Tennessee Technological University 

Tennessee Tech University’s Scholar-Mentor Award honors a faculty member who displays outstanding mentorship, integrating scholarship, research and teaching excellence.

Criteria for Nomination
Criteria to be considered for nomination for the Scholar-Mentor Award are outstanding accomplishments in mentoring, scholarship, research and teaching while a member of the Tennessee Tech University faculty.

Excellence can be demonstrated in many ways: publications and presentations; performances and exhibitions; music scores, recordings and curatorial activities; citations of one's work by others; evaluations by students, peers, journal editors, referees; internal and external grants awarded; professional/alumni recognition. 

Nominees must be current full-time members of the Tennessee Tech faculty.  A faculty member who has won the award shall be ineligible for the same award again. 

Nominations
Nominations must cite evidence that the candidate's mentoring relationships are highly regarded and that his or her scholarship activities are conducive to student involvement and success. Evidence of mentorship could be provided through letters, testimonials and/or results and outcomes. Nomination forms can be found at the link below. Only one completed form is required to place a candidate's name in nomination, which should be made by someone other than the candidate.  A faculty member who has won the award shall be ineligible for the same award again.  Completed nomination forms should be submitted to Research & Economic Development (Room 155 in Derryberry Hall) or by emailing to the committee support person, Bethany Jones, at bjjones@tntech.edu. Please see the due date listed on the Timeline tab, late submissions will not be accepted.

Letters of Recommendation
The nominee shall request a letter of recommendation from two faculty members (at least one current Tennessee Tech faculty member) and three current or former Tennessee Tech students.  The letters should be submitted as part of the requested background materials. 

Materials Requested from Nominees
Nominees will be asked to provide the following materials:

• current academic profile, including courses taught and enrollment in each course, research/creative activities, teaching schedule, and advising responsibilities (limit to no more than the previous seven (7) years of work carried out at Tennessee Tech)
• statement of mentoring philosophy (limit to 500 words)
• documentation of success in teaching and scholarship that can include, but is not limited to:

1. evidence of mentoring relationships with students and/or faculty, describing how the nominee has guided, encouraged and challenged students and/or faculty to attain their goals beyond the more routine tasks of advising and supervision
2. student IDEA evaluations, if applicable (limit to the most recent four (4) semesters of instruction)
3. publications co-authored by student(s) and the nominee (highlight the names of students in co-authored papers and provide citations of publications with students)
4. presentations given by student(s) and the nominee
5. involvement in Tennessee Tech's Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Program
6. past or current involvement in Student Research Day projects

• a letter of recommendation from two faculty members (at least one current Tennessee Tech faculty member) and three current or former Tennessee Tech students. The letters should be submitted as part of the requested background materials.

Mentoring philosophy should not exceed 500 words.  Limit the number of pages of materials submitted to 15 pages maximum, including mentoring philosophy.  Letters of recommendation as well as the IDEA evaluations will be excluded from the page count. The winner will be invited to attend the Faculty Awards Recognition Reception.

Nomination Carryover 

In order to be reconsidered the next year without having to be renominated, the nominee will be required to update their materials, excluding letters of recommendations.  After the second year, consideration will be given to an individual only if re-nominated.

Award Selection Procedures

In reviewing the nominee's materials, the Committee will carefully look for adherence to guidelines.  All materials submitted that do not follow the criteria outlined in the procedures will be ineligible for consideration. 

 

Nomination Form |  Background Form

Please note: form accessibility may vary from browser to browser and among different operating systems. Follow the steps below to save the forms and submit them to Research & Economic Development. For form accessibility issues or troubleshooting, please contact Bethany Jones at extension 3901 or bjjones@tntech.edu.

1. Click the link for the form. If the form opens in your browser, choose the "Download" icon in the top right portion of your screen and save it as a file on your computer (Note: if you begin typing in the form from your browser, the information will not be saved. You must save the file to your computer). If the form downloads instead of opening in the browser, double-click the name and open it. Save the file from there to a location on your computer.

2. Open the form in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Adobe Acrobat (Note: varying versions of Reader may yield different results. If you have issues, please contact your ITS support person to ensure that you have the most up-to-date Reader).

3. Fill in the form.

4. After completing the form, choose File>Save As from the Adobe Acrobat Reader menu and save the file using a new name in a location you will be able to access later (Desktop, My Documents, etc.).

5. Close the form.

6. Create a new mail message and attach the recently saved file to the message. Submit the form to research@tntech.edu. 

Note: if none of these steps work on your computer, please contact your ITS support person or print the file, hand-write your responses, and return it to Derryberry Hall, Room 155.

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2024-2025 Members

Committee Member	Department/College	Campus Box No.	Campus Phone	Tennessee Tech Email Address
Dr. Chris Wilson	Mechanical Engineering/College of Engineering	5014	3216	chriswilson@tntech.edu
Dr. Lynette Harvey	School of Nursing	5001	6807	lharvey@tntech.edu
Dr. Brian Carver	Biology/College of Arts and Sciences	5063	3127	bcarver@tntech.edu
Dr. Chris Reames	Music/College of Fine Arts	5045	3624	creames@tntech.edu
Dr. Samantha Hutson	Agriculture/College of Ag & Human Ecology	5035	3865	shutson@tntech.edu
Dr. Kyle Turner	Decision Sciences and Management/College of Business	5022	6253	kturner@tntech.edu
Dr. Stephanie Kazanas	Counseling and Psychology/College of Education & Human Sciences	5031	3560	skazanas@tntech.edu
Committee Chair Dr. Steve Sharp	Environmental Studies/College of Interdisciplinary Studies	5176	3187	ssharp@tntech.edu
OTHERS
Dr. John Liu, Executive Officer	Research and Economic Development	5036	3897	johnliu@tntech.edu
Bethany Jones	Office of Research & Economic Development	5164	3901	bjjones@tntech.edu

2024-25 Schedule of Activities

Activity	Date
Initial Committee Meeting	Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Notice and email reminders to Deans and Chairs	Monday, October 21, 2024
Notice to Carryover Nominees	Monday, October 21, 2024
Request for Nominations Announced in Tech Times (various times)	October 21 – November 22, 2024
Nominations Due in the Office of Research	Friday, November 22, 2024
Deadline for Nominee Notification	Monday, November 25, 2024
Nominee Background Form, Supporting Materials & Letters Due in Office of Research	Friday, January 17, 2025
Distribute Nominee Materials to Committee	Friday, January 24, 2025
Committee to Have Rankings Back to Research Office Personnel	Monday, February 17, 2025
Committee Meeting to Select Recipient [TBD]	March 3-14, 2025 [Select Date]
Committee Recommendation to President Oldham	Monday, March 18, 2025
Notification to Nominees on Recipient Selected	Monday, March 25, 2025
Notification to Award Recipients Dean, Chair, Provost, VP & Associate VP Research	Monday, March 25, 2025
Committee to Have Awards Script to Research Office Personnel for Provost Office	Monday, March 25, 2025
Presentation of Award at Faculty Awards Recognition Reception	TBD
Announcement of Award Recipient in Tech Times	After the Awards Reception

2023-2024, Dr. Brian Williams, Department of English
2022-2023, Dr. Steven Anton, Department of Mechanical Engineering
2021-2022, Dr. Pedro Arce, Department of Chemical Engineering
2020-2021, Dr. Indranil Bhattacharya, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2019-20, Dr. Kristen Deiter, Department of English, and Dr. Jennifer Meadows, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
2018-2019, Dr. George Chitiyo, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Dr. Jesse Carrick, Department of Chemistry
2017-2018, Dr. Holly Stretz, Department of Chemical Engineering
2016-2017, Dr. Edward Lisic, Department of Chemistry
2015-2016, Dr. Jiahong Zhu, Department of Mechanical Engineering
2014-2015, Dr. Jeffery Boles, Department of Chemistry