2020 College Report

MICHEL L. CONROY Professor Art and Design ANN BURNETTE Professor Communication Studies KRISTIN FARRIS Assistant Professor Communication Studies MICHAEL BURNS Senior Lecturer Communication Studies teaching award winners Te Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation honors faculty members in Texas for outstanding teaching at the collegiate level—since its inception in 1958, Texas State has had 24 faculty members earn this award, with Dr. Burnette being the 3rd from our College; the Regents’ Teacher Award is a new designation (2018) from the Texas State University system, with Dr. Gonzalez being the College’s 2nd recipient; Distinguished Professor Emeritus is reserved for a select group of recent retirees. di st ingui shed profes sor emer i t i award Michel L. Conroy is a Professor of Art and heads the ceramics program in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. She holds a B.F.A. degree from Webster University in St. Louis and an M.F.A. degree from Louisiana State University. Her artworks are included in the collections of the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, the University of Georgia, Athens, Yeoju Institute of Technology, Yeoju, S. Korea, and the John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Prof. Conroy served on the Board of Directors for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts from 1998 to 2005, and during her term, curated 25 exhibitions in nine U.S. states and in Korea, China and Taiwan. In 2006, she was honored by NCECA as a Fellow of the Council. CYNTHIA GONZALES Associate Professor Music regents ' teacher award Dr. Cynthia I. Gonzales arrived at Texas State in 2004. Her frst online aural skills collection was published in 2019 by SmartMusic, a leading music-learning software that is accessed internationally. In 2014, she authored a music fundamentals textbook within TRACS to prepare frst-year music majors for the theory placement exam. By 2016, placement into degree-required courses tripled from approximately 25% to above 75%. As a professional soprano, Cynthia has performed with leading American ensembles including Conspirare and Santa Fe Desert Chorale. In November, she begins a three-year term on the Society for Music Teory’s Executive Board, while in 2021 she completes her three-year term as President of the Texas Society for Music Teory. 8 . COLLEGE REPORT 2020 minni e stevens pi per profes sor award Dr. Burnette teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in political communication, American public address, persuasion, rhetorical criticism, and public speaking. She also works with students from the Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center for the legally blind. She has received the Texas State University Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her teaching has also been honored by the Southern States Communication Association and the Texas State Alumni Association. She publishes scholarship on presidential rhetoric, campaign persuasion, women in public address, and freedom of expression issues. She has shared her insights on political rhetoric on national news media such as Te Washington Post and NBC News. pres ident i al excellence award winners Te faculty of the College of Fine Arts and Communication excel as teachers, scholars, artists, and leaders. Te university’s Presidential Excellence Awards recognize and reward superior accomplishments as they encourage all faculty to continue to improve and advance their teaching, scholarly/creative activity, and service. Seven Presidential Awards are granted each year, with the College claiming three of them in 2020. pres ident i al excellence award for Teaching Kristen Farris is an Assistant Professor and serves as the Associate Basic Course Director for the Fundamentals of Human Communication course (COMM 1310) for the Department of Communication Studies. In this role, Kristen is primarily responsible for assessing student learning and teaching efectiveness. Kristen and co-author, Dr. Marian Houser, were awarded with the Program of Distinction Award in 2010 and the Program of Excellence Award in 2011 from the National Communication Association for their work with the basic course. Kristen teaches both large lecture and online sections of COMM 1310 and several other courses including: Interpersonal Communication, Communication Teory, and Empirical Research Methods. pres ident i al excellence award for Service Dr. Burns is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Career Readiness in the Department of Communication Studies and he also serves as the Co-Director for the College of Fine Arts and Communication's research program, CoSearch. Dr. Burns is also one of the co-curators for TEDxTexasStateUniversity. Dr. Burns' professional experiences outside of academia include working for NBC’s Today Show at the 2006 Torino, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio de Janeiro, and 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games. While at the Today Show he works on the production management and logistics team. Dr. Burns also worked as a communication specialist for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. CINDY ROYAL Professor Journalism and Mass Communication pres ident i al excellence award for Service Cindy Royal is a Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the founding director of the Media Innovation Lab. She specializes in teaching the practical and theoretical concepts of digital media. Dr. Royal teaches Web development and other courses dealing with communication and technology. Dr. Royal is the 2013 Charles E. Scripps Journalism and Mass Communication Teacher of the Year. She received the 2013 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching from Texas State. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Royal was selected for the prestigious Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. She developed a platform to teach programming skills to journalists and journalism students called CodeActually. F i r s t gen / N e x t gen . 9