PULLMAN, Wash. Carol Anelli, Kenneth Casavant, Terry McElwain and W. Sue Ritter have been named recipients of the 2008-09 Sahlin Faculty Awards in recognition of excellence in academic achievement. Bernard Van Wie will receive the Marian E. Smith Faculty Achievement Award 2008 and Wendy Brown will deliver the Distinguished Faculty Address.
All will be honored March 27 as part of Washington State University Showcase, which celebrates the achievements of WSU faculty and staff.
Anelli, an associate professor of entomology and interim Honors College thesis director, has received the Sahlin Award for Instruction.
A faculty member since 1996, she has been the sole instructor for several courses which she developed for General Education, the Honors College and the Department of Entomology. Her course contents, materials, teaching methods and even examinations have been highly praised by students and peers on the local and national level. Her work addresses the history of entomology and evolutionary thought, the teaching of evolution, and the pedagogy and scholarship of teaching and learning using interdisciplinary approaches.
Anelli was one of the first members selected to serve on the President’s Teaching Academy and also served as its first chair. She currently serves on the Teaching Academy Board of Directors and is chair of the WSU All University Writing Committee. Her outreach has included serving as board member for the Palouse Discovery Science Center and as a board member of the Entomological Foundation.
Casavant, a professor and scientist at the School of Economic Science, has received the Sahlin Award for Leadership.
A faculty member at WSU since 1969, Casavant leads the Transportation Research Group of the School of Economic Sciences, developing a national and international reputation in transportation economics and policy.
He has served in numerous leadership capacities inside and outside the university. He served as the Washington representative on the Northwest Power Planning Council and was co-chair at the Academic Affairs Program Prioritization (A2P2) Task Forces.
Casavant led the effort to create a Friends of Hospice Foundation in Pullman and the funding campaign for the Grand Avenue Greenway. He has served as vice provost of Academic Affairs and Research, and as president of the Faculty Senate.
He serves as the university’s faculty athletic representative to the NCAA and Pac-10 with oversight of the athletic program’s compliance with NCAA regulations, improving the academic performance of athletes, and representing the university and the Pac-10 before the NCAA Management Council. He was a founding member and is vice president of the national Division 1 FAR organization.
McElwain, professor of microbiology and pathology and executive director of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, has received the Sahlin Award for Outreach and Engagement.
A faculty member at WSU since 1989, McElwain became director of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL) in 1993. He played a vital role in the formation of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which permits more rapid recognition of animal health problems with potential national or international consequences. He has also worked to realign U. S. laboratory standards with international standards and to improve the standards of animal health laboratories across the country. At the same time, he has helped to mentor veterinary students, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows as they have worked to develop their laboratory skills and research.
McElwain has reached out to international audiences, in part by serving as the U.S. representative to the World Animal Health Organization and as a liaison to the United Nations organization working on pathogen diagnoses. He has also served on three National Academy of Sciences panels on disease surveillance.
Ritter, a professor of veterinary and comparative anatomy, pharmacology and physiology, received the Sahlin Award for Research, Scholarship and Arts.
Ritter has been a faculty member at WSU since 1974. Her laboratory is engaged in anatomical, behavioral and physiological research to identify metabolic events that control the onset of feeding and the neural pathways responsible for monitoring it. In particular, she has elucidated the function of hindbrain glucoreceptors that are activated by low blood sugar. This work is critical to understanding and managing hypoglycemia that occurs in diabetics who are taking insulin.
She has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health for 31 of her 34 years at WSU, including a U56 grant. She has also held major grants from the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She is the author of more than 100 publications and has obtained national and international recognition for her scientific contributions.
Van Wie, a professor at the School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, received the Marian E. Smith Faculty Achievement Award.
A faculty member at WSU since 1983, Van Wie has developed an excellent research program and many innovative teaching methods, including the extensive use of hands-on materials.
His teaching accomplishments during 2007-08 grew to include world-wide influence as a U.S. Fulbright lecturer and researcher to Nigeria. While in Nigeria, he taught at Ahmadu Bello University using a unique, one cubic-foot desktop learning module that he developed under a National Science Foundation grant to improve engineering education. He also conducted research on biosensors to detect toxins in cassava, a food staple in Nigeria.
The global impact of this work was recognized when Van Wie and colleagues received initial $250,000 Phase I support from a World Bank grant that involves WSU, the Spokane based Infinetix Corporation, the Nigeria based Major Academy Corporation, and eight top-ranked universities from every geopolitical region of Nigeria.
Brown, a professor of veterinary microbiology and pathology at WSU since 1995, has been awarded the honor of delivering the Distinguished Faculty Address.
She has received many honors and awards, including the Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award of the American Association of Veterinary Immunologists in 1999 and the International Veterinary Immunologists Award of the International Union of Immunological Societies in 2004. In 2007, she was named an AAAS Fellow for her distinguished contributions to understanding T-lymphocyte responses to obligate intracellular tick-borne protozoal and rickettsial pathogens yielding vaccine candidates and novel mechanisms used to modulate host immunity.
Under Brown’s leadership, she and her collaborators have developed the scientific basis for the eventual production of rationally designed and effective vaccines against diseases caused by protozoal and rickettsial infectious agents and have laid the foundation for extrapolation of these approaches to similar diseases of humans.
