2024 Honorees

Ryan M. Armstrong (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Oklahoma State University. His research focuses on ancient literature within its linguistic and historical context, and he places it in conversation with rabbis, theologians, philosophers, and artists throughout history.

Sarah Beth Childers is the author of two collections of essays, Shake Terribly the Earth: Stories from Appalachian Family (Ohio University Press, 2013) and Prodigals: A Sister's Memoir of Appalachia and Loss (University of Georgia Press, 2023).

Clint Clausing has worked in the production department at Fire Protection Publications (FPP) for 16 years. He graduated from OSU with a BA in English Literature in 1998.

Dr. Skye Cooley is a professor in the School of Media and Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University and the founder of the MESA group.

Carlos Cordova is a professor of geography at Oklahoma State University. He is also an adjunct at the B. Pickens School of Geology.

Dr. Dursun Delen is the holder of William S. 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.

Merle Eisenberg is a historian of late antiquity and the early middle ages. His work examines the impact of great moments of historical change, such as the end of the Roman Empire and the Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750 C.E.), on individuals and communities.

Francis Epplin grew up on a farm in Perry County, Illinois. He completed requirements for a B.S. degree from Southern Illinois University in 1970. Twenty-five days after graduation, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He experienced combat in Vietnam. After military service, he earned an M.S. degree from Southern Illinois University and taught for two years at Western Illinois University. He earned a Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1979.

Andres Espindola is an Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University, specializing in computational and molecular biology. Espindola's research focuses on developing tools for detecting plant pathogens in high-throughput data.

Stephen C.W. Graves is the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Center for Africana Studies at the Oklahoma State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Howard University.

Joe holds Bachelor of Science degrees in physics and astronomy from the University of Washington and a PhD in experimental high-energy physics from Princeton University. Since 2013 he has been a professor of physics at Oklahoma State University.

Lisa Hollenbach is Associate Professor of English at Oklahoma State University. She specializes in the study of 20th-21st-century American literature and culture, with a focus on poetry and media studies.

Max Holm is a jazz pianist, composer of music for film and TV, arranger, and performer. Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, now residing in Stillwater, he is adjunct jazz piano professor at OSU's Greenwood School of Music.

Matthew is a Stillwater native and two-time OSU graduate. He has worked at Fire Protection Publications (IFSTA) for over five years.

Gene Kwak has published in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, Lit Hub, Wigleaf, and Electric Literature among others.

Michael Long is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Insecurity and Inequality Research (CIIR) at OSU. He is the author/co-author of seven books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters primarily in the areas of environmental sociology, green criminology, sustainability, food insecurity, public health, and quantitative methodology.

Professor Mansy received his PhD in Architecture, with honors, from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago in 2001, MSc in Architectural Engineering from Helwan University in Egypt in 1992, and BSc in Architectural Engineering from Cairo University, Egypt in 1984.

Brad McLelland grew up in Arkansas, went to college in the Ozark Mountains, and spent several years working as a crime journalist in the South before moving to the Midwest and earning his MFA in creative writing from Oklahoma State University.

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.

Houston-Truax-Wentz Professor and Regents Professor of English, author of books Wising Up the Marks: The Amodern William Burroughs (1997) and Antonio Negri: Modernity and the Multitude (2012), as well as more than 30 scholarly articles and book chapters on modern and contemporary literature, critical theory, and the fantastic.

Dr. Jacinta Mutambuki is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry. Her research in Chemical Education is focused on investigating the impact of evidence-based teaching interventions on students' learning outcomes.

Caroline Muteti is a Chemical Education doctoral student in the Chemistry Department.

Dr. Francisco M. Ochoa Corona has been a Professor at the Institute for Biosecurity & Microbial Forensics (IBMF) and the Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University since August 2008. Dr. Ochoa Corona, a forensic plant pathologist, specializes in developing and delivering reference diagnostics for exotic, naturalized, and indigenous plant viruses and other phytopathogens relevant to agricultural biosecurity and microbial forensics.

Aimee Parkison is the author eight books of fiction, including Refrigerated Music for a Gleaming Woman, which won the FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize.

Griffin Toronjo Pivateau is the Puterbaugh Professor of Legal Studies and Ethics in Business in the Department of Management at Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business. His academic work explores employment law and its impact on the business environment.

Dr. Sushobhan Pradhan is currently working as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, USA.

David Prentice is a historian and editor at Oklahoma State University’s Fire Protection Publications. He has a Ph.D. in the history of U.S. foreign relations.

Dr. Ranjith Ramanathan is a Professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences. He has teaching and research responsibilities. His area of research focuses on understanding the factors that influence meat quality changes.

Remi Recchia (he/him) is a poet, essayist, and editor from Kalamazoo, Michigan. A five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Remi's work has appeared in World Literature Today, Best New Poets 2021, and Prairie Schooner, among others.

Eve M. Ringsmuth is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University where she studies judicial politics, American political institutions, and civic education. She is especially interested in the process by which federal judges are nominated and confirmed and in investigating the role of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chyla Rucker is an instructional developer at Fire Protection Publications. Chyla has a background in higher education, trade education, and journalism.

Dr Khaled Sallam is an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Oklahoma State University (OSU), USA, where he leads the thermofluids laboratory.

Corinne Schwarz is an assistant professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies at Oklahoma State University. Her research and teaching interests include gender–based violence, frontline work, reproductive justice, and anti–carceral feminisms.

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.

Dr. Sharma joined Institute of Biosecurity and Microbial Forensics at OSU in 2020 and stood up the National Diagnostic Assay Laboratory Network (DALN).

Dr. Lindsey Claire Smith is Professor of English and has an extensive record of publication in Native American and Oklahoma film and literature.

S.M. Ifat Hossain Sristy is currently working as a Teaching Assistant at the department of Chemistry, OSU.

Heather Stewart is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma State University. Their research and teaching take an intersectional feminist approach to analyses of medicine, healthcare, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on how power, oppression, and privilege shape individual and collective engagement with these institutions and technologies.

Jane S. Vogler, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Oklahoma State University. She has been an educator for over 25 years, spending a decade in K-12 education prior to earning her doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Yang is an Assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Mgmt, Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (DASNR) at Oklahoma State University. His research focuses on ecosystem patterns and dynamics in response to climate changes and wildfires.

Mike Yough serves as an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of the Educational Psychology Program, and is Director of the Motivation in Classrooms Lab. Mike's research interests include teacher beliefs and social cognition and their effects on student motivation—especially for those students who differ from their teacher in terms of linguistic and cultural background.