Four faculty members are nominees for 2024 House/Bruckmann Awards

Four faculty members have been nominated as finalists for the House/Bruckmann Faculty Excellence Awards for 2024:

• Kelly Hubbard
• Bob Jakubovic
• Betsy LaSorella
• Jeff Wright

Voting to determine the two award recipients for 2024 ends on Friday, March 22.

• Faculty members and academic administrators eligible to vote received email on March 11 from Institutional Research with a link to the online ballot. The message has the subject line “Voting Now Open for 2024 House-Bruckmann Faculty Excellence Award.“
• The award recipients and the other nominees will be honored during Common Time on Monday, April 22, along with the recipients of the Adjunct Faculty Excellence Award and new recipients of Professor Emeritus status.

The 2024 House/Bruckmann Award nominees are:

Kelly Hubbard, Program Chair, Early Childhood Education (Humanities & Sciences)

Kelly is nominated for her Contributions to the Community, including:

• National – featured speaker at the National Association for the Education of Young Children conference and campus leader for the Bold Beginnings in Higher Education grant, which funds curriculum enhancements to support inclusion of children with disabilities.
• Regional – member of the Butler County Educational Service Center Advisory Board, participant in the Cincinnati Women’s Institute for Leadership Development, and facilitator for student participation in the Leading Men Fellowship program, which strives to increase the number of men of color who pursue Early Childhood Education careers.

Kelly also is nominated for other programmatic leadership contributions that include:

• Establishing lab site partnerships with community agencies for Clifton and Middletown ECE students.
• Strengthening a partnership with the Workforce Development Center to offer students opportunities to earn the Child Development Associate credential.
• Creating a 2+2 articulation pathway with Northern Kentucky University.
• Serving as a subject matter expert on several review panels for the Ohio Department of Higher Education.

Robert (Bob) Jakubovic, Professor, English (Humanities & Sciences)

Bob is nominated for Excellence in Instruction and Contributions to the College, including:

• Serving as the English department’s lead instructor for English Composition 101 and 102, which includes oversight of more than 80 Cincinnati State and College Credit Plus (CCP) instructors at over a dozen area high schools, and affects thousands of students.
• Developing course materials that use Open Educational Resources, so all students have access to needed content on the first day of class and do not incur textbook costs.
• Developing the College’s first online English Composition classes, which were at scale in 2008.
• Leading the English department’s current efforts to integrate best practices for Artificial Intelligence into courses.
• Developing and teaching Honors sections of English Composition 101 and 102 and Honors Seminars including the popular course “Blank Generation: The Origins of Punk,” and serving on the Honors Scholarship Committee.

Bob also is nominated for Professional Achievements including publishing a novel, and presenting at the international conference of the Punk Scholars Network. His doctoral research examined punk alongside Youngstown, Ohio, during deindustrialization in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Mary (Betsy) LaSorella, Program Chair, Pastry Arts (Business Technologies)

Betsy is nominated for her Collaborative Spirit, including providing leadership and creating a comfortable work environment for the team of adjunct faculty in her program. Her nomination states that Betsy’s leadership qualities include:

• Giving adjuncts the tools needed to perform well and improve their skills while maintaining confidence in the team’s ability to work independently.
• Being available and acting quickly to resolve problems.
• Listening with empathy and care to everyone on the team.
• Maintaining a positive attitude on the job that is contagious and inspiring.

Betsy also is nominated for Contributions to the College and Contributions to the Community, including:

• Community volunteer service for organizations and events such as 1 Night, 12 Kitchens, Cincy Chefs Cook for Service, LaSoupe, and the Cincinnati International Wine Festival, and creating service learning opportunities for her Pastry Capstone students through service to the Cincinnati VA Medical Center.
• Serving and providing leadership on College committees including the Professional Development Committee and the Faculty Excellence Committee.
• Serving multiple times as a member of the Faculty Bargaining Team for AAUP contract negotiations.

Jeffrey Wright, Program Chair, Aviation Maintenance Technology (Engineering & Information Technologies)

Jeff is nominated for Excellence in Instruction and Commitment to Student Success, including:

• Emphasizing “hands-on” learning and keeping all students focused and engaged while completing tasks like taking a jet engine apart and putting it back together.
• Connecting with all of his students and graduates on a personal level that means he can tell you where they went to high school, where they co-op, and where they are working now.
• In a program highly regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Jeff has aligned course content and mentored new and adjunct instructors to achieve student success. Key Performance Indicators in the Aviation Maintenance Technology (AMT) program for persistence (84%), retention (68%), and other measures are well above College averages.

Jeff also is nominated for Contributions to the College, including increasing enrollment in the AMT program from about 94 students when he became the chair in 2019 to nearly 180 students currently. The program is now one of the 10 largest AMT programs in the U.S. and is one of only a few that offer co-op. He has brought in nearly $600,000 in grant funding for equipment and faculty salaries, with another $450,000 grant awarded recently.

Background

The House/Bruckmann Faculty Excellence Award was established in 1985. Award criteria have been revised several times since the inception of this recognition program.

• The award is named for Clifford R. House, the first president of Cincinnati Technical College, and Alice P. Bruckmann, a member of the College’s first Board of Trustees. 
• Tenured faculty members may be nominated by faculty and academic administrators based on demonstrated excellence related to the following criteria:
  • Excellence in Instruction
  • Commitment to Student Success
  • Collaborative Spirit
  • Contributions to the College
  • Contributions to the Community
  • Professional Achievements
  • Other
• Nominations are reviewed by a Screening Subcommittee comprised of past award recipients, and up to five nominees may be recommended for recognition as finalists.