Four UNLV faculty and staff members were recognized recently by the Board of Regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada for their outstanding work.
Those honored were English professor John Bowers; theatre professor Julie Jensen; communication professor Richard Jensen; and Lea Sexton, director of the Wilson Advising Center in the College of Liberal Arts.
"We're tremendously pleased that the regents have chosen to honor John Bowers, Julie Jensen, Richard Jensen, and Lea Sexton," said UNLV Provost Douglas Ferraro. "Each of them works diligently on behalf of our students and our university. They deserve this recognition of their efforts."
Bowers, who chairs UNLV's English department, was selected from faculty members throughout the University and Community College System as this year's recipient of the Nevada Regents' Teaching Award. He will receive $5,000.
In nominating Bowers for the award, English professor and novelist Richard Wiley said, "After arriving from Princeton University in 1987, John Bowers quickly established a reputation as a top teacher in our department. The fact that this reputation for classroom excellence has grown over the years is all the more remarkable because his specialty -- medieval literature -- would normally be considered daunting, and even boring."
"Student evaluations consistently remark upon the solid content of his classes as well as the enthusiasm which he brings to the teaching enterprise," Wiley said.
Julie Jensen, who heads UNLV's master of fine arts degree program in playwriting was chosen by the regents to receive the Nevada Regents' Creative Activity Award. She was selected from professors throughout the University and Community College System. The award carries with it a $5,000 prize.
"Professor Jensen, in addition to being an outstanding teacher, is considered a `cutting-edge' playwright in the world of professional theatre," said Jeff Koep, dean of the College of Fine Arts, when nominating her for the award. "She is considered one of the top playwrights in the U.S. Further, she is considered one of the finest female playwrights in the world. UNLV, the UCCSN, and the state of Nevada are fortunate to have a person of her talent and skill as a contributing member of the local and national cultural community."
Her play The Lost Vegas Series, won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play -- the Chicago equivalent of a Broadway Tony award -- in 1996. Stray Dogs, another of her plays, won the CBS/Dramatist Guild Prize and played to accolades at Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage. White Money, a play examining greed, television, and truck drivers, won the Award for New American Plays.
Richard Jensen and Lea Sexton both were chosen by the regents as recipients of the first Regents' Academic Advisor Awards. Academic advisors at each of the system's campuses were chosen to receive the award. Richard Jensen, who was selected for his work with graduate students, and Sexton, who was honored for her work with undergraduates, each will receive $1,000.
Richard Jensen, who has been at UNLV since 1992, was selected for the advising work he performs in his position as graduate coordinator in the Hank Greenspun School of Communication.
"I particularly enjoy my present role because I spend a great deal of time working with graduate students on their admission to the program, helping them plan their academic programs, providing them with emotional support when needed, and helping them achieve their goals after graduating from the program," he said.
Sexton is in her ninth year as an academic advisor at UNLV and her third as director of the Wilson Advising Center in the College of Liberal Arts.
"The opening of the Wilson Advising Center in January of 1997 was a dream come true for me," she said. "It was an opportunity for me to organize the advising process in Liberal Arts in a way that I knew would work well for the students, the college, and the university."
"I believe that advising is the basis for student success at any university, therefore I believe that the job of an advisor starts at orientation and ends at graduation," Sexton said. "Students are the reason we are here, and they need to know that we care if they do well in their academic pursuits and that they will graduate in a timely manner."
