There was plenty of pomp and circumstance taking place during the 2025 Faculty Excellence Award ceremony held at Cleveland State’s Glasscock Family Foundation Ballroom on April 9. The luncheon and celebration honored faculty from across the university.

The Distinguished Faculty Awards, which recognizes the university’s faculty for their work in and out of the classroom, headlined the event. They are awarded annually in three categories: research, service and teaching. The awards aim to honor those who have received recognition for their exceptional research or creative work in the scholarly or creative community.  

DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR

91̽�� recognized Professor of Physics, Jearl Walker, as its Distinguished Professor. Walker, who has been teaching at 91̽�� for 52 years, said he will continue to stay a while longer because he loves the school, faculty, staff and most of all the students, noting the most enjoyable moments are in the classroom, hallway or office when a student suddenly understands something and the ‘fog’ lifts.

“Teaching is tough because you rarely know in the classroom if you are making any lasting difference in a student's life. But I have now been here long enough that many former students have told me that I made a difference,” he said. “In fact, starting many years ago, some students told me that their parents really enjoyed my class. And starting about 12 years ago, some students told me that their grandparents really enjoyed my class. I might make it to the great-grandparents mark before I leave.”

He added:

“There are many instructors here at 91̽�� that are highly talented and accomplished. I feel humbled to receive the honor.” 

Other Distinguished Faculty Awards went to Bibo Li and Thijs Heus (Research), Joanna DeMarco, Aycan Grossman and Vania De Paoli (Service), Deborah Espy, Sarah Rutherford, Myrita Wilhite (Teaching).

A number of faculty were promoted and given tenure, including:

Promotion to Associate College Lecturer
Manuella Crawley, Health Sciences and Human Performance
Megan Harless, Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences
Tameika Harris, School of Nursing
John Jirik, School of Communication
Amanda Lloyd, English
Quintasha McCrimon, School of Nursing
Sarah Nocero, School of Nursing
Matthew Nordlund, Psychology
Toni Paoletta, Marketing
Olivia Pethtel, Psychology
Julie Townsend, English

Promotion to Associate Professor of Practice
Maryam Younessi Sinaki, Mechanical Engineering

Promotion to Senior College Lecturer
Dawn Aliberti, Criminology and Sociology
Ramune Braziunaite, School of Communication
Mark Cole, History
Patrick Frato, Psychology

Promotion to Associate Librarian
Hannah Pearson, Michael Schwartz Library

Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure
David Hicks, Art and Design
Emmanuel Kidando, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Christa Laser, College of Law
Rachel Lovell, Criminology and Sociology
Barbara Milliken, Occupational Therapy
Paul Mills, Marketing
Todd Nelson, Political Science
Merlin Nithya Gnanapragasam, Biology, Geological and Environmental Sciences
Josiah Owusu-Danquahm, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Hilary Plum, English
Jun Ru, Operations and Supply Chain Management
Hongkai Yu, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Tenure
Violet Cox, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Joanna DeMarco, Health Sciences and Human Performance
Abigail Moncrieff, College of Law
Myrita Wilhite, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Promotion to Professor
Tushar Borkar, Mechanical Engineering 
George Chatzimavroudis, College of Engineering, Dean’s Office
Brooke Conti, English
Holly Holsinger, Theatre and Dance
Cynthia Hovland, School of Social Work
Sathish Kumar, Computer Science
Chelsea Monty-Bromer, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Kelly Wrenhaven, History

Promotion to Clinical Professor
Karen McIntyre, Physical Therapy

Congratulations to those who were honored!