Dr. John Franz, a professor of social work education, has been awarded the top teaching honor at California State University, Fresno.

Dr. William A. Covino, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, named Franz as recipient of the 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award.

The annual Provost’s Awards also honored:

  • Dr. Michael Caldwell, associate professor of music, with the Faculty Service Award.
  • Dr. Constance Jones, professor of psychology, with the Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award.
  • Dr. Martin Shapiro, associate professor of psychology, with the Technology in Education Award.
  • Dr. Benjamin Boone, associate professor of music, with the Distinguished Achievement in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Award.

Four other faculty members were recognized with Promising New Faculty awards, which recognize exemplary achievements in teaching, research/creative activities and/or service among tenure-track faculty. Honorees are Dr. Yongsheng Gao, Dr. Jennifer Ivie Barth, Dr. Jason Immekus and Dr. Marnel Niles.

Covino created a new category for Distinguished Achievement in Assessment of Learning and named the Department of Counseling, Special Education and Rehabilitation as the first recipient.

Measuring and documenting student learning success and using the findings to encourage improvement and assure high-quality programs fits into Fresno State’s Strategic Plan call for assessing student learning to drive academic excellence.

In making his first awards since becoming provost July 2009, Covino said, “This was a difficult decision. I have been so impressed with the many exceptional faculty on our campus. It’s an honor for me to congratulate these outstanding individuals for their work as teachers, researchers and mentors.”

The awards include stipends of $5,500 for the Excellence in Teaching recipient and $3,000 each to the other awardees. The Distinguished Achievement in Assessment of Learning award includes a $5,000 stipend to the department.

John Franz came to Fresno State in 1985. He developed and ran the Employee Assistance Program and taught part time, gaining tenure in 1997 and full-time status in 2005. He remembers thinking as a college student that teaching was the last thing he wanted to do, but somehow he followed many family members and became an educator.

Franz has specialized in undergraduate instruction in the Department of Social Work Education, bringing innovations to the classroom from conferences he has attended.

Franz has made extensive use of online journal assignments and focused on giving frequent, useful feedback to his students. He has continued to publish in his field and to participate in statewide endeavors related to teaching.

One of the areas Franz has placed most emphasis upon is the quality of the learning environment, mentoring faculty to enhance expertise in advising and providing many hours of adult education for faculty, staff and others in the community.

In 2005, he received the Outstanding Service Award from the International Association of Employee Assistance Professionals in Education.

Michael Caldwell, an associate professor of music who joined the faculty in 2002, receives served a three-year term as the Music Department’s representative on the University High School board of directors and served as board president. He is the faculty representative to the Centennial Committee and is a faculty fellow with the Center for the Scholarly Advancement of Learning and Teaching. He has organized events and activities associated with the preservation, education and promotion of jazz. He has been president of the California Music Educators Association-Central Section and a member of its statewide board of directors. He was awarded the 2010 California Music Educators Association President’s Award for Extraordinary Accomplishments in Music Education.

Constance Jones, professor of psychology, has excelled in developing and teaching the psychology graduate research methods course and has developed her own handbook for the statistics portion of the course. Jones, who joined the faculty in 1993, has chaired the Psychology Graduate Committee for the past four years and implemented new procedures for evaluating applicants, including on-campus interviews. She implemented a program for future faculty with California State University, Bakersfield to provide information and support for graduate students considering teaching careers. She is a prolific researcher and shares critical research and statistical skills with students, helping them become the researchers and practitioners in the future.

Dr. Martin Shapiro, associate professor of psychology, came to Fresno State in 2003. He is described as an outstanding instructor whose incorporation of technology is invaluable for students’ success. He actively uses Blackboard and PowerPoint with embedded, varied multimedia to enhance all of his standard courses and has developed and taught an online course. Shapiro worked closely with honors students and graduate students to develop the procedures, protocols and apparatus necessary for a fully functioning EEG (electroencephalogram) lab. The technology provides students with an invaluable opportunity to get hands-on experience with research in the neurosciences.

Dr. Benjamin Boone, associate professor of music, joining the faculty to teach music theory and composition in 2000. He is a prolific composer and performer nationally and around the world. His works have been performed in at least 23 countries and in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Recordings of his compositions appear on 18 CDs by leading performers. He has received 18 national and international awards and honors for his compositions. Boone has published eight articles in national journals on topics ranging from jazz to career development. He was a Fulbright Senior Specialist Scholar to the Republic of Moldova, where he presented guest lectures and master classes at the Academy of Music.

The Promising New Faculty winners are:

Yongsheng Gao, an assistant professor of physics, who joined the faculty in 2007. He started an experimental research group in high-energy physics that was admitted to the ATLAS detector experiment, one of the two “discovery” experiments on the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in Switzerland. He offers special particle physics classes for students interested in doing summer research on the ATLAS experiment. Among the 23 CSU campuses, Fresno State is the only one involved in the two LHC discovery experiments. In 2009, Gao secured a $460,000 elementary particle physics grant from the National Science Foundation. He recently learned that he will be awarded another $620,000 NSF grant to purchase the necessary computing power to analyze data from ATLAS.

Jennifer Ivie Barth, an assistant professor of psychology, joined the faculty in 2006. She teaches a wide array of courses focusing on quantitative methods, statistics and computer applications to data analysis. She developed a statistics tutoring laboratory, is actively engaged in student research projects and edits her department’s newsletter. Barth developed a program of scholarly research in four related areas of quantitative psychology, including core issues in applied quantitative theory and educational measurement. She is active in several professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, Western Psychological Association and National Council for Measurement in Education.

Jason Immekus, an assistant professor of education research and administration, joined the faculty in 2007. His expertise is in measurement and assessment. He co-authored “The Added Value of Multidimensional Item Response Theory Models” and eight refereed journal articles. He also has 25 paper presentations. Immekus is a faculty fellow for the Central California Children’s Institute, where his research helps identify and address needs of local children. He is president of the Kremen Faculty Assembly and serves on many school committees.

Marnel Niles, an assistant professor of communication, joined the faculty in 2007. Niles has leadership positions in the Untenured Faculty Organization and the College of Arts and Humanities Executive Committee, has been an officer for the Black Faculty and Staff Association and an adviser for the Black Students United. Her lecture and workshop topics include how to improve small group interaction in the classroom, how to recruit black university students, and perspectives on black female identity. She has presented her research nationally six times and is organizing the Western States Communication Association conference. Niles is co-editing the book “Still Searching for Our Mothers’ Gardens: Experiences of New, Tenure Track Women of Color.”

The Department of Counseling, Special Education and Rehabilitation faculty members’ work was recognized as a model of learning using data to assess outcomes and bring about positive changes. Assessment includes looking at students’ academic strengths and needs; their cultural, ethnic and linguistic characteristics; and their environment. The department seeks to provide individuals with learning opportunities tailored to meet their educational needs.