Fall Convocation Highlights: It’s a New Year at Georgia Southern

August 13, 2014

Georgia Southern President Brooks Keel, Ph.D., delivered his annual State of the University address to faculty and staff on Wednesday morning at the Nessmith-Lane Conference Center during the annual Fall Convocation. With the theme of “Writing Our Next Chapter,” Keel pointed out the dozens of accomplishments and honors achieved by the University in the last year, which include a refreshed partnership with Coca-Cola that will bring significant monetary increases to student scholarships, the expansion of Allen E. Paulson Stadium, funding for a new Military Sciences Building, and he highlighted Georgia Southern’s Athletics programs for their outstanding success and final year in the Southern Conference. Also during the event, Keel and Jean Bartels, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, presented the Faculty Awards for Excellence. Each honoree received a medallion and recognition among their peers: 2014-'15 Award for Excellence in Contributions in Service This award is designed to recognize and reward faculty who use their academic disciplines to provide non-compensated assistance to the region as well as to the academic community.

• Melissa Garno, Ph.D., College of Health and Human Sciences
• Aniruddha Mitra, Ph.D., College of Engineering and Information Technology

2014-'15 Award for Excellence in Contributions to Instruction This award is designed to honor contributions to the teaching-learning process at the institutional level. The recipient must demonstrate excellence in the classroom and beyond by making contributions to the discipline and to the overall institutional mission.

• Bryan Lee Miller, Ph.D., College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
• Karen Z. Naufel, Ph.D., College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

2014-'15 Award for Excellence in Contributions to Research and Creative Scholarly Activity  This award seeks to recognize persons who excel in their research efforts in addition to fulfilling regular full-time teaching responsibilities.

• Valentin Soloiu, Ph.D., College of Engineering and Information Technology
• Hua Wang, Ph.D., College of Science and Mathematics

If you did not have an opportunity to attend the event, you can watch the ceremony in the video below: