Current Recipients

Young Faculty Scholar

Eylem Asmatulu, associate professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering

Eylem Asmatulu earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree, both in agricultural engineering, from Çukurova University in Adana, Turkey, in 2002 and 2004, respectively. She earned a doctorate in industrial and manufacturing engineering from Wichita State University in 2013. She began employment at WSU in 2014 as an environmental technical training fellow. She received a tenure-track position in 2017, after serving two years as an engineering educator at WSU.

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From helping heal wounds to supporting NASA's moon mission, Eylem Asmatulu's research delves into the properties of materials, such as nanofibers and composites, used in biomedical, aerospace and energy industries, and how to recycle and reuse certain materials.

For example, she recently co-authored a paper about her research into recycling microplastics — like nylon fishing lines — that are major marine and water quality pollutants into nanofibers that could be used to heal wounds when used in biomedical bandages. The enhanced nanofibers have antibacterial and hydrophilic properties; the latter helps keep a wound moist so the body's enzymes can heal damaged tissues. The fabricated nanofibers could also have water purification applications.

She's also researched how to turn other discarded products and waste, like Styrofoam and expired batteries, into nanofibers and other polymeric materials that have wound-healing applications.

In another biomedical research project. Asmatulu is creating multifunctional electrospun nanofibers that can carry bioactive material capable of fighting breast cancer, eliminating the need for radiation therapy and its potential side effects.

Nanofibers can also be used in other ways. In a grant project funded by NASA and done in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, Asmatulu also is studying the use of nanocomposite fibers to store hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells play an important role in space programs, such as NASA's mission to the moon, since hydrogen is a clean, efficient energy that can be used to provide electricity and heat.

Asmatulu, who is now an associate professor, established her Resource Recovery and Sustainability Laboratory on the second floor of Wallace Hall shortly after joining the WSU faculty as an engineering educator. The lab and her research teams, which this year includes five doctoral, five master's and two undergraduate students, serve as both a place for scientific discovery as well as a training ground for students.

"They are learning how to do experiments independently and do technical writing," she said. "We go through all the steps with them."

Department colleague Hamid Lankarani, who has won several WSU faculty awards, calls Asmatulu "one of the most hard-working and enthusiastic young faculty members at WSU."

As a principal investigator and co-PI, Asmatulu has received 22 funded proposals, including 11 external grants that have brought in more than $1.55 million in research monies. noted T.S. Ravigururajan, professor and chair of the mechanical engineering department, in his nomination of Asmatulu.

In addition to being an active researcher in pursuit of funding, Asmatulu has served as a review panelist for proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation and American Chemical Society.

She has published 53 peer-reviewed journal articles and 48 conference proceedings; authored two books, 17 book chapters and one laboratory manual; filed one patent; and made 21 presentations. Her scholarly activities have been cited more than 2,100 times.

Asmatulu has been teaching about a half-dozen graduate and undergraduate materials courses that she has entirely updated with new textbooks, handouts, videos, animations, web links and PowerPoint slides, Ravigururajan said. She also developed a new course in biomaterials.

Excellence in Online Teaching

Masud Chand, professor of international business, Department of Management, W. Frank Barton School of Business

Masud Chand earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh in 2000. He earned a Master of Business Administration a doctorate, both in international business, from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2004 and 2009 respectively. He joined the Barton School faculty in 2009.

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When it comes to the mastering of providing online courses, "this is an area where Dr. (Masud) Chand excels," according to Steven Farmer, one of Chand's colleagues in the Barton School's Department of Management. "His work in online teaching has, simply put, made WSU a better place for our students."

His efforts, such as offering the school's first international business course online, and his willingness to share his online teaching experiences — starting with brown-bag discussions back in 2015 with other business faculty — helped trigger a school-wide transition to online degree options.

"Masud's online teaching leadership in the Barton School has allowed the college to create online pathways to six undergraduate degrees in the Barton School (business administration, management, human resource management, international business, accounting and marketing)," wrote John Perry, the school's associate dean, in Chand's nomination letter.

"Without Masud's willingness to design online core business and major courses that are required for these degrees, the Barton School would not have been able to offer these degrees online."

Serving as the management department chair for a three-year term from 2018 to 2021, Chand was also well-positioned to help several faculty members who had never taught online transition to remote teaching during the COVID pandemic.

Chand strives to ensure his online courses provide quality experiences for his students. He's completed two Quality Matters teaching modules and a Harvard Business School online teaching seminar. QM is a sort of national gold seal endorsement of online courses.

Judging by student evaluations, he's succeeding in that effort.

Barton School and department leaders note that quality scores in student evaluations of Chand's courses regularly fall in the top quartile of the business school and the university.

"Student comments mirror these quantitative ratings, with his online students seeing Dr. Chand as extremely well-organized, responsive to their needs, and providing important and timely real-world content in the online classroom," wrote Farmer, the W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in Business.

Chand most frequently teaches International Management (IB600) and International Business and Competition (IB836), with most sections being fully online. The online sections tend to fill up faster than the in-person options, according to Chand.

Chand doesn't limit sharing his experiences and pedagogical research in online teaching to those within the Barton School. In the past six years, he's made multiple conference presentations on the topic. His presentation at the 2018 International Business Pedagogy Workshop at Georgia State University was selected as a conference award finalist.

Chand has also been the international business lead for reviews conducted by the Kansas Board of Regents, the Higher Learning Commission and AASCB (the international business school accreditation body), documenting how WSU's online teaching has the same rigor and relevance as in-person teaching.

As part of WSU's growing focus on the region's continuing workforce development needs, Chand has also designed and delivered four online global business badges, which have had a cumulative enrollment of more than 400 students.

Young Faculty Risk Taker

Abigail Devereaux, assistant professor, Department of Economics, W. Frank Barton School of Business

Abigail Devereaux earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, summa cum laude, and a Master of Arts in mathematics from Boston University in 2004 and 2007, respectively. She earned a Master of Arts and a doctorate, both in economics, from George Mason University in 2017 and 2020, respectively. She joined the WSU business faculty in 2020.

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Abigail Devereaux hasn't been in the field of economics for a long time, but she's already making innovative contributions in the area of computational and complexity economics.

Economists have long used game theory as a theoretical mathematical framework to analyze and gain insight into behaviors. But generally, with game theory, there are strong, often agreed-upon assumptions made on what people know.

Devereaux, however, looks at game theory a bit differently, as if each situation is a story waiting to be told, with different, unpredictable characters who may encounter situations or a chain of interactions that will upset or alter plans, she said.

Devereaux is doing pioneering work and theoretical research in emerging methodologies, pushing boundaries of economic thought and bringing a fresh and dynamic approach, according to her nomination by Siyu Wang, a behavioral economist in the WSU economics department.

"Her innovative work in developing synecological game theory demonstrates a bold departure from conventional economic models, bridging traditional theories with modern, agent-based computational methods," Wang wrote.

Wang described Devereaux's award-winning work in analyzing China's social credit system as a "fearless approach to exploring complex and sometimes controversial economic issues."

Devereaux earned the Elinor Ostrom Prize —named for the American political scientist and economist who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics in 2009 — in 2021, following the publication of her research into China's credit system. In China, citizens are scored not just on their creditworthiness but also on how they were conforming to the government's principles of social harmony.

It was an arbitrary rating that really came down to punishing deviation, Devereaux said.

"My paper said that there really isn't any way that you can effectively implement a social control for the betterment of society. I hope that I had a little bit of impact in the scholarly community of how to think about these kinds of systems that rate us as individuals," such as apps or other review systems, Devereaux said.

Regarding her approach to economics, Devereaux said, "I really want to see what people are actually doing and how they're actually interacting with each other and solving social problems together. without any preconceptions, like thinking that there's a better way they could be doing this, or there's a worse way. I think there's still so much we don't understand very well on how people do things and solve problems together."

That approach has gotten the attention of both her colleagues and her students.

"Her ability to foster an environment of intellectual curiosity and continuous learning not only elevates the economic standards within our department but also inspires students and colleagues to embrace a similar ethos of exploration and innovation," Wang said.

At WSU, Devereaux is also a research fellow in the Institute for the Study of Economic Growth, housed in the Barton School.

Excellence in Teaching

Jody Fiorini, professor and department head, Department of Intervention Services and Leadership in Education

Jody Fiorini earned a Bachelor of Arts in linguistics in 1986 from Binghamton University in New York, a Master of Science in Education degree in counselor education from SUNY Oneonta in 1993 and a doctorate in counselor education in 2001 from Syracuse University. Fiorini joined the Wichita State faculty in 2015 after spending several years in faculty and other positions with various State University of New York institutions.

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It was good timing: Jody Fiorini needed a new challenge in 2015 and Wichita State's College of Applied Studies needed a leader who could reinvigorate a department that has far-reaching implications in the field of education and counseling.

Since taking over the helm of the Department of Intervention Services and Leadership in Education, Fiorini helped regain national accreditation of WSU's school psychology program and has assisted in rewriting curriculum for courses in counseling, school psychology, higher education/student affairs, building and district leadership and educational psychology.

She's also added clinical mental health, sports counseling, and higher education counseling tracks within the school's seven interdisciplinary programs, expanded the education doctoral program and is working on a new Ph.D. program in education and behavioral studies.

In Fiorini's early conversations with faculty about their goals and visions for the department, one thing in particular stood out: creating an on-campus mental health clinic that would provide free services to anyone in the Wichita community who needs it and be a place for WSU counseling students to get real-world applied and supervised learning.

The WSU Integrated Support and Empowerment (WISE) Clinic opened in Ahlberg Hall in fall 2021.

"It's my proudest accomplishment," Fiorini said.

While she's proven her mettle as an administrator, Fiorini relishes being in the classroom. That's partly why she started teaching at WSU when it wasn't even part of her expected duties.

"It was tough to watch my colleagues having to take on extra when I could easily teach courses. And, I get my energy from teaching, I love to teach. Eventually, we did make it official," she said.

"I tell my students I have the best job in the world, and it's because of the ripple effect," she said. Her students "go out into the world and make a profound impact on the lives of the children and adults with whom they work."

Fiorini's "teaching prowess," as one colleague called it, is well-respected among her colleagues and students.

"Her presence as a teacher is felt both inside the classroom with her students and outside as she teaches and supports her colleagues through mentoring and support," wrote Valerie Thompson, an assistant professor in ISLE.

Several students wrote nomination letters, lauding Fiorini for her caring teaching style, insights and ability to engage personally with students.

"She's the closest thing to a hero I have right now ... She demonstrates mastery of all the skills that I hope to obtain in this career," wrote Alec Dulaney.

Former student Danea Craner, a school counselor in the Wichita Public Schools, thinks if given the chance, Fiorini could contribute on a grander scale than she has at WSU: "I often think if Dr. Jody could teach everyone about multiculturalism, the world would function so much better. I truly loved my time with her."

Excellence in Research

Hyuck Kwon, professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering

Hyuck Kwon earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree, both in electrical engineering, from Seoul National University in 1978 and 1980, respectively. He completed his doctorate in computer, information and control engineering in 1984 from the University of Michigan. Before joining the Wichita State faculty in 1993, Kwon spent four years on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin and four years as a principal engineer with Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Co. in Houston

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Back in the early 1980s, Hyuck Kwon was researching underwater acoustics and the then-novel concept of bits per joules. While that measurement metric, which relates to energy efficiency, has since become well known, Kwon realized it wasn't the trending topic at the time, so he joined the wave of researchers studying the flourishing field of satellite and wireless communications.

He's done quite well in that field, as evidenced by his long list of patents, publications, citations, research funding, collaborations and other accomplishments.

"His contributions to the scientific community have helped Wichita State in terms of name recognition and attracting more students," said electrical and computer engineering chair Visvakumar Aravinthan in his nomination of Kwon.

WSU physics professor Nick Solomey, who has been working with NASA to send into space the cube satellite he and WSU students are building to collect data on neutrinos, credits Kwon with helping launch the project in faster time. The satellite project, expected to be ready for liftoff in 2025, has brought in a total of $2.8 million of research funding.

"Prof. Kwon was very instrumental in helping us select the cubesat company and was the lead in dealing with three companies we considered ... He is a major leader in space communications from orbits for science," Solomey wrote in his nomination of Kwon. "Without Prof. Kwon, I would have been hard-pressed to have achieved all the steps necessary for getting the funds awards and it would have taken longer and needed outside help."

Kwon has collaborated with other researchers outside of WSU and has participated in several visiting professorship, sabbaticals and fellowship programs, including eight summer stints at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico as recently as 2023. He will spend the fall 2024 semester on sabbatical as a visiting professor at George Mason University, where he also did a sabbatical in 2017.

Over the years, Kwon —as either a principal investigator or co-PI — has garnered millions of research dollars through nearly 33 grants from federal agencies, including NASA, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force, and the global mobile communications industry.

He's currently working on three grant projects, including developing signal processing algorithms for chips used in satellite and wireless communications to make them more efficient and powerful. He also researches network security, studying the protection of signals between senders and recipients, and how to reduce interference to improve the quality of the signals.

His research record includes more than 55 peer-reviewed articles and more than 219 peer-reviewed national and international conference papers, which are often cited by other researchers.

"A record number of over 2,500 citations reflects the high quality of his research," wrote Kwon's longtime colleague M. Edwin Sawan, a former WSU Excellence in Research recipient and the interim director of the School of Computing.

He has advised 17 doctoral students and more than 50 master's students, many of whom go on to continue research into global wireless communications. The undergraduate and graduate students on his research teams play key roles. Of the 21 U.S. and international patents Kwon has received or has pending, all but two include students.

Excellence in Community Research

Stanley Longhofer, Professor and Stephen L. Clark Chair of Real Estate and Finance, W. Frank Barton School of Business, and Center for Real Estate founding director

Stanley Longhofer received the Bachelor of Business Administration degree in economics, magna cum laude, from Wichita State University in 1989 and a Master of Science and a doctorate, both in economics, from the University of Illinois in 1991 and 1995, respectively. He joined the WSU faculty in 1999.

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When Stanley Longhofer founded the Center for Real Estate Research in 2000, he laid the foundation for the center to become the leading resource to help others understand what is happening in the real estate markets in some of Kansas' larger communities and the state.

Housing data is a major indicator of the economy, acting as a barometer that helps measure consumer confidence and their willingness to take on debt to buy a house and then spend money furnishing and maintaining it. The ripple effects of homeownership are felt by other sectors, as well, including local governments and public schools who rely on property taxes to fund local infrastructure.

But interpreting and understanding that data can be very complex, noted Elizabeth Heron, a community development specialist with the Kansas Department of Commerce, in her nomination support letter.

That's why she, along with others, often turns to Longhofer for his expertise in that area.

"As the need for housing becomes one of the most pressing challenges for Kansas communities, the importance of up-to-date and digestible data is essential. … Stan provides a one-stop resource to assist our department and communities statewide with understanding the current and projected housing markets. These market reports are directly used to assist businesses and employees' transition and investment in Kansas."

Longhofer is an in-demand speaker for presentations at various community and professional organizations, averaging about 20 such presentations annually for the past several years. For news media, he's repeatedly the go-to, credible expert on real estate and housing issues.

The center's flagship product is its annual Kansas Housing Markets Forecast series, which includes a 16-page publication for Kansas City, Lawrence, Manhattan, Topeka and Wichita along with a publication on the housing market outlook for 23 Kansas counties.

The center also prepares monthly statistical reports on home sales for the Kansas Association of Realtors and 12 different Realtor boards in Kansas.

Through its research fellows program, the center provides opportunities for Barton School faculty to engage in research of direct interest and relevance to the professional real estate industry.

Four faculty members have been supported through this program, which has resulted in a large number of published academic research articles and three different continuing education programs for practicing real estate professionals.

Real estate program majors and other Barton School students with an interest in real estate also have opportunities to conduct research and support the center.

His value to the field hasn't gone unnoticed. In 2019, Longhofer received the Citizen of the Year award from the Realtors® of South Central Kansas, and in 2021, the Kansas CCIM Chapter honored him with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2013, he received WSU's Excellence in Teaching Award, in large part for the impact he had on reviving and growing WSU's real estate major and expanding opportunities for students in other business majors to add a real estate emphasis.

Before joining the WSU faculty in 1999, Longhofer was a financial economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, researching problems in mortgage discrimination, financial contracting and bankruptcy. While there, he often provided articles and resources to different entities.

Faculty Risk Taker

Gery Markova, professor, Department of Management, W. Frank Barton School of Business

Gery Markova earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in finance at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1998, a Master of Arts in law from Southwestern University in Bulgaria in 2001, and the doctorate in business Administration from the University of Central Florida in 2006. She joined Wichita State University's faculty in 2006. In 2017, she received the WSU Leadership in the Advancement of Teaching award. In 2022, she received the President's Service Award.

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Gery Markova likes to use a folksy metaphor when she faces challenges such as finding resources and ways to incorporate new initiatives: "If we need to make the pie bigger, we'll find the dough to make it bigger."

With that in mind, one could say Markova has been busy making lots of pie during the past few years, in this case creating multiple servings of career-enhancing and quality educational opportunities for students.

In the past six years, she's created a Master of Human Resource Management degree program that has graduated more than 90 students, developed 11 badge courses that garner some of the highest enrollments of any badge course WSU offers, added two graduate certificate programs and developed a new bachelor's degree in hospitality that will launch this fall.

"She is not content with maintaining the status quo," said Carolyn Shaw, a WSU political science professor who gotten to know Markova through various academic affairs initiatives.

By remaining aware of trends in workforce development, human resources and in educational offerings elsewhere, Markova saw that WSU had an opportunity to align enrollment growth with changing business needs in the region.

It's not unusual to find individuals working in human resources or having HR tasks who have earned degrees in other disciplines. But to be more effective in a field that has become more strategic, they need more education and training.

Markova, whose efforts in faculty success and mentoring were recognized with the 2017 WSU Leadership in the Advancement of Teaching Award, knew WSU had the faculty talent to provide a more specialized advanced business degree for HR professionals.

Markova also understood that HR professionals need to have flexibility to accommodate busy times in their professional and personal lives.

The result was the fully online Master of Human Resource Management program, which started admitting students in spring 2019. The master's degree can also be earned in a dual/accelerated option by students currently working on their undergraduate human resources degree.

The program is endorsed by the leading association for HR professionals (Society for Human Resource Management – SHRM) and the curriculum aligns with the SHRM competencies model.

Markova encourages MHRM students, who come from across the U.S., to build relationships with peers and creates many sessions for synchronous encounters.

Markova also developed educational options for managers and employees who need HR best practices education in select areas: two 12-hour graduate certificate programs in HR management skills and HR management decision-making and 11 HR badges.

The HR badge courses serve a dual purpose, noted Kimberly Moore, the executive director of Workforce, Professional and Community Education. While HR professionals get the benefit of professional development, their enrollment "provides me the perfect opportunity to showcase how skill and competency-based education could add value in the recruitment, hiring and retention of employees."

Thanks to her risk-taking, Markova — whose career has already included "enviable" results in teaching, research and service — can also be credited with creating programs and pathways that have benefited hundreds of students and working professionals, according to John Perry, the Barton School's associate dean.

Academy for Effective Teaching

Manira Rani, associate engineering educator, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering

Manira Rani earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology and a Master of Science degree in fisheries from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh in 2002 and 2003, respectively, a MS in international fisheries management from the University of Tromso in Norway in 2005 and the MS in computer engineering from Florida Atlantic University in 2011. She joined the WSU faculty in 2012 as an adjunct faculty member before joining the faculty full time as an educator in 2015.

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While Manira Rani embraces teaching with enthusiasm and is now receiving her second university-level award for teaching, that wasn't always the case. But after graduating with a Master of Science degree in computer engineering and before committing to a full-time job, she saw a notice that Wichita State needed an adjunct to teach a programming class. Something switched on for her when she walked into that WSU classroom.

She's transformed her thinking about teaching from being someone who is there to impart what they think students should know to someone who is a facilitator, connector and activator, she said.

"Teaching, to me, at its best, means not only conveying knowledge but also transforming and extending it as well," Rani wrote in her philosophy of teaching statement in support of her nomination.

She has looked to her colleagues at WSU for guidance and mentorship by observing their classes and welcoming peer reviews and has taken advantage of professional development opportunities to learn more about active learning, curriculum development concepts and classroom technology.

"I always appreciate and integrate the tips and tricks I gather from the workshops arranged by the Faculty Advancement and Academy for Effective Teaching," Rani said.

She's willing to put in the work, too, when it comes to improving educational experiences. She agreed to add the responsibility of helping teach a one-credit lab class she thought would enhance the students' problem-solving skills in the assembly language programming class she teaches each spring. Then she wrote a grant proposal and was awarded nearly $15,000 to get the hardware support needed to further enhance the lab.

In fall 2023, she introduced using a community developing approach to assignments in the course Embedded Systems and Internet of Things to encourage the students to work together, seek out and understand diverse perspectives, solve problems and communicate more effectively with one another.

It's an approach that several students have liked.

"Putting the subject matter into the students' hands allows for more free learning that builds on itself over the system and in my opinion keeps the student more engaged than just sitting through a lecture and completing obligatory assignments because they need to be done as opposed to the student being interested in learning about the subject on their own," said one student, adding that they would recommend other professors use this approach.

Rani has parlayed her experience as a Tilford Fellow (2022-23) into two successful grant proposals. She was the principal investigator of a $56,000 grant from NASA that created a six-month program called Shocker Flight Academy that introduced 25 area high school students from underrepresented communities to STEM concepts and experiments on the WSU campus, as well as student support services.

In the other, she was the co-recipient of a $105,000 grant from the WSU provost's office to create a test smart community that could be replicated and used during summer camps, K-12 and other community outreach events to help recruit students.

Rani received the WSU Excellence in Teaching Award in 2022.

Leadership in the Advancement of Teaching

Carolyn Speer, director, Office of Instructional Resources, Media Resources Center, and instructur, Department of Intervention Services and Leadership in Education, College of Applied Studies

Carolyn Speer earned a bachelor's degree in political science from The University of Kansas in 1989. She earned a master's degree in political science from the University of Iowa in 1991 and a master's degree in public history from Wichita State University in 2020. She earned her Ph.D. in adult and continuing education from Kansas State University in 2005. She was hired by WSU in 2014 as a senior instructional designer and now is the director of the Office of Instructional Resources. She also teaches graduate courses in education within the College of Applied Studies.

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A decade ago, Carolyn Speer was hired to help train and guide WSU faculty into the growing frontier of creating accessible and robust online courses through the university's newly conceived Office of Instructional Design and Technology.

It's an effort that has come a long way.

"We are really poised to matter in this space," said Speer, of how far WSU has progressed in its online education efforts. "I like to say we are small enough to move and big enough to matter. … The level of technological literacy among our faculty and instructors is consistently high to very high."

Speer, who became the Office of Instructional Resources director in 2021, leads a team of four full- and part-time employees who help WSU educators with online and in-person curriculum design, pedagogy and educational technologies. Recently, her team's efforts have expanded to include training and leadership surrounding generative artificial intelligence.

She also advises WSU instructors on how WSU can be at the forefront of modern university teaching. To this end, she has overseen the development of the Academic Resources Conferences, which are weeklong sessions offered three times a year to support the improvement of teaching, and has co-developed a free open-source website, the Kansas Accessibility Resources Network, to help any Kansas educator or workforce trainer understand and incorporate accessibility.

Speer has had a "profound impact … on the teaching of nearly every single faculty member on this campus, and in turn, the students they teach," according to a nomination letter by Jody Fiorini, the head of the College of Applied Sciences' ISLE department.

In addition to her full-time job overseeing educational resources, Speer also teaches graduate courses in ISLE and advises dissertations.

"I would argue that although her job is to enhance online teaching on campus, she goes above and beyond every day," Fiorini wrote. "She is always seeking new ways to serve students with disabilities. She never makes you feel that any question is bothersome or too mundane. She welcomes ideas and tries to find the easiest and best ways to help her colleagues bring their creativity to life. She was the first to introduce AI, not as an evil to overcome, but as a tool to be used to engage students in the learning process."

Speer has several passions and interests, as evidenced by her vita which lists presentations and publications on topics as varied as writing about the George W. Bush presidency for an online textbook, Mayflower descendant history, images of Arab Americans in children's literature and more. Her vita also notes her 35-plus hours of culinary instruction and sommelier and mindfulness certifications.

"If you imagine everything that I do as a Venn diagram, all the pieces would overlap with the value of education. That core value of learning drives my actions, my passions, my interest, my career," said Speer, who is recognized as being highly organized by colleagues and on student evaluations.

Speer received the WSU President's Distinguished Service Award in 2021.