In 2002, Gary Geissler joined the University of Arkansas at Little Rock as an assistant professor of marketing and advertising.

After 14 years of a remarkable teaching career, Geissler was named one of the top UALR faculty members during the 2016 Faculty Excellence Awards Ceremony April 14 at the UALR George W. Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology.

“It’s quite an honor, and it’s quite humbling, because there are a lot of deserving people at the university,” he said.

Geissler, the recipient of the Bailey Teaching Award, will receive $10,000 from the Bailey Foundation.

Since higher education has greatly enriched Geissler’s life, he said it’s only fair to put that money back into higher education by investing it in college funds for his 10- and 13-year-old sons.

As a professor, Geissler institutes what he describes as “high-involvement learning” in the classroom. His teaching style emphasizes high amounts of student involvement through client-based class projects.

He has directed more than 150 of these semester-long projects, greatly benefitting thousands of students and well over 100 businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

“I think the best thing we can teach our students is how to be adaptable. Everything changes quickly, and adaptability is something employers really look for. I want my students to be able to hit the ground running when they get hired,” Geissler said.

Adjoa A. Aiyetoro

From an early age, Adjoa Aiyetoro learned the virtues of helping others.

“I was raised by parents who believed strongly in public service,” said Aiyetoro, a UALR professor of law. “My whole life my father said the purpose of life was to serve. It’s in my nature.”

Aiyetoro has been a leading voice in ending racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Her public service focuses on researching and resolving racism and its effects in the United States, with a particular focus on the need for racial justice.

Ever since joining UALR in 2004, Aiyetoro has continued her lifetime of public service, which was recognized when she received the 2016 award for Faculty Excellence in Public Service and a $5,000 prize.

She said serving as the director of the Racial Disparities in the Arkansas Criminal Justice System Research Project was one of her greatest accomplishments.

Aiyetoro developed a team and began researching records of hundreds of Arkansas prisoners to determine the reasons for significant racial disparities within the state’s criminal justice system.

Their findings concluded blacks were more likely to receive capital murder charges than whites and were more likely to receive more severe punishment, especially the death penalty, even for the same type of conviction.

Aiyetoro’s 
work on this project resulted in a conference in August 2015 sponsored by
 the Racial Disparities Project’s Steering Committee and has contributed to legislation to obtain support for racial impact.

She has also worked as a board member of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and served as the inaugural director of UALR’s Institute on Race and Ethnicity.

“I think that public service is one of the purposes of our lives, and we have to provide community service on any of the issues that we are passionate about,” she said. “I think public service is important to create a viable and healthy society.”

Shucheng Yu

Shucheng Yu, an assistant professor of computer science, said he was quite surprised to be named one of the top faculty members at UALR. He received the Faculty Excellence in Research award and a $5,000 prize.

“I am a very lucky person among the excellent faculty members at UALR, and it is my great honor to win this award.”

Yu’s main research areas include data security, privacy in cloud computing, applied cryptography, and wireless network security.

Since arriving at UALR in 2010, Yu has also been awarded six grants, three from the National Science Foundation, that total more than $1 million.

In his project, “MRI: Acquisition of a Cloud Computing Infrastructure for Research and Education,” Yu successfully built the first private cloud in the state 
of Arkansas.  

“Good research should have impact, help the community, and advance an area in technology,” Yu said. “It should also benefit the general public, and it should provide good opportunities for the next generation of young researchers.”

Yu has provided many opportunities for his graduate students. Together, he and his graduate students have published 37 research articles the past five years.

“I am grateful to have a good team of graduate students to work with. Without them, the research cannot happen,” he said.

Since 1988, the Faculty Excellence Awards have provided a way to recognize outstanding UALR faculty.

The awards program is made possible through the contributions of the Bailey Foundation, Pepsi Beverages Co., and the UALR Chancellor’s Circle.