The winners of the 2015-2016 Outstanding University Teaching Initiative Award will be honored at the upcoming Illinois State University Founders Day celebration on Thursday, February 18. Those chosen for the teaching initiative this year are Yojanna Cuenca-Carlino, Kathryn Jasper, K. Megan Hopper, Elise Verzosa Hurley, and Julie Raeder Schumacher.
Yojanna Cuenca-Carlino
Cuenca-Carlino is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education. She received her undergraduate degree in special education from University of Puerto Rico, and she completed her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and her doctorate in special education at George Mason University in Virginia. Cuenca-Carlino started her career at Illinois State University in 2010. She provides in-depth instruction to pre-service teachers and graduate students on assessment for students with disabilities, evidence-based practices in the area of literacy, consultation and collaboration, and culturally responsive practices. Outside of the classroom, Cuenca-Carlino is also involved with students as a faculty floor mentor in the residence halls, and she is a faculty advisor for a newly established campus student organization called B-BEST (Best practices for Bilingual/ESL Special Education Teachers).
Kathryn Jasper
Jasper is assistant professor of history and an affiliate faculty in European studies. She is also co-director of ISU: Orvieto, a study abroad program in Italy. Jasper earned her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley in history and medieval studies in 2012. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of History, and third-semester Latin for the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Jasper contributed significantly to the development of the classical studies minor, and the European studies major and minor. She has taken students to the Art Institute and the Newberry Library in Chicago to recreate an authentic experience of historical practice. Outside the classroom she has served as a faculty floor mentor for the residence halls, and she is adviser to the registered student organization High Rise and co-adviser for Latin Club. This past fall Jasper received the CAS Excellence Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Pre-Tenured Faculty Member, and she has twice been named an Influential and Inspirational Teacher by graduating seniors in the Department of History. Jasper studies how people communicated and disseminated ideas about land management, which was fundamental to the Romans as well as to their medieval successors.
K. Megan Hopper
Hopper is an assistant professor in the School of Communication. After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication at Illinois State, Hopper went on to the University of Missouri where she received her doctorate in communication with a focus on media effects. Her research focuses on the sexual objectification of the female body in the media, the training and experiences of journalists, and the use and impact of new media. Hopper’s teaching interests include introduction to mass communication, media and society, mass media theory and effects, reporting for the mass media, and media convergence. Before entering graduate school, she served as a print journalist for The Pantagraph. She serves as an advisor to J-News, the School of Communication’s student-produced online news site, and has been involved in news reporter training sessions for The Vidette.
Elise Verzosa Hurley
Verzosa Hurley is an assistant professor of rhetoric, composition, and technical communication in the Department of English. She earned her doctorate in rhetoric, composition, and the teaching of English from the University of Arizona in 2013. She also holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English from Texas A&M University-Commerce. In the fall of 2013, Hurley began her career at Illinois State. Her research and teaching specializations include professional and technical communication, visual and spatial rhetorics, public rhetorics, multimodal composition, and service-learning/civic engagement pedagogies. She is the book review editor of Rhetoric Review, and her scholarly work has been published in Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, Technical Communication Quarterly, and a variety of edited collections.
Julie Raeder Schumacher
Schumacher is an assistant professor and registered dietitian in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. She received her bachelor’s degree in food, nutrition and dietetics from South Dakota State University; she earned her master’s degree in family and consumer sciences – dietetic internship, and her doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Illinois State University. Schumacher is director of the accredited Dietetic Internship and Master’s Program. She supervises 20 dietetic interns and works with 25 preceptors in the Central Illinois area. Schumacher teaches undergraduate courses in nutrition assessment and counseling and graduate courses including advanced medical nutrition therapy. Her research interests include educational technology in dietetics and community wellness. Schumacher has received several teaching awards, including the 2012 Department of Family and Consumer Sciences’ Outstanding Teacher Award, the 2014 College of Applied Science and Technology Outstanding Pre-tenure Teacher Award, and the 2015 Illinois and Midwest Regional Outstanding Dietetic Educator of the Year Award through the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She has chaired and served on numerous thesis committees.
