Dr. Dana M. Howell and Dr. Cynthia Williams Resor have earned the highest honor for teaching excellence bestowed by Eastern Kentucky University.
Howell, a professor in the University’s Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, and Resor, a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, have each received the 2019-21 EKU Foundation Professorship. The annual honor recognizes those who demonstrate outstanding abilities in the three primary roles of a faculty member: teaching, service and research. The professorship provides a salary supplement for two years.
After seven years on the occupational therapy faculty at Idaho State University, Howell joined the EKU faculty in 2006. Since 2008, she has served as the liaison to the Doctor of Rehabilitation Sciences RHB degree program offered by the University of Kentucky in collaboration with EKU and two other institutions. Since 2015, Howell has served as coordinator of EKU’s Doctor of Occupational Therapy program.
Howell has received the Distinguished Service Award from the UK College of Health Sciences; and numerous honors at EKU, including the University Fellow Award, the Jean Steffan Smith Faculty Teaching Award (three years) and the Department of Occupational Therapy’s Excellence in Scholarship Award. She also earned the Dr. Deborah R. Labovitz Scholarship Award from the Kentucky Occupational Therapy Foundation. Howell served one term as the Eastern District co-chair of the Kentucky Occupational Therapy Association, and she is the founding editor of the Journal of Occupational Therapy Education.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from Colorado State University, a doctoral degree in occupational therapy from Creighton University and a Ph.D. degree in adult education from the University of Idaho.
After teaching eight years at the middle and high school levels, Resor joined the EKU faculty in 2002. From 2005 to 2014, she served as grant coordinator for the University’s Try Teaching program and in 2018 became the study abroad coordinator for the College of Education. She has been named a Faculty Innovator; her other honors at EKU include: 2019 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, a University Fellow Award in 2016 and 2017, and a College of Education Teaching Award.
Resor, who teaches social studies education at Eastern, is the author of three books: “Exploring Vacation and Etiquette Themes in Social Studies: Primary Source Inquiry for Middle and High School,” “Investigating Family, Food and Housing Themes in Social Studies,” and “Discovering Quacks, Utopias and Cemeteries: Modern Lessons from Historical Themes.”
She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and history and a master’s degree in humanities from Western Kentucky University, her Rank I in social studies education from EKU and her Ph.D. degree in history from the University of Kentucky.
All full-time tenured faculty members at the University are eligible for the award. The selection is made by a committee composed of faculty, and the process provides for a high degree of peer review.
Sixty-five professors have been honored for teaching excellence by the EKU Foundation since the awards were first given in 1988.