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KU’s Mortar Board to honor Outstanding Educators on Nov. 28 and Dec. 2
LAWRENCE — Five faculty members at the University of Kansas have been chosen as Outstanding Educators for 2007 by KU’s Torch chapter of the Mortar Board national senior honor society. The group has presented its teaching awards at KU since 1974.
Honorees this year are Paul Hanson, professor of chemistry; Mary Klayder, University Honors Lecturer in English; Scott Murphy, associate professor of music theory; Ingrid Peterson, director of the Kansas Algebra Program in the mathematics department; and Amy Rossomondo, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese.
Mortar Board will honor this year’s Outstanding Educators during the KU-Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball game scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28, at Allen Fieldhouse. Chancellor Robert Hemenway, Mortar Board President Nick Barnthouse and Mortar Board Outstanding Educator co-chairs Emily Bannwarth and John Volk will present certificates to the winners.
Mortar Board will also honor the award recipients at a 1:30 p.m. ceremony Sunday, Dec. 2, 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 subjects and other special qualities identified by the KU chapter. Mortar Board’s 42 members selected the winners.
Mortar Board membership is based on distinguished achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. Students must have a 3.0 grade-point average and hold senior status at KU. The group’s advisers are Linda Mullens, senior budget and personnel administrator in the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Success; Antonio Simoes, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese; and Sandy Garrett, Lawrence Mortar Board Alumni.
Biographical information about the Outstanding Educators is detailed below, followed by hometown information for KU Mortar Board officers.
Paul Hanson joined the KU faculty as a chemistry professor in 1996. He received a bachelor’s degree from Luther College in 1985 and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1993. That year he was awarded a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral research fellowship to conduct work at Stanford University focusing on developing synthetic methods to access vitamin D analogs as potential anti-cancer agents. His current research interests are the development of synthetic methods and tools for drug discovery. Hanson also directs the Diversity in Sciences Mentoring Program funded by the National Institutes of Health, is a project leader with the NIH Center of Excellence in Chemical Methodologies and Library Development at KU and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Materia Inc. He has sustained NIH and National Science Foundation funding throughout his career. In 1999, he received an NSF Career Award. In 2006, he won KU’s H.O.P.E. Award.
A University Honors Lecturer in English, Mary Klayder began teaching at KU in 1980 as a graduate teaching assistant. She received a bachelor’s degree in art history from KU in 1972, a bachelor’s degree in education in 1975, a master’s degree in English education in 1981 and a doctorate in English in 1995. At KU, she teaches freshman honors English classes, regularly directs the British Summer Institute in the Humanities and has started two study abroad programs, one in London and one in Costa Rica. Klayder won the J. Michael Young CLAS Advising Award and was a H.O.P.E. Award finalist in 2004 and 2006. Her academic interests lie in creative nonfiction, especially travel literature and personal narrative. She is working on a collection of essays on place and memory.
An associate professor of music theory, Scott Murphy has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in music theory and film music history at KU since 2001. He holds a doctorate in music theory from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester and master’s degrees in musicology and composition and a bachelor’s degree in music theory/composition from KU. His publications include analyses of the music of Brahms, Ives, Bartók, Penderecki and recent Hollywood science-fiction soundtracks in journals such as Music Analysis, Perspectives of New Music, twentieth-century music and Music Theory Online. He has contributed two chapters to the “Film Genre, Music and Sound” series on music by Bernard Herrmann and Elliot Goldenthal. He serves on the editorial boards of Music Theory Online and Intégral, and on the executive board of Music Theory Midwest. Recently, he has undertaken a project exploring how some passages in Wagnerian opera and Hitchcock’s films associate a particular harmonic sonority with sensuality.
Ingrid Peterson is director of the Kansas Algebra Program, part of the Department of Mathematics at KU. Peterson has been with KU since 1995. She received a bachelor’s in mathematics from Bethany College and a master’s and doctorate in curriculum and instruction from KU. Before becoming director of KAP in 2000, Peterson was a student teacher supervisor and was KAP’s assistant director. As director, Peterson has academic and administrative responsibilities, including development of curriculum and assessment for algebra classes, and mentoring and training tutors and teaching assistants. Peterson is a member of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Mathematical Association of America. She has made presentations at national and regional NCTM conferences, most recently at the NCTM-Atlanta conference in March and the NCTM Regional conference in October. Peterson also is the pre-conference coordinator for the AMTE annual conferences. On campus, she is on the advisory board for the Milestones and Danger Zones for Talented Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics project and is a faculty mentor for the men’s basketball team.
An assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Amy E. Rossomondo received a bachelor’s from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s from the University of Georgia and a doctorate from Indiana University. Before joining the faculty at KU, she was a visiting professor at Miami University in Ohio. Her principal areas of research are second language acquisition, second language pedagogy/classroom research and Hispanic sociolinguistics. She published an article on the use of pronominal address forms in Madrid that resulted from a William J. Fulbright research grant. She is working on a series of articles on second language reading and input processing, the first of which will appear in Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 1. She is co-director of Project Conexiones, a virtual intercultural exchange between Spanish students at KU and English students at the University of Costa Rica. In the Costa Rica program, students have discussions about politics and worldviews and work together to create final projects that focus on cultural phenomena from two perspectives. The project has the potential for expansion in the near future that will allow more students enrolled in Spanish courses at KU to have opportunities to develop intercultural competence.
Mortar Board officers for 2007-08 are listed below by hometown, major, parents’ names, high school and leadership role.
JOHNSON COUNTY
From Leawood 66209
Sarah Edwards, senior in English and environmental studies, daughter of Rob and Elizabeth Edwards; Blue Valley North High School; community service chair.
From Leawood 66211
Nick Barnthouse, senior in biochemistry, biology and microbiology, son of Chris and Carrie Barnthouse; Blue Valley North High School; president.
From Overland Park 66212
Morgan Shirley, senior in biochemistry and chemistry with a minor in leadership studies, daughter of Mark and Cynthia Shirley; Shawnee Mission South High School; secretary.
LYON COUNTY
From Emporia 66801
Anne Kretsinger, senior in communication studies, daughter of W. Brock and Mary Kretsinger; Emporia Senior High School, historian.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
From Independence 67301
Emily Bannwarth, senior in marketing, daughter of David and Marlene Bannwarth; Independence Senior High School; Outstanding Educator co-chair.
RENO COUNTY
From Hutchinson 67502
Sarah Conklin, senior in accounting, daughter of Scott and Kathy Conklin; Hutchinson Senior High School; alumni relations chair.
SALINE COUNTY
From Salina 67401
Ryan Mize, senior in economics and political science, son of John and Karen Mize; Salina High School Central; treasurer.
SHAWNEE COUNTY
From Topeka 66604
Katie Ault, senior in biochemistry and human biology, daughter of Mark and Marilyn Ault; Topeka West High School; tapping-initiation co-chair.
From Topeka 66614
Brian Hay, senior in biochemistry, son of Charles and Deanne Hay; Washburn Rural High School; vice president.
John Volk, senior in English and political science, son of Tim and Lisa Volk; Topeka West High School; Outstanding Educator co-chair.
OKLAHOMA
From Broken Arrow 74011
Dustin Curzon, senior in management, son of John and Marti Curzon; Broken Arrow High School; tapping-initiation co-chair.
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