Provost Faculty Career Award    

• Marc M. Cahay, PhD     
  
  Professor/Head, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
  College of Engineering & Applied Science

Throughout his 28 years of service at UC, Marc Cahay, PhD, has earned an international reputation for his pioneering contributions in the nanoscale device modeling, vacuum nanolectronics, and more recently, theoretical and experimental discoveries in spintronics. He has accumulated a staggering record of seminal publications, lectures, fellowships, awards, citations, and accolades. His work as a co-organizer for international conferences has opened countless opportunities for collaboration and offered tremendous exposure for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and UC.

Teresa Hamad, an EECS academic adviser, praised Cahay’s impactful accomplishments since his appointment to department head. He has “updated the name of the department to provide more visibility for the Computer Science program, been instrumental in the successful nominations of several faculty and student awards, established new departmental awards for service to the department, established an EECS Staff Appreciation Day, brought many faculty candidates to campus to be interviewed for cluster hires, and increased the visibility of the CS Summer Camp.”

Professor Punit Boolchand from the UC EECS department commended Cahay as a unifying force and a catalyst for transformation: “We are witnessing a sea change of attitudes in the department as people are working together and the department is growing. Professor Cahay is the facilitator - his most important leadership quality is selflessness.” 

Cahay cultivates an environment of scholarship, collaboration, and mutual advancement that encourages his students and colleagues to learn, share, and innovate.

Cahay’s uplifting influence is reflected in his relationships with students. Jonathan Ludwick, PhD student of Cahay, said, “His personability, knowledge, connections, and overall willingness to help has drastically enhanced both my ambition and ability to be in the field of research. Dr. Cahay has been an excellent research adviser as well as an inspiration to my work.”

George Barbour Award for Good Faculty-Student Relations    

• Craig M. Froehle, PhD  
  
  Professor, Operations, Business Analytics & Information Systems
  Lindner College of Business    

Professor Craig Froehle, PhD, is unselfish with his time, and his students are happy to help him spend it. His classes are lively and engaging, and he makes a point of emphasizing his outside availability. Student evaluations of his classes have landed him on the Carl H. Lindner College of Business Dean’s List of Teaching Excellence every semester he has taught at UC. Students line up for his classes, which always have waiting lists despite having doubled in size over the last decade.

As an advisor to doctoral students, Froehle knows the importance of faculty-student relations better than most. “These connections are long-term and intensely personal,” says Froehle. “They are built on mutual trust; they trust that I always have their best long-term interests in mind, and I trust that they will be sincere in their efforts.” Froehle has served as the Operations, Business Analytics & Information Systems Department’s PhD program coordinator since 2012, and he’s proud to have chaired or been a member of seven PhD committees. 

He also understands the importance of relationships in the business world, and has paid his students’ way to conferences to expose them to cutting-edge research and networking opportunities they couldn’t otherwise experience. For Froehle, the success of his doctoral students is his success...with one exception: the annual PhD student-faculty Wiffleball match, a tradition Froehle started a decade ago. “We jokingly say the game lasts as long as necessary for faculty to win,” he says. “We continue to do this each year, and I’m delighted to say it has become a fixture of our department’s culture of forming close relationships between faculty and our doctoral students.” 

Established Entrepreneurial Achievement Award    

• Daniel J. Hassett, PhD     
  
  Professor, Molecular Genetics
  College of Medicine    

Daniel Hassett, PhD, has studied the impact of lung infections on humans since his days as a post-doctoral fellow at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He met a world expert on cystic fibrosis and witnessed first-hand how families were impacted by the genetic disease, responsible for persistent lung infections that limit their ability to breathe due to airway infections.

“I started meeting people who had cystic fibrosis (CF) and found out they would cough up their sputum...I said then, ‘It’s going to be my life’s goal to find a major treatment where we kill these antibiotic resistant bacteria.’”

It’s a pledge that Hassett hopes to make good on, and he’s making progress in tackling CF, which affects 30,000 people in the United States. It’s also introduced him to another troublesome bacterial infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which strikes about 16 million adults in the United States and at least 250 million worldwide. Hassett led a team of researchers that have found an “Achilles heel” of a dangerous organism, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which lives in the lungs of CF and COPD patients. It’s vulnerable to destruction by slightly acidified sodium nitrite, a common food preservative. A mutation—known as mucA — may hold the key to helping physicians clear the characteristic “goop” from the lungs of advanced cystic fibrosis patients.

Hassett’s findings were reported in the February 2006 edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.  He’s also developed a potential treatment for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, known as AB569. In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Orphan Drug Status for AB569—a combination of two active ingredients, sodium nitrite and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid—nebulized so it can be delivered to patients via a PARI-type inhaler. The science Hassett has perfected is now being tested in a phase 1 human trial of AB569 at the Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. 

Distinguished Teaching Professor

• Emily M. S. Houh, JD    
  
  Professor 
  College of Law
  

When Emily Houh, JD, first began teaching, her father, a university math professor known for his seemingly never-ending well of patience, offered her sage advice that’s come to be a guiding principal in how she approaches education. 

In every class you teach, regardless of how good or bad a teacher you are, Houh’s father told her, there will be 10 percent of the class who will get the material and 10 percent who will not. The challenge, he said, is how to reach the 80 percent of students for whom it will matter how good of a teacher you are.

“You have to pay attention to the students at the ends, but you’ve got to pitch mostly to those in the middle, and it’s really challenging to do all three of those things simultaneously,” said Houh. “That advice carries me through in all of my teaching. That’s how you reach the most students.”

Reaching students across the spectrum has never been a challenge for Houh, say her students, who consistently give her among the highest teaching ratings and thrice awarded her the college’s Goldman Prize for Teaching Excellence. Two students even asked Houh to officiate their weddings. 

Beyond the classroom, Houh works tirelessly to bring innovative programming to campus and create unique professional opportunities for students through her role as co-director of the college’s Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice. 

Colleague Kristin Kalsem, whose office is next to Houh’s, sees the dedicated law professor’s commitment to student success on a daily basis in the hours she spends with students — both current and former — discussing papers, exams, careers or just life. 

“Professor Houh does much more than share her knowledge; she shares herself,” said Kalsem. “She is outstanding in the classroom, but truly extraordinary outside it.”

Distinguished Research Professor    

• David Y. Hui, PhD    
  
  Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
  College of Medicine
  

Not many academic researchers can lay claim to 30 years of uninterrupted research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but David Hui, PhD, certainly can (an estimated $20 million).

UC’s Reading Campus is his research domain. Hui joined the UC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine faculty in 1987, and in the time since he has become internationally renowned for his research in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, with numerous contributions of major impact on improving human health and treatment of diseases.

His current research spans all major focus areas of research, including cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, infection and inflammation, cancer, and neuroscience. In recognition of his research successes, Hui was named director of the Metabolic Diseases Research Center in 2014; after already having established the UC Center for Lipid and Atherosclerosis Studies which led to the eventual formation of the Cincinnati Diabetes and Obesity Center—both recognized among the top metabolic research centers worldwide. 

Dr. Hui has almost 160 peer-reviewed publications and is the author of 24 reviews/chapters. He has supervised 38 undergraduate students in his lab and successfully graduated 17 doctoral candidates. He has mentored 15 post-doctoral trainees. Six of his faculty mentees have all received NIH awards at the assistant professor level.

 Hui has been an invited speaker at 63 venues and an invited speaker at 23 major symposia, with the most recent being the American Heart Association national convention. He served as the chairman of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Summer Research Conference in "Intestinal Lipid Absorption, Metabolism and Transport" in 1997, and was the keynote speaker at the Blood, Brain and Heart Council Conference in Shiga, Japan in 1999.

E-Learning Program of the Year     

• i-Pad Adoption & Implementation Team    
  Student-Athlete Support Services

What started as a device used to review game footage has evolved into an academic tool that is transforming the student-athlete’s way of life and learning at the University of Cincinnati.

“This is a perfect example of what happens when you pull a team of people together with the objective of helping students,” says Joe Luckey, EdD, UC’s senior associate athletic director.

The Athlete iPad Initiative started during the 2015-2016 academic year. Gigi Escoe, PhD, vice provost for undergraduate affairs, teamed up with Joe Luckey, and UCIT to lower the cost of textbooks and improve student-athlete learning using one digital platform.

Through the Initiative, student-athletes, along with athletic staff and coaches, are given an iPad Air 2 to easily and remotely access electronic books and course materials through Blackboard, iTunes U, iBooks, and UC Smartbooks.

In the fall of 2017, about 60 percent of textbooks offered to student-athletes were delivered in an electronic format through Vital Source, an electronic book app with notetaking, highlighting and dictation features.

Other productivity apps such as Wunderlist, a work organization tool, along with the ability to save documents to the iCloud, allow students to conveniently access documents and needed tools to study.

“Finding solutions to make course materials more affordable, accessible and effective for students and faculty is a top priority,” says Escoe.

Academic advisors also utilize iPads to collaborate in a truly wireless environment, which eliminates the cost of paper, and provides up to the second data about a student’s academic performance. This speed and delivery of data allows individualized and quick responses to assist at risk students.

The proof is in the data:

• The average student-athlete GPA during the 2017 spring and fall semesters was 3.2 – a new record.
• 70 percent of student-athletes earned a 3.0 or higher GPA during 2017.
• UC’s football program won the conference award for best GPA for the third consecutive year.
• Athletic department saved more than $20,000 by purchasing electronic textbooks.

Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award    

• Gary R. Kelm, PhD   
  
  Adjunct Professor 
  James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy
  

After retiring in 2009 from a successful career in health and beauty research and development with Procter and Gamble, it would have been understandable if Gary Kelm, PhD, had hung up a “GONE GOLFING” sign.

Lucky for the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, Kelm continued teaching as adjunct faculty. He began at Winkle College in 1997 by teaching three graduate courses (Advanced Biopharmaceutics I & II and Advanced Drug Delivery Systems) in 1997, and from there worked tirelessly to improve upon the program’s stellar reputation. Since 2009, he has developed three graduate courses, Cosmetic Formulation II (2009), Oral Care Products (2011), and OTC Topical Drug Products (2013) and offered them each year since inceptions. He has coordinated the MS Capstone Sequence (Cosmetic Project I and II), offered every semester, since 2011, significantly revising and upgrading the syllabi to incorporate new communication technologies and improve the academic experience for the students. Under his leadership, a number of enhancements to the program were made and the program became the largest of its kind in the country.

“In my interactions with Dr. Kelm, he quickly distinguished himself from other academic advisors and professors that I have encountered throughout my academic career not only in the expertise and understanding that he had for both the academic and professional aspects of the consumer products industry, but mostly in the compassion and caring that he had for all students,” says a former student.

In addition to student education and graduate student mentoring, Kelm is also a researcher assisting the college in its mission to advance health science and discovery. Dr. Kelm is a co‐investigator in an FDA sponsored research project on the Development of a Dissolution Method for Long‐acting Periodontal Drug Products and is also a co‐investigator in recent National Institutes of Health grant proposals on dental research in addition to being a consultant to the pharmaceutical and personal care industry

Faculty Award for Exemplary Service to the University    

• Gregory D. Loving, PhD 
  
  Professor, Philosophy
  UC Clermont College    

UC Clermont College Professor Greg Loving, PhD, has spent nearly two decades at the University of Cincinnati confronting problems — and finding solutions. Now a philosophy professor and chair of UC Clermont’s Department of Social Sciences, Loving first started standing up for fellow faculty as an adjunct instructor in the early 2000s, when he started organizing UC adjuncts for an American Federation of Teacher drive.

“When I see a problem, I want to fix it,” Loving says. “I saw a problem with adjuncts not receiving enough support or pay. Much of my service has been driven by wanting to solve problems of inequity among faculty and staff.”

The Berkeley-educated Loving, who once considered a path as a Baptist minister, soon became a visiting professor, and in 2006, joined UC Clermont in a tenure-track position. In 2012, Loving was elected president of UC’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the university’s collective bargaining unit representing 1,800 faculty members. In 2015, Loving oversaw the longest period of negotiation between the administration and faculty in 40 years. He was later elected to the National Council of the AAUP, has served on a number of hiring committees and currently serves as faculty representative to UC’s Board of Trustees.

“As a philosopher, the thing I’m most proud of is asking really good questions,” Loving says. “You have to ask good questions fearlessly. Not in an oppositional way, but in a way that raises the issues and gets people to deal with them.”

Loving’s commitment to not only his colleagues, but also his students and UC Clermont’s open-access mission, is appreciated by his peers.  “As I walked to and from class, I would often see Greg in the hallway or the Learning Center working with students,” wrote Sally Moomaw, chair of the UC faculty and associate professor in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Service, in support of Loving’s nomination. Moomaw taught a cohort class in Early Childhood Education at UC Clermont for a number of years. “I saw this so frequently that I actually thought this was his paid position. It was only later that I learned that this was volunteer work with students on top of his regular faculty position.”

A long-time singer/songwriter/guitar-player, Loving was born in Normal, Ill., “on the day Ringo joined the Beatles.” His solo work, as well as songs by his band No Consolation, are available via download or streaming services. 

George Rieveschl Jr. Award for Distinguished Scientific Research    

• Francis X. McCormack, MD    
  
  Gordon & Helen Hughes Taylor Professor, Internal Medicine
  Director, Division of Pulmonary Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
  College of Medicine

Frank McCormack, MD, is a true clinician-investigator excelling from the bench to the bedside as a translational researcher. McCormack has many notable basic science and clinical science research accomplishments and has been federally funded for laboratory and translational research for over two decades.

He was the first to identify an effective drug treatment that is now FDA-approved for the treatment of the rare lung disease, lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). This resulted in the publication of a landmark paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011. He has been the face of the LAM Foundation, having served as its Founding Scientific Director since 1995.

His contributions to the medical field are improving the lives of many patients suffering from lung diseases. His compassion for his patients, enthusiasm for research and drive to make a positive impact in improving patient care is infectious. McCormack has tremendous skill in building teams with diverse expertise and a goal-oriented leadership style that promotes collaboration, enjoyable interactions, scientific rigor and tangible outcomes. He is widely regarded as one of the most generous, selfless, humble yet effective mentors and collaborators within the field.

McCormack’s impact will reach far into the future through his training of the next generation of physicians and scientists. He leads a longstanding National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded training program in lung development and disease, and his trainees are successful at securing NIH awards, first author publications in top tier journals and faculty positions at outstanding institutions.

Mrs. A.B. "Dolly" Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching    

• Deborah T. Meem, PhD     

  
  Professor, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
  McMicken College of Arts & Sciences    

Deborah Meem, PhD, is an accomplished author, researcher and professor whose academic career had inauspicious beginnings as precocious but distracted child.

“I would be sent to the principal’s office so often, I had my own chair. And I was allowed to bring a book,” said Meem, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences.

Meem is the recipient of this year’s Mrs. A.B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching, named for the late philanthropist. Meem has taught various subjects at UC since 1984, including writing, literature and honors courses. She served as head of the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies for seven years and co-authored a groundbreaking textbook on LGBTQ studies titled “Finding Out,” now in its third edition.

Meem has presented more than two-dozen papers at conferences across the country.

Meem said she has tried to impart her experience to other faculty as she prepares to retire.

“You don’t teach with smoke and mirrors. There are things you do that help you teach well,” she said.

In her nomination letter, UC student Emily Okamoto described Meem as a fabulous professor who helped her think critically about contemporary feminist issues. Department head Amy Lind said Meem was a wonderful teacher who influenced undergraduate and graduate research.

“She has helped students develop their ideas and envision themselves as researchers and writers,” Lind said.

Meem is retiring this year after nearly 35 years at UC. If she had any advice for her colleagues it’s to take pride in all of the unheralded but invaluable work for their departments they do outside of the classroom and lab.

“I’ve known lots of people chosen for this award. They are very impressive people,” she said. “Getting this nomination from a student was very moving for me.”

Faculty Award for Exemplary Service to the University    

• Richard A. Miller, PhD   
  
  Professor, Civil & Architectural Engineering & Construction Management
  College of Engineering & Applied Science

Concrete does not last forever. Despite their indestructible reputation, concrete structures inevitably erode and require repair. That is where Richard (Rich) Miller, PhD, comes in. Miller has devoted his career to making concrete structures, specifically bridges, safe for civilians.

Miller’s work has been instrumental in affecting changes for American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials bridge design specifications and the Ohio Department of Transportation specifications, both of which cover the design, evaluation and rehabilitation of highway bridges.

Before his teaching career at UC, Miller worked in the industry as a concrete inspector in Cleveland and eventually as a licensed professional engineer in Chicago. While in Chicago, Miller earned his master’s degree and PhD at Northwestern University before returning to Ohio in 1988 when he accepted a positon as assistant professor at the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS).

Since then, Miller has received numerous awards for teaching and research, including CEAS Distinguished Researcher, CEAS Master Educator and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Elected Fellow. He currently serves as professor and associate head of the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management.

Miller’s Ohio roots aren’t hard to see. On top of being from Northeast Ohio and receiving his bachelor’s degree from Cleveland State University, Miller is an avid Cleveland sports fan. Should you ever need to track him down, just look for the professor donning the Cleveland Cavaliers jacket in Baldwin Hall.

Miller projects this same passion to his teaching and research. Sarah Mullins, a teacher’s assistant for Miller’s Statics and Basic Strengths of Materials class, talks about her work with him. “Dr. Miller is approachable, objective, knowledgeable and enthusiastic,” she says. “He pushes his students to understand concepts and takes command in his field of expertise. He clearly loves what he does.” 

Mrs. A.B. "Dolly" Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching    

• Janet Moore, JD  
  
  Professor
  College of Law
  

When the UC College of Law first asked Janet Moore, JD, to teach classes, the capital defense attorney and policy advocate decided to test a hypothesis: “Would I be able to accomplish more system change from this position than I was doing by case-by-case litigation or policy research and advocacy?”

It wasn’t long before Moore, now a law professor at UC, had her answer. 

“I still get to do that policy-oriented research and advocacy, but now I get to teach it,” she said. “It’s such an honor to be a part of raising up the next generation of change-makers.”

For Moore, it’s that tireless dedication to pursuing justice that’s earned her a reputation as an exceptional educator who devotes an incredible amount of her time both in and outside of the classroom to ensure student engagement and success.

Students regularly say that Moore’s classes are among the most challenging — and memorable — of their law school careers.

Students prosecute houseplants and question stuffed animals on the witness stand. Lesson plans are supplemented with vintage film clips, card games and the opera Don Giovanni. Classes sing the Federal Rules of Evidence recorded to the tune of nursery rhymes.

Last year, Moore allowed first-year law students to work with her on an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, which cited the brief in its majority opinion — an experience the jubilant students described as “surreal,” “profound,” and the “highlight” of their year.

“Janet is a professor who sets high expectations for her students, balancing both joy and rigor in the classroom. Her classes reflect the kind of deep learning that represents the highest standards of teaching,” said Verna Williams, the college’s interim dean and Nippert Professor of Law.

Distinguished Research Professor/George Rieveschl Jr. Award for Creative and/or Scholarly Works    

• Christopher Phillips, PhD  
  
  John & Dorothy Hermanies Professor of American History/Head, History
  McMicken College of Arts & Sciences    

"Liminal spaces. I've always been drawn to them." So said Christopher Phillips, PhD, about his scholarship on the American Civil War. Born in rural Western Illinois to a transplanted Kentucky family, Phillips has always been fascinated by narratives about the struggle between the Union and the Confederacy that aren't typically explored in traditional "North vs. South" binaries.

He's keenly interested in how the war played out on Midwestern homefronts, in the West, and in the South during Reconstruction. "People like me are now asking questions about long-term occupations that don't seem to be war, or that carve out a new definition of war and war landscapes," he observed. His work involves, " looking back and asking if wars really begin or end at a certain time, or maybe asking if there are maybe more long-lasting effects that perpetuate the period of wartime."

Phillips received his PhD from the University of Georgia in 1992 and, recruited by the late Dr. Zane Miller, arrived at UC in 1999. He has, to date, published dozens of highly-regarded articles and seven books, and garnered numerous sought-after recognitions — including two CHOICE Outstanding Academic Text awards.

"Beyond his accomplishments as a researcher, Chris has also made a profound mark as a mentor of research through his devotion to a large and growing cohort of graduate students," noted one nominator for this year's Rieveschl Award. Phillips, his peer wrote, has left an indelible mark "on multiple generations of scholars entering the U.S. history field."

Prior to embarking on his path as a groundbreaking historian, Phillips taught history and coached boys basketball and baseball at a high school in Missouri. He met his wife of 24 years, Jill — also a high school teacher and basketball coach — while studying at Georgia. Although there is no official word on which of them is the better coach, it should be noted that Mrs. Phillips' 2014 Princeton High School girls basketball squad won the Ohio Division I title, and nothing about Dr. Phillips' coaching accomplishments can be located anywhere online. They have two sons, of whom Dr. Phillips is very proud: Grayson, 17, plays baseball and will attend LaSalle next year, and Maddox, 14, who attends Roger Bacon.

Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award    

• Andrew C. Villemez, DMA    
  
  Adjunct Instructor, Piano
  College-Conservatory of Music
  

Andy Villemez, DMA, is praised by his University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music colleagues for going above and beyond for students. The adjunct instructor of piano carries a full course load, teaching undergraduate and graduate classes, while mentoring students outside of the classroom.

“He uses his position as an adjunct instructor to better prepare his students for life as professional musicians rather than just fulfilling his duties as an instructor,” says one current student.

Villemez graduated from CCM with a DMA in Piano in 2015 and incorporates his experience as a recent graduate into his teaching methods. In order to better prepare students for life after graduation, Villemez began the “Big Picture” lecture series, a professional development initiative that is open to all CCM students of any major.

The lecture series falls outside of Villemez’s typical responsibilities as an instructor. It includes mentoring students on community engagement, finance management and even how to build a professional website.

He is also the faculty advisor for CCM’s Chapter of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), where he works with students on research projects and conference proposals. Earlier this year, one student presented research at the MTNA Collegiate Symposium in Austin, Texas, and thanks Villemez for helping her develop an engaging presentation.

Villemez recently presented two of his own research papers at the Ohio Music Teachers Association Annual Conference: “Building Arts Ambassadors Through Private Music Instruction” and “Teaching to Everyone: The Basics of Universal Design for Learning.” He has also written multiple scholarly articles focused on piano pedagogy for the MTNA Electronic Journal and Clavier Companion.

“What distinguishes Dr. Villemez is his commitment to research, pedagogical leadership and mentorship of students,” says CCM Interim Dean bruce mcclung. “Simply put, he is one of CCM’s most valuable adjunct faculty members for the model he sets and his deep engagement with student learning and career development.”