Honors & Awards

The Department of English and Chemistry Associate Professor Thomas Schmedake have earned awards of excellence from Provost Joan Lorden for their commitment to students and citizens of the region. Lorden presented the Award for Excellence in Teaching to the English Department and the Faculty Award for Community Engagement to Schmedake.

The Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence was first presented in 1968 to recognize outstanding faculty members at UNC Charlotte. Through the years, dozens of College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty have received the top award, reflecting their commitment to stellar teaching.

Michèle Bissière, professor of French, is the golden jubilee recipient of the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence. Presented annually since 1968, the award is one of UNC Charlotte’s most prestigious accolades, recognizing a talented faculty member. Bissière’s outreach has been so diverse and extensive that she is considered the face of French at UNC Charlotte.

For her commitment to teaching at the beginning of her academic career, Jennifer Webb, associate professor in the Department of Psychological Science, is this year’s recipient of the Bonnie E. Cone Early-Career Professorship in Teaching. Provost Joan Lorden announced the honor at University Convocation, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017.

Heather Ann Thompson, a former UNC Charlotte faculty member, has won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in history for Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy (Pantheon). Thompson, currently a professor at the University of Michigan, was a member of the UNC Charlotte History Department from 1997 to 2009.

Erica Cherian, a junior at UNC Charlotte who is devoted to addressing issues of healthcare access and utilization by Charlotte’s most vulnerable citizens, has been named a Newman Civic Fellow. Newman Civic Fellows are student leaders who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions to challenges that face their communities.

UNC Charlotte history professor Mark Wilson has won two top international prizes from the Business History Conference for his book, Destructive Creation: American Business and the Winning of World War II, including the Hagley Prize for the best book in business history in the previous year. Wilson also was co-recipient of the Gomory Prize, in the first time a scholar has won the organization’s two major book awards.

Heather Smith, professor of geography and earth sciences and director of the doctorate in Geography and Urban Regional Analysis, is the 2017 recipient of the Harshini V. de Silva Graduate Mentor Award. She was honored at a ceremony on Thursday, March 30, at the Harris Alumni Center at Johnson Glen.

For his leadership in foreign language education throughout North Carolina and nationally, UNC Charlotte’s Bobby Hobgood has received a “lifetime achievement award” as the recipient of a Foreign Language Association of North Carolina Honorary Life Member Award.

Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte, has been named a trustee of the North Carolina Humanities Council for a three-year term. The organization provides ways for North Carolinians to engage with one another through the humanities. All the programs support lifetime learning in North Carolina through the humanities, especially literature, history, art, music and philosophy.