Faculty/Staff News

When Dr. Lesa Shaul reclines in her chair, within arm’s reach are shelves of classic literature, the poetry of Percy Shelley, William Faulkner’s streams of consciousness, the brilliance of Robert Penn Warren. For a professor of English, the cramped space seems an oasis of calm, a few square feet bloated with printed words worthy of memorization.
A mixture of serendipity and archeology, with a pinch of salt on the side, is behind Dr. Ashley Dumas’ recent Fulbright Specialist Award and her upcoming trip to the University of Rzeszow in Poland.
On Alabama nights when clouds didn’t shroud the stars, Lucas Johnson and his father would haul a powerful telescope from their basement into an open space and explore the heavens. They lived “in the middle of nowhere,” a bit south of Decatur, where light pollution was rare as a neighborhood hockey game.
Dr. Andrew Rindsberg, a professor of geology and paleontology at the University of West Alabama, needs no reminder of the last time the earth wobbled with severity in Alabama.
When Byron Thetford added the role of Title IX coordinator to his duties this year at the University of West Alabama, he already knew the value of concentrating on students’ well-being and their campus experiences. Serving seven years as UWA’s director of student life and support had taught him that much.
UWA band director Tyler Strickland

Dr. Tyler Strickland is a piano-playing, would-be percussionist from Birmingham who longed to bang drums in his school band, learned instead to play saxophone, married Auburn University’s first female drum major, directed high school bands in two states and spent the last three years as a graduate assistant with the University of Iowa bands.

UWA Associate Professor of Sport Management LaJuan Hutchinson.
As an associate professor of sport management at the University of West Alabama, the 55-year-old Hutchinson is renowned for his passion for teaching, a willingness to mentor students, and his admitted love of sports. In May, Hutchinson was selected by the student body for the William E. Gilbert Award, one of UWA’s most prestigious annual honors that recognizes outstanding teaching and excellence in classroom instruction.
Her Foust Hall office is adorned with jerseys and balls autographed by Tiger athletes. She refers to UWA’s coaches as “my coaches.” Her boss, Director of Athletics Kent Partridge, admits she is his department’s sole constant. “And thank the Good Lord for that,” he said.
Polite as possible, Dr. Chineda Hill, an associate professor of nursing at the University of West Alabama, is nonetheless adamant. She permits no hesitation. She harbors no doubt. A smile shades her spunk. “I’m a nurse,” she said. 

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