Circle of Excellence 2018
NSU announces 2018 Circle of Excellence recipients
(Tahlequah, Oklahoma) – Northeastern State University has announced the 2018 Circle of Excellence Award honorees.
The NSU faculty members were nominated by their peers in one of the three categories: teaching, research and service. A selection committee of past honorees chose the best in each category for this recognition. The 2018 Circle of Excellence Award honorees are: Dr. Lara Searcy for teaching, Dr. Denis Vovchenko for research and Dr. Pamela Louderback for service.
Dr. Lara Searcy is a proud graduate of Northeastern State University with her Bachelor of Arts in Education in 2006, Masters of Education in 2009 and just completed her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Arkansas. She was a high school English teacher and is nationally certified. She is currently the English Education Specialist at NSU and has been working with English teacher candidates for the past three years. Searcy is an advocate for the profession and for the state. Her research interests include academic standards, English teacher preparation, teacher efficacy and curriculum design.
Dr. Denis Vovchenko earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees with a major in Byzantine and Modern Greek studies and a minor in German from Moscow State Lomonosov University in Russia. His dissertation was about the ways the Russian educated society and politicians related to the Orthodox Christian minority in the Ottoman Turkish Empire from 1856 to 1912 where the majority of population was Muslim. Vovenchenko spent the spring 2018 semester in Bulgaria as a Fulbright scholar. There, he taught and conducted research toward his next book project tentatively titled, “Unorthodox Fascism: Religion and Race in the Far Right in Russia, Greece and Bulgaria (1905-1939).
Dr. Pamela Louderback is an Associate Professor of Library Services and the Library Director at Northeastern State University’s Broken Arrow campus. She holds a Doctorate in Higher Education Administration and Public Policy from Oklahoma State University and a Masters in Library and Information Systems from the University of Oklahoma. Louderback joined the faculty of Northeastern State University in 2001 when the Broken Arrow campus opened. She is a Fulbright Scholar whose research study focused on the comparison of language revitalization policies. Louderback has also served in community engaged scholarships by directing multiple externally funded education and literacy grant programs totaling over $1 million dollars.
“In a celebration of our faculty and their roles in research, service and teaching, we come together to thank the faculty for their contributions,” Dr. Renée L. Cambiano, professor and Faculty Council president, said. “The Circle of Excellence Honor represents the best of our faculty at NSU who hold high expectations for student success by empowering students to reach their full intellectual and human potential.”
The office of Academic Affairs and the NSU Foundation provide help and support for this award.
For more information, contact Cambiano at cambiare@nsuok.edu.