JMU SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Awards
James Madison University cultivates stellar talent through a variety of initiatives, including the Outstanding Faculty Awards (OFA) for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) administers these awards and describes them as follows:
The Outstanding Faculty Awards are the Commonwealth's highest honor for faculty at Virginia's public and private colleges and universities. These awards recognize superior accomplishments in teaching, research and public service.
Outstanding Faculty Winners for 2018
Mark Gabriele, Professor
Department of Biology (Profile)
Among Dr. Gabriele's central achievements is the integration of high research productivity with a commitment to engaged teaching and undergraduate student research. A professor of biology, Dr. Gabriele has won more than $1 million in highly competitive grants—including from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation—for his work on the neurological underpinnings of hearing disorders. Working with undergraduate and master's students, Dr. Gabriele has published a large number of articles, among them "several groundbreaking studies" (Daniel Polley, Harvard Medical School), frequently providing his students with conference presentation and co-authoring opportunities along the way.
Tom Moran, Associate Professor
Department of Kinesiology (Profile)
Dr. Moran has dedicated his career to empowering students, local communities and physical education professionals to overcome barriers and enable persons with disabilities to participate in physical exercise programs. In the course of this work, Dr. Moran has developed a five-step empowerment model that drives his teaching through engagement, experiential learning, equipment with skills, empowering with opportunity and evaluation of student growth. The empowerment theme is also reflected in Moran's founding, in 2012, of the Empowerment3 Center for Physical Activity and Wellness, which provides physical activity programs for children with disabilities as well as typically developing children.
Past winners, finalists and nominees
