K irkwood Community College
Endowed
Faculty Chair
Awards
2015 - 2016
“I am continually amazed at the
creativity, energy and dedication
to learning demonstrated by our
faculty. The wide range of topics
and goals in these Endowed
Faculty Chair awards is only the
beginning. The endowment process provides ongoing
support of teaching and learning at Kirkwood.
Decades from now, students and faculty will benefit
from what these fine faculty members do today.”
~ Dr. Mick Starcevich, President
2015-2016
Endowed Faculty Chair Recipients
Steve Abram
Professor, Management and Business Computer Applications
Business and Informational Technology
Supported by the
Henry B. and Patricia B. Tippie Endowed Chair
Matt Hagele
Assistant Professor, Religion
Arts and Humanities
Michele Payne
Professor, English
Iowa City Campus
Nick Sagan
Professor, Human Anatomy and Physiology
Math and Science
Christine Shea-Hunt
Assistant Professor, Psychology
Social Sciences
Cate Sheller
Professor, Computer Science
Math and Science
Supported by the following
Endowed Faculty Chair Donors
The Allsop Family
Diamond V
The Mansfield Trust
The Rohde Family
RuffaloCODY
St. Luke’s Hospital/UnityPoint Health
Transamerica
Kirkwood Facilities Foundation
Kirkwood Foundation Board
What are the
Endowed Faculty Chair Awards?
T
he Endowed Faculty Chair awards were initiated by Kirkwood
Community College President Dr. Mick Starcevich to honor
retiring President Dr. Norm Nielsen in December 2004.
Endowed Faculty Chairs provide an opportunity for selected
faculty to undertake professional development projects in their
disciplines or in instructional pedagogy through writing, preparing
and presenting a special lecture, conducting research, or pursuing
other opportunities. The emphasis is on personal and professional
growth and is separate from assigned duties, routine work or
service to the department.
The goals for the Endowed Faculty Chair program are to:
• Encourage faculty to pursue educational challenges with creativity and innovation.
• Promote academic quality by supporting faculty commitment to educational and pedagogical excellence.
• Promote the college’s name in connection with educational excellence.
• Bring community leaders and faculty together in a commitment to excellence in education.
The Endowed Faculty Chair program is a major effort by the
Kirkwood Board of Trustees and the Kirkwood Foundation
Board to demonstrate their commitment to quality instruction
by recognizing and fostering instructional excellence and
lifelong learning.
2015-2016
Henry B. and Patricia B. Tippie Endowed Chair
Steve Abram
Business Administration A.A.S.
Development and Articulation
The intent of this project is to create a new Business
Administration, A.A.S. degree that will articulate
directly into the business school at each of the regent universities and several
of Iowa’s private colleges/universities. The result being that any student
earning the Business Administration, Associate of Applied Science degree
from Kirkwood may transfer directly into the business college at several of
Iowa’s public or private colleges or universities as a Junior and complete their
bachelor’s degree in Management, Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Business
Analytics, etc., or they may use the degree to go directly into the workforce if
that is their preference. This unique degree will be very versatile and provide
our business students with a better option as they progress through their
education. This new degree program will provide Kirkwood students with
a direct and clear pathway into the College of Business at a choice of fine
colleges and universities in Iowa.
Kirkwood Endowed Faculty Chair
Matt Hagele
Christian Ethics of Vegetarianism:
Barth’s Implicit Argument
In his Church Dogmatics, twentieth-century Protestant
theologian Karl Barth briefly comments on
vegetarianism, arguing that in their decision to avoid meat consumption,
Christian vegetarians naively and dangerously act as if the Kingdom of God
is fully present. Despite this explicit criticism, I find an implicit argument for
a Christian ethics of vegetarianism in Barth’s magnum opus. He argues that
God’s granting of meat consumption to humanity is specifically connected
to the system of religious sacrifice in the Old Testament. The recognition of
sin and the sacrifice of animals—followed by eating the sacrificial victims—
provided the justification for consuming animal flesh. For Christians, however,
the entire purpose of the sacrificial system was fulfilled by the death of Jesus
Christ, the ultimate sacrifice. The result, I contend, is a strong theological
argument for a Christian ethics of vegetarianism, grounded in the theological
significance of the Christ event.
2015-2016
Kirkwood Endowed Faculty Chair
Michele Payne
Break a Leg
Drama is unique among the literary genres because it
isn’t just literary art, it’s performance art. You can read a
play the way you read a novel and it can be meaningful
and beautiful. But plays come alive in performance; they are meant to move.
I used to spend hours and hours in theatres on stage and back stage, but it’s
been forty years. I know I will be a better teacher of drama as literature if
I remind myself what drama in performance entails, so I signed up for an
acting class at the University of Iowa in the fall. In the spring I will seek out a
volunteer position either on stage or doing costuming, make-up or stage crew
for a local production. As I go, I’ll keep a blog, create classroom assignments,
and compile a database of volunteer opportunities for students and speakers
willing to come to classes.
Kirkwood Endowed Faculty Chair
Nick Sagan
Review, Research and Recordings of the Cadavers
and Isolated Organs
All of the students who take Human Anatomy and
Physiology at Kirkwood are going to be health
professionals. To facilitate student learning, Kirkwood is fortunate to have
two cadavers and over 50 isolated human specimens for student hands-on
experience. However, when students come into the cadaver lab to study on
their own, sometimes they are looking at and studying the wrong structures.
To help focus their work, I will create text and video tools to help them study
independently when they are in the lab. First, I will make a series of videos for
each system of the body using our cadavers and our isolated organs. Second,
I will research causes, cures, and medications for each of our isolated diseased
specimens. This research would be included in each video as well as in written
form so students will be able to access this information easily for each isolated
specimen in the lab.
2015-2016
Kirkwood Endowed Faculty Chair
Christine Shea-Hunt
Their Stories Matter
In psychology, the lifespan is viewed in developmental
stages. Each stage is unique, and as individuals we often
share common issues and experiences. Imagine yourself
as an 18-year-old student sitting in a developmental psychology class. Your
instructor is asking you to consider the perspective of an 85-year-old. You are
being asked to imagine the physical, psychological and emotional experiences
that might go along with being in the late adulthood stage of life. This is a
very difficult task as an instructor and even more difficult for an 18-year-old
student. The goal of my project is to create a video library of interviews with
individuals in the late adulthood stage of life to help students understand the
unique perspective of those in the late adulthood stage. These interviews will
be shown in class as “virtual guest speakers,” to help students understand and
learn about the experience of aging.
Kirkwood Endowed Faculty Chair
Cate Sheller
My Year of Coding Musically
As a professional, I am passionate about my field and
love the teaching and practice of computer
programming. As a human being, I am equally
passionate about a field with which I am considerably less familiar, at least
on a professional level: music. In my project, I am exploring that intersection
of music with technology by writing software that will help me learn
music theory. I hope to apply that knowledge to the production of vocal
arrangements for the community choir to which I belong. I will also share
the knowledge I gain with my students in the form of a greater emphasis in
my classes on software projects that both create and interact with various
forms of media, including music and visual art. My project artifacts will
include completed programs, apps and curricular material as well as at least
one vocal arrangement.
We are grateful to the Endowed Faculty Chair donors and
their dedication to supporting excellence in the classroom.
For more information about creating an Endowed Faculty
Chair in honor or memory of someone special, contact
Kathy Hall at 319-398-7650 or khall@kirkwood.edu.
The Kirkwood Foundation exists to bridge the
gap between the needs and resources of
Kirkwood Community College and its students.
www.kirkwood.edu