Golden Apple: Kevin Grisham  Kevin Grisham, associate professor and chair of geography and environmental studies, and the faculty adviser to the CSUSB award-winning Model UN and Model Arab League programs, was named the winner of the 2018-19 Golden Apple award, the university’s highest award for teaching. Grisham, who earned the Outstanding Faculty Advisor award in 2015-16, began lecturing at CSUSB in 2008, was hired as an assistant professor in 2013 and became an associate professor three years later. During this time, he developed eight different courses, including some requiring new prep, and honed a style of teaching that has resulted in high ratings by his students.  “This award recognizes outstanding teachers who excel in the profession of teaching and who have a significant impact on the students with whom they interact,” said the nominating committee. “Dr. Grisham is an excellent example of a faculty member who embodies those qualities.” Outstanding Professor: Annie Buckley Annie Buckley, professor of art, was named the 2018-19 Outstanding Professor. Buckley will also become the John M. Pfau Endowed Professor. “Whether through her innovative approach to teaching or advocacy towards our local community, Professor Buckley continues to put others before herself in all her ventures,” said one of her students. “I cannot think of an educator throughout my entire college career that is more deserving of this award.” Buckley developed and currently heads the university’s Community-based Art (CBA) program, which incorporates service learning into the educational experience. She has raised more than $2 million in grants and contracts toward sustaining and growing this initiative.  The nominating committee said she “is an ambitious and engaged professor. … She is a determined and deeply compassionate teacher, scholar, artist, and citizen, who is creating a lasting legacy of civic and community engagement through art.”

Donna Gotch, a full-time instructor in the Department of Communication Studies, was selected as the university’s Outstanding Lecturer for 2018-19. Gotch began teaching at CSUSB in 1991 as an adjunct faculty member and became a full-time lecturer in 2002. She has taught a wide array of courses at CSUSB, including fully online courses and courses in distance learning formats.  “Our lecturers play an essential role in CSUSB’s mission to provide a high quality educational experience to our students,” the nominating committee wrote. “Ms. Gotch has demonstrated exemplary skill in teaching; her devotion to her students is indefatigable.”  Gotch has previously received the College of Arts and Letters Outstanding Lecturer Award (2016-17) and the CSUSB Panhellenic Council’s Faculty Recognition Award (in 2014 and 2016). 

Outstanding Faculty Advisor: Daniel Nickerson  Daniel Nickerson, assistant professor of biology, was the recipient of the 2018-19 Outstanding Faculty Advisor award. Nickerson was nominated by several of his students, both undergraduate and graduate. They acknowledged his open door policy, his ability to listen, his advice and practical assistance, and his support and encouragement for their success in their current classes and research projects and for their futures.   “Dr. Nickerson facilitates a welcoming, inclusive and open classroom and lab environment,” wrote one student. “I have never felt intimidated when approaching him.” If students make an error in their research work, he “never criticizes” but rather “always provides us the opportunity to perform the task again and explains how we went wrong so we learn from our mistakes.”

Outstanding Service Award: Thomas Long  Thomas Long, professor of history, was selected for the 2018-19 Outstanding Faculty Service Award.  Long, who won the Golden Apple award in 2015, began his career at CSUSB as an assistant professor in 2006. Since then, Long has served “as the embodiment of Department, College, University, and Community citizenship,” said the nominating committee.  Much of his service involves serving on committees with extensive and impactful assignments, such as curriculum development, academic program reviews, evaluations of faculty, hiring committees, quarter-to-semester curriculum development and conversion activities.  In addition, under his leadership as internship coordinator for the history department, he has secured numerous meaningful internship placements for students, many of which are paid through grants he’s secured.