Recent Accomplishments
College of the Pacific faculty have been frequent winners of the University's annual Distinguished Faculty Award, the Faculty Mentor Awards given by Pacific's Alumni Association, the Faith Davies Leadership Awards given by student life, and many other awards granted within and outside of Pacific.
We are proud to share a few examples of our award-winning faculty!
Dr. Teresa Bergman named Faculty Research Lecturer Award Winner
Teresa Bergman, Associate Professor and Graduate Director and Advisor for the Communication Department, has been named as the recipient of the Faculty Research Lecturer Award. She will be honored this fall at the 7th Annual Faculty Recognition Awards event. The award was established by the Faculty Research Committee to recognize faculty with a record of meritorious research or artistic contributions during their service at Pacific. Nominated and selected by peers, recipients of this prestigious award also receive a monetary award.
Dr. Bergman has been at Pacific since 2006. Her research focuses on how public history sites and museums represent patriotism through their documentary films, exhibits, architecture and locations, and how they've responded to public pressure to include or exclude groups of people in their exhibits.
Dr. Jim Hetrick honored with Faculty Mentor Award from Alumni Association
Jim Hetrick, Professor and Chair of the Physics Department, was one of three faculty members honored by the Pacific Alumni Association with a Faculty Mentor Award. For Dr. Hetrick, being a teacher allows him to relive the discovery of physics and other subjects through his students. As his students develop, he takes pride in knowing that he played some part in making them who they are. He is also active in outreach programs that get children and youth excited about science and provides instruction to teachers in the teaching of science.
"The thing that makes Jim Hetrick stand out is his skill at providing just the right balance of challenge and support. He was always there to help, but never made it too easy. He gave me a real vision of who I wanted to be professionally and helped give me the skills I needed to get there," said former student Brian Thomas '99 COP.
Read more about this award and Dr. Hetrick's contributions >>
Dr. Courtney Lehmann named winner of the 2016 Distinguished Faculty Award
Courtney Lehmann, Professor of English and Director of the Pacific Humanities Scholars Program, was named the winner of the 2016 Distinguished Faculty Award. The University Distinguished Faculty Award is Pacific's highest faculty honor. It is given for outstanding accomplishments by a tenured faculty member in any or all of the following areas: teaching, research, creative endeavors, and service to the University. Recipients of this award are nominated by colleagues and selected by the University Awards Committee.
Provost Pallavicini stated that "Dr. Lehmann is very deserving of this honor, as evidenced by the glowing letters of support from her colleagues and students and the extraordinary service and dedication that she has given to the College of the Pacific and the University."
Learn more about Dr. Lehmann and her work at Pacific >>
Dr. Carrie Schroeder receives a National Endowment for the Humanities grant
Carrie Schroeder, Religious Studies, is the recipient of a two-year $192,500 grant, awarded by the National Endowment for Humanities Office of Digital Humanities. The grant will fund an international project to digitize Coptic texts and make them available to other scholars. The project, called KELLIA, for Koptische/Coptic Electronic Language and Literature International Alliance will aid in creating new digital technologies to study and publish digitized texts that are important for the understanding of the Bible and the history of Christianity as well as the cultural heritage of an important religious community in the Middle East.
"The Coptic community has a rich and important history and legacy," Schroeder said. "The Bible was translated into Coptic very early, and the Coptic Bible then influenced the literature, language, and culture of Egypt until Arabic became the primary language of daily life."
Read more about this exciting grant and Dr. Schroeder's work >>
Biology Professor Zachary Stahlschmidt receives National Science Foundation grant
Zachary Stahlschmidt, Assistant Professor of Biology, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for a project that will study multi-trait tradeoffs in crickets. "A multi-trait tradeoff is similar to deciding between more than two things," says Stahlschmidt. "For animals, the resource is often nutrition, and their choices can include investment into reproduction, locomotion, and immunity. Because animals typically don't have enough resources to maximize all of these important traits, they have to allocate toward one trait at the expense of another."
The project will provide extensive research training to undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom will come from demographic groups that are under-represented in the sciences.
Learn more about the grant and Professor Stahlschmidt's project >>