FSU Faculty Members Honored

Four Fairmont State University faculty members were honored at the recent 30th Annual Academic Awards Celebration.

Dr. G.H. “Budd” Sapp, Professor of Education, has been named the 2006-2007 recipient of the William A. Boram Award for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Debra Hemler, Professor of Geoscience Education, has been named the winner of the Harold & Roselyn Williamson Straight Award. Dr. Clarence Rohrbaugh, Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology, received the Excellence in Academic Advising Award. Elizabeth Lindsley, M.S.W., an adjunct faculty member for Department of Social Science, was presented with the Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award.

The faculty awards are supported by gifts to the Fairmont State Foundation, Inc. To make a gift online, click here. 

William A. Boram Award for Teaching Excellence

The Faculty Development Committee selected Dr. G.H. “Budd” Sapp as the winner of the 22nd annual Boram Award in recognition of his outstanding achievement as demonstrated by his sustained, energetic and successful commitment to teaching. The award honors a faculty member who has demonstrated unusual dedication and accomplishments in teaching.

Sapp attended Fairmont Catholic School and Fairmont Senior High School in Marion County. He was a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Fairmont State and its Teacher Education Program. His Masters of Science degree and doctoral degree were earned at West Virginia University. Sapp teaches both undergraduate and graduate professional education courses.

Sapp began his teaching and coaching career at Fairmont Catholic School. He came to Fairmont State after 17 years of public school teaching experience at North Marion High School where he taught science, biology, anatomy & physiology, as well as sports medicine and first aid. He coached football, basketball and golf and was the athletic trainer as well at North Marion. In addition, he was the President of Faculty Senate and was the advisor for several co-curricular activities. As a high school teacher, he was named RESA VII Teacher of the Year and was selected for Who’s Who Among America’ Teachers. As a college faculty member, he was named a Fairmont State Foundation Teaching Fellow, was awarded the Fairmont State Faculty Achievement Award and was selected as the American Legion College Educator of the Year in West Virginia. He has served as President of the Fairmont State Alumni Association and is currently the Vice President. He is a member of the Fairmont State Athletic Association Board of Directors and has served on numerous school and institutional committees.

Sapp is an elected member of the Marion County Board of Education and is chairperson for the Salvation Army advisory board in Marion County, as well as a volunteer and member of a variety of civic and community organizations. He has been recently named as a Board of Examiners Chairperson for the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). He was the former Facilitator at Fairmont State for the three-year West Virginia IMPACT (Implementing Model Practices to Assure Competent Teachers) grant through the West Virginia Department of Education – Office of Professional Preparation. He is currently an instructional consultant and evaluator for the Learning Formative Assessment Systems and Technologies (Learning FAST): Professional Development for Middle School Math Teachers. This is a grant funded by the Title II Improving Teacher Quality Grant Program through the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Sapp is the President of the West Virginia Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (WVACTE) and Treasurer for the West Virginia Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He is a member of a variety of professional associations and has presented papers at the local, state, national and international levels. Sapp is also the Director of Leadership Marion, which is sponsored by Fairmont State and the Marion County Chamber of Commerce.

He is the son of Marian Meale Sapp and the late Gerald H. (Bud) Sapp. He is married to Robin L. Dalton Sapp and they have two daughters, Brigitte and Brooklyn.

Harold & Roselyn Williamson Straight Award

The Harold & Roselyn Williamson Straight Award is intended to honor or to encourage outstanding, innovative or otherwise distinctive teaching or scholarship at Fairmont State by faculty in either two-year or four-year programs. Nominations and applications are invited and received by the Faculty Development Committee, with final selection of the recipient for an annual cash award to be determined by faculty representatives to the committee. Award recipients receive appropriate campus and public recognition for this achievement, with the expectation that his or her contributions to academic excellence will continue.

Dr. Deb Hemler, this year’s award winner, grew up wandering the Eastern seaboard jumping from one naval facility to another as far north as Bath, Maine, and as far south as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Her high school years were spent in Key West, Fla., which became her hometown when her father finally retired from service. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Northland College in Wisconsin in 1981. She came to West Virginia to attend graduate school at WVU in Wildlife Management and completed that degree in 1988. While pursuing her master’s degree, she took graduate courses in education to receive a teaching certificate in secondary science specializing in biology, chemistry and general science.

In 1987 she began teaching for the Preston County Public Schools at Bruceton Junior Senior High School until consolidation and then moved to Preston High School. It was during this time that she met and married her husband Roger Opel and attended a West Virginia Geologic Survey professional development workshop called RockCamp: two pivotal events in her life.

She left the Preston County School System in 1994 to pursue a doctorate in education at WVU working with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, W.Va. She completed her Doctor of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction in Geoscience Education in 1997. She returned to Preston High School for one year, then took a visiting assistant professor position at WVU working with the state Department of Education on a Coordinated and Thematic Science (CATS) Project. During this time, she also began working as the assistant director of the RockCamp Program.

In 2000 she was hired by Fairmont State for a temporary professor position split between Education and the School of Science & Mathematics. The following year, she was hired into a tenure track position as the science educator in the School of Science and Mathematics (now the College of Science & Technology). In 2004 she began working collaboratively with NASA to oversee the Student Outreach Center, and in 2005 the Educator Resource Center. She continues the wandering instilled during her childhood by traveling every chance she gets. She has traveled with the RockCamp Program and WVU geologists to help state teachers become familiar with the geology of the coastal region, the Cascade Volcanoes, Colorado Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes, the Bay of Fundy, the Southwest and the Canadian Rockies. Most recently she traveled to Nigeria to help train teachers to use the Global Learning to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program. She lives with her husband, Roger, on a farm in rural Preston County and raises horses.

Excellence in Academic Advising Award

The Excellence in Advising Award is presented to honor demonstrated excellence and commitment to the significant force that academic advisors play in the education, personal development and success of their advisees. It is offered as a tribute but also as encouragement to all faculty advisors to persist in their efforts to help students achieve.

Dr. Clarence Rohrbaugh received this year’s award. He advises Psychology students and other students with different majors within the Department of Behavioral Sciences. His nomination refers frequently to his accessibility, approachability, demonstrated knowledge of programs, policies and procedures and his desire to help students succeed.

He was nominated by a student who stated that Rohrbaugh has served as a constant source of strength, encouragement and accountability.

The student wrote in the nomination: “Dr. Rohrbaugh repeatedly reminded me of what I was capable of accomplishing and admonished me when I allowed myself to fall beneath those standards. Dr. Rohrbaugh most definitely encourages a shared relationship. He not only encourages this in advising but also in academic work and extracurricular activities. He expects his students to take an active role in the learning process.”