Four doctoral students will be honored at the upcoming Founders Day celebration on Thursday, February 18, with the Outstanding University Graduate Student Teaching Award.

Earning the award is Meg Gregory, Level I Ph.D.; David Ian Lee, Level I Master’s; Sean Goatley-Soan, Level I Master’s; and Mark Servos, Level II Master’s.

Gregory is currently a fifth-year doctoral candidate in English Studies and a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of English. Her dissertation work uses a new materialist feminist framework to explore 10th-11th Century Anglo Saxon life writing. She earned a master’s degree in English Studies from Illinois State University in 2011. Gregory has received several departmental-level teaching awards including the Glen Glever Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2010-2011 and the Taimi Maria Ranta Award for Outstanding Teaching for the 2014-2015 school year.

Gregory has taught a variety of courses including both general education and major level courses in British literature and culture, medieval literature and culture, grammar, and composition. As a coordinator for the annual English Studies at Large conference at Illinois State, Gregory also facilitates a place for undergraduates in English across the region to present their work.

Lee’s life in the theatre began when he played a rabbit in his third-grade talent show. In the three decades since, he has worked as a professional director, playwright, actor, dancer, choreographer, critic, coach, and educator. In part because of Lee’s diverse resume and interests, he believes in a functional intersection of theatre and the academy. Born and raised in Southern California, Lee received a bachelor’s degree in acting and directing from the University of Arizona, is a graduate of New York’s William Esper Studio, and recently received a master’s degree in directing from Illinois State.

During his years of study, Lee directed plays including Sarah Ruhl’s In The Next Room, Alan Bowne’s Beirut, and the collegiate premieres of Mac Rogers’ Viral and the third edition of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Part 2 – Perestroika. Lee currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee, where he serves as associate artist in education for the Nashville Repertory Theatre, and as a teaching artist for the Nashville Shakespeare Festival and Vanderbilt University’s Reading Academy at Vanderbilt Program.

Goatley-Soan is a graduate teaching assistant in the School of Communication. After graduating high school in South Africa, he earned a golf scholarship to Campbell University in North Carolina in 2009. Upon completion of his undergraduate degree in communication studies, Goatley-Soan was accepted into the master’s degree program in Illinois State’s School of Communication. To date, Goatley-Soan teaches Communication as Critical Inquiry (COM 110), which focuses on the development of communication competence, critical thinking and information literacy, ethical practices in public speaking, and working in small group and interpersonal contexts. He has also served as a mentor instructor for an undergraduate teaching assistant and was chosen to be a peer mentor for the current first year cohort of graduate teaching assistants.

In this position, he serves as a model by demonstrating everyday events in the classroom, working out innovative ideas, and engaging in problem solving of potential classroom crises. Goatley-Soan has developed lesson plans and classroom activities that stress the real world application of communication skills.

Servos is a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in chemistry. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Illinois State in 2014, with a minor in German. In 2014, Servos received the Illinois State Department of Chemistry Outstanding Biochemistry Student Award. He also received the Illinois State Department of Chemistry Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award in recognition of outstanding accomplishment as an instructional assistant for the 2014-2015 academic year.

In the classroom, Servos promotes the exploration of scientific curiosities while simultaneously striving to maintain an orderly and safe environment for his students. His current research with the Peters group involves the reduction of various species to form anion radicals and the subsequent structural and physical studies of these systems.

Find out more about the Founders Day celebration.