About Emeritus/Emerita Status
The awarding of emerita/emeritus status is a significant honor, typically given at the end of one’s formal institutional career, in recognition of a sustained and distinguished career of teaching, scholarship, and service within the academic community. The awarding of emerita/emeritus status is not an automatic entitlement, but rather represents the recommendation of one’s department, college, and campus.
Join us in congratulating the colleagues listed below, who have been awarded or recommended for emeritus status since last year’s recognition event.
Michael Cheney
Michael Cheney joined the University of Illinois Springfield in 2001, following a 20-year career at Drake University. He received his Ph.D. in Communication from Ohio State University in 1977. During his time at UIS, he served as Provost/Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, spent a short stint as a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at UIUC, became a full professor in the Communication Department and held joint appointments as an Associate Professor of Economics (UIS) and as an affiliated faculty of Liberal & Integrative Studies (UIS). While in the Communication Department, Dr. Cheney was known for his classes on The Beatles, Baseball, and all things political and presidential. He was also instrumental in pushing the department forward in offering an online B.A. In addition, the students and the department have definitely reaped the benefits of his research interests centered around media, politics and popular culture. Dr. Cheney continues to serve a key role as mentor to junior faculty.
James Grubbs (posthumous)
James (Jim) Grubbs joined the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) in 1999. He received a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture from Indiana University. Prior to his faculty role, Dr. Grubbs worked in the Credit for Prior Learning and the Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning areas at UIS. He was passionate about online learning and looking at the interesectionality of communication, relationships, and media. Dr. Grubbs developed several popular online classes that quickly became staples of our online program. As a result of his efforts and effectiveness in the classroom, he was the recipient of the Burks Oakley II Distinguished Online Teaching Award in 2009. Dr. Grubbs was best known for his work with UIS student radio. He provided students with a hands-on radio experience through an audio teaching laboratory that worked in conjunction with communication courses and the overall operation of a campus radio station.
Carolyn Peck
Carolyn Peck received her formal education from Oklahoma State University at Stillwater, where she received a B.S. in Sociology, an M.S. in Family Relations, and a Ph.D. in Human Environmental Science in 1981. Dr. Peck also has over twenty years of direct field experience working with the elderly and their caregivers and in end of life care. She joined the UIS College of Education & Human Services, Human Services Department in 2002. Her teaching has focused on gerontology and end of life issues. Dr. Peck has conducted research on compassion fatigue in geriatric case managers with the Illinois department on Aging, which has been published in a peer review publication. She writes several book reviews annually for the international journal Educational Gerontology. In 2010, Dr. Peck received the UIS Faculty Excellence Award for sustained, career-long accomplishments in teaching and scholarship She was the recipient of the 2014 Dorothy S. Kimball Award through the Area Agency on Aging for Lincolnland, established to honor individuals for outstanding accomplishment in the field of aging and on behalf of older adults and their caregivers.
Karen Reinke
Karen Reinke earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology with a minor in Neuropsychology from the University of Arizona in 1998. She was an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale before joining the Department of Psychology at UIS in 2007. Dr. Reinke was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in 2012. Throughout her career at UIS, Dr. Reinke has taught courses in cognitive neuroscience and related fields in the Department of Psychology, the general education curriculum, and the Capital Scholars Honors Program. Her research interests include the areas of cognitive neuroscience, electroencephalography (EEG), functional MRI, learning, attention, and emotion. Research collaborations with colleagues at several institutions have resulted in 18 publications. Dr. Reinke has presented scholarly work at national and international conferences and supervised numerous undergraduate and graduate student research presentations. Notable service that Dr. Reinke has provided for the university includes membership on the Campus Planning and Budget Committee, CAP Personnel Committee, and Academic Integrity Council.