KU News Release

Nov. 6, 2006
Contact: Carly Burger, Mortar Board Outstanding Educator co-chair.

KU Mortar Board to honor five Outstanding Educators on Nov. 7 and 12

LAWRENCE — Five University of Kansas faculty members have been named Outstanding Educators for 2006 by KU’s Torch chapter of the Mortar Board national senior honor society. The group has presented its teaching awards at KU since 1974.

Winners this year are Ann Eversole, assistant vice provost for Student Success; Bob Frederick, assistant professor and interim chair of the Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences in the School of Education; Parker Lessig, Frank S. Pinet Distinguished Teaching Professor in the School of Business; Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, senior vice provost for academic affairs and professor of clinical child psychology; and Jenny Noyce, lecturer in the Department of English.

Mortar Board will honor this year’s Outstanding Educators during the KU-Emporia State University men’s basketball game Tuesday, Nov. 7, at Allen Fieldhouse. KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, Mortar Board President Rob Williams and Mortar Board Outstanding Educator co-chairs Carly Burger and Matt Goble will present certificates to the winners.

Mortar Board also will honor the recipients at a 1:30 p.m. reception Sunday, Nov. 12, at the Malott Room in the Kansas Union. Mortar Board members and alumni, as well as university administrators and faculty colleagues, are invited to attend.

Mortar Board members nominate educators for their devotion to academia, teaching style, accessibility, knowledge of their subject and other special qualities identified by the KU chapter. Mortar Board’s 39 members selected the winners.

Mortar Board membership is based on distinguished ability and achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. Students must have a 3.0 grade-point average and hold senior status at KU. The group’s adviser is Linda Mullens, senior budget and personnel administrator in the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Success.

KU’s Mortar Board chapter was founded in 1912 as the Torch senior women’s honor society. In 1924, it affiliated with the national Mortar Board women’s honor society founded in 1918. Mortar Board opened membership to men in 1975.

Biographical information about the 2006 Mortar Board Outstanding Educators is below.

Ann Eversole: Eversole came to KU in 1973. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Emporia State University and a doctorate in educational policy and administration from KU. She has been interim dean of students and associate dean of students and has extensive administrative experience relating to student life, student housing, greek life, university policy development and undergraduate program development. For 15 years she was director of the KU Student Organizations and Leadership Development Center and was instrumental in the development of the interdisciplinary minor in leadership studies. Eversole is a member of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. An advisory board member for KU’s Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center, she is featured on the 2006-07 Women of Distinction calendar. Among her KU honors are being named Employee of the Year and a member of the KU Women’s Hall of Fame. She is the longtime adviser for Rock Chalk Revue, the student-run variety show that benefits the United Way of Douglas County.

Bob Frederick: Frederick has taught classes relating to sports facilities, management, marketing and law since fall 2001. He has held teaching, basketball coaching and athletics administration roles at KU. He earned a bachelor’s degree in education with a major in chemistry and minor in social studies from KU in 1962. He also earned two graduate degrees from KU, a master’s degree in education in 1964 and a doctorate in education administration in 1984. Frederick was assistant athletics director at KU from 1981 to 1985 and athletics director from 1987 to 2001. He was chairman from 1995 to 1997 of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and from 2000 to 2002 was chair of the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct, among numerous intercollegiate athletics leadership activities. He has received such honors as the Cliff Wells Appreciation Award in 1997 for outstanding contributions to college basketball from the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the NIT Distinguished Service Award in 2001.

Parker Lessig: Lessig returned to his alma mater as a faculty member in the KU School of Business in 1972. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at KU, he was in 1970 the first person to complete a doctorate in business at KU. His dissertation won the American Marketing Association Doctoral Dissertation Competition. Among his undergraduate initiatives, Lessig has developed a technical manual that teaches effective business writing. His classes focus on marketing strategies and marketing segmentation. He has received more than 10 major teaching awards, including a W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2000. Within the School of Business, he has held numerous administrative positions including associate dean for research and graduate studies, associate dean for administration and academic affairs, director of doctoral programs and director of undergraduate studies. He received the School of Business Distinguished Alumni Award this year.

Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett: McCluskey-Fawcett came to KU in 1985 as a visiting associate professor of psychology and a research associate for the Bureau of Child Research. She joined the faculty in 1986. A 1971 graduate of the University of Minnesota, she earned a master’s degree in 1973 in child development and a doctorate in 1977 in developmental and child psychology, both from KU. Her research focus is life span psychology with a particular emphasis on non-normative development in children.
Before being named to her current position in July 2002, McCluskey-Fawcett was interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 2001 to 2002 and associate provost from 1996 to 2001. She previously was associate vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1993 to 1996, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1989 to 1993, and as chair of the Department of Psychology from 1986 to 1989. In fall 1999, McCluskey-Fawcett was a visiting scholar with the American Psychological Association. In 1998, she received the Outstanding Educator Award from Mortar Board and the J. Michael Young Academic Adviser Award.

Jenny Noyce: Noyce has taught introductory-level classes in writing and fiction in the English department since the fall 2003 semester when she was a graduate teaching assistant. She earned her master’s degree with honors in English with emphasis on creative writing from KU in spring 2006 with a thesis collection “Congratulations! I Say.” Among her areas of interest are the contemporary short story and experimental writing. Twice Noyce was awarded the department’s Victor J. Contoski Award for an outstanding portfolio of creative writing. As a master’s degree student, she was the coordinator of the Writers’ Reading Series featuring creative writing by graduate students and faculty. She participated in a service learning project that facilitated creative writing workshops for women in recovery from addictions. A fiction writer, Noyce has recently had work published in Coal City Review and Denver Quarterly. With particular interests in postcolonial theory and Irish studies, she plans to lead a summer 2007 study abroad program to Northern Ireland.

Mortar Board officers for 2006-07 are listed below by hometown, major, parents’ names, high school and leadership role.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence 66049
Matthew Goble, senior in psychology and journalism and mass communications (news and information emphasis), son of James and Dana Goble; Lawrence Free State High School; Outstanding Educator co-chair.

FINNEY COUNTY
From Garden City 67846
Beth Crotty, senior in human biology, daughter of Douglas and Rebecca Crotty; Garden City Senior High School; historian.

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Leawood 66209
Michael Raupp, senior in finance and management, son of Tom and Karla Raupp; Blue Valley Northwest High School; tapping/initiation co-chair.

From Shawnee 66216
Ashley Withers, senior in community health, daughter of Mike Withers; Shawnee Mission Northwest High School; alumni chair.

RENO COUNTY
From Haven 67543
Megan Guhl, senior in human biology and psychology, daughter of Bill and Kathy Guhl; Haven High School; vice president.

RILEY COUNTY
From Manhattan 66503
Mehrdad Hosni, senior in chemical engineering, son of Mohammad Hosni; Manhattan High School; secretary.

Rob Williams, senior in business administration and finance, son of Jeffery and Lucy Williams; Manhattan High School; president.

SALINE COUNTY
From Salina 67401
Carly Burger, senior in marketing, daughter of Terry and Shelda Burger; Salina Central High School; Outstanding Educator co-chair.

ILLINOIS
From Glen Ellyn 60137
Carrie Blatchford, senior in history and psychology, daughter of Richard and Barbara Blatchford; Glenbard South High School; tapping/initiation co-chair.

IOWA
From Ames 50014
Megan Hunziker, professional master of architecture student, daughter of Gary and Christine Hunziker; Ames High School; community service chair.

MASSACHUSETTS
From Danvers 01923
James DiGiuseppe, senior in finance and management, son of James George DiGiuseppe; St. Johns Preparatory School; treasurer.

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