Technology Professor Chris Merrill ’92 received three awards at the 76th Annual International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) Conference, including the Technology and Engineering Teacher Educator of the Year award. This is the highest award given by the Council on Technology & Engineering Teacher Education (CTETE).

Merrill also received the 2014 International Technology and Engineering Educators Association’s Award of Distinction and the 2014 Gerald R. Day Top Invited Article Award. The conference was held in March in Orlando, Florida.

The latter award was for his co-authored article “The Future of Technology Education in Higher Education,” published in Technology & Engineering Teacher. The article was co-authored with Edward Reeve, of Utah State University, Linda Rae Markert, of State University of New York at Oswego, and Richard Seymour, of Ball State University.

The Award of Distinction is presented to an individual within technology and engineering education who has advanced the profession through a sustained and recognized record of exemplary professional activity. To qualify for the award, the individual must be an ITEEA member and have distinguished himself through the improvement of instruction, research and scholarship, or effective teaching. The Award of Distinction is the second highest award presented by the ITEEA. Michael Daugherty, who was a professor at Illinois State for 15 years, is the only other Illinois State faculty member to earn this award. This award has been presented to only 37 other individuals in the association’s history.