Faculty Awards Presented

Five NMU faculty members were honored at the annual Celebration of Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship Ceremony on Dec. 6 in the University Center. Award recipients were (from left): Chris Kirk (HPER), Technology Innovation; Erich Ottem (Biology), Excellence in Scholarship; Michael Joy (Modern Languages and Literatures) and Claudia Hart (Business), both Excellence in Teaching; and Patricia Hogan (HPER), Technology Innovation.

Kirk began teaching at NMU in 2005. He previously taught for eight years at Lake Superior State University, where he established an undergraduate program in athletic training that earned initial accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health. He is completing a doctorate in educational leadership through Western Michigan University. Kirk is a certified athletic trainer and provides various learning opportunities for his students through traditional hands-on therapeutic techniques and courses focused on problem-solving. He recently presented a workshop in Innsbruck, Austria, with Hogan, highlighting the technology used in both of their courses.

Ottem has been teaching at NMU for four years. His lab is currently managed by a group of undergraduate and graduate students. They focus on a specific protein, BDNF, which is produced by spinal motorneurons and the muscles they contract. The disruption of this protein in muscles leads to pathology reminiscent of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. His lab’s findings were presented at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience Meeting and the 23rd International Symposium on ALS/Motorneuron Diseases. His most recent publications have appeared in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology and the journal Neuroscience.  

Joy came to Northern in 2006 with seven years’ teaching experience in Spanish. He currently teaches all levels of Spanish language, literature and culture. Some of his courses are also part of the Honors and First Year Experience programs. He has led several study-abroad programs in Guatemala and Mexico, and is organizing another trip to Salamanca, Spain. In 2009, Joy founded the NMU Quiz Bowl team and is still its coach and faculty adviser.

Hart is a Marquette native and has taught at NMU for more than 30 years. Her excellence in teaching is shown by positive feedback on student and peer evaluations. She encourages her students to always perform at their highest level, and is an advocate of active learning. Students in her MBA communications course conduct communication audits as service learning projects for nonprofit organizations in the area. The collaborative and real-world nature of this project benefits both the students and the Marquette community.

Before coming to NMU, Hogan was a faculty member at New York University, a fitness consultant to several national and international organizations, and the health and fitness director to the National Board of the YWCA in New York City. She creatively uses technology in her discipline and also publishes on cutting-edge ideas related to developing professional intellect in students as prosumers in the new economy and promoting their entrepreneurial mindsets.