2024 Distinguished Faculty Award for Service - Dr. Andrew Joyner
Recognized for his work as Tennessee’s official climatologist and his role in advancing
climate research, Dr. Andrew Joyner, associate professor in the Department of Geosciences,
earned the Distinguished Faculty Award in Service.
His nominators applauded his work to establish the Tennessee State Climate Office at ETSU, which provides vital climate services that are used by stakeholders across the state and beyond.
Earlier this year, the climate office, housed on ETSU’s main campus, became one of only nine such sites in the nation selected for a pilot funding proposal aimed at helping communities better understand and utilize climate data and resources to address long-term extreme weather vulnerabilities.
ETSU will work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the state emergency management agency and other organizations to develop a Community Resilience Academy focused chiefly on flooding and extreme temperatures.
During the first year, Joyner and his team will develop an academy in Johnson City/Washington County that will contribute to an update of the local hazard mitigation plan. In the second year, Joyner and state officials will replicate these efforts in Nashville. This important work is critical in helping communities build resiliency plans for business and agriculture.
[From ETSU News August 2024]
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2023 Distinguished Faculty Award for Service - Dr. Dorothy "Dottie" Greene Whose life has been dedicated to serving those battling addiction-related challenges. This associate professor in the ETSU Department of Social Work (part of the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences) led the effort to establish the Johnson City Recovery Center (JCRC), the first recovery community center in Northeast Tennessee.
As the JCRC’s executive director, Greene leads a team of certified peer recovery support
specialists who identify as people in recovery. She calls the JCRC a “recovery hub”
for individuals in recovery from substance use disorders (SUD) that bridges the gap
between professional treatment services and recovery housing. “Helping people in recovery is no doubt my purpose for being on the planet at this point in time,” Greene said. “It provides me a deep sense of purpose and meaning. The best way to describe recovery is like watching a miracle happen in real time. We see people come in here with nothing but the shirt on their back who develop into happy, healthy, productive, caring members of society.”
Greene, who holds a Ph.D. in social work from the University of Utah, also developed and implemented ETSU’s graduate certificate program in clinical addiction studies and recently completed a three-year term on the board of directors of the National Association of Social Workers.
“Sharing her personal journey of recovery, she is a beacon of hope to many and works tirelessly to uplift and support those suffering from SUD,” Greene’s nomination states.
[From ETSU News August 2023]
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2022 Distinguished Faculty Award for Service - Mrs. Ashley Sergiadis
Sergiadis has been instrumental in launching two major initiatives that help reduce
the cost of textbooks and other course materials: the Open and Affordable (OA) Course
Materials Awards Program in collaboration with ETSU’s Center for Teaching Excellence
(CTE) and the Sherrod Library’s E-Textbook Reserves Program. The resulting materials
have been used in over 330 courses, impacting more than 9,000 students and resulting
in savings of $850,000. Sergiadis regularly assists faculty in obtaining external
funding for OA projects and supports their creation and implementation of OA course
materials.
“Ashley Sergiadis is an exemplary librarian reaching the highest levels in all her service contributions,” wrote one supporter of her nomination. “At campus, state and national levels, (she) creates success, leads change and works hard to make things better for all she serves.”
Sergiadis is “an amazingly helpful and supportive resource, representative of the spirit of ETSU in every way,” wrote another. “She is quick-witted and kind, intelligent and helpful, scholarly and supportive of others’ scholarly pursuits.”
Sergiadis also serves the university as a member and officer of the Faculty Senate and has been active with the University Research Council, Research Development Committee and more.
Among her state and national service activities are the Tennessee Textbook Affordability Task Force, the Tennessee Open Education initiative and MERLOT’s Library and Information Services Board.
Sergiadis holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Valdosta State University. Before coming to ETSU in 2017, she was a digital collections specialist with the Zach S. Henderson Library at Georgia Southern University.[From ETSU News August 2022]
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2021 Distinguished Faculty Award for Service - Dr. Sarah Melton Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the Gatton College of Pharmacy.
Dr. Melton is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where she earned her
B.S. in pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees. She also completed a clinical fellowship
in psychiatric pharmacy practice.“Dr. Melton’s service to her patients and community is driven by a tireless desire to see a decrease in stigma associated with mental illness and the disease of addiction. Increasing awareness, improving access to treatment, and providing education about these illnesses has been her career priority,” writes one nominator.
She joined the Gatton College of Pharmacy faculty in 2012 and has been a champion for naloxone education and distribution at the local, state and regional levels. Melton serves as faculty advisor for the national award-winning American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists Generation Rx Committee. She is also the faculty advisor for the student chapter of the College of Neurologic and Psychiatric Pharmacy.
Melton’s efforts have been recognized on the state and local levels. She was recently one of five faculty and staff members in the state to be awarded the prestigious 2021 Harold Love Outstanding Community Service Award by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
She has served on the University Task Force on Community Engagement, the University Wellness Committee, the ETSU Prescription Drug Abuse/Misuse Working Group and the Mental Health and Addiction Work Group. She has been a dedicated mentor to pharmacy students and devotes a significant amount of time assisting students in academic difficulty or having psychosocial issues impacting their performance as student pharmacists.
[From ETSU News August 2021]
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2020 Distinguished Faculty Award for Service - Dr. Donna Cherry The Distinguished Faculty Award for Service was presented to Dr. Donna Cherry, associate professor in the Department of Social Work in the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences.
Cherry, who has taught at ETSU since 2009, has held numerous service roles at the
university and throughout the community.“Overall, Dr. Cherry’s service record is remarkable,” said Dr. Mary Mullins, chair of the Department of Social Work. “The impact of service extends far beyond the department to benefit so many.”
At ETSU, Cherry served as the first Marketing and Recruitment Committee chair in the Department of Social Work and was responsible for liaising with potential students in at least three states. In 2017, Cherry was awarded the ETSU Outstanding Service Organization Advisor Award, recognizing her work as the MSWSA (Master of Social Work Student Association) faculty advisor. In addition, Cherry organizes and attends the annual Social Work Day on the Hill, where she guides students as they identify a social justice issue to address, discuss and advocate for/against at the capitol with legislators.
In 2019, Cherry was the first recipient of the “Social Work Educator of the Year” award, presented by the Tennessee chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
Cherry’s trauma-focused clinical work has also bloomed into service opportunities with the International Storytelling Center. She is on the advisory board for the Stories for Change program, where she helps develop, deliver and evaluate new curricula for at-risk youth. Last year’s focus – SHEroes Journey – aimed at young girls was very successful and won a $5,000 ETSU Elevates Grant.
This year, Cherry began a new project that was inspired by her work on the Northeast Tennessee Foster Care Review Board. Noting that teens who age out of the foster care system are often vulnerable to homelessness, Cherry purchased and is renovating a house she has named Huschka House, which will serve as a transitional living program for young adults who have aged out of the foster care system and meet the program’s definition of “homeless.”
“Dr. Cherry lives and breathes social justice and service,” said Dr. Brittany Wilkins, associate professor in the Department of Social Work. “The profession of social work benefits by Dr. Cherry helping educate professionals and ‘walk the walk’ of social work values in helping vulnerable persons.”
Cherry earned a bachelor of arts degree from Oregon State University in 1984 and an M.S.W. (2003) and Ph.D. (2007) from the University of Tennessee.
[From ETSU News August 21, 2020]
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2019 Distinguished Faculty Award for Service - Dr. Andrea Clements ETSU presented its 2019 Distinguished Faculty Award in Service to Dr. Andrea Clements, a professor and assistant chair of curriculum in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychology.
Clements, who has served in many capacities at the department, college and university
levels, is best noted for her work in the community and region in two areas: promoting
trauma-informed practices in court, police, education and mental health systems, and
collaboration with faith-based groups to address the problem of opioid use and addiction.Beginning in 2015, Clements partnered with Becky Haas, then of the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD) and now of Ballad Health, to implement trauma-informed practices in various Johnson City service agencies. Through this effort, more than 4,500 professionals throughout the region have heard Clements’ talks on the effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on brain development, behavior and interpersonal relationships. These talks have led many to incorporate trauma-informed care approaches in their agencies.
Working with the JCPD and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Clements played a leading role in hosting a regional forum showcasing advances in trauma-informed care in the fall of 2018. Following the event, SAMHSA officials called the forum “a national model other cities should follow.”
As part of her work with Haas, Clements has worked directly with those in need of care, in addition to educating professionals.
For five years, she served as a mentor through a reentry program for felony offenders with addictions, bringing a home-cooked lunch each Monday and spending time with participants.
“More than the food she provided, her impact is often shared when individuals graduate from this program after 12-15 months of attendance,” the former program director wrote. “Clients will tell how it was Andi’s firm but reassuring mentorship that helped them to stay on the road to gaining sobriety and successfully reentering the community after incarceration. Though a tenured faculty member, published author and sought-after lecturer, Andi redefined for those in the reentry program that there is no ‘us and you.’ Her ability to relate and connect person to person has provided hope to hundreds passing through the program.”
Clements and Haas also helped “transform the culture of a punitive alternative school program to a positive caring and successful learning environment for students who before had little academic success,” according to a program administrator.
Clements’s “dedication to working with teachers monthly … has not only restored value to our students but also to our teachers,” the administrator wrote. “She totally threaded herself in with our school and became one of us. We went from around 52% of the students earning approximately 200 credits per year to earning 1,155 credits last year. But most of all, our students feel loved and cared for – able to make life-long decisions that positively impact their lives. Our teachers and staff have a renewed pulse for our school and it is evident as you walk the halls of our building.”
In addition, Clements has been instrumental in engaging faith-based organizations in the fight against the opioid epidemic in southern Appalachia. She is a founding member and executive director of the Holy Friendship Collaborative, a multi-agency, multidisciplinary, non-profit consortium that mobilizes the faith-based community at the individual church level to integrate their resources to counteract the opioid crisis. She helped plan and coordinate the 2018 Holy Friendship Summit, which drew approximately 450 clergy, clinicians and others together to discuss needs and strategies involved in combating addiction in the region.
Clements joined the ETSU faculty in 1995 as an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Learning in what is now the Clemmer College and moved to the Department of Psychology in 2005. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama, from which she holds a B.S. degree in interdisciplinary counseling, an M.A. in rehabilitation counseling and a Ph.D. in educational psychology.
[From ACCENT Faculty and Staff Newsletter, September 3, 2019]
PAST DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARD RECIPIENTS FOR SERVICE
2018-2011
- 2018 - Cynthia Chambers, Clemmer College, Department of Educational Foundations and Special Education
- 2017 - Susan Epps, College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, Department of Allied Health Sciences
- 2016 - Megan Quinn, College of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
- 2015 - Teresa Boggs, College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology
- 2014 - Martha Michieka, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Literature and Language
- 2013 - Benjamin Caton, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Music
- 2012 - Rosalind Gann, Clemmer College of Education and Human Development, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
- 2011 - Roberta Herrin, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Appalachian Studies