2021 Honorees

Danny Adkison is an Associate Professor in the department of Political Science. He has published numerous articles in journals and has written over one million words as a political opinion commentator.

Laura J. Ahlstrom is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Oklahoma State University. Her academic research is in economic education with a focus on the gender gap in undergraduate economics coursework and degree attainment.

Laura J. Arata is Assistant Professor of History and Director of Public History at Oklahoma State University, where she specializes in public history and the American West.

Richard Boles specializes in early North American and United States history, particularly African American and Native American history from the colonial era to the middle of the nineteenth century, and American religious history. Boles researches race relations in northeastern Protestant churches from 1730 to 1850.

A versatile musician and performer, soprano Anné-Marie Condacse has been a resident artist with the George Enescu Romanian National Philharmonic and has appeared as guest soloist with the Romanian National Opera, Ion Dacian Operetta Theater, Oradea Lyric Theater, Cairo Opera and Cairo Philharmonic.

Skye has degrees in international relations, international studies, mass communication and political communication. He is an assistant professor in the School of Media and Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University...

William Merrill Decker is a Professor of English and American Studies. His previous books include "The Literary Vocation of Henry Adams," "Epistolary Practices: Letter Writing in America before Telecommunications" and "Kodak Elegy: A Cold War Childhood." He is also co-editor of and contributor to "Henry Adams and the Need to Know."

Dr. Dursun Delen is the holder of Spears Endowed Chair in Business Administration, Patterson Family Endowed Chair in Business Analytics, Director of Research for the Center for Health Systems Innovation, and Regents Professor of Management Science and Information Systems in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University (OSU).

Second Prize Winner of the 2019 Mozart & Tchaikovsky International Conducting Competition, Dr. Thomas Dickey currently serves as the Director of Orchestral Studies at Oklahoma State University, where he conducts the OSU Symphony Orchestra and teaches courses in orchestral conducting, literature and pedagogy. He concurrently serves as Music Director and Conductor of the OSU Youth Orchestra and Community Orchestras.

Allison Dorko is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the mathematics department. She has a doctorate in mathematics education from Oregon State University.

Dr. Kathy Essmiller is an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and Open Educational Resources Librarian at Oklahoma State University. Kathy holds a Master of Music in trumpet performance, a Master of Science in educational technology and a PhD in Learning, Design and Technology.

Perry Gethner is a Regents Professor at Oklahoma State University (OSU). His research focuses on early modern French drama, much of it consisting of critical editions and translations.

Dr. Afshin J. Ghajar is Regents and John Brammer Endowed Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA and an Honorary Professor of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. He received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. all in Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University.

Carla L. Goad is a Professor of Statistics at Oklahoma State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from Kansas State University. SAS Programming has been an integral part of her work since the late 1980's.

G. Michael Grammer is a Professor and the Associate Head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University and holds the Chesapeake Energy Endowed Chair of Petroleum Geology. Mike received his PhD in 1991 from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

David Gray is a historian of work in the United States, with a focus on how work and its rewards have been promoted by management. He recently published "Work Better, Live Better: Motivation, Labor, and Management Ideology" (University of Massachusetts Press, November 2020), which traces managers’ use of motivational campaigns in the American workplace...

Elizabeth Grubgeld is Regents Professor of English. In addition to many articles on Irish literature, autobiography, and Disability Studies, she is author of three books...

Amanda Harrist is a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science and an Associate Director for Translation & Education at OSU’s Center for Family Resilience. She received her B.A. from the University of Texas and her Ph.D. at University of Tennessee in 1991.

Jennifer Hays-Grudo, Ph.D., is a Regents Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at OSU Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa where she is the Principal Investigator and Director of the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity (CIRCA), an $11.3 million NIH grant.

Sunderesh S. Heragu is a Regents Professor and is the head of the School of Industrial Engineering and Management at Oklahoma State University where he holds the Donald and Cathey Humphreys Chair. Previously, he was the Duthie Chair in Engineering Logistics and Director of the Logistics and Distribution Institute (LoDI) at the University of Louisville.

Holly Karibo's research focuses on the history of vice, labor and sexuality in transnational urban spaces. Her first book, "Sin City North: Sex, Drugs, and Citizenship in the Detroit-Windsor Borderland" (UNC Press, 2015), examines the history of illegal economies in the Great Lakes border region during the post-World War II period.

Shelia Kennison received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her bachelor’s degree in linguistics and psychology from Harvard University. Her research focuses on cognitive science, including topics in language comprehension, bilingualism, resilience and risk-taking.

Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of 20 books in poetry, nonfiction and children’s literature. Lansana is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow, Writer in Residence, Lecturer and Acting Director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Lansana is Creator and Executive Producer of "KOSU/NPR’s Focus: Black Oklahoma" monthly radio program.

Thomas LaVanchy is a human-environment interaction scientist. His research interests are in hydrology and social vulnerability & adaption in the context of climate change.

Jeffrey Loeffert serves as Professor and Director of the Michael and Anne Greenwood School of Music. A dedicated teacher, Loeffert is a past recipient of the Oklahoma State University College of Arts & Sciences Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence..

Kimberly Goddard Loeffert is a saxophonist, music theorist and equity advocate who serves as Assistant Professor of Music Theory in the Michael and Anne Greenwood School of Music, and Faculty Fellow for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Since 2015, Andy Mattern has served as Assistant Professor of Photography & Digital Media at Oklahoma State University. Mattern’s recent creative projects have engaged photography’s aesthetic conventions and physical materials as subject matter.

Erin K. Murphy frequently performs with orchestras, in chamber music collaborations and as a soloist throughout the U.S. and abroad. She holds flute performance degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University and University of Michigan. In addition, she earned a performance certificate while studying in England at Trevor Wye’s international flute studio.

Aimee Parkison has published several books of fiction and has won the FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize. Parkison writes to explore voices and open doors to unusual journeys through language.

Cassidy Petrazzi, M.A. is an art historian, curator and the current Director of the Gardiner Gallery of Art at Oklahoma State University. Petrazzi received her BFA from NYSCC at Alfred University, Alfred, NY, studying under Peer Bode in the Department of Expanded Media.

Justin Prince’s research interests focus on the American military in the late nineteenth century through the First World War, examining the development and professionalization of the United States Army, especially when compared to developments in Europe.

Jim Puckette is Professor and Geoscience Education Chair in the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University (OSU). Jim specializes in physical stratigraphy, sedimentology and petroleum geology.

Jerry Rackley serves as Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in the Marketing and International Business department at the Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University.

Eve M. Ringsmuth is an Associate Professor of Political Science. She studies Supreme Court decision-making, the separation of powers, judicial retirements and selection and Supreme Court legitimacy.

Megan Ruby is an advanced doctoral student in Curriculum Studies at Oklahoma State University (OSU) and identifies as non-binary. Megan’s research interests include critical whiteness studies, critical race theory, feminist pedagogy, and gender and education.

Ramesh Sharda is the Vice Dean for Research and the Watson Graduate School of Management, Watson/ConocoPhillips Chair and a Regents Professor of Management Science and Information Systems in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University. He has coauthored two textbooks...

Louise Siddons is an Associate Professor of Art History, teaching courses in American and Native American visual and material culture. She has published on topics from the eighteenth century to the present and is active as an independent curator and dance educator.

Michael Tallman received his B.Sc. and M.A. in mathematics from the University of Northern Colorado and he received his Ph.D. in mathematics education from Arizona State University. Dr. Tallman has taught mathematics at the secondary and post-secondary levels.

Gabriela Toomer is a passionate Virologist. She has a DVM with a Masters and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology with 11 years of experience in interdisciplinary research work including RNA biology, transcriptomics, iRNA, RNA modifications,...

Sheri Vasinda is the Alice Phillips Endowed Professor of Elementary Education and Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the School of Teaching, Learning and Educational Sciences in the College of Education and Human Sciences.

Dr. Qiuying Wang is a literacy professor in the College of Education and Human Sciences. She takes cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparative perspectives on literacy education, examining the literacy development of children from different language backgrounds and from different language learning environments.

Kinda Wilson is a marketing instructor at the Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business and at CIMBA Italy. Her marketing and business experience ranges from working with corporations and nonprofits to founding start-up companies.

Amy Wisniewski received her BA in Neuroscience from Oberlin College in 1994 and her PhD in Experimental Psychology from The Johns Hopkins University in 1999. She completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Behavioral Endocrinology in 2002...

Shelbie Witte, Ph.D., is the Chuck and Kim Watson Endowed Chair in Education and Professor in Adolescent Literacy and English Education at Oklahoma State University, where she serves as chair of the School of Teaching, Learning & Educational Sciences and founding director of the Initiative for 21st Century Literacies Research.

Guoping Zhao is a Professor and Research Fellow in Social Foundations of Education. She works in the fields of continental philosophy, comparative philosophy, philosophy of education and Chinese education.