The Path to PTK Excellence: 2024 Awardee Panel
Since 2015, the Provost’s PTK Faculty Excellence Award has recognized individual PTK faculty members for their consistently excellent contributions in one of the three core areas of academic activity: teaching, research and service. As we navigate our various PTK career trajectories, we can gain insight and inspiration by learning more about the achievements, challenges and strategies of these highly successful PTK faculty. In this plenary panel session, we will have the opportunity to speak with many of the 2024 PTK Faculty Excellence awardees and hear about their path to success and excellence. This will be a moderated discussion with an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.
Presenters
Bonnie Dixon, a principal lecturer in the University of Maryland’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has nearly 20 years of teaching, curriculum development and mentorship at UMD. Since joining UMD in 2005, Dixon has taken a personalized approach to supporting students in her courses, which span from basic general chemistry to advanced organic chemistry. She is active in curricular development and strives to offer new and different ways to explore chemistry. Her mentorship activities reflect her dedication to fostering student success. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Vermont College of Medicine.
Paul Goeringer is a Principal Faculty Specialist and the Extension Legal Specialist at the University of Maryland. He joined the University of Maryland’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics in 2012. His research and extension program is focused on agricultural leases, energy leases, landowner liability, production contracts, agricultural nuisance issues, environmental law, and estate planning issues impacting agricultural producers in Maryland.
Deborah Goldberg, University of Maryland BS ’06, Ph.D. ’10 joined the Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE) in Fall 2023 after serving as an instructor in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering since 2016. The Excellence Award selection committee specifically recognized Goldberg for developing engineering courses that bridge content to real-world concerns of industries and for her ability to use pedagogical research and tools to support her students. Goldberg also serves as the associate chair for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in BIOE, and designs her courses and creates a classroom environment such that students from the widest range of backgrounds feel supported and can succeed.
Nicole Nguyen is an Associate Clinical Professor and the Director of Clinical Education and Audiology Program in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining UMD as a faculty member in 2016, she served as Director of Audiology and Cochlear Implant Program Coordinator at UMMC. An active contributor in service at many levels, Dr. Nguyen takes initiative and thinks outside of the box to make lasting impacts on students, patients and systems.
Greg Payne followed a traditional academic route and when he began at the University of Maryland in 1986, he was fortunate to have a joint appointment in an academic department and a research institute. This joint appointment afforded him various opportunities (e.g., he reduced his appointment to live and work in China half-time for 3 years). After three decades of a joint appointment, he gave up his academic appointment (and tenure) to focus his efforts on research, collaboration and training.
Sarah Sohns, Au.D., CCC-A, is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences. She has led her department's Teaching Committee through creating and redesigning peer observations of teaching, including one-on-one clinical teaching for PTK faculty. Along with colleagues, she received a TLTC program-level grant to infuse diversity, equity, and inclusion into her department's undergraduate curriculum. In addition to receiving the Provost's Excellence Award for Teaching, she was named a Philip Merrill Presidential Scholar Faculty Mentor.
Kirsten Stoebenau, PhD, is a social and behavioral scientist with expertise in the social determinants of women’s sexual and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa. In her work, Dr. Stoebenau draws on social theory and mixed-method approaches to examine the social and structural determinants of health behaviors and outcomes. She is currently working on projects that address marriage and family change within the context of rising economic inequality, the social determinants of disadvantaged women and children’s health and wellbeing within the context of marriage change, and facilitators and barriers to improved HIV prevention and treatment efforts for marginalized populations. Before her appointment at the University of Maryland, Dr. Stoebenau held appointments at American University and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).