Eleven Northern Michigan University faculty members selected to receive awards of excellence for teaching, scholarship, leadership and technology innovation were honored at an April 22 celebration on campus.
Carter Wilson of Political Science, this year's Stephen Young & Tricia Kinley Distinguished Faculty Award recipient, was also recognized and featured in a previous story here. Below are the other award categories and the bios used to introduce the recipients at the celebration.
Excellence in Scholarship: J.D. Phillips, Math and Computer Science; and Kevin Berry, Business
Phillips is the head of NMU's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. He received his doctorate in pure mathematics from Iowa State University in 1992. He has more than 60 published papers in refereed mathematics research journals, with hundreds of citations. He has solved three of the oldest open problems in loop theory (e.g. that all disassociative automorphic loops are, in fact, Moufang). He has given invited or plenary talks on four continents across many countries. His Erdos number is 2—the best possible today. He has been a visiting long-term researcher at Charles University in Prague and at the Banach Center in Warsaw. His main research is in the theories of loops, quasigroups, and nonassociative rings. Phillips was one of the first research mathematicians to “take the plunge” into automated theorem proving, and has since published and spoken widely on it. He has received an external grant to give an upcoming presentation at the Hausdorf Center in Bonn.
Berry is an associate professor of accounting in the College of Business. He received his doctorate in the discipline from Oklahoma State University, his master's from the University of Missouri Columbia, and his bachelors from Bradley University. Before joining NMU, Berry was an accounting professor and the Associate Dean of the School of Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Before UAF, he was an Associate Professor in Accounting at Bradley University, Peoria, IL. Dr. Berry has over 50 refereed publications in his 25+ years as an academic. In the past, Dr. Berry has held the following accounting-related certifications: Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), and Certified in Strategy and Competitive Analysis. At NMU, Kevin currently teaches Financial Accounting I and II and Managerial Cost Accounting.
Excellence in Teaching: Stacy Boyer-Davis, Business; and Adam Naito, EEGS
Boyer-Davis is an associate professor of accounting, assistant department head and MBA director. She has more than 20 years of accounting and leadership experience serving governmental, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. She teaches Financial Accounting III, Fundamentals of Managerial Accounting, and Accounting for Governmental and Not-for-Profit Enterprises at the undergraduate level, and Managerial Accounting, Accounting Research, and CPA/CMA Exam Review courses at the graduate level. Her research interests include the implications of human-technology interaction in the accounting field and high-impact pedagogic practices in undergraduate and graduate accounting programs. Boyer-Davis is a board member of the Michigan Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA), Chair of the MICPA Educators Task Force, board member of the Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA) of Marquette, and member of the Rotary West Club of Marquette. In 2022-23 she was selected for the NMU Excellence in Scholarship Award, Boyer-Davis received her doctorate in business from Capella University, three masters' degrees from Keller Graduate School of Management (HR, business administration and accounting/financial management), and a bachelor's in accounting from Clarion University. She also earned the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) financial reporting credentials.
Naito is an assistant professor in the Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Department. His areas of specialization are physical geography, landscape ecology, GIS and remote sensing applications, biogeography, environmental science, range and forest ecology, Earth systems science, fire ecology, and simulation modeling. He received his doctorate in geography from Texas A&M University, and both a master's and bachelor's in geography from Penn State University. As a geographer and landscape ecologist, Naito integrates field work, GIS, remote sensing, and simulation modeling to improve our understanding of landscape-scale changes in vegetation and its implications for cross-scale interactions and ecosystem services in terrestrial systems. His work has spanned multiple environments, including the montane forests of northern California, Arctic Alaska, the Appalachian Mountains, Southwestern rangelands, and the North Woods of the Upper Midwest. Outside of the classroom, he has employed and mentored more than 90 undergraduate students, many of whom are now pursuing successful careers in earth and environmental science-related fields at federal and state agencies or are furthering their education in graduate school.
Excellence in Part-Time Faculty Teaching: Lucy Johnson, Business
Johnson is an NMU alumnus, earning her BA in English in 2010 and MA in English Pedagogy in 2013. She earned her doctorate in rhetoric from Washington State University in 2018. Johnson's research focuses on communication design, digital rhetoric and professional writing. Previously, she was an assistant professor of digital literacies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Johnson is the assistant director of online learning and development for NMU Global Campus, in addition to teaching public relations and business communication courses as an associate contingent professor in the College of Business. She has published various articles and textbook supplements and has served on multiple editorial boards within her field. In 2020, Johnson gave a talk on her research on emojis to more than 400 Sony Interactive Entertainment employees. Last October, she was a featured speaker for UPHP's annual staff meeting, presenting her research on digital intonation in the workplace.
Excellence in Leadership: Loganne Glendening, Technology & Occupational Sciences
Glendening is an associate professor of hospitality leadership. Within her 17 years of food service experience, she has nine years of experience in higher education, including being the student-nominated recipient of the 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award. She tallies educational accomplishments in the baking and pastry arts, several certifications in the coaching, training, and education of hospitality professionals, and a master's in training and development. Glendening enjoys emphasizing adult learners' motivations, clearing pathways for their success, and engaging in collaboration across NMU to build a stronger community. Being nominated by colleagues for the Faculty Leadership Award is momentous as she continues to grow the hospitality leadership program and herself.
Faculty Emerging Leadership Award: Mlado Ivanovic, Philosophy
Ivanovic is an assistant professor at NMU. He received his doctorate from Michigan State University and B.H. from the University of Belgrade. His research focuses on moral, political and environmental challenges tied with the forceful displacement and migration of people, particularly by examining both the sociohistorical and political contexts of human vulnerability and exclusion. He has published work on humanitarianism, refugees, social and global justice, and human rights and the media. His current research deals with the environmental causes of forceful displacement and humanitarian management of displaced peoples and their inclusion in Western societies. Ivanovic is also engaged with humanitarian non-profit and non-government communities in Serbia, Greece and Turkey, and serves as an adviser for various student organizations in Michigan that deal with humanitarianism and social justice.
Excellence in Online Teaching: Christine Lenzen, School of Art & Design
Lenzen has been at NMU for 12 years teaching photography in the School of Art & Design. Originally from Minnesota, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, before attending the University of Notre Dame for graduate school. Her work primarily deals with themes of identity, family, memory and place. She has exhibited internationally and has received numerous awards for her creative work. She is currently on sabbatical, during which she is completing a body of work focused on the processes of death and mourning.
Technology Innovation: Nelly Kupper, Languages & Literatures and International Studies, and Jean Kupper, Social Work (joint project); and Evan Pratt, Chemistry
Nelly Kupper received her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and her B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a generalist in French literature with a second specialty in Russian literature. Her research has involved examining literature in conjunction with other disciplines. Some of her other research involved examining literature in combination with visual art, as with the paintings of Georges Seurat, presented at the 26th International Conference on Psychology and the Arts, at Tuscia University, in Viterbo, Italy (2009). Her most recent interests, however, focus on the intersection of neuroscience and fiction. This topic appears in her published article in Orbis Litterarum (2011), and is discussed more extensively in her 2018 book, Gaze, Memory, and Gender in Narrative from Ancient to Modern. Kupper was a Fulbright-Hays scholar at Moscow State University, Russia, Summer Program for Faculty of Russian. Her other interests include instruction with the use of Academic Service Learning.
Jean Kupper is a licensed Clinical Social Worker in Counseling and Consultation Services and an adjunct instructor. He earned his undergraduate degree from Roanoke College and his master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. He began working at NMU as adjunct faculty teaching in the Social Work department. He later joined the Counseling Center at NMU, after working on the specialized unit of Assertive Community Treatment for Marquette's community mental health center, providing intensive and emergency psychiatric services. He was a field liaison adjunct faculty member for Michigan State University's Graduate School of Social Work. In addition, he has worked with a wide variety of populations in various treatment settings, public and private, including community-based programs, psychiatric inpatient, outpatient direct care, and clinical supervision.
Pratt is a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry. He graduated from Lyman Briggs College (Michigan State University) in 2010 with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. He had a phenomenal experience as an undergraduate researcher, which steered him toward a career in teaching and research. He pursued his doctorate in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Purdue University. His postdoctoral work was centered on engineering genetically encoded fluorescent Zn 2+ sensors to further understand Zn 2+ biochemistry in living mammalian cells. Since joining NMU Pratt has taught biochemistry courses. He also has an active research program that involves the work of several talented undergraduate students from chemistry and biology. They are working on several research projects in collaboration with other groups on campus.