CCAD celebrates our excellent educators

Since 2007, Columbus College of Art & Design has celebrated our outstanding faculty members at its annual Teaching Excellence Awards, held this year on Thursday, April 13. Alumni, current CCAD students, and faculty recognized individuals for their strength in discipline knowledge, instructional effectiveness, and student focus. Faculty members are recognized in two categories, one for full-time faculty and another for part-time faculty. This year’s winners were Interior Architecture & Design Assistant Professor and Chair Charmaine Sutton and Adjunct Faculty for Liberal Arts—Writing, Literature & Philosophy, Dr. Wendy Chrisman.

“The two recipients this year exemplify the high level of instruction that we are able to offer at CCAD, as well as the different types of experience that our faculty bring to the classroom,” says Dean of Faculty Josh Butts.

Dr. Chrisman, says Butts, “is a veteran faculty member with well over a decade of experience teaching composition, professional writing, and rhetoric to our art and design students. She is a passionate teacher … who challenges and supports our students in profound and responsive ways.”

Sutton, he notes, came to teaching via a different route. “As she noted in her remarks at the ceremony, she didn’t see teaching as an immediate career choice, and yet because she comes to teaching with a wealth of experience in her design work–she knows her field–she has discovered through teaching at CCAD her remarkable and wholehearted ability to inspire and guide her students.”

Butts continues, “It is a delight to work and teach alongside so many faculty with such varied and rich experiences.”

CCAD faculty honored for their work with students

Read more about this year’s winners:

Charmaine Sutton
Assistant Professor and Chair, Interior Architecture & Design

Sutton’s nominators highlighted her caring approach to helping students succeed. A student nominator says Sutton is “always so helpful, and you can really tell she wants her students to succeed. Never have I ever felt scrutinized by her, or that she was on an opposing team. … Charmaine cares about her students and it really shows. She has made an effort to get to know what goes on in our personal lives, and really feels like a teacher, but also a friend.”

A faculty colleague likewise celebrated Sutton’s personal touch with students, saying, “Charmaine spends time working to meet student needs and create a classroom environment conducive to learning and student growth. Charmaine spends extra time to keep students informed via email to prepare for the week ahead, and works with industry professionals to provide meaningful trips around the Columbus area that aid in reinforcing concepts taught in class.”

Dr. Wendy Chrisman
Adjunct Faculty, Liberal Arts—Writing, Literature & Philosophy

For her part, Chrisman “teaches from a place of understanding and compassion,” says a faculty colleague who nominated her for recognition.

“I've encountered many students who have talked about Wendy taking the time to help them read, understand, and write about the assigned material in their classes,” they continue. “I trust that I can recommend a student to meet with Wendy, because she will take the time to help them progress in their writing classes. CCAD is fortunate to have Wendy as an adjunct and a writing consultant.”

Other CCAD faculty accomplishments

The reception also included the following announcements:

The following people will receive the Professor Emeritus distinction after they retire at the end of the academic year:
- Alice Frenz, CORE Studies
- Carol Griffith, Fine Arts
- John Kortlander, Fine Arts
- Ernest Viveiros, CORE Studies
The following people have been promoted from associate professor to full professor:
- Kelly DeVore, Associate Dean of Design, Interior Architecture & Design
- darren lee (dee) miller, Chair of Photography
- Matthew Mohr, Chair of Advertising & Graphic Design
The following people have been promoted from assistant professor to associate professor:
- Liz Keegan, Chair of Game Art & Design
- Aaron Petten, History of Art & Visual Culture
- Dr. Jeremy Stoll, Director of Liberal Arts, Department Head of Science & Social Science
- John Youger, Industrial Design, President of Faculty Council