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CMC honors faculty members

Colorado Mountain College
Rod Taylor, an associate professor of biology and chemistry, recently received the 2017 full-time campus Faculty of the Year award for Colorado Mountain College Spring Valley and Glenwood Springs.
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Brad Moore, recently named Colorado Mountain College’s adjunct Faculty of the Year, said he never intended to teach.

“But I found early on that I loved sharing ideas,” he said. “CMC students come from such diverse backgrounds with such a variety of ages and skill levels. I always love helping them unlock their true potential.”

Moore, who teaches theater at Colorado Mountain College Spring Valley at Glenwood Springs, received not only campus honors, but the collegewide adjunct Faculty of the Year award this year.



Tina Evans of the college’s Steamboat Springs campus received CMC’s collegewide full-time Faculty of the Year award.

Each year, students, staff and faculty at Colorado Mountain College can nominate one outstanding full-time and one adjunct faculty member from each of the college’s seven campuses and the online learning department. From those honorees, senior administrators then select a collegewide award recipient in each of the two categories, who then represent their peers across the span of the college’s 12,000-square-mile service area.



In addition to Moore’s and Evans’ collegewide honors, Rod Taylor was named the campus full-time Faculty of the Year for Spring Valley and Glenwood Springs.

Taylor, an associate professor of biology and chemistry, received praise from a number of students, including Amanda Einig who noted in her nomination his “great energy” and that “Dr. Taylor teaches not only science, but how to be a more successful student.”

Gary Ketzenbarger, CMC Spring Valley professor of speech and theater, is Moore’s supervisor. He thinks of their relationship as co-workers, and Moore as his “invaluable right-hand man who is self-directed and accomplishes as much on his own as I have directed him to do.”

“Generally speaking, the students adore him,” Ketzenbarger wrote in his nomination for Moore. “He is extremely knowledgeable about theater. He is a fabulous instructor.”

Moore has an extensive theatrical background as an actor, director, set designer and stage manager, and an equally rich history as an educator, which includes being named Aspen High School Teacher of the Year in 2005.

Evans and Moore said they were both equally surprised and humbled when their names were announced as collegewide Faculty of the Year. Both also immediately thought of their disciplines and fellow faculty members.

“I’m very surprised,” said Moore, after receiving the award. “There are so many others who are so deserving, though I’m glad the award gives recognition to our theater program.”

“This award isn’t just for me,” agreed Evans. “This is great for our sustainability studies program and all who contribute to it.”

Evans is an integral member of those contributors. Last year, she received a national sustainability award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Her journal article, “Finding Heart: Generating and Maintaining Hope and Agency through Sustainability Education,” appeared in the November 2015 issue of The Journal of Sustainability Education.

In Rifle, two faculty members now have two things in common. They both have been on the college’s faculty for two years and they both have been named as Rifle campus’s Faculty of the Year.

Technology professor Stewart Cark and science professor Jennifer Hood took home the honors for the Rifle campus. Clark won as a full-time employee and Hood won as an adjunct professor.

“I love the diversity of backgrounds, goals and struggles that CMC students bring to the classroom,” Hood said. “So many of them are returning students or adult learners trying to balance kids, jobs and life in general. It’s not easy, but they have made education a priority. I love helping them in any way that I can. There is a real sense of self-pride and accomplishment at the end of the semester. It’s very special.”


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