UPCEA Region West
In Honor of Excellence Awards
Recipients – 2013


Outstanding Credit Program

Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies
Western Oregon University

Outstanding Credit Program Award: Pictured (L to R): Wendy Evers, UPCEA Region West Chair, San Diego State University with award-winner Elisa Maroney, Western Oregon University

 

The MA in Interpreting Studies provides interpreters and interpreter educators advanced scholarship that focuses on theoretical, practical, and teaching applications; thus, advancing the standards and leadership of the interpreting profession via research, rigorous study, and practice. The goals of this program are to provide professional interpreters with the opportunity for growth and development beyond the undergraduate level and to participate in observation, practice, and supervision; to add to a growing body of research on interpreting and interpreter education, and to develop highly qualified interpreter educators and leaders in the field of interpreting.

Within the program, interpreting professionals will take courses primarily online to enhance their experience and knowledge. These professionals will be uniquely skilled in helping students understand interpreting as a practice profession, educate the next generation on self evaluation and continued growth, and will be committed to seeing quality research to advance the profession. Professionals exit this program with excellent leadership skills to take the field to the next level.

 


Outstanding Noncredit Program


UBC/DAA Award of Achievement in Digital Analytics
University of British Columbia, Continuing Education

Outstanding Non-Credit Program Award: Pictured (L to R): Award-winner Lynn Fujino, University of British Columbia and Wendy Evers, UPCEA Region West Chair, San Diego State University


The UBC/DAA Award of Achievement in Digital Analytics (formerly Web Analytics) is designed for marketing and IT managers in the development and deployment of Internet initiatives, including interactive marketers, web/marketing analysts, project managers, web developers, information architects, consultants, systems and business analysts as well as executives in IT, e-commerce, marketing and sales. With an emphasis on critical thinking and discovery, the program delivers leading-edge skills relevant to every business and sector with a digital presence, including high-tech, corporate, education, government and small business. Delivered jointly by UBC Continuing Studies and the Digital Analytics Association, the program is comprised of four 100% online courses and teaches students how to create and manage a digital analytics program, how to increase site optimization and conversion goals, create solutions to common business problems, build support for an analytical culture, and generate measurable business value. Students build proficiency in digital analytics through assignments and project work using an interactive combination of lectures, videos, readings and online discussions to deliver program content. Program content is provided by the Education Committee of the Digital Analytics Association (formerly the Web Analytics Association), consisting of recognized industry professionals and facilitated by online tutors with significant industry experience. To date, the UBC/DAA Award of Achievement in Digital Analytics has had over 800 graduates from over 40 countries around the world.

 


Outstanding Administrative Process or Service

Summer Revenue Projection Tool
California State University, Chico, Regional and Continuing Education

Regional and Continuing Education (RCE) administers a self-supporting Summer Session in partnership with the University’s seven colleges.  RCE is expected to return revenue to the campus to support the mission of the University.  The goal of the process nominated for this award is to provide the college deans with the information and incentive they need to make real-time, data-driven decisions that directly impact Summer Session and increase the revenue available for distribution to the colleges.  Those decisions require an effective and easy way for deans to monitor projected revenue against faculty cost and to track the impact of daily enrollment changes during the registration period leading up to the start of Summer Session on the overall financial return they wish to realize.  Using actual salary figures and enrollment and revenue projects, RCE created an administrative process and revenue projection tool that empowers deans with real-time data to make decisions about faculty assignments, enrollment capacity, and whether the college can afford to run an under-enrolled class or if an additional section is financially viable.  As a result of this process, in Summer Session 2013 an additional 201 students were served and $180,180 in additional revenue was generated.

 


Outstanding Non-traditional Student Award

Mary Ellen Hurley
B.S. in Sociology
Oregon State University Extended Campus

Outstanding Nontraditional Student: Pictured (L to R): Tyler Hansen and Lisa Templeton, Oregon State University, award-winner Mary Ellen Mooney Hurley, Oregon State University, Wendy Evers, UPCEA Region West Chair, San Diego State University and Jessica DuPont, UPCEA Region West Secretary, Oregon State University


Mary Ellen Hurley’s life story is long and complicated, but one can try to sum it up with a series of numbers.She spent 21 years in Dayton, Oregon, as the neighborhood “mom” to pregnant teens and wayward kids who needed help that no one else was willing to give. Hurley used to drive 100 miles each day from Dayton to Corvallis and back for her Oregon State classes.

In 2011 she packed up and moved 2,600 miles to Kauai in the middle of her studies as an Oregon State University Ecampus student. Using her online course work in rural environmental sociology as a guide, she serves as the director of a community garden and food pantry that combine to feed 300 families every week.  The locals call her “Auntie”. And this June – two months before her 52nd birthday – Hurley earned a college degree.  It was an educational journey that took more than 30 years to complete, but she sees it as the beginning of perhaps the most important work of her life.

 


Excellence in Teaching Award

Stanley Gregory
Oregon State University


Stan Gregory is 32 years into his career as an award-winning educator and a widely respected leader in ecological studies.  In a matter of months he will retire from Oregon State University, and the distance students who revere his teaching methods will be left with a notable void in their academic pursuits.

With his legacy fully intact, Stan could approach Year 33 like a victory lap, content to fall back on the robust instructional practices he has employed over three decades.  Instead, he’s treating it like a professor who still has something to prove.

“To be very honest, I do not feel that I have achieved the level of individualized student interaction and mentoring that I desire,” he said recently.  It’s an odd statement considering that all the evidence suggests Stan in an outstanding mentor of students.

The impact of Stan’s instructional expertise resonates with OSU’s distance students around the globe, including hydrologists, biologists and other scientists who seek out his courses in order to meet certification requirements for various professional societies and organizations.  Other Oregon State faculty also have benefited greatly from his work; in April he shared his online teaching experiences and successes at the annual Oregon State Ecampus Faculty Forum, where hundreds of instructors and OSU administrators gather to discuss excellence in online teaching.  His presentation was titled “Online Labs: Creative Solutions to the Impossible,” and it was very well received and inspired his OSU colleagues in science-related fields to explore innovative ways to develop and improve similar courses online.

It is fair to say that OSU will not be recognized as a national leader in fisheries and wildlife were it not for the decades-long efforts made by Stan in and out of the classroom.  He is highly sought-after expert on matters of river restoration and conservation, and his knowledge and enthusiasm have been shared with large, diverse audiences as a result of serving on numerous boards and commissions throughout the years.  Included among them are the National Science Foundation’s Biocomplexity Program, Oregon Department of Forestry, National Academy of Sciences and Willamette River Basin Task Force.


 


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