UNCG Teaching Excellence Award
Dr. Jennifer Farrell, Department of Kinesiology
Dr. Jennifer Farrell was selected for her interactive and collaborative learning environment, which motivates students to contribute in the classroom and the community. Farrell keeps her content fresh by updating assignments based on current events as well as staying focused on four things to be a successful teacher: balancing individualized learning with teaching a larger group; application of knowledge to student interests and personal lives; enhancing professional skills of students; and fostering a growth mindset. One of her main goals for the classroom is creating a supportive classroom climate.
Farrell is able to take constructive feedback from students and peers to better improve her teaching experience. One former student said the applied sport psychology program, headed by Farrell, sets students up for success.
Mary Frances Stone Teaching AwarD
Dr. Omari Dyson, Department of KinesiologY
Dr. Omari Dyson serves as a teacher, mentor, and role model in his Department, where he creates an inclusive and energetic classroom. Dyson’s teaching environment is structured yet personal, rigorous but empowering. His passion for a subject is infectious and makes students excited to come to class. He uses engaging, hands-on activities and real-world examples to educate his students. Dyson ensures each student feels seen, supported, and challenged. He uses scaffolding learning, connecting content to students’ interests and experiences. Dyson also expertly blends mentorship with instruction, reviewing graduate school essays, guiding students on professional attire, and helping them achieve confidence in themselves.
He also ensures the multiple diverse and challenging materials he curates for class are relevant, topical, and as timely as the class year.
Jerry and Joan Morrison Tolley Teaching Award
Dr. Steven Fordahl, Department of Nutrition
Dr. Steven Fordahl is an engaging teacher who ensures his classroom environment has open communication. In addition, he uses several different mediums to maintain student engagement. This teaching style allows him to connect with each student and build trust. Fordahl’s also ensures his students know information in a logical format, rather than rote memorization, and works to meet students where they are by using short video and audio clips to keep students engaged in class.
He encourages students to speak their knowledge aloud, to better absorb and understand it, and suggests students write questions for him to answer during the semester, allowing for shared ownership in learning. Fordahl includes current nutrition problems into his curriculum. Fordahl maintains a strong work ethic, patience, and dedication to teaching students to be effective researchers. One former student said his teaching style and approachability creates a culture of mutual respect and enthusiasm for learning that cannot be replicated.
HHS Outstanding Staff Award
Becky Kates, administrative support specialist, Department of Kinesiology
Becky Kates is this year’s recipient. Colleague Dr. Greg Daniels said she demonstrates, “consistently extraordinary dedication and expertise.” He commends Kates’ “can-do” attitude amid tasks that include course scheduling for 160 courses for dozens of faculty and teaching assistants, as well as serving as the department’s website editor, and social media coordinator for UNCG’s third-largest undergraduate major.
Kates serves as the coordinator for Kinesiology’s All-Day Advising and Registration event, to help undergrads develop their plan of study. Throughout the year, Kates also maintains the weekly Kinesiology newsletter with relevant events and news for the department, as well as helping with open houses and other recruitment efforts.
HHS Contributions to Belonging and Inclusion Award
Dr. Jeannette Wade, Human Health Sciences Program
Dr. Jeannette Wade’s contributions to belonging and inclusion include increasing the presence of underrepresented populations in the health and human sciences professions, conducting research to advance understanding of social disparities and inequity on the health, development or well-being of diverse populations, and addressing the needs of diverse populations that face social and health disparities. She invites students of all backgrounds to serve as research assistants on projects, connecting them to her professional network, and includes students on published manuscripts to diversify STEM fields.
Wade also serves as a faculty mentor for those in underrepresented communities. She’s obtained a $50,000 Cone Health Education Grant to address health career barriers through paid internships, as well as a UNCG Internal Research Award to conduct research with young Black women and sexual health, health care and sexual violence.
Additionally, Wade has served on several task forces to ensure the needs of diverse students and organizations are met. One student said through Wade’s, “mentorship, direct research experiences, and culturally attuned guidance, (she) empowers students from varied backgrounds to make meaningful contributions to the field, nurturing the next generation of equity-minded scholars and practitioners.”
HHS Community Engaged Scholar Award
Dr. Rachel Boit, Department of Human Development and Family Studies
Dr. Rachel Boit was selected due to her research on exploring young refugee children’s literacy needs for school readiness and integrating culturally relevant literacy strategies for Congolese refugee families with young children. During her nine years at UNCG, Boit has served as Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Community and Economic Engagement, received the ORE/ICEE Partnerships and Pathways Community Engaged Scholars Program and Award, and has maintained a long partnership with the New Arrivals Institute (NAI). Her research has helped parents promote children’s literacy learning with bilingual books, while also empowering families with strategies to support their children’s literacy development.
Boit’s work also assists early childhood educators with the skills needed to work with culturally diverse populations. Through her research and engagement efforts, Congolese families in the Greensboro area work with partner organizations to better understand when and how to enroll children in preschool. Additionally, Boit is a member of the Early Literacy Advisory Team for a Guilford County organization that aims to have all children enroll in kindergarten and be ready for school.
HHS Junior Research Award
Dr. Kierra Sattler, Department of Human Development and Family Studies
Dr. Kierra Sattler’s research involves mothers and parenting in poverty, child development in foster care, and risk and resilience. She most recently obtained a $1.6 million NIH grant to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers and their children. Her work is interdisciplinary and relevant to child development, family studies, social work, and prevention science, and is aimed to impact interventions and policy. Sattler applies complex analytical techniques to datasets for her research, resulting in multiple publications. In addition, Sattler supports her graduate students as authors on publications. She has delivered two dozen research presentations at academic conferences, many of which included mentored doctoral students. In addition to the NIH grant, Sattler also received a New Faculty Grant from UNCG and additional funding from HHS.
HHS Senior Research Award
Dr. Amanda Tanner, Department of Public Health EducatioN
Dr. Amanda Tanner’s research focuses on the integration of sexual health promotion and disease prevention through behavioral research and prevention science. She researches HIV and STI prevention and care among marginalized groups, in the hopes of providing solutions to these individuals. Since joining UNCG in 2011, Tanner has published three book chapters, presented at 76 conferences, and published 85 peer reviewed journal articles, more than a third of those with students as co-authors. She has also given 18 invited talks about her research.
Tanner has received funding from the NIH, CDC, and HRSA. She is currently working on a $2.4 million research project, and as co-investigator on two others totaling $3.5 million. Tanner’s work includes creating apps to accompany her research. As a professor, Tanner works with doctoral students, where she is supportive, encouraging, and direct. Her methods allow students to work collaboratively and in interdisciplinary teams, where they are exposed to various research methods and scholarly experiences, learning critical research skills, hone writing and presentation skills. She was previously an HHS Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award winner.
HHS Graduate Mentoring AwarD
Dr. Diane Gill, Department of KinesiologY
Dr. Diane Gill has been with UNCG since 1989, and is a leader in the area of sport and exercise psychology. During that time, she has mentored undergraduate and graduate students, creating a challenging and supporting environment that helps them succeed. In the last 11 years, Gill helped the Doctor of Education in Kinesiology program transition to fully online, where she was still able to form strong connections with her students.
While a faculty member with HHS, Gill has mentored more than 100 doctoral students and more than 40 master’s students. Her honest, supportive, and hard-working qualities have ensured her mentees are successful.
During her tenure with the UNCG Department of Kinesiology, Gill has served as the director of graduate studies, director of the Center for Women’s Health and Wellness, head of the department, and assistant dean and associate dean of the School. She is a member and former president of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD); member and former president of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity; a fellow in the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK); fellow in the American College of Sports Medicine; and a charter fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology, to name only a few.
Gill previously received the Senior Research Excellence Award for our School in 2007 and 2024. She has published four books and more than 40 book chapters, in addition to numerous research publications. Gill has also presented papers on her research dozens of times, and served as a reviewer for journal manuscripts for 13 organizations. Gill also offers her skills as an external reviewer for faculty/tenure promotion or for departments/programs at multiple universities and colleges across the country. She also works to better UNCG, having served on dozens of committees to improve the Department of Kinesiology, our School, and the University.
