Lynn Foster, Rebecca Glazier, and Glenn Anderson have been selected as the 2018 winners of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Faculty Excellence Awards. 

Each of the three professors will receive a $5,000 award as winners of the Faculty Excellence Awards in the categories of teaching, research and creative endeavors, and public service.

“The amount of resolve, persistence, and pride our faculty exhibit in their scholarly work on campus and in the greater community is a testament to the vision of our university,” said Dr. Velmer Burton, executive vice chancellor and provost. “Faculty like the ones we honored during this ceremony mold our students into earnest creators, leaders, and change agents.”

The winners were honored during an April 12 awards ceremony at UA Little Rock’s George W. Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology Auditorium. Fourteen additional faculty members who earned Faculty Excellence awards at the college level also were honored, and they will each receive $1,000. The 15 members of the UA Little Rock Board of Visitors reviewed the achievements and selected the winners.

Since 1989, when the first award was given, the event has provided a way to recognize the great work of UA Little Rock faculty and is made possible through the valued contributions of the Bailey Foundation, Office of the Chancellor, the Office of the Provost, and the UA Little Rock Chancellor’s Circle.

More about the winners:

Faculty Excellence in Teaching

Lynn Foster is the Arkansas Bar Foundation professor of law at UA Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law.

In the classroom, Foster utilizes a team-based learning method focused on problem solving and skills assignments to maximize comprehension. In 2014 and 2015, she revised the Property I and II courses to include team-based learning and assessment by creating class structures with clear expectations and manageable assessment tools. After assessing her curriculum revision, Foster discovered that students perform better when there is more team-based learning and assessment built into the course.

“I feel very grateful, and I am grateful for all my great students over the years,” Foster said. “It’s a complicated course, but I have seen team-based learning increase what our students have learned.”

A decade ago, Foster started the Arkansas Real Estate Review, an Arkansas Bar Foundation publication that summarizes Arkansas’s appellate real estate decisions with commentary provided by real estate attorneys. Foster’s students gain property law experience by working with attorneys to write abstracts for the publication.

She is the recipient of the Charles W. Goldner Teaching Award, two William H. Bowen School of Law Faculty Excellence awards for Public Service, the first Law School Outstanding Service award, and the Arkansas Bar Association Golden Gavel, Continuing Legal Education, and Presidential Excellence awards.

Faculty Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors

Dr. Rebecca Glazier is an associate professor of public affairs and advisor to the Model Arab League. Her research centers on religion and politics, framing and foreign policy, and pedagogy.

Glazier’s work on religion and politics has included a focus on providential beliefs, religious peacemaking, and the impact of religious organizations on congregants’ political and community attitudes and behaviors. Her articles on providential religious beliefs have influenced the work of other scholars of political science. She has worked closely with organizations from around the world to collect survey data from over 160 peacemakers.

“I feel very surprised and humbled by this award,” Glazier said. “The other researchers are doing incredible work. I try to do work that brings real change to the world, and I appreciate the university and the College of Social Sciences and Communication for supporting that.”

She recently submitted a grant through Notre Dame’s Global Religious Research Initiative to support the project’s next phase involving fieldwork in Sri Lanka, Israel, and Palestine.

Glazier was a principal investigator on the Little Rock Congregations Study. The study began in 2012 with a survey of five Little Rock congregations during the 2012 presidential election. In 2016, she partnered with the Clinton School of Public Service, where students collected surveys from more than 1,500 respondents at 17 congregations around Little Rock.

“A big part of my research is the Little Rock Congregations Study, work that wouldn’t be possible without the wonderful places of worship in Little Rock that open up their hearts and their sacred spaces for this research,” Glazier said. “It is also such a joy to get to work with students on research. Over 60 students were part of the 2016 Little Rock Congregations Study. They are a huge part of the work that I do and make it so much more rewarding.”

Glazier has written 12 peer-reviewed articles, four book chapters in edited volumes, and received numerous grants from internal and external sources leading to numerous citations. She has won best paper awards at several conferences including those of the Arkansas Political Science Association, the American Political Science Association, and the Midwest International Studies Association.

Faculty Excellence in Public Service

Dr. Glenn Anderson is an associate professor in the School of Counseling, Rehabilitation and Adult Education who has received national attention for his contributions to the field of interpreter education.

“This award is not something that I was expecting, and I really appreciate the recognition from the scholarship committee and from the university,” Anderson said. “There are four deaf faculty members working in the College of Education and Health Professions, so it’s nice when a deaf faculty member can be recognized for their work.”

Anderson’s significant contributions to the black deaf community are undeniable. He often guest lectures, makes presentations, and writes journal articles on black deaf history and linguistic variations among black American Sign Language users.

From 1982 to 2008, he served as director of training at the University of Arkansas Rehabilitation Research and Training Center for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. He currently serves on the Commission on Collegiate Interpreter Education, the national accrediting board for interpreter education programs and is a past member of the National Council on Disability and Board of Directors for National Black Deaf Advocates.

In 2010, Anderson was one of 20 national advocates for individuals with disabilities interviewed by the Federal Communications Commission and featured in the documentary, “Celebration Progress: Americans with Disabilities Act’s 20th Anniversary.”

Anderson received the National Black Deaf Advocates Lifetime Achievement Award at its 30th anniversary gala in 2012. In addition to the award, the board of directors voted to establish a scholarship in Anderson’s honor to provide financial support for deaf African American students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate postsecondary education programs.

In 2017, Anderson participated in a federal think tank administered by the Center for Advanced Training in Interpreter Education at St. Catherine University. The project focused on incorporating learning principles into interpreter education training practices from the 2014 book “Make It Stick.”

Anderson also lays claim to several pioneering roles. He is the first deaf person hired by Michigan Rehabilitation Services to work as a vocational rehabilitation counselor (1970), the first African-American alumnus of Gallaudet to earn a doctoral degree (New York University, 1982), and the first African-American deaf person to be appointed as a Gallaudet trustee (1989) and to serve as chair of the Board of Trustees (1994 to 2005).

In the upper right photos, the winners of the 2018 Faculty Excellence Awards are Lynn Foster (left), Rebecca Glazier (middle), and Glenn Anderson (right). Photos by Ben Krain.