity and pedagogy in ways that empower students.

After completing his M.F.A. at Yale in 1965, Daley joined the Old Dominion faculty, where he has spent his career. Two years later he received the prestigious Tonelson Award. He also has received the Charles and Elisabeth

Burgess Award for Creative Research, and in 2000 was designated a University Professor.

Daley's commitments include teaching courses in print processes, drawing, art criticism and a general education course for honors students; supervising undergraduate and graduate tutorials; arranging internships and directed field experiences; holding graduate seminars; and chairing thesis committees.

As a junior faculty member, Daley helped design the B.F.A. program. During his term as chair, the department developed a joint M.F.A. program with Norfolk State; an ongoing program with the Governor's School for the Arts; a University Gallery; and a complex that includes the Diehn Center, Visual Arts Building and Art Studio Building.

Daley served on the committee that redesigned the general education curriculum in 1986, and in 1998 he chaired the Faculty Senate committee that implemented another revised general education program.

While Daley considers himself a somewhat permanent fixture in the Old Dominion community, he also enjoys traveling. He has served as a visiting artist at the Zhejiang Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China.

As a professional artist, Daley has received commissions from several organizations, including print and/or poster editions for the International Society for Graphic Arts, the Williamsburg Foundation, the Chrysler Museum, Harborfest, the Governor's School for the Arts and WHRO. His series of posters for the Virginia Opera, which began in 1975 when it first opened, has placed him among Hampton Roads' most beloved artists.

Perhaps his most ambitious commission was for the installation of a large plate glass and neon work, "Parataxis," in an open reading area at the Virginia Beach Central Library. This work focuses on language, literature, poetry, reading and libraries and how they are intrinsic parts of everyday life.

Long before the word "international" was linked with business and became a mainstay of the educational process, John B. Ford, professor of marketing and international business, added it to Old Dominion's curriculum. He believes that for students to compete in the global marketplace upon graduation, they need to understand what is happening internationally and develop an appreciation for diverse cultures.

He is an internationally respected marketing scholar, and his teaching excellence has earned him the Outstanding Teaching Faculty Award from the College of Business and Public Administration.

Ford has been one of the major contributors to the doctoral program in marketing and was responsible for designing the international business concentration in Old Dominion's M.B.A. program. He was the first director of the international business program and served as the adviser for its majors. He helped build the major to more than 100 students in 1994-96, making it one of the fastest growing and most desirable curriculums in the college. In the course evaluations semester after semester, Ford's students acknowledge his support, approachability and thorough knowledge of and passion for his subject, as well as his teaching excellence.

His research in leading journals is cited in many of the top global marketing and marketing management textbooks. His reputation has led universities in England, Japan and New Zealand to appoint him as a visiting professor.

Ford has received the business college's Outstanding Research Award, and has won many best paper award competitions at national and international marketing conferences. He serves on editorial review boards of four major journals and served as editor for two special issues of International Marketing Review. He has been selected as the conference program chair for the 2001 Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing Congress.

Ford also has made significant contributions locally. He has managed efforts for Forward Hampton Roads and the Virginia Department of World Trade (e.g., the identification of leading industries for attracting foreign investment to Virginia), and has supervised student projects to assist such organizations as the Virginia Symphony, DePaul Hospital, Norfolk YWCA, Boys Club of Hampton Roads, WHRO and others.

He recently was the co-principal investigator of a $180,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop and offer the undergraduate international business major via TELETECHNET.

Dedicated, compassionate, approachable, patient - all are terms often associated with nurses and other caregivers, and certainly, all are true of Linda Lilley, R.N. However, to stop there is to but scratch the surface of this dedicated professional. As one of her students 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 was awarded the prestigious designation of University Professor in 1999. She is devoted to teaching and the nursing profession and demonstrates an energetic motivation, inspirational persona and true love for her work.

Lilley's students continually include 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, "Dr. Lilley has served as an excellent role model in nursing and in life."

Since her appointment to the School of Nursing in 1985, Lilley's course evaluations have always been high. One of her distance learning students commented, "Her high energy and enthusiasm are contagious. The best professor I have had in my three years of college at Old Dominion. …"

Lilley takes pride in nurturing her students, using humor to enhance learning as well as enhance "healing" of students (and patients) in difficult and stressful times and increasing the students' depth and breadth of knowledge about the field and the patient.

The following comment provides an insight into her teaching style and its effectiveness: "Dr. Lilley brought so much enthusiasm to this usually morbid topic of cancer nursing. Her approach educated and encouraged me to advocate for patients afflicted with cancer. ... I have learned more from this class than I have learned in any other class I have attended in all my life!"

Lilley's scholarly activities reflect her expertise in nursing and her area of specialization in pharmacology. She is the lead author of "Pharmacology and the Nursing Process," the pre-eminent textbook in the field. She has also published more than 45 articles in professional journals on the topic of medication errors and several articles about oncology-related issues. During 1994-99, Lilley wrote a monthly column for the American Journal of Nursing, which is read extensively by the national nursing community.

The educational enterprise might be described as an extended conversation for the purpose of improving the welfare of the community. It is focused talk on Plato's basic human question of "how to live well," a dialogue among those who would aspire to make better sense of phenomena, to rid themselves of inherited prejudices and entrenched habits. In this sense, Garrett McAuliffe is best described as the ultimate conversationalist.

For the past 30 years, he has, above all, been a conversation starter. He is an "instigator" in the best sense of the word, a creator of forums for dialogue and action. He has brought together the "stakeholders" of our communities for extended, focused conversations on the powerfully important issues of our times.

For a recent study abroad class, he sent students into the teeth of the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. There they felt the anger and heard firsthand the disputes that surround an age-old culture clash. The students returned home with a new understanding of the ongoing struggle to create an inclusive American community out of many cultures. For his consultation with colleagues across the nation on that instructional model, he won the national 1999 award for "Leadership in International Collaboration."

McAuliffe initiated the post-Columbine High School "year of solution to the problem of troubled youth" by securing external funding in 1999 and gathering the counselors, security staff and administrators from all 17 Hampton Roads school districts for a series of daylong conferences. The year ended with a "summit" that has produced a written guide.

In fall 1999, McAuliffe took his students to the state conference of counselors to present with him. He submitted their work on "Counseling Diverse Populations: Conservative Christians, Gay and Lesbian Persons, and Women" and shared the stage with them in order that they might spread their own professional wings.

McAuliffe has been a national leader on innovative teaching in counselor education. His three books on the subject are landmark works of this era.

Above all, McAuliffe's teaching has been characterized as "life-changing" and "passionate." Said one former student, "I feel confident working with those who depend on me ... because I was infected with the passion to help clients find their own way. It is awesome to think about the number of lives Garrett has changed directly, as a counselor and teacher…"

Janis Sanchez-Hucles, a 22-year veteran of the psychology department, is still amazed that she has had the opportunity to fulfill her varied career interests within one job. She had indicated early on a desire to practice, train, supervise, and conduct and disseminate research that regular people could read and benefit from, and not restrict herself to writing articles that just other psychologists read in obscure journals.

She has distinguished herself in her ability to combine her roles as teacher, mentor, practitioner and researcher in superlative fashion. And she has established herself as a renowned scholar and trainer in the areas of diversity and multiculturalism.

Sanchez-Hucles has developed a model practicum-training program in the psychology department. She teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses related to clinical psychology, personality, developmental psychology, psychology of women, African-American psychology and psychodynamic therapy.

Sanchez-Hucles has kept her promise to involve herself in research that could be used by a diverse audience. Her writing on welfare and work for women was required reading for members of the U.S. House of Representatives as they debated welfare-reform legislation. Her work on violence prevention has been used in a nationally disseminated anti-violence program for schools. The monograph produced by her participation and writing on the national American Psychological Association Taskforce on Violence and the Family is used nationally in shelters for battered women and children.

Most recently, Sanchez-Hucles published a book, "The First Session with African Americans: A Step by Step Guide," which has been declared a must-read for service providers, students, teachers and clients who are interested in the provision of culturally competent services.

On campus, her contributions have been acknowledged by a host of awards, including the A. Rufus Tonelson Award and the Women's Caucus Award for sustained contributions to improving the lives of women at Old Dominion. She is frequently sought after for committee work. Notes one colleague, "Warmth, gentleness and honesty mark her participation in interactions and she enables others to engage in discussion and problem solving that is more open, flexible and productive. I and others seek and treasure her involvement ... as we see her as a model for our own development."

Few professors can inspire and excite students on both the undergraduate and graduate levels, yet Charles E. Wilson Jr., associate professor of English, has achieved such a reputation. Whether explaining a literary text, challenging an undergraduate student on his writing skills or encouraging a graduate student to pursue doctoral study, Wilson invests countless hours and enormous energy in ensuring the best academic experience for his students.

Because he teaches students who aspire to become teachers themselves, Wilson is concerned with, and adept at, presenting relevant information and conveying it effectively. He is a model instructor whose skill and style students can emulate when they face classrooms of their own. As his evaluations indicate, he is successful in his efforts. According to one student, "His enthusiasm for the course was contagious, as in my free time I found myself reading additional pieces of literature ... and that is what it is all about. Dr. Wilson's energy and knowledge ... made me want to learn so much more!"

One particular quality that students note is Wilson's ability to make them feel comfortable regardless of their background. This is especially important since many of the discussions in his classes concern the oftentimes controversial, or emotionally charged, issues of race, class and gender.

Many students register for all of his classes. Because his students sense that he respects their points of view and welcomes their input, they work hard to master the material so that they can, in fact, offer informed commentary to the lively debates and challenging classroom discussions.

Perhaps one of Wilson's most effective skills is his ability to integrate scholarship in his teaching. He uses an interdisciplinary approach whereby students learn the historical, political and sociological context to gain a clearer understanding of a literary work.

Wilson, who served as graduate program director from 1997 to 2000, has been honored twice at Old Dominion for his teaching: in 1998, he was presented the Stern Award by the College of Arts and Letters and last year he received the university's Tonelson Award. In 1993 and 1998, he received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to participate in summer institutes.