In mid-September, three Wichita State faculty members and one staff member won awards presented by the Kansas Board of Regents, the governing body for Kansas higher-education institutions. All four of WSU’s nominees were among the 17 recipients, KBOR announced in September.

Every year, KBOR awards college faculty based on teaching and research. This year, faculty senates of each of the KBOR schools nominated three faculty members — a tenured, tenure-track and non-tenure-track — and staff senates nominated one staff member. This was the first time staff awards were included, as KBOR approved the additional award last academic year. 

Tenured Faculty of the Year — Lisa Parcell

Lisa Parcell, director of the Elliott School of Communication since July, won the tenured faculty award. Parcell is also the director of public speaking and of research partnership.

Parcell joined Wichita State in 2001 after completing her master’s in Alabama. She joined Wichita State in 2001with her husband, who teaches in the geology department. Parcell has kept the motif of helping students throughout her many roles on campus. She said the people around her — faculty and students alike — are her favorite part of her many jobs. 

“I love working with this group of faculty,” Parcell said. “They are fantastic. They’re encouraging, they’re supportive, they are here for the students, and they really, really, really want everybody to succeed.”

“And the students, I think, are great because it’s a marvelous time of your life, whether you’re an undergrad or a graduate student, you are here because you want to do something else and you want to learn something and there’s promise and there’s hope and there’s something’s going better in your life now, and I love working with that.”

Parcell said her nomination and award were a surprise.

“It was very surprising and equally flattering,” she said. “I am just one of many, many great teachers over here. And so the fact that I was chosen was incredibly honoring. It meant a lot.”

Parcell also said having KBOR honor faculty members ‌felt nice. 

“KBOR is a different beast,” Parcell said. “You know, with as much as we like to complain about what KBOR is or isn’t doing, I really respect the fact that they are trying to honor faculty and staff for doing the things that they’ve been asked to do, so it’s nice when they take a minute and kind of give back to the faculty and staff and those of us that are here in the trenches every day.”

Tenure-Track Faculty of the Year — Erin O’Bryan

Erin O’Bryan was the tenure-track faculty member to win this year. O’Bryan is an assistant professor in communication sciences and disorders. While she’s balancing teaching students in both undergrad and graduate programs, she’s also packing birthday bags for faculty with her college’s Faculty and Staff Affairs Committee.

Originally from Wichita, she eventually made her way back to the flight capital of the world after completing her master’s in Arizona. 

“I went to a Kansas Speech and Hearing convention here in Wichita that I just like happened to go to, and (former professor Joanna Wyckoff) at Wichita State saw me at the convention, and she approached me and was like, ‘You seem like very interested in this. Like, have you ever thought about applying to be an assistant professor (at WSU)?’” O’Bryan said. 

O’Bryan focuses her research on people with aphasia, a language disorder that impairs communication abilities because of brain damage. She has her students work with them to help them tell a story for their project. 

“I would say working with the people with aphasia and the students, and working with them both together, that’s really what I enjoy the most, is teaching the students how they can have a good conversation with somebody with aphasia, and how fun it can be,” O’Bryan said. 

O’Bryan said she was aware of her nomination but was still amazed when she was picked. 

“Just the fact that they picked me as the one assistant professor out of the whole university, wow, that was amazing,” she said.

Non-tenure-track Faculty of the Year — Marco Hernandez

Marco Hernandez, foundations coordinator of the School of Art, Design and Creative Industries, won the KBOR award for non-tenure-track faculty. Hernandez mainly teaches printmaking, and despite his role as foundation coordinator in the school, he still considers himself an art professor first. 

Hernandez said his favorite aspect of his job is when students appreciate what he’s teaching them. 

“Teaching studio art is very different than, like, a lecture class or, you know, math class, biology, whatever. Like, we’re constantly talking to each other,” Hernandez said. “It’s more laid back. Students are up, walking around using different equipment… when I can tell that they’re happy in the studio, that’s what makes me happy.” 

Hernandez said he was aware of his nomination because his colleague, Jennifer Ray, told him she was nominating him and asked for his “artist statement”. After months of hearing nothing, Hernandez said he assumed he hadn’t won the award. 

“Earlier this semester, I received the email that I got it, and I still was kind of in shock,” he said. “… So that’s when I started to do research on the award, and I found out that it was a statewide award… It was really nice.”

Staff of the Year — Christopher Leonard

Christopher Leonard was the first person to win Staff of the Year from KBOR, after the new award was approved last year. Leonard serves as the director of Counseling and Psychological Services, where he oversees the quality of care of WSU’s counseling services. 

While he isn’t directly involved with the counseling process, Leonard said his favorite part of his job was still interacting with people. 

“I love the interactions that I get to have with students and staff on a day-to-day basis,” Leonard said. “I love to support staff and supporting students and seeing both of them grow, because we have a young staff. 

“One of my favorite things about this job is going to graduation, and seeing students graduate, and knowing that we were able to be part of their journey in some way or another. And when we get to see that chapter starting for … that new aspect of their life. It’s beautiful to see that we got to be allowed to be a part of it.” 

Leonard said he considered even a nomination a huge honor, but winning felt even better 

“This one felt very good, because I felt like this was a reflection on our staff, and that’s what the coolest thing is,” Leonard said. “I don’t think (of) this award as a personal award. I really think this is an award that is because of everybody in this building and everything that they do.”