Indiana University East recognizes outstanding full-time and part-time faculty with awards.

Lee Ann Adams

The awards honor faculty contributions toward excellence in teaching, innovative teaching, community engagement, student success, and research and creative work.

Full-Time Faculty Awards
Lee Ann Adams, reading specialist for the School of Education and instructor for First-Year Seminar, received the Helen Lees Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award was established in 1991.

Professor Emeritus Lees passed away in 1992, but her spirit continues in this annual award to honor a full-time faculty member who has taught at least 10 semesters at IU East.

Kelly Blewett

Adams received her Master in Education and Bachelor of Science in Education from Ohio University.

Her research and creative interests include helping beginning education majors develop and improve their college level reading and writing skills to promote their successful completion of the Teacher Education Program.

Kelly Blewett, assistant professor of English, received the Horizon Research/Creative Activity Award. This award recognizes excellence in research and/or creative work by an untenured faculty member during some or all of their first four years at IU East.

Blewett received her Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Cincinnati. She received her Master of Arts in English from the University of Louisville and her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Miami University of Ohio.

Ange Cooksey

Her research interests include composition theory and pedagogy, teacher feedback and reading.

Ange Cooksey, director of the Honors Program and senior lecturer in humanities, received the Distinguished Service Award. This award recognizes distinguished and sustained (10 years or more) service — campus, community or professional, by a full-time faculty member above and beyond the standard expectations of any compensation or release time provided for the service.

Cooksey received her Master in Arts in English, her Master of Arts in Philosophy and her Bachelor of Science in Philosophy from Ball State University.

Her research interests include biomedical ethics, death and dying, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Daron Olson

Daron Olson, associate professor of European and world history, received the Distinguished Research/Creative Activity Award. This award recognizes distinguished research and/or creative work by a full-time faculty member over a sustained period of time (10 years or more).

Olson received his M.A. in History from the University of North Dakota and graduated with his Ph.D. in Historical Studies from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

His research interests include Modern Norway and Norwegian emigration to the United States. His theoretical focus includes transnationalism, nationalism, and identity.

The Trustees Award for Teaching Innovation recognizes accomplishment and innovation in teaching by faculty members (lecturer, clinical, tenure-track) at IU East. Up to seven awards are granted each academic year.

Macy Bennett

This year’s recipients of the Trustees Award for Teaching Innovation are Macy Bennett, Feler Bose, Ange Cooksey (see bio above), Edwina Helton, Yu Kay Law and Tim Scales.

Bennett, lecturer in nursing, received her Master of Science in Nursing Education from Ball State University and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Wright State University.

Her research interests include evaluating the effect of the flipped classroom on critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills.

Feler Bose

Bose, associate professor of finance and economics, received his Ph.D. in Economics and a Master of Science in Economics from George Mason University. He received a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Engineering Physics from Hope College.

Bose’s areas of practice are law and economics, political economy, economics of religion, and applied microeconomics.

Edwina Helton

Helton, professor of English and director of Women’s and Gender Studies program, received her Ph.D. in English from Miami University. She has a Master of Arts in English, a Bachelor of Arts in English, and a Graduate Certificate in Composition and Rhetoric from the University of Akron. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Maryland.

Helton’s research and creative activity interests include historiographical approaches to women’s and gender studies, digital humanities and the arts, new literacy studies and language development, online teaching pedagogies and reading and composition theory.

Yu Kay Law

Law, associate professor of chemistry, received his Doctorate in Biophysics from Ohio State University where he was also a Graduate Fellow. He earned his Master of Arts and Master of Science in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

His research interests include computational studies of the interplay between nuclear quantum effects, conformational distribution and the absorption of light of nucleic acids and other light-absorbing compounds, and the role of mathematical preparation on the success of students in general chemistry.

Tim Scales

Scales, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Economic Education and senior lecturer, received his Master of Business Administration from Anderson University. He holds a Master of Science in Banking from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a Bachelor of Science in Business from IU East.

His scholarly activities involve Business Opportunities for Self Starters (BOSS), BOSS International, marketing success, and technologies including 3D printing, Oculus, AIG smart research and HoloLens.

Tina Pugh

Part-Time Faculty Award

Tina Pugh is an adjunct instructor with the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. She received the Part Time Instructor Excellence in Teaching Award. This award recognizes excellence in teaching by part-time faculty members.

Pugh received her Master of Science in Nursing from IU East. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and an Associate of Science in Nursing degrees from IU East.

She teaches didactic, lab and clinicals for nursing students. Pugh is also the learning lab and simulation assistant.