Distinguished Faculty Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the Outstanding Faculty Awards/Candidates for the Distinguished Faculty Award:

Outstanding Service 

A pool of Outstanding Service Award winner nominees was inadvertently overlooked in 2023. In addition to the 2024 Distinguished Service Award winner, the Distinguished Awards review committee would like to honor an additional 2022-2023 Distinguished Service winner.

• Michelle Anderson (2022-2023)
• Carrie Bottenberg
• Cindy Bunde (2022-2023)
• Elaine Foster
• Fredi Giesler (2022-2023)
• Margaret Johnson (2022-2023)
• Dawn Konicek (2022-2023)
• Melody Weaver
• Amanda Zink

Outstanding Researcher 

• Joel Bocanegra
• Morey Burnham
• John Dudgeon
• Alan Johnson
• Justin Dolan Stover

Outstanding Teacher 2023-2024

• Yu Chen
• Alesha Churba
• Diane Ogiela
• Heather Ray
• Wendy Ruchti

Bios of the honorees appear below. 

 

Service Award Recipients

Michelle Anderson

Michelle Anderson is a Clinical Associate Professor at Idaho State University in the School of Nursing Graduate program.  Anderson has been a Family Nurse Practitioner for the past 23 years, having practiced in rural and urban settings. She owned and operated her own NP clinic in rural Idaho for 12 years prior to transitioning to education. She teaches one of the fundamental core courses for Doctor of Nursing Practice students, Advanced Health Assessment, along with other didactic courses. 

Anderson has received professional awards for her service through community recognition as a top healthcare provider, state recognition with a preceptor of the year award, and national recognition through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) for Clinical Excellence in 2013 and Advocacy in 2018.  She was awarded a Fellowship through AANP in 2019. 

Since starting at ISU, Anderson continues to grow in her service and has received ongoing recognition with two recent prestigious national awards through the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties. The first award was in regards to Health Policy in 2023 and the second was the Rising Star award in 2024. These accolades and achievements are based strongly on her distinguished service at a community, university, and professional discipline level. Anderson resides in Meridian, Idaho and enjoys spending time with her family and staying active in the community. 

 

Carrie Bottenberg

Carrie Bottenberg is an Assistant Professor in the Geosciences at ISU. She has a PhD in Geology and Geophysics from Missouri University of Science and Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Montana. She specializes in teaching GIS and Remote Sensing and is Director of Geotechnologies. Bottenberg enjoys field-based learning with students and her geoscience colleagues in Idaho’s natural laboratory.  Her hobbies include gardening, skiing and spending time with her children.

 

 

Cindy Bunde

Cindy Bunde has been a physician assistant (PA) in Idaho for 24 years, and has been teaching at Idaho State University since 2006. She has a Master’s in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a Bachelor’s from the ISU PA Program. Bunde has been involved heavily with volunteering for multiple organizations in Pocatello, especially the Pocatello Free Clinic, where she provides primary care to uninsured low-income patients. As the Academic Coordinator with the ISU PA Program, Bunde loves helping students progress through the learning process, simplifying difficult concepts and sharing her passion for patient care. Bunde is an Idaho native with two adult children (attending ISU), a husband (ISU alumni and affiliate faculty) and many pets. She loves the Idaho outdoors and its many activities, as well as reading and crochet.

 

Elaine Foster

Elaine Foster is an Assistant Professor in the Human Performance and Sport Studies (HPSS) Department. She completed her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Idaho with an emphasis in Sport Pedagogy and Character Development. She earned a Master’s in Physical Education with an Athletic Administration emphasis and a Bachelor’s in Physical Education with an emphasis in Exercise Science and minor in Coaching, both from ISU. Foster is committed to promoting physical activity, especially among girls and women, and this passion led to her scholarly studies focusing on sport philosophy and the subjective value of physical activity. She is actively involved in presenting at conferences and publishing on these topics.

Foster teaches a variety of courses within HPSS including history and philosophy of sport and physical education, issues in sport, and methods of teaching physical education. Her educational philosophy is to support students as “they learn how to learn.” Foster’s service contributions include representing the College of Education on the Faculty Senate, serving on the College of Education Faculty Review Committee and coordinating the annual celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day at ISU. In 2022, she received the Distinguished Service award from the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) Idaho for giving 12 years of service to the organization. 

Fredi Giesler

Fredi Giesler joined the faculty in the College of Arts and Letters in 2018 after having

been a professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh for 16 years. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S.W. from the University of Washington in Seattle and has been dedicated to service in higher education for over 25 years. Her dedication to service is consistent with her professional values as a social worker. Giesler originally came to ISU to initiate the Master of Social Work program and shepherd it through the Council on Social Work Education accreditation process. She successfully achieved this goal in summer 2021. In 2021 Giesler was elected to the Faculty Senate and currently serves as the Vice-chair of the Faculty Senate. She is committed to the democratic shared governance process and has worked hard to support faculty across campus. She serves on a number of senate and university councils, committees and working groups in order to ensure that faculty have a voice and are heard by decision-makers.

 

Margaret Johnson

Margaret Johnson is a professor in the Department of English & Philosophy, where she has worked since 1999. She holds a Ph.D. in English from University of Oregon, an M.A. in English from San José State University, and a B.S. in Business Administration (Accounting) from University of California at Berkeley. Her primary teaching and research are focused on composition & rhetoric, writing & literature pedagogy, media studies, and postmodern American fiction. 

 

 

 

Dawn L. Konicek

Dawn Konicek is a fourteen-year veteran of public accounting.  She served various public accounting firms including two of what are now considered the “Big Four,” Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young.  While in public accounting her specialty was in tax.  She has tax experience in just about everything except international taxation. As a CPA, she was responsible for over 350 clients.  While working as a tax consultant, she also completed a Masters in Management at the University of Whitewater.  

After several years working in public accounting, she decided to make the switch to teaching.  Her first teaching job was at a technical college in Janesville, Wisconsin.  In her first semester working there, she taught 7 classes in one semester.   She taught just about all accounting courses at this technical college and taught primarily dislocated workers from corporations such as GM and Parker Pen.  After 3 years in Janesville, Konichek made her move to a four-year college at ISU 13 years ago.  At ISU, she continues to teach primarily tax and financial accounting courses.  

Konichek was also the lead coordinator for the ISU Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) for 12 years and has been involved with the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition for the past 9 years.  VITA is an IRS-run program that assists those who cannot afford the tax preparation fee.  In addition, students benefit greatly from this program.  Students learn the technicalities of taxes, while gaining confidence in their abilities to serve the community.  Students also learn the importance of giving freely their time and resources to those who need it.  In addition to VITA, Konichek has helped others in the community.  She has conducted several tax seminars, has helped Afghanistan refugees, convicts, nursing home residents and immobile elderly people with their taxes.   Overall, her love for her profession is not about the technicalities of taxes but the ability to help and serve the community.

 

Melody Weaver

Melody Weaver joined Idaho State University School of Nursing in 2017, bringing her clinical expertise to teaching in the graduate program.  Weaver completed her Ph.D. in nursing research at the University of Utah in 2002, having previously completed her M.S.N. (1992) and B.S.N (1987) at the University of Texas at Arlington and her Registered Nurse training at the county hospital in Los Angeles (1979). She became a nurse practitioner in 1982, after completing the USC School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program.  

Over the course of her professional career, Weaver has worked in many settings, both urban and rural, including emergency, correctional and primary care.  Her passion for palliative care has led her on a journey with a special interest in Persons Living with Dementia and their Caregivers.  Weaver believes our involvement in creating Age Friendly Communities will help to better serve our aging population, allowing them to age-in-place. Her belief that communities care for their members when given the skills to do so has led her on her path of service to the community and her profession on many levels.

 

Amanda J. Zink

Amanda J. Zink is Professor of English at Idaho State University. She received a PhD in English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MA in English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her work focuses on American literature from the margins, written by Americans who, because of their gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, or Indigeneity, find themselves struggling to be included in the American body politic and its narratives. Zink has written several journal articles and book chapters on these topics, and her first book was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2018. Titled Fictions of Western American Domesticity: Indian, Mexican, and Anglo Women in Print Culture, 1850-1950, this book looks at the literary history of women’s involvement in Westward Expansion. She is also nearly finished with a second book manuscript, under contract to be published by Texas Tech University Press. With the working title of In Their Own Words: Student Writing at The Chemawa Indian Boarding School, 1900-1930, this second book is an anthology of writings on various topics written by over 250 Native students at the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. Including biographies of each student writer, this book will provide easier access—for researchers, general readers, and Indigenous families—to a nearly forgotten canon of Native writing that is a rich site documenting the adaptation and survival of American Indians during the heyday of federal policies aimed at exterminating them. 

Zink’s research in these areas necessarily informs her teaching and service. She is committed to helping students look for and listen to voices from the American margins and to creating opportunities to build bridges and relationships between the university and ISU’s regional communities. Since her arrival at ISU in 2013, Zink has been a highly sought-after public speaker on topics germane to her research and teaching that also have urgent relevancy in American public life. Whether the topic is the ongoing epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people, the newly renewed concerns about women’s rights, or the perennial fight for LGBTQIA+ rights, her scholarly and pedagogical work helps inform local discussions about these and other pressing issues in American culture. Most recently, in October 2023, Zink brought the annual international conference of the Western Literature Association to Fort Hall, Idaho. Her efforts to bring people together not only brought literary scholars from around the world and the U.S., but also resulted in presentations by 25 ISU faculty, 15 ISU graduate and undergraduate students, 25 Shoshone Bannock citizens, and 6 Pocatello high school teachers. Building bridges between academic and general publics, finding a way to have civic dialogue about what it means to be human in this time and place is, in her view, the most important work of a humanities scholar.

 

Research Award Recipients

Joel O. Bocanegra 

Joel O. Bocanegra graduated with a Ph.D. in educational psychology with a concentration in school psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2014. He is a licensed psychologist and school psychologist. Bocanegra is the Chair of the Department of School Psychology and Educational Leadership and the training coordinator of the school psychology program at Idaho State University. His research interests include diversity, recruitment, training issues, system change efforts, mental health, and technology use, among others. He also has a wide range of practice experiences that include clinics and schools and has worked in rural, urban, and international settings. He has worked with a diverse range of populations including Native Americans in reservation schools, students in a Middle Eastern country, and students within US urban bilingual and dual immersion schools and rural charter schools. He was trained as a bilingual psychologist. 

Bocanegra co-directs a summer program for individuals with developmental delays and chairs Idaho School Psychology Association’s continuing education committee. He teaches courses on multicultural competency, developmental psychopathology, Cognitive Behavioral Interventions, internship, etc. He actively practices and supervises in the community. He is passionate about improving the lives of underserved populations, research, and personal and professional development. His research into diversity recruitment within school psychology has helped to shape the field's thinking and practices regarding personnel shortages and recruitment. 

Morey Burnham

Morey Burnham is broadly trained environmental social scientist whose research program is located at the interface of human adaptation and vulnerability to social and environmental change, livelihoods in working landscapes, and water in semi-arid, natural resource dependent regions. His research is interdisciplinary, and he frequently collaborates with biophysical scientists to understand how changing social-ecological conditions affect human-environment interactions. In addition, much of his work is driven by stakeholder engagement, meaning he and his collaborators work directly with communities to identify and answer research questions important to them. Burnham’s recent research has focused on 1) investigating how the well-being of rural residents in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming is affected by changing grizzly bear population dynamics; and 2) assessing the social-ecological outcomes of changing fish conservation practices.

 

John Dudgeon

John Dudgeon received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa in 2009, after being hired by the ISU Anthropology Department in 2008. His appointment included dual responsibilities as Assistant Professor in the department, and Research Associate and instrumental analyst in the Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy (CAMAS). Dr. Dudgeon was promoted to Associate Professor and became Director of CAMAS in 2015. During his time at ISU, he has been part of research teams that have brought over $2 million in external funding to ISU to support research, academic outreach and student achievement. He has served in several other roles at ISU, including various curatorial positions in the Idaho Museum of Natural History and as Affiliate Faculty in the Departments of Geosciences and Engineering. 

Since coming to ISU, Dudgeon has published 24 journal articles and chapters in edited volumes and 21 research reports for archaeological and forensic contract services at CAMAS. He has served as either committee member or chair of several university committees, and recently completed a three-year appointment as a panelist for the National Science Foundation. Dudgeon’s research program is focused on issues in oceanic paleoecology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, molecular approaches to archaeological problems and the archaeological sciences, specifically instrumental and analytical approaches for archaeological explanation. He recently began a multiyear project to understand the long-term archaeological selection and use of volcanic stone in Idaho’s Snake River Plain, to create evolutionary explanations for human land-use and material preference through time.

 

Alan Johnson

Alan Johnson has taught at Idaho State University for 24 years, specializing in postcolonial literature and theory, with a focus on modern fiction from India, where he was born and raised. He is the author, most recently, of Forests, Real and Imagined: Writing the Indian Nation (I. B. Tauris-Bloomsbury, December 2023), which draws on theories of environmental writing, or ecocriticism, to discuss forest images in both ancient and modern Indian writings. His first book was Out of Bounds: Anglo-Indian Literature and the Geography of Displacement (Hawai’i, 2011). Johnson has published articles on a range of literary topics, including Hindi film, the state of the humanities, and globalization; and has co-edited, with J. Batra, a collection of essays by Indian postcolonial scholars. He is currently at work on two projects: pilgrimage motifs in contemporary Indian writing, and teaching world literatures in translation. He has been awarded Fulbright grants three times for research and lectures in India, in 2010, 2016-17, and 2023 (declining the latter), as well as a variety of grants from ISU, the College of Arts and Letters, and the Idaho Humanities Council. 

 

Justin Dolan Stover

Justin Dolan Stover is Associate Professor and Department Chair of History and has been at ISU since 2012. He holds degrees from Trinity College Dublin (Ph.D.), University College Dublin (M.A.), and Central Michigan University (B.S.).  His work explores the intersection of violence, political life, and environmental history in modern Ireland, as well as the broader history of war and revolution in Europe. His first book, Enduring Ruin: Environmental Destruction during the Irish Revolution, surveyed diverse Irish landscapes as both platforms for revolutionary revolt and victims of state retaliation. It was reviewed by The Irish Times and the Irish Literary Supplement. Stover’s body of scholarship has explored a variety of topics, including political prisoner culture, sexual violence in revolutionary conflict, and environmental destruction in war, which have appeared in leading journals and other publications. He has undertaken several research fellowships at universities throughout Ireland, and recently concluded a sabbatical fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam.

Teaching Award Recipients

Yu Chen

Yu Chen completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame in 2002. He was hired as Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Idaho State University in 2003 and promoted to Professor of Mathematics in 2015. His main research interests are in Lie theory, representation theory, and financial mathematics.

Since he was hired at ISU, Chen has taught a variety of mathematics courses in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. They include three General Education courses, the calculus sequence, linear and modern algebra, real analysis, ordinary and partial differential equations, and the graduate directed reading course. In total, he has taught nineteen different mathematics courses, where eight of them are lower-division courses, seven of them are upper-division undergraduate courses, and four of them are graduate (6600-level) courses. In addition, he taught the graduate directed reading course, MATH 6691, four times. In each directed reading course, he supervised graduate students learning a specific mathematics subject, including commutative algebra, representations of finite groups, combinatorics, and graph theory.

Prior to joining ISU, Chen was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Notre Dame in 2002-2003. During that year, he was assigned to teach Elements of Calculus I & II besides finishing his research projects. The audience of this calculus sequence were undergraduate students majoring in Business or Economics.

 

Alesha Churba

For over 15 years, Alesha Churba, Clinical Assistant Professor at the College of Technology, has ignited the minds of future drafters. She has designed and delivered 24 diverse courses, ranging from residential design to advanced Mechanical CAD applications, shows her commitment to student success. Churba actively engages industry partners to ensure her curriculum reflects current practices. Industry professionals and graduates visit her classroom helping to ignite student passion and preparing them for seamless workforce integration.

Churba believes in personalized learning. She mentors each student, guiding them through challenges and celebrating their victories. Colleagues call her an "inspiration," praising her student-centered approach. Churba cultivates well-rounded individuals. She equips students with critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills–essential for success in any field.

Churba’s dedication to educational advancement is evident in her initiatives. She spearheaded the College of Technology's first dual enrollment program, enabling high school students to earn an associate degree at the same time as their high school diploma. Student surveys consistently reflect high satisfaction with Churba's teaching, highlighting the program's effectiveness in preparing them for individual and industry success. Employers readily commend her graduates, solidifying the program's reputation for excellence.

Churba's dedication is an ongoing testament to her commitment to student success. It's not just a set of principles; it's a commitment to fostering knowledge, competence, and lifelong skills that shape future drafters and designers.

Diane Ogiela 

Diane Ogiela is an Associate Professor of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She earned her Ph.D. at Michigan State University and her clinical master’s degree in SLP at Purdue University. She has been at Idaho State University since 2011 and is the Interim Graduate SLP Program Director. She also serves as the SLP Director for the Idaho Speech, Language, and Hearing Association. 

Ogiela teaches courses on child language development and disorders and school-based clinical issues. Her current research interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning, language assessment practices, and morphology, syntax, and narrative development in children with developmental language disorder. Her research has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Language Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, and Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is passionate about helping her students build a firm foundation for working with children who have language and learning disabilities so that they can reach their full potential.

 

Heather Ray

Heather Ray obtained a Ph.D. in Cell Biology, Stem Cells and Development from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, preceded by an M.S. in Biology from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a B.S. in Biology from Oregon State University. She then obtained a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alabama Birmingham as part of the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards program through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH. During this time, Ray developed programs at regional underrepresented colleges to provide increased access to undergraduate research and professional development opportunities, including a virtual STEM Professionals club at Stillman College and a new course “Practical Skills in Scientific Research” at Lawson State Community College which included short individualized research internships at UAB. She also received training in pedagogy and obtained two teaching certificates from the Center for Integration of Teaching and Learning. 

Since arriving at ISU, Ray has taught a variety of courses in the Department of Biological Sciences including a large introductory general education course in Biol 1101, upper division elective courses such as Developmental Biology, and a team-based interdisciplinary authentic research course developed and taught with a Biology colleague. Through Independent Problems, she uses her research program to teach students the fundamentals of scientific research. In all courses, Ray strives to combine disciplinary knowledge with opportunities for students to gain practical skills relevant to biology-related careers, and she supports students in their individual growth and success.

 

Wendy Ruchti

Wendy Ruchti comes from a long line of educators, and has always wanted to be a teacher.

She has always loved thinking and exploring teaching practices and research, and she received her Ph.D. (2005) and M.Ed. (2001) in education from the University of Idaho. Having graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology with a teaching certificate in 1993, she taught middle school science and math for many years. After graduate school, she returned to the classroom, to her most recent middle school position at the Pocatello Community Charter School, a project-based learning school, where she taught math and science.

Ruchti moved to higher education at ISU’s College of Education in 2007 as an adjunct and then a full-time lecturer, sharing her learning and experience in the classroom, teaching multiple courses for undergraduate preservice teachers. In 2011, she became an Assistant Professor, continuing to excel in teaching as her favorite part of her work. She is now an Associate Professor, continuing to teach, and also supporting future teachers as she directs the very popular Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program for students with a Bachelor's Degree in a content area who wish to earn a teaching certificate and become teachers. Her research focuses on supporting teachers and principals in schools seeking STEM Designation in Idaho.