Contact: Laura Osberger
lauraosberger@schev.edu
(804) 387-5191

March 7, 2023

For immediate release

RICHMOND — The State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV) and Dominion Energy honored 12 recipients of the 2023 Outstanding Faculty Awards in a ceremony today that included comments from Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera. Since 1987, these awards have recognized faculty at Virginia’s institutions of higher learning who exemplify the highest standards of teaching, scholarship and service.

Nominees were selected by the institutions, reviewed by a panel of peers and chosen by a committee of leaders from the public and private sectors. In all, 74 nominations were submitted this year. This group was narrowed to a field of 24 finalists and then to the 12 recipients, each of whom receive $7,500 from the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation.

Recipients came from campuses large and small throughout the Commonwealth and from two- and four-year institutions, private and public. Their fields of expertise ranged from biology and biosciences to engineering and strategic management. They represent the highest level of scholarship, teaching, mentoring, public service and research in Virginia.

“Virginia is blessed to have a system of higher education that is among the best in the United States,” said Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera. “We could not achieve this status without the contributions of time, talent and expertise of the outstanding faculty members who choose to teach here in Virginia. Today we thank you for your commitment to ensuring Virginia students have the skills they need to succeed and contribute to our economy and community.”

“SCHEV shares the Commonwealth’s vision to create a thriving, successful Virginia,” said Peter Blake, director of SCHEV. “The activities we celebrate today – outstanding teaching, research and service to one’s field, students, campus, community and world – help transform not only individual lives, but also advance the economic and cultural prosperity of the entire Commonwealth.”

This marks the nineteenth year Dominion Energy has partnered with SCHEV to honor the Commonwealth’s outstanding faculty members.

“Today, the Commonwealth of Virginia recognizes 12 of its best and brightest college faculty,” said Hunter A. Applewhite, president of the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation. “The devotion and passion of the individuals recognized today help to strengthen our communities and inspire the next generation of leaders. We are honored to be a part of their journey.”

Listed below are the recipients in alphabetical order. Asterisks indicate Rising Star (early-career achievement) awards. Bio and photos also are available on SCHEV's website.

2023 Outstanding Faculty Award Recipients

1. Spencer Bakich (Virginia Military Institute)
Spencer Bakich is a professor of international studies and the director of the National Security Program at the Virginia Military Institute, and a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Dr. Bakich is the author of Success and Failure in Limited War: Information and Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Iraq Wars. His second book, George H. W. Bush and the Persian Gulf War: Diplomacy, War, and Grand Strategy in the New World Order is under contract with the University Press of Kansas. Dr. Bakich’s commentary has been featured in The National Interest, USA Today and The Washington Post. Working with the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Project, Dr. Bakich has interviewed numerous senior policymakers, military officers and Foreign Service officers who served in the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

2. Charletta Barringer-Brown (Virginia State University)
Charletta Barringer-Brown is a professor in the department of political science and public administration and the faculty director of general education at Virginia State University. She serves integral roles in the department, the College of Humanities and Social Science, the university and the community. A policy analyst, Dr. Barringer-Brown constantly strives to create a pathway for her students to gain the knowledge, access the tools and develop the skills necessary for success in today’s complex working, educational, and political policy initiatives. She received her bachelor of arts degree in psychology from the Virginia Commonwealth University, a master of education degree in special education from Virginia State University, and a Ph.D. in public policy and public administration with a concentration in law from Walden University. She demonstrates exceptional initiative and is committed in her efforts to help advance the mission of Humanities and Social Sciences.

3. Kelly Cartwright (Christopher Newport University)
Kelly Cartwright is a professor of psychology, neuroscience and teacher preparation at Christopher Newport University. Dr. Cartwright is an award-winning teacher and mentor who engages students in and out of the classroom. Dr. Cartwright’s research, supported by nearly $3 million in federal funding, explores neurocognitive and affective factors that underlie reading comprehension processes and difficulties. Widely published in national and international scholarly outlets, her groundbreaking book, Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension (2015), forthcoming in a second edition (2023), is the first comprehensive text at this intersection. A leader in her field, she has served on the board of directors of the Literacy Research Association and as visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford. Dr. Cartwright regularly works with K-12 teachers throughout the U.S. to understand and improve reading for struggling students, and these experiences inform her research.

4. Amanda Kyle Gibson* (University of Virginia)
Amanda Kyle Gibson is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia’s department of biology, where she teaches courses on the dynamics of infectious diseases. She received the university’s highest teaching honor for junior faculty, the Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award, as well as the Society for the Study of Evolution’s Huxley Award for her educational contributions to evolutionary biology. Professor Gibson’s federally funded research applies her group’s expertise in evolution to the global challenge posed by infectious diseases. She has been recognized as an outstanding early career biologist by the European Society for Evolutionary Biology’s Maynard Smith Prize and the Society for the Study of Evolution’s Dobzhansky Prize. Dr. Gibson received a bachelor of arts degree in biology from Amherst College and a Ph.D. in ecology, evolution and behavior from Indiana University. Before returning to her native Virginia, Dr. Gibson trained as an NIH fellow in research and science teaching at Emory University.

5. Rachel Harmon (University of Virginia)
Rachel Harmon is the Harrison Robertson professor of law and director of the Center for Criminal Justice at the University of Virginia Law School. Her research focuses on policing and the law, and her 2021 casebook, The Law of the Police, is the first book to explore the wide-ranging law that governs police encounters in the United States. Professor Harmon moved to academia in 2006 after eight years as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she investigated and prosecuted civil rights crimes nationwide. Before attending Yale Law School, Professor Harmon received two master’s degrees with distinction from the London School of Economics as a Marshall Scholar. After law school, she clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court.

6. Jeffrey Harrison (University of Richmond)
Jeffrey Harrison is a University Distinguished Educator, University Distinguished Scholar and the W. David Robbins chair of strategic management at the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond. Prior to his current appointment, he served as the Fred G. Peelen professor of global hospitality strategy at Cornell University. Dr. Harrison’s primary research objective is to infuse strategic management with stakeholder theory. Much of his work has been published in high-impact academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Business Ethics Quarterly and Journal of Business Ethics. He has published 13 books, with a fourteenth currently in press. Dr. Harrison serves as section editor for Journal of Business Ethics and on numerous editorial boards. He also served as chair of the Stakeholder Strategy Interest Group at the Strategic Management Society, a group he helped organize.

7. Khan Iftekharuddin (Old Dominion University)
Khan Iftekharuddin is professor and associate dean of research of the Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University. He is the Batten-endowed chair in machine learning and the director of the ODU Vision Lab. He is an internationally renowned scholar in computer vision and machine learning, applying his expertise in image analysis to fight high-grade glioblastoma, the deadly brain cancer that killed senators Edward Kennedy and John McCain. He pioneered ways to identify abnormal brain tissues and predict tumor growth that will dramatically improve the diagnosis, surgical removal and treatment of these deadly glioblastomas. In recognition of his work, Dr. Iftekharuddin won the ODU Faculty Research Award and is among the top two percent of researchers for career and single-year impact in the globe.

8. Alessandra Luchini (George Mason University)
Alessandra Luchini is director of the biosciences Ph.D. program and professor with tenure at George Mason University. Her research interests are focused on developing technologies that improve current diagnostics and therapeutics for diseases including cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases. Dr. Luchini authored peer -reviewed publications in scientific journals in chemistry, nanotechnology and proteomics and is co-inventor in a series of issued and licensed patents covering her Mason nanotechnology research. Dr. Luchini is co-founder of Ceres Nanosciences Inc., which was created in 2008, and Monet Pharmaceuticals, created in 2019. In 2011 Dr. Luchini was named one of the top 10 most brilliant scientists by Popular Science. Dr. Luchini earned a degree in chemical engineering cum laude and a Ph.D. in bioengineering, both at the University of Padova in Italy.

9. Margarita Marinova (Christopher Newport University)
Margarita Marinova is professor of English and comparative literature at Christopher Newport University. She has published five books: Transnational Russian-American Travel Writing; Mikhail Bulgakov’s Don Quixote; Mikhail Bakhtin: The Duvakin Interviews; Russian Modernism in the Memories of Survivors; and The Art of Translation in Light of Bakhtinian Re-accentuation. She has also published articles about Russian and Soviet literature and culture, Cervantes in Russia, contemporary Bulgarian literature, and travel studies in scholarly collections and journals such as the Slavic and East European Journal, Studies in Travel Writing, The Comparatist and Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature.

10. Julie McConnell (University of Richmond)
Julie McConnell is a professor of law and has been the director of the University of Richmond’s Children’s Defense Clinic since 2011. She has represented children and families for more than 25 years and specializes in holistic trauma-informed representation and client-centered practice. She and her students represent disadvantaged youth and adults. She has previously served as an assistant public defender and child abuse and domestic violence prosecutor. Professor McConnell is co-editor of the book Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia and consults as a juvenile legal system expert in Virginia criminal cases and with the International Institute of Justice and the Rule of Law in Valetta, Malta. Professor McConnell is currently chair of the Virginia Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice and Prevention and the Virginia Bar Association Commission on the Needs of Children. She also serves on the boards of the Mid-Atlantic Gault Center and Housing Opportunities Made Equal.

11. Christine Pegorraro Schull (Northern Virginia Community College)
Christine Pegorraro Schull has been a member of the early childhood faculty at Northern Virginia Community College since 2006, becoming Alexandria campus program head in 2016. Dr. Schull is also a lecturer at the University of Maryland’s Family Studies department and chair of the early childhood peer group in the Virginia Community College System. She started her career as a research fellow and an elementary school teacher in a Spanish immersion program. Her publications and presentations illuminate the importance that early education and intervention play in childhood formation. Dr. Schull is a fierce advocate for early childhood education and has served in numerous capacities to advance its role through public discourse.

12. Eli Vlaisavljevich* (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)
Eli Vlaisavljevich is an associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech. His research interests include focused ultrasound, non-invasive tissue ablation, cavitation physics, nanoparticle-mediated histotripsy, biomaterials, tissue regeneration, cancer, clinical translation and more. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Dr. Vlaisavljevich conducted his graduate degrees in the histotripsy lab at the University of Michigan and then spent two years working at HistoSonics on the development of histotripsy for the treatment of liver cancer.

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The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia is the state’s coordinating agency for higher education. With Pathways to Opportunity: The Virginia Plan for Higher Education, SCHEV is dedicated to making Virginia the best state for education by 2030. For more on this statewide strategic plan, visit https://www.schev.edu/research-publications/strategic-plan