Faculty, staff recognized for excellence in Elon College, the College of Arts & Sciences

Seven members of faculty and staff in Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, were celebrated for excellence in teaching, mentoring, scholarship and service-leadership during Planning Week’s fall faculty meeting Monday, Aug. 19.

The awards are given annually, and recipients are nominated by their colleagues and selected by the College’s dean and associate deans.

“It gave me great joy to announce these awards as one of my first official duties of the 2024-25 academic year,” said Dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, Hilton Kelly, who joined Elon in June. “Standing in front of the room, I could see that my team and I got it right. Faculty and staff were overjoyed for each award recipient. The recognition was great and well-deserved for each, but the reception from their colleagues signaled to me that Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, will be a wonderfully positive and supportive working environment.”

The 2024 College Excellence Award recipients included:

Excellence in Teaching Award

Pratheep Paranthaman

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Since joining Elon in 2019, Assistant Professor Pratheep Paranthaman has become recognized as an innovator in the classroom who is dedicated to staying on the cutting edge of his fields of game design and user experiences in virtual and augmented reality technologies. As coordinator of Elon’s game design minor, he shares his knowledge and experience with students as they design and publish their own games in the program. He is highly responsive to students’ needs, and uses a range of teaching methods, software options and aligns with industry standards to prepare students for life after graduation. Paranthaman’s enthusiasm drives students’ curiosity and passion, and many graduates go on to careers and advanced study in the field. He is also a strong academic adviser to computer science majors and game design minors.

Excellence in Scholarship Award

Bariş Kesgin

Associate Professor of Political Science and Policy Studies

Associate Professor Bariş Kesgin is a prolific scholar. Since 2021, he has published four articles on topics ranging from Turkish leaders and their foreign policy decision-making style to the operational codes of Pacific Island countries’ leaders in relation to climate change. In the scholarship of teaching, he has published about teaching through games and simulations for international relations courses. Highly regarded in his field, Kesgin has given six invited talks at universities around the world since 2020, 12 conference presentations in the same timeframe, and published several book reviews on subjects of political science and international relations. Kesgin has several works in progress that bridge the lenses of gender and political analysis.

Excellence in Service-Leadership Award

Richard Blackmon

Associate Professor of Engineering

Associate Professor Richard Blackmon is a dedicated service-leader for the Department of Engineering and Elon’s LGBTQIA community. Blackmon’s involvement guided the engineering degree program to ABET accreditation by assessing courses with an eye toward continuous improvement. He served on the Design Course Sequence Committee to evaluate student outcomes and identify and implement interventions. He is involved with several other department and campus committees at Elon, including the Innovation Challenge Committee, Math and Natural Sciences Curriculum Committee, Engineering Advisory Board and as a leader of Elon’s LGBTQIA Employee Resource Group. He is also a co-advisor of student organization Out in STEM (oSTEM) and advisor for Elon Engineers. Blackmon also is director of Elon’s Engineering Dual Degree Program.

Sandra Reid

Senior Lecturer in Human Service Studies

Called “the epitome of a selfless service-leader for the College and the university,” Senior Lecturer Sandra Reid is involved in initiatives and programs that improve the outcomes of Elon students and colleagues at the university. Among many roles, she is campus advisor for the Omicron Iota Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., an advisory board member for the African and African-American Studies and the Criminal Justice Studies minors, as well as the Black student spiritual support group. She is a member of the Black Employees Resource Group. Reid has also served as the internship coordinator for the Poverty and Social Justice minor and co-created the international practicum course in Morocco for the Department of Human Service Studies. In 2023-24, Reid served on Elon’s lecturer track review and implementation committee, providing the essential voice of a senior lecturer in the committee’s processes and recommendations. Her service commitment extends beyond Elon and into the greater community as a board member of the Alamance County Community Services office and the Alamance County Community Remembrance Coalition.

Excellence in Mentoring Award

Emily Evans

T.E. Powell Jr. Professor and Professor of Physics

Professor Emily Evans consistently mentors undergraduate researchers to successful outcomes that include publication of their work and acceptance into advanced degree programs. As a mentor, she has secured external research funding to support students while mentoring their projects. Evans finds ways to mentor students in and beyond the classroom, and in curricular and non-curricular spaces. She served as the director of the Lumen Prize, creating cohorts of intellectual community while mentoring both students and faculty mentors through the Lumen process. Evans is the kind of teacher-scholar-mentor faculty in the College aspire to become, evident in the many ways she collaborates with students and colleagues.

Virginia Novine-Whittaker

Lecturer in Music

A longstanding, respected and admired music instructor, Lecturer Virginia Novine-Whittaker has for years provided strong mentorship for Elon’s student musicians. Many of her students now work in major cities around the country, performing in musicals and saxophone quartets, working in the recording industry, and managing, conducting and performing in jazz ensembles. Her students have a track record of success in earning highly competitive positions in military bands, and several of her saxophone students have won national and international performance competitions. Novine-Whittaker was also instrumental in developing the Elon Music Ambassadors program, and has taken Elon’s undergraduate musicians across the country to showcase their talent and recruit new students for the music program.

Staff Excellence Award

Melissa McBane

Operations and Accounts Specialist for Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences

As operations and accounts specialist for the College, Melissa McBane processes more than 200 contracts a year for contingent faculty and is integrally involved in searches for new permanent faculty and staff in the College. She helped the dean’s office and faculty in the College navigate the new PageUp hiring processes, managing the technological transition with ease. McBane also processes countless check requests and purchase orders within the College each year. She does it all with a positive attitude and eagerness to help colleagues.