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Integrity and quality of the academic program

Through careful stewardship of human, financial and physical resources, the Office of the Dean of Faculty ensures the integrity and quality of the academic program at Eckerd College. In order to achieve this goal, the Office:

  • fosters a culture of academic excellence and innovation;
  • recruits, supports and retains qualified faculty and academic support staff;
  • manages resources effectively to ensure that the academic program is appropriately supported;
  • and engages with other service areas of the College to enhance the quality of the overall student experience.

Students: Need a petition or independent study contract signed? Please contact Dean Sanfilippo.

Christine Wooley
Vice President for Academic Affairs,
Dean of Faculty
wooleyca@eckerd.edu

Jessica Thonen
Associate Dean of Faculty
thonenje@eckerd.edu
727.864.8674

Kat Robinson
Assistant Dean of Faculty
robinskk@eckerd.edu
727.864.8646

Margie Sanfilippo
Associate Dean of Faculty
sanfilmd@eckerd.edu
727.864.7562

Faculty Awards

John M. Bevan Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership

The John M. Bevan Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award is named in honor of the College’s founding academic dean. The purpose of the award is to honor individual faculty members for nurturing a campus climate that fosters teaching at its best.

Selection of the recipient will be based on a faculty member’s creativity and resourcefulness in developing effective approaches to teaching and success in encouraging the use of these approaches more broadly in the campus community. The key distinction between the Bevan and Staub Awards is the Bevan Award’s emphasis on effective campus leadership with regard to teaching, that is, success in helping other faculty to increase their teaching effectiveness.

Winners

Lloyd W. Chapin Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Art

The Lloyd W. Chapin Award for Excellence in Scholarship is named in honor of the College’s long-serving, now-retired academic dean.  This award is endowed by a generous gift from a couple with close ties to the college and who wish to remain anonymous.  Its purpose is to honor individual faculty members whose scholarship or creative art have made a significant contribution to the field in which they work.

While there are many types of scholarship and art, this award honors scholarship and art as understood by traditional academic standards, and honors those who make a significant contribution to the academic area in which they are working. Significant indicators of this type of scholarship and art are publication of books, refereed publications in academic journals and proceedings, participation in juried art shows and the presentation of original musical and theatrical works. Scholarship includes both discipline-based and interdisciplinary work. It includes theoretical and applied work, as well as research in effective pedagogical approaches. Excellence in professional scholarship and art will be evidenced by the faculty member’s overall record and contributions.

Winners

John Satterfield Outstanding Mentor Award

The John Satterfield Outstanding Mentor Award is named in honor of a beloved member of the founding faculty.  This award honors the  special and vital role of the mentor in a student’s  life at Eckerd.  The selection of the recipient is based on the impact the mentor has had in the areas of academic programming, career planning, and personal growth.

Winners

Robert A. Staub Distinguished Teacher Award

The Robert A. Staub Distinguished Teacher Award emphasizes the primary importance of teaching in the College, recognizes teaching excellence in an individual faculty member, and encourages the pursuit of teaching excellence by the faculty as a whole.

Selection of the recipient by the faculty is based upon the instructor’s knowledge of the subject matter and ability to communicate and inspire student enthusiasm about the subject, develop student skills relevant to the subject, stimulate independent thinking and creative approaches, evaluate student progress and achievement, and respond to both individual and group needs and levels of preparation.

The award is made possible by the generosity of a distinguished former member of the College’s Board of Trustees, Robert A. Staub, whose concern for excellence in teaching reflects his understanding of and commitment to the central role of faculty members in a liberal arts education.

Winners

  • 2024 David Grove, Professor of Chemistry
  • 2023 Polina Maciejczyk, Professor of Chemistry
  • 2022 Jared Stark, Professor of Comparative Literature
  • 2021 Christina Petersen, Associate Professor of Film Studies
  • 2020 Jessie Fly, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
  • 2019 Eduardo Fernandez, Professor of Mathematics and Physics
  • 2018 Yanira Angulo-Cano, Associate Professor of Spanish
  • 2017 Cynthia Totten, Professor of Theatre
  • 2016 William Szelistowski, Associate Professor of Biology and Marine Science
  • 2015 Lauren E. Highfill, Associate Professor of Psychology
  • 2014 Eileen Mikals Adachi, Associate Professor of Japanese
  • 2013 April Schwarzmueller, Associate Professor of Human Development
  • 2011 Denise Flaherty, Assistant Professor of Biology
  • 2010 Barnet P. Hartston, Associate Professor of History
  • 2009 Harry W. Ellis, Professor of Physics
  • 2008 Alison Ormsby, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
  • 2007 Laura Reiser Wetzel, Associate Professor of Marine Geophysics
  • 2006 Edward T. Grasso, Professor of Decision Sciences
  • 2005 Marjorie Sanfilippo Hardy, Associate Professor of Psychology
  • 2004 Anne J. Cox, Associate Professor of Physics
  • 2003 Elizabeth A. Forys, Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences
  • 2002 W. Guy Bradley, Associate Professor of Molecular Physiology
  • 2001 James R. Goetsch, Jr., Assistant Professor of Philosophy
  • 2000 Jeffrey A. Howard, Associate Professor of Psychology
  • 1999 William F. Felice, Assistant Professor of Political Science
  • 1998 David Kerr, Assistant Professor of Mathematics
  • 1997 Victoria J. Baker, Associate Professor of Anthropology
  • 1996 Suzan Harrison, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric
  • 1995 Mark H. Davis, Associate Professor of Psychology
  • 1994 Olivia H. McIntyre, Associate Professor of History
  • 1993 Arthur N. Skinner ’72, Associate Professor of Visual Arts
  • 1992 Diana Fuguitt, Associate Professor of Economics
  • 1991 Carolyn Johnston, Professor of American Studies
  • 1990 J. Peter Meinke, Professor of Literature
  • 1989 Kathryn J. Watson, Professor of Education
  • 1988 Tom Oberhofer, Professor of Economics
  • 1987 James G. Crane, Professor of Visual Arts
  • 1986 John E. Reynolds, III, Associate Professor of Biology
  • 1985 Molly K. Ransbury, Professor of Education
  • 1984 Peter K. Hammerschmidt, Professor of Economics
  • 1983 A. Howard Carter, III, Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities
  • 1982 J. Thomas West, Professor of Psychology and Human Development Services
  • 1981 Julienne H. Empric, Professor of Literature
  • 1980 William B. Roess, Professor of Biology

Grover Wrenn Award for Leadership and Service to General Education

This award acknowledges the lasting influence of the Core Program, today called the General Education Program, and honors founding alumnus and longtime Trustee Grover Wrenn. This award recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates appreciation of the enduring intellectual and artistic works of civilization and the value of their study to the development of the whole person; promotes a strong interdisciplinary general education curriculum in the liberal arts tradition and focused on value questions; and espouses the principle of Founding Dean Jack Bevan who said that the College’s curriculum was designed and executed so as to provide for the “engenderment of a wholesome and critical enthusiasm for inquiry and reflection that will extend beyond the period of formal education.”

Winners