Vice Provost Steven Brint announced the appointment today of six new members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers: Professors Wendy Ashmore (Anthropology), Steven Gould Axelrod (English), Bradley Hyman (Biology), Goldberry Long (Creative Writing), Michael Marsella (Chemistry), and Timothy D. Paine (Entomology). The Academy now includes 10 members. The new members were selected from among recipients of major campus teaching awards by the current members of the Academy. Members of the Academy are responsible for mentoring faculty on teaching, helping to design and produce Scholarship of Teaching and Learning colloquia, and reviewing teaching-related initiatives and grant proposals from members of the campus community. The Office of Undergraduate Education has pledged to increase the number of members to 15 by AY 2014.

We are very happy to welcome the new members of the Academy:

Wendy Ashmore

Wendy Ashmore is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. She received her B.A. from UCLA in 1969, and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981; since 1973, she has conducted archeological research in Arizona, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize. Her research examines spatial organization and meaning among the ancient Maya and their neighbors. At UCR since 2000, she has received the Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award (2007) and the Graduate Division's Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentor Award (2009). In 2012, she received the Alfred Vincent Kidded Award for Eminence in American Archaeology, the highest professional honor in the field, from the American Anthropological Association. She currently serves on the Research Scholars Advisory Board for the system-wide UC ADVANCE PAID program for advancing STEM success for women's and underrepresented minorities.

Steven Gould Axelrod

Steven Gould Axelrod is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. He received his B.A. in English from UCLA in 1966 (with honors, Phi Beta Kappa), his M.A. in English from UCLA in 1969, and his Ph.D. in English from UCLA in 1972 (with distinction). He has won UCR's Distinguished Teaching Award, has served as the first holder of the McCauley Chair in Teaching Excellence, and now serves on the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He has also served as English Department chair, as chair of the Committee on Academic Personnel, as president of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, and as founding president of the Robert Lowell Society. Axelrod specializes in American poetry. He is the author of Robert Lowell: Life and Art (Princeton University Press 1978, Pulitzer Prize Nominee) and Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words (Johns Hopkins University Press 1990), and he is the senior co-author of Robert Lowell: A Reference Guide (G. K. Hall 1982). He is the senior co-editor of the well-known New Anthology of American Poetry, Volumes 1-3 (Rutgers University Press 2003, 2005, 2012). He is the editor of The Critical Response to Robert Lowell (Greenwood Press 1999) and senior co-editor of Robert Lowell: Essays on the Poetry (Cambridge University Press 1986); Critical Essays on Wallace Stevens (G. K. Hall 1988); and Critical Essays on William Carlos Williams (G. K. Hall / Macmillan 1995). He is presently completing a new book on Cold War Poetics and will serve as senior co-editor of Robert Lowell's Prose (to be published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux). He has published 30 refereed book chapters and 35 refereed articles on U. S. literature.

Bradley Hyman

Bradley Hyman has served as a faculty member in UCR's Department of Biology since 1983. After receiving a B.A. in Biology from UCSD, he undertook Ph.D. dissertation research at UCLA, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Hyman's research focuses on the synthesis, maintenance and molecular evolution of mitochondrial DNA, a small circular genome encoding genes necessary for cellular respiration and energy production. He holds appointments as Chair of the Biology Department and Director of our CalTEACH-Science Mathematics Initiative, a program designed to recruit STEM majors into middle and high school teaching careers. On campus, his teaching has been acknowledged by conferral of the Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award (2001), the Graduate Council's Distinguished Teaching Award (1984) and the Academy of Distinguished Teachers' Innovative Teaching Award (2007). Our local Riverside Unified School District has honored Dr. Hyman with their "People Who Make a Difference" award; nationally, he has been named a National Academies Education Fellow and Education Mentor. His research has resulted in recognition as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Society of Nematologists. Professor Hyman expresses his gratitude to many students and colleagues for their contributions to his research and for helping him to become a better educator.

Goldberry Long

A native of New Mexico, Goldberry Long received her BA and MA from New Mexico State University and an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. She is the recipient of a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, a James Michener Fellowship, and numerous residencies including at The Ucross Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative arts. Her novel, Juniper Tree Burning (Simon and Schuster, 2001) was compared by the New York Times to the work of Thomas Wolfe and described as "a big, fiery howl of a novel." The San Francisco Chronicle said it "balances risky, ambitious storytelling with delicate narrative craftsmanship." She joined the faculty in Creative Writing at UCR in 2007. She previously taught at Stanford University and the University of Toronto. She won the UCR Award for Innovative Teaching in 2012. Her second novel, The Kingdom of No, is under contract at Simon and Schuster and should be published in the next 18 months.

Michael Marsella

A native of Rhode Island, Michael Marsella graduated with a BS in Secondary Education from the University of Rhode Island prior to attending Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a PhD in Chemistry. Marsella received an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Nobel Laureate Professor Robert Grubbs at Caltech. Upon completing his two year fellowship, Marsella joined the chemistry faculty at UC Riverside in 1997. Marsella's research at UCR originally focused on organic material chemistry, with a more recent change in focus to drug design strategies, particularly focusing on CNS disorders. Marsella has received the following awards for research while at UCR: Research Innovation Award from the Research Corporation (1998-99) and the DuPont Young Professor Award (2000-03). He has received the following awards for teaching excellence: Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research (2003-04), UCR Distinguished Teaching Award (2006-07), and UCR University Honors Faculty Mentor of the Year (2007-08).

Timothy D. Paine

Timothy D. Paine is a professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside. He received his B.S. in entomology and his B.A. in history from the University of California, Davis. After a brief flirtation with law school, he returned to UC Davis to obtain his Ph.D. in entomology. Tim was a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Arkansas before joining the faculty at UC Riverside in 1986 with responsibility to develop research programs on the ecology of insect herbivores of woody plants in urban landscapes and forest systems. His research contributions were recognized with both the Entomological Society of America Recognition Award in Urban Entomology and the ESA Distinguished Achievement Award in Horticultural Entomology. He took the lead in developing a new graduate class (Philosophy & Pedagodgy of Teaching Undergraduate Life Science) as part of his strong commitment to undergraduate learning. Intended for graduate students interested in pursuing academic careers, the class explores the challenge of designing new life science courses and provides opportunities to implement approaches for active learning. Tim's efforts in teaching have been recognized with the UC Riverside campus teaching awards (Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004, and Innovative Teaching Award 2010), and he was recognized as a National Academies Education Fellow in the Life Sciences in 2008-09. Dr Paine is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Entomological Society of America.