Campus sweeps University Program Leadership awards

Faculty at Penn State Erie won both of the University's 2007 awards to honor exceptional leadership of an academic program.

George Looney, associate professor of English and creative writing, received the Penn State Undergraduate Program Chair Leadership Award for his direction of the campus bachelor of fine arts in creative writing. John Fizel, professor of economics and chair of the Penn State iMBA, won the Graduate Program Chair Leadership Award. Both were honored Monday, March 26, at a ceremony held on the University Park campus.

Additionally, Greg Morris, professor of American literature, was one of four winners University-wide of the 2007 George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

"Penn State employs just under 5,500 full-time faculty across the University, so to receive three awards is quite an honor for the college," Chancellor Jack Burke said. "Sweeping the graduate and undergraduate program leadership awards is especially significant, because it recognizes Penn State Erie's ability to create and manage innovative, exciting programs within the context of the larger University."

The undergraduate and graduate Program Chair Leadership awards annually recognize two faculty members for exemplary service to their students and faculty colleagues in the areas of recruitment, retention, professional development, mentoring, educational quality and promotion of professional ethics in all elements of programming.

Looney chairs Penn State's only creative writing major, and one of the region's few bachelor of fine arts degree programs. He won the 2005 White Pine Press Poetry Award for his third book, "The Precarious Rhetoric of Angels," and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Ohio Arts Council Fellowships and, most recently, a $10,000 fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for his poetry. He is currently on leave to write a collection of poems that link his youth in southwestern Ohio to his ancestors in County Cork, Ireland. Looney holds a master of fine arts in creative writing from Bowling Green State University, Ohio.

Fizel holds a doctoral degree in economics from University of Michigan and has taught at Penn State Erie since 1985. He is an active researcher who has contributed to a number of recent books covering sports economics, and has consulted for Major League Baseball player agents and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office.

Penn State's iMBA program is located in the Knowledge Park innovation center adjacent to Penn State Erie's campus. Fizel helped launch the graduate program in 2002 with 28 students; the iMBA now enrolls 160. Students in the program represent 42 states and 18 countries.

Morris joined the Penn State Erie faculty in 1988. He teaches courses primarily in contemporary American fiction, nature writing and world literatures, and coordinates participation in the annual Pennsylvania College English Association conference to give Penn State Erie students the opportunity to present their own scholarly and creative work before an audience of English faculty and students from around the state.

Penn State Erie students "flock to his classes," one of Morris' award nominators wrote. "A good example of how Professor Morris tries to clarify complex class discussions is his creative use of the chalk board. He writes student comments on the board and then draws lines to connect the disparate threads. In this way, clarity emerges from seemingly chaotic classroom discussions."

Morris is the author two biographical monographs and three books, including "Talking Up a Storm: Voices of the New West." He holds a doctoral degree in English from University of Nebraska.