About Faculty Awards 2021

We recognize the recipients of four of our prestigious faculty awards each spring: the Burks Oakley II Distinguished Online Teaching Award, the Faculty Excellence Award, the Pearson Faculty Award, and the Spencer Faculty Service Award. The fifth prestigious faculty award, the University Scholars Award, will be presented in the fall in conjunction with our Faculty Scholarship Recognition.

Thank-You: Campus Sabbatical & Awards Committee

Thanks to the members of our Campus Sabbatical & Awards Committee (CSAC) for all of their hard work this year.

• Carrie Switzer, CSAC Chair
• Atul Agarwal
• Denise Bockmier-Sommers
• Junfeng Wang

Burks Oakley II Distinguished Online Teaching Award

This award is funded through the generosity of Burks Oakley II, who played a very significant role in the development of online education at UIS, after having had a distinguished career in the College of Engineering at Urbana-Champaign.  Accordingly, the Oakley Award recognizes UIS faculty members whose performance exemplifies the institution’s commitment to excellence in online teaching.

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Martin, the winner of this year’s Oakley Award!

Dr. Martin has taught fourteen highly-organized online course sections since coming to UIS in 2018. She uses a variety of communications and creates a welcoming atmosphere for students. Dr. Martin’s course design incorporates discussion forums and other interactive components to promote engagement of students to content, students to students, and students to faculty. Dr. Martin is a COLRS Faculty Fellow and extensively involved in professional development opportunities that include instructional design and the latest research and methodologies in online teaching.

Faculty Excellence Award

The Faculty Excellence Award recognizes mid- and late-career colleagues who best exemplify the ideal of the teacher-scholar and whom the faculty recognizes as role models, based on sustained accomplishments in teaching and scholarship at the University of Illinois Springfield. The award is funded through the generosity of Wilbur and Margaret Wepner.

Congratulations to Dr. Beverly Bunch, winner of this year’s Faculty Excellence Award!

Dr. Bunch has demonstrated her commitment to continued excellence in teaching by staying current with new pedagogies and delivery modalities. At UIS, she earned a Master of Online Teaching Certificate through the Illinois Online Network. MPA students have often rated her PAD 504 – Public Budgeting and Finance as the most valuable course in the program, highlighting Professor Bunch’s expertise, the high caliber of the course, and the applicability of the course material to their professional lives.

Dr. Bunch’s scholarship includes one co-authored book, two book chapters, and 24 referred journal articles, with several in leading journals in the fields of budget and finance. Her collaborations with colleagues at other universities have helped to promote UIS through top research journals such as Public Administration Review, and Urban Affairs Review. Since coming to UIS, Dr. Bunch has been principle investigator or co-P.I. on multiple grant funded projects, with over $380,000 in funding.

Dr. Bunch represents the ideal teacher-scholar and role model on our campus with an enduring commitment to excellence.

Pearson Faculty Award

The Pearson Faculty Award is made possible through a generous gift from Dr. Emmet F. Pearson and his wife, Mary.

The award recognizes a faculty member whose performance exemplifies our commitment to excellence in teaching and who stands among the very best teachers at the University of Illinois at Springfield.  Such a teacher both informs and inspires students, giving them the knowledge and values with which they may become productive and enlightened citizens. Faculty members who receive the Pearson Award are role models for other faculty on campus.  Their expertise contributes significantly to the curriculum of the campus and reflects sound and current scholarship.

Congratulations to Dr. Sheryl Reminger, winner of this year’s Pearson Faculty Award.

Dr. Reminger has taught more than 100 sections of eight undergraduate courses in clinical and counseling psychology at UIS. She utilizes multiple modalities to teach diagnostic assessment and clinical skills, and hands-on experiences to connect theoretical constructs to real-world applications. Dr. Reminger is known for providing detailed feedback on assignments and papers. She supervised 246 student internships across the state, actively engages undergraduate students in her research, and supervises student-designed studies.

Dr. Reminger has mentored students in the IRB approval process, study design and statistical analysis, has given presentations, and secured funding for conference travel. Students describe her as being “sincere,” fantastic,” and “one of the greatest professors I have had the opportunity of meeting.”

Dr. Reminger represents the ideal teacher on our campus with an enduring commitment to excellence.

Spencer Faculty Service Award

The Spencer Faculty Service Award is named for Robert C. Spencer, the founding President of Sangamon State University, who established the expectation that public service and service to the academic community would be highly valued by the faculty of this institution. He emphasized that education for good citizenship was integral to a liberal arts education, and challenged the new campus and its faculty to make a difference in society.  He sought to foster a highly participatory campus, which would model the virtues of democratic community, with faculty members contributing actively to its development.  His vision remains a reality at the University of Illinois at Springfield, with our commitment to liberal education and to ideals for the best of engaged citizenship.  Thus, to honor Dr. Spencer’s vision, this award recognizes a faculty member who exemplifies the “professor-citizen” by establishing a cumulative record of significant accomplishment in service.

Congratulations to Dr. Frances Shen, the 2021 Spencer Faculty Service Award!

Dr. Shen’s greatest impact at UIS has been in undergraduate research, with leadership roles on the Undergraduate Research Steering Committee and Student Technology Arts & Research Symposium (STARS) Committee, as faculty advisor for the UIS Student Research Society, and Interim Director of Undergraduate Research.  Dr. Shen has also served as a panelist or presenter on a number of culture and diversity related topics, and she has actively promoted cultural awareness and inclusiveness through involvement in Safe Zone Training, UIS International Dialogue, and the University of Illinois Diversity Summit. She provided sustained service as Director of the Capital Scholars Peer Mentoring Program. She served in numerous leadership roles for the Asian American Psychological Association, Taiwan Psychology Network, American Psychological Association, and as editor and reviewer for several professional journals.  Dr. Shen also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Prairie Center Against Sexual Assault for the past ten years and raised community awareness about PTSD and Asian American stereotypes by giving interviews to the local media and invited talks at the local conferences.

Dr. Shen’s support for undergraduate research, diversity, cultural awareness, and educational excellence exemplify an ideal university citizen.

Congratulations to our faculty award recipients!