Dear Colleagues:
As I mentioned at today’s Faculty, Staff and Retirees awards ceremony, Winthrop will
confer during spring Commencement ceremonies awards on faculty members who have demonstrated
exceptional service to the institution and a dedication to student learning.
The Distinguished Professor Award is the highest honor Winthrop can bestow upon a
faculty member. It is presented in recognition of exceptional skills in teaching,
significant research or creative effort, high standing among professional colleagues,
and service to the university and community. It is my pleasure to announce Dr. Cara
Peters, professor of marketing, as the 2019 Distinguished Professor.
The Outstanding Junior Professor Award is given to an assistant professor who has
demonstrated a commitment to inspired teaching, creative scholarship and dedicated
service to students. Dr. Stephanie Lawson, an assistant professor in the Department
of Management and Marketing, is to be congratulated as the 2019 Outstanding Junior
Professor.
The Distinguished Professor and Outstanding Junior Professor awards will be presented
at the 3 p.m. Undergraduate Commencement ceremony on May 4.
The LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award is given to a faculty member who holds the rank
of associate or full professor, has a record of outstanding teaching at the graduate
level, and has made a significant contribution to the quality of graduate education
at the university. Please join me now and on May 2 at the Graduate Commencement ceremony
in congratulating Dr. Laura Gardner, a professor of fine arts and program coordinator
of art education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, as the recipient of
the 2019 LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award.
Below is a press release with more about these outstanding faculty members. The release
will go out to our larger Winthrop community shortly. Please join me now and at graduation
in thanking these faculty members for their extraordinary contributions to Winthrop
University.
Sincerely,
Dan
Three Winthrop Faculty Members Honored with Annual Awards
ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Winthrop University will honor two marketing faculty members
at its May 4 Commencement ceremony for their scholarship and creative teaching methods.
President Dan Mahony will recognize Professor Cara Peters as recipient of the Distinguished
Professor Award, the highest recognition for faculty members, and Assistant Professor
Stephanie Lawson with the Outstanding Junior Professor Award at one of two graduation
events.
There will be two Commencements on May 4 at Winthrop Coliseum – one at 10 a.m. for
the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts and
another at 3 p.m. for those graduating from the Richard W. Riley College of Education
and the College of Business Administration. Peters and Lawson will be honored at the
afternoon event.
A third faculty award will go to Professor Laura Gardner of the College of Visual
and Performing Arts during the May 2 Graduate Commencement ceremony at 7 p.m. in the
Winthrop Coliseum. She will be honored with the Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award.
Read more about the honorees:
Distinguished Professor
Cara Peters is the 2019 Distinguished Professor. The designation is the highest honor
the Winthrop community can bestow on a faculty member.
A faculty member in the Department of Management and Marketing, Peters has served
on the College of Business Administration’s leadership team as assistant and associate
dean for professional development.
She teaches a wide variety of courses including the principles of marketing, advertising,
e-commerce, marketing management, qualitative market research, personal selling and
global marketing. An active and prolific scholar, Peters has built a record of high
quality publications in top journals. A firm believer in helping the community through
her research, Peters and a colleague have studied the economic development efforts
of the nearby Catawba Indian Nation.
In addition, her research on Black Friday and NASCAR fans have garnered positive press
for the college and for Winthrop.
Peters has won two other Winthrop faculty awards: the 2010 LaRoche Graduate Faculty
Award and the 2009 Kinard Award for excellence in teaching.
Outstanding Junior Professor
Stephanie Lawson is the 2019 Outstanding Junior Professor. An assistant professor
in the Department of Management and Marketing, she has professional experience in
marketing management and research in the healthcare, transportation and retail industries.
Lawson has shown a commitment to quality online instruction delivery by taking a flexible
approach to reformulating courses to reflect the benefits of online education.
She has developed a capstone course for M.B.A.-marketing concentration students so
they could complete marketing plans for several area businesses including two owned
by Winthrop alumni. She also initiated the “Marketing Me” project where she challenged
students to imagine their professional and personal lives five years from now.
Her research covers collaborative consumption, services, sustainability and Native
American marketing issues.
Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award
Laura Gardner, a professor of fine arts and program coordinator of art education in
the College of Visual and Performing Arts, is the 2019 Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty
Award recipient.
Gardner began her career teaching art to young children in the Hudson Valley. A letterpress
printer and book artist, she has worked as an illustrator and specialty painter in
New York and the Carolinas.
At Winthrop, Gardner directed, until 2012, two graduate programs: the Master of Arts
in Arts Administration and the Master of Arts in Art Education. She has received numerous
grants and awards in the areas of pedagogy, service learning, arts education, book
arts, and letterpress printing, including a 2018 award from the South Carolina Art
Education Association for her mentoring.
Gardner also studies how to integrate educational technology into academics for art
educators.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at 803/323-2404
and longshawj@winthrop.edu.
