Celebration of Faculty Excellence Highlights 2022-23 Academic Year Achievements

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (July 13, 2023) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University recognized the accomplishments of the 2022-23 academic year during its annual Celebration of Faculty Excellence.

The event featured Dwinita Mosby Tyler, Ph.D., as keynote speaker. Tyler is chief catalyst and founder of The Equity Project LLC, an organization designed to support organizations and communities in building diversity, equity and inclusion strategies, and The HR Shop LLC, a human resources firm designed to support nonprofits and small businesses.

“This event celebrates the great work of our faculty. I commend the awardees and all of our faculty for their commitment and hard work to ensure students are successful,” said Tonya Smith-Jackson, Ph.D., provost and executive vice chancellor of Academic Affairs.

Robert Newman, Ph.D., distinguished professor in the Department of Biology, College of Science and Technology (CoST), received the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring.

Meeshay Williams-Wheeler, Ph.D., associate professor and program coordinator of child development and family studies as well as coordinator of the Child Development and Family Studies Program in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES), was recognized for receiving a 2023 University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award for CAES.

Other outstanding Teacher of the Year awardees are:

• Scott Harrison, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Biology, CoST
• Dhananjay Kumar, Ph.D., professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering (COE)
• Ryoichi Sakano, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Economics, Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics (Deese College)
• Kim Smith, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS)

Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award winners are Niroj Aryal, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design, CAES, and Venktesh Pandey, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Civil Architecture and Environmental Engineering, COE.

Marrissa Dick, Ph.D., teaching assistant professor in the Department of Liberal Studies, CAHSS, received the Non-Tenure Track Outstanding Teaching Professor Award.

Michael Murphy, of the Center for Academic Excellence, received the Outstanding Professional Academic Advising Excellence Award.  Antoniette Maldonado-Devincci, Ph.D., associate professor in theDepartment of Psychology, John R. and Kathy R. Hairston College of Health and Human Sciences, received the Outstanding Faculty Academic Advising Excellence Award and the Faculty Academic Advising Excellence Award for Hairston College.

College Faculty Academic Advising Excellence Award winners are:

• Tameka Coly, lecturer, Department of Civil Architecture and Environmental Engineering, COE
• Devona Dixon, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, CAES
• Marion Franks, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Chemistry, CoST

Calisha L. Petty, Ph.D., teaching assistant professor and program coordinator for the Master of Arts in Teaching in the Department of Educator Preparation, College of Education (COEd), was named Outstanding Graduate Coordinator.

Bishnu Bastakoti, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, CoST, is the advisor to the recipient of the Outstanding Thesis Award by John Bentley, “Synthesis of Porous Carbon/Tungsten Oxide: Application for Energy Storage Devices,” while Lifeng Zhang, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Nanoengineering, Joint School for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN), is the advisor to the recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation Award by Shobha Mantripragada, Ph.D., “Electrospun Nanofibrous Adsorbents for Water Contaminant.”

Research Award winners are:

• Joseph Graves Jr., Ph.D., professor, Department of Biology, CoST, Senior Researcher of the Year for outstanding research and/or creative activity by tenured faculty members who have been at the university for at least five years
• Renzun Zhao, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Civil Architecture and Environmental Engineering, COE, Outstanding Young Investigator Award honoring tenure-track faculty members between their third and seventh year of service at the university and who are involved in research and show promise of making a significant contribution to their field
• John Ng’ombe, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education, CAES, Rookie of the Year for work by a tenure-track faculty member or non-teaching research scientist in their second year of service at the university
• Shanthi Iyer, Ph.D., professor, Department of Nanoengineering, JSNN, Intellectual Property Award in recognition of a researcher’s work to disseminate, commercialize or publish intellectual property created in the course of their research or creative activity during the previous calendar year
• Dhananjay Kumar, Ph.D., leading the National Science F PREM Team “Collaborative Researcher and Education in Energy Materials”, received the Interdisciplinary Team Award honoring research projects that break down the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines, comprising team members from different academic departments.

Community Engagement Award winners are:

• Joseph Graves Jr., Ph.D., for Community Engaged Teaching
• Dongyang Deng, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Built Environment, CoST, and Liesl Jeffers-Francis, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biology, CoST, were recognized with the Community Engaged Research Award for their collaborative “SARS-COV-2 Surveillance” project
• FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was recognized as the Community Engagement Partner and Kory Bennett, Ph.D., lecturer, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, COE, as their campus liaison

Those granted promotion, tenure or both in 2023 are:

• Geleana D. Alston, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Leadership Studies and Adult Education, COED, promotion
• Jeffrey Alston, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Nanoengineering, JSNN, promotion and tenure
• Shyam Aravamudhan, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Nanoengineering, JSNN promotion
• Niroj Aryal, Ph.D., promotion and tenure
• Caroline S. Booth, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Counseling, COEd, promotion
• Kendra N. Bryant, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of English, CAHSS, promotion and tenure
• Guibing Chen, Ph.D., associate research professor, Center of Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, CAES, promotion
• Mike K. Cundall, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Liberal Studies, CAHSS, promotion
• Robert Ferguson, Ph.D., professor, Department of Chemistry, CoST, tenure
• Jorge A. Gaytan, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Management, Deese College, promotion
• Liesl Jeffers-Francis, Ph.D., promotion and tenure
• Ali Karimoddini, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, COE promotion
• Hyung Nam Kim, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, COE, promotion and tenure
• Rongfang R. Liu, Ph.D., endowed professor and Transportation Institute director, Deese College, tenure
• Matthew B. McCullough, Ph.D., associate professor and assistant dean for Academic Services, The Graduate College, promotion
• Jason N. Mose, Ph.D., assistant professor, School of Nursing, Hairston College, promotion and tenure
• Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Built Environment, COST, promotion and tenure
• Hyoshin Park, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Computational and Data Science, COE, promotion and tenure
• Brandis Phillips, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Accounting and Finance, Deese College, promotion
• Frederick H. Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Liberal Studies, CAHSS, promotion and tenure
• James R. Stewart, Jr. librarian and assistant professor, Department of Library Services, F.D. Bluford Library, promotion and tenure
• Misty Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biology, CoST, promotion and tenure
• Divi Venkateswarlu, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Chemistry, CoST, promotion
• Pauline A. Uwakweh, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of English, CAHSS, promotion
• Jeannette M. Wade, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Social Work and Sociology, Hairston College, promotion and tenure
• Tobin N. Walton, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Social Work and Sociology, Hairston College, promotion and tenure
• Yudan Chen Wang, Ph.D., associate professor and senior researcher, Department of Counseling, COEd, tenure
• Kecia Williams-Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Accounting and Finance, Deese College, promotion and tenure
• Jeff D. Wolfgang, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Counseling, COEd, promotion and tenure
• Lifeng Zhang, Ph.D., promotion
• Renzun Zhao, Ph.D., promotion and tenure

Those who received Exceeds Expectations in post-tenure review in 2022 are:

• Mark Burkey, Ph.D., professor, Department of Economics, Deese College
• Guibing Chen, Ph.D.
• Dominic Clemence, Ph.D., professor, Department of Mathematics, CoST
• Johnny Ducking, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Economics, Deese College
• Jeffrey Edwards, Ph.D., professor, Department of Economics, Deese College
• Louis Jackai, Ph.D., research professor, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design, CAES
• John Kizito, D., professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, COE
• Alexandra Kurepa, Ph.D., professor, Department of Mathematics, CoST
• Valerie McMillan, Ph.D., associate professor Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, CAES
• John Roop, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Mathematics, CoST
• Tiffany Russell, librarian and associate professor, Department of Library Services, F.D. Bluford Library
• Ryoichi Sakano, Ph.D.
• Jagannathan Sankar, Ph.D., distinguished professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, COE
• Abolghasem Shahbazi, Ph.D., professor, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design, CAES
• Musibau Shofoluwe, Ph.D., professor, Department of Built Environment, CoST
• John C. Teleha, librarian and associate professor, Department of Library Services, F.D. Bluford Library
• Catherine White, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Biology, CoST
• Meeshay Williams-Wheeler, Ph.D.

Programs reaccredited in the past two years were also recognized:

• CAHSS, B.S., journalism and mass communication, Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
• COEd, B.S. and M.S., agricultural education, B.S. in birth-Kindergarten concentration, B.S. and M.A.Ed. in elementary education, B.S. in secondary education, CERT and M.S.A. in school administration, M.A.Ed. in reading education, M.A.T., M.S. in instructional technology, Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation
• CoST, B.S. in construction management, American Council of Construction Education (ACCE) and Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET); environmental health and safety, geomatics, ABET
• Deese College, B.S. in accounting, business information technology, economics, finance, management, marketing, supply chain management, MAcc and MBA, Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

A number of current A&T researchers were named as inventors on patents issued in 2022:

• US 11,305,998 (Issued 4/19/2022) “Methods for Manufacturing Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Hybrid Sheet and Yarn by Gas Phase Assembly, and CNT-Hybrid Materials” to Svitlana Fialkova, of A&T, and Sergey Yarmolenko and Mark Schulz, Guangfeng Hour, Vianessa Ng and Devika Chauhan
• US 11,354,396 (issued 6/7/2022) “Authentication Systems Using Sequences of Tile Selections from a Grid” to Mohd Anwar, of A&T, and Paul Biocco
• US 11,384,286 (issued 7/12/2022) "GaAs_(1-x)Sb_x Nanowires Grown on Graphitic Substrate" to Shanthi Iyer, of A&T, Surya Ratna, Kiran Nalamati and Jia Li, of A&T