Two members of the College of Arts and Sciences are among the four WSU faculty to receive the 2016-17 Sahlin awards at the Showcase Celebrating Excellence Recognition Banquet on March 31.
Julie Kmec, Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Sociology, will receive the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Instruction; and Craig Parks, professor of psychology and assistant vice provost, will receive the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Leadership.
Kmec has created and taught undergraduate honors and graduate courses including social inequality, gender and work, labor market inequality and quantitative techniques in sociology. She engages undergraduate classes and motivates students’ interest in social problems. Her teaching reputation has influenced graduate students from outside her department to take her classes because of her expertise in labor markets and work.
Kmec has received teaching and mentoring awards from the College of Arts and Sciences and the sociology department. Learn more about her at https://soc.wsu.edu/people/faculty/tenured-and-tenure-track/kmec-julie/.
Parks is president of the Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy of the American Psychological Association. In the provost’s office, he is managing preparation for WSU reaccreditation, which will culminate in the fall with a visit from the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities. He has served as chair of the Faculty Senate and Academic Affairs Committee and is lauded by faculty, administrators and students for his ability to build consensus among groups with disparate interests.
Parks cofoundered the annual Imagine Tomorrow high school science competition at WSU and served six years on its executive committee. He was the first chair of the police advisory committee. He was director of graduate student training for the psychology department for eight years and, at the request of the Graduate School, mentored new graduate directors in other departments. Learn more about him at https://psychology.wsu.edu/people/faculty/craig-d-parks/.