Dr. Janna Vice, senior vice president for academics and provost at EKU, is one of two recipients of the 2017 Ohio Valley Conference Thurston Banks Award for Distinguished Academic Service.
Lawrence Baggett of Austin Peay State University is the other recipient.
The award, selected by the OVC Faculty Athletics Representatives (FARs), was established in 2013 to recognize individuals (e.g. academic advisor, professor, tutor, etc.), with at least five years of service at one or more OVC member institutions, for their outstanding contributions to OVC student-athletes' academic success, learning and development as well for his or her overall commitment to the institution's athletics program.
Vice and Baggett will receive their awards at the 2017 OVC Honor Brunch as part of the OVC Spring Meetings in May.
Vice has been associated with EKU for 40 years. After graduating from Eastern, Vice began her career in 1976 as a professor in the College of Business and Technology. In 1999 she was promoted to associate dean in the College of Business and Technology and in 2007 was named interim associate provost, until becoming full-time provost in 2010.
In 1999 she was named the state of Kentucky’s Outstanding Business Education Teacher by the Kentucky Business Education Association and in 2004 received a gubernatorial appointment to a four-year term on the Kentucky Board of Education. She has also been a participant in the Management and Leadership in Education Program in Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.
In 1993 she was appointed by the EKU president as the institution’s first faculty athletics representative (FAR), a position she held until 2004. Vice has also served on the University Athletics Committee and is part of the Athletics Academic Integrity Committee. This past April she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Colonel Choice Awards sponsored by EKU Athletics. Vice, who anticipates retiring in 2017, is a regular attendee at EKU athletic contests.
The award is named after Dr. Thurston Banks, who served the Tennessee Tech Department of Athletics for 31 of his 34 years on the faculty and served as the faculty athletics representative for 25 years before stepping down in 2006. He was inducted into the OVC Hall of Fame in 2007.