Faculty Members Receive Presidential Excellence, Beard Ethics Awards

Four Duquesne faculty members were recognized for outstanding service, teaching, scholarship and a special contribution to ethics at Convocation.

The Eugene P. Beard Award for Leadership in Ethics was presented to Dr. Jeffrey A. Miller during Convocation ceremonies on Sept. 9. Presidential Awards for Faculty Excellence were received by Dr. Janie Harden Fritz, Dr. George Bradley and Dr. Fraser Fleming.

Eugene P. Beard Award for Leadership in Ethics
Dr. Jeffrey A. Miller, professor of school psychology and associate dean for graduate studies and research in the School of Education, received the 2010 Eugene P. Beard Faculty Award for Leadership in Ethics.

The Beard Award, presented annually to a faculty member, honors those who best exemplify the University’s commitment to moral and spiritual values through outstanding leadership in ethics in family life or in University or community service.

Miller was honored for teaching and research at Duquesne as well as for his service and leadership roles in the University and professional organizations. Miller, who came to Duquesne in 1998, teaches psychology testing and child neuropsychology and directs research in the Department of Counseling, Psychology and Special Education. As associate dean, he has taken a leading role in the Carnegie Foundation project on the Education Doctorate.

A Duquesne University Academic Leadership Program Fellow in 2009-2010, Miller received the American Board of Professional Psychology Distinguished Service Award and a Duquesne University Presidential Scholarship Award, both in 2009, as well as an American Academy of School Psychology Distinguished Service Award in 2008, among other honors.

Presidential Excellence Award for Service to the Mission
Dr. Janie Harden Fritz, associate professor in the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts, has been affiliated with Duquesne since 1992. She serves as director of undergraduate studies and director of the master’s program for the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies.

Fritz was recognized for her service to the department, the College, the University, the community and professional associations. Immediate past president of the national Religious Communication Association, as well as vice president and second vice president, Fritz serves as vice president of the Eastern Communication Association (ECA), assuming presidency in 2011. She holds other positions with the ECA and the Pennsylvania Communication Association.

Besides delivering more than 30 talks on campus and in the community, Fritz was involved in a committee to develop a liberal arts-based forensics program, redesigned courses for service learning and advised student groups. She is a member of the board of the Robert and Patricia Gussin Spiritan Division of Academic Programs.

Fritz received a President’s Award in Excellence in Teaching in 2009 and the Eugene P. Beard Faculty Award for Leadership in Ethics in 2007.

Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching
Dr. George Bradley, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, teaches a range of undergraduate courses, including a variety of calculus, abstract and linear algebra, and discrete math, to majors and non-majors. He pioneered the departmental offering for the University core, Problem Solving with Creative Mathematics.

This spring, Bradley received the Award for Distinguished Teaching from the Allegheny Mountain Section of the Mathematics Association of America. Involved with the organization at regional and national levels for more than 20 years, he has contributed to mathematics education throughout the country and particularly in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Bradley, who first joined Duquesne in 1981, also received the faculty award for excellence in teaching from the McAnulty College. He has been highly rated by students and praised by alumni as a teacher who is kind, helpful to students, enthusiastic and patient.

Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship
Dr. Fraser Fleming, a professor who teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in organic chemistry in the Bayer School, is recognized as the leader in the field of chemistry of unsaturated nitriles.

Since arriving at Duquesne in 1992, Fleming has authored or co-authored 56 peer-reviewed scholarly publications and six review articles. These include publications in the Chemical Reviews, Organic Letters, the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Organic Chemistry and the prestigious international chemical journal Angewandte Chemie.

Fleming and his students have made more than 100 presentations of scientific work at national and international meetings, including the prestigious and competitive Gordon Research Conferences. His collaborators beyond Duquesne include colleagues at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich and the Goteborg University in Sweden.

He has received more than $1.8 million as the principal investigator of individual research grants, primarily from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and concurrently holds two grants from these organizations.

25-year Faculty Recognized

Six faculty members have achieved the milestone of 25 years of service to the University.

Recognized at the Convocation were:

• Dean J. Douglas Bricker, Mylan School of Pharmacy and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Dr. Robert Cameron, professor of music and director of bands, chair of ensembles
• Dr. Mark S. Mazur, associate professor of mathematics
• Associate Dean Thomas A. Pollack, academic support and accreditation and associate professor of information systems management
• Dr. Seleshi Sisaye, professor of accounting
• Dr. Daniel P. Watkins, professor of English.