爱啪网

Featured | NewsApril 10, 2026

Five Faculty Take Home Prestigious UAFS Awards

Written By: Rachel Putman

The 爱啪网 has named five recipients of its 2026 faculty awards, recognizing full-time and adjunct faculty for excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, creative activity, service, and classroom improvement. 

Honorees were recognized during the university鈥檚 Employee Appreciation Event 3 p.m. Friday, April 10, in the Stubblefield Center. Four awards carry $2,500 prizes, and the Lucille Speakman Legacy Endowment Award includes a $2,000 travel grant. 

The 2026 awards and recipients are:

• Lucille Speakman Master Teacher Award 鈥� Jordan Mader, Ph.D.
• Luella M. Krehbiel Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award 鈥� Tom Watkins
• Excellence to the University, to the Profession, and to the Community Service Award 鈥� Roberta Parks
• Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Award 鈥� Ann-Gee Lee, Ph.D.
• Lucille Speakman Legacy Endowment Award 鈥� Virginia M. Hardgraves, Ph.D.

Mader received the Lucille Speakman Master Teacher Award, which honors full-time faculty for teaching effectiveness, outstanding job performance, service to the institution beyond teaching responsibilities, service to the community, and participation in professional growth and development. Her nominators wrote that Mader 鈥渘ot only meets but exceeds the qualifications necessary to earn the Master Teacher award鈥� and praised her work to strengthen teaching on campus. Nominations also cited her research into pedagogy, conference presentations on teaching methods, and her role as Center for Teaching and Learning fellow, and highlighted her leadership in building onboarding for new faculty and a teaching-for-impact series, as well as her support for department heads, faculty development, and degree plan renewal.

Watkins received the Luella M. Krehbiel Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes adjunct faculty who engage students in the learning process, emphasize active learning and critical thinking, assess student work appropriately, use class time effectively, match instruction to student needs, demonstrate subject knowledge, and maintain active interaction with students. His nominator wrote that Watkins 鈥渉as demonstrated himself to be an excellent face-to-face and online instructor of History courses.鈥�

Parks received the Excellence to the University, to the Profession, and to the Community Service Award, which recognizes full-time faculty for outstanding service in their professional areas, in support of community improvement, and to the university through committees, recruitment, clubs, and related work. Her nomination noted her work aligning mathematics courses for future teachers with changes tied to the Arkansas LEARNS Act, her service as state membership chair and an executive board member for the Arkansas Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and her role in helping organize the group鈥檚 annual fall conference. It also pointed to community outreach tied to the April 2024 total solar eclipse, including work to help provide eclipse glasses to public school students and teachers, professional development for area teachers, presentations to community groups, and local television news interviews.

Lee received the Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Award, which honors full-time faculty for outstanding research in education or their teaching fields, scholarship, and creative activity. Her nominator described Lee as having a 鈥渞obust and active research agenda鈥� in popular culture, television, and Asian American studies. The nomination cited work ranging from edited collections on the television series 鈥淐ommunity鈥� to scholarship on K-drama, as well as presentations at national and international conferences. The nomination also highlighted her collaborative work to host the Arkansas Philological Association on campus in fall 2024 and her success in grant writing, including support from the Arkansas Humanities Council for Read This and a collaborative grant from the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

Hardgraves received the Lucille Speakman Legacy Endowment Award, which supports faculty work in self-guided travel, international study, curriculum development, and research aimed at improving classroom teaching.

• Tags:
• Excellence to the University to the Profession and to the Community Service Award
• Faculty and Staff Awards
• Lucille Speakman Legacy Endowment Award
• Lucille Speakman Master Teacher Award
• Excellence in Research Scholarship and Creative Activities Award
• Luella M. Krehbiel Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award