Award Winning Faculty and Staff 2023

By UNC Asheville

August 10^th, 2023

Each year UNC Asheville recognizes the exceptional accomplishments of its faculty and staff members, with awards given for service to the University, campus support, teaching, creativity and scholarship, as well as special recognition for retiring faculty and staff. The following awards were presented in May 2023.

Distinguished Service Award

Evelyn Chiang, a professor of the Psychology Department, was recognized with a Distinguished Service Award. Chiang, a founding member of the Student Faculty Input Form Committee, has served the academic community since her first year at UNC Asheville in 2007. She has served as the editor of “NCUR Proceedings,” co-founded the Disability Cultural Center, and set up AAPI affinity spaces around campus, as well as supporting victims of domestic violence and PTSD in the Asheville community.

“Evelyn’s commitment to teaching and mentoring, to diversity and safety for those who are too often underrepresented and threatened, making her a perfect recipient of the Distinguished Service Award,” said Becky Sanft, chair and associate professor of mathematics and statistics.

Associate Professor of Political Science Ashely Moraguez is also a recipient of a Distinguished Service Award.

“Ashley’s service to her department, the University, and the community is remarkable, and what stood out to our committee was the fact that so much of Ashley’s service was conceived, initiated, and carried out by her,” said Sanft. “She has energized the student body to register voters and to vote themselves, and in the process she has transformed UNCA into a ‘Platinum Award’ level voting campus, nationally recognized for the high percentage of students registered to vote and voting.”

Moraguez has also participated in numerous councils and committees, such as her positions as Interim Director of human rights studies and as a diversity advocate; on a panel for the SACSCOC campus visit for re-accreditation this Spring 2023; on the Teaching Awards Committee; and on the Faculty Senate and the Academic Policies Committee.

Evelyn Chiang, a professor of the psychology, was recognized with a Distinguished Service Award.

Distinguished Scholarly/Creative Achievement Awards

David Gillette, associate professor of environmental studies, was recognized for his work in climate change science in Western North Carolina.

“His work involves the critical contemporary issue of climate change and its effects on biodiversity, with special focuses on riverine life in the eastern Himalayas and here in Western North Carolina,” explained Sanft. “Gillette was lead author on publications tracing the effects of climate change on local and regional biodiversity in the Hindu Kush Himalayas. His work reveals that climate change does not affect all aquatic life equally, and more importantly, he fills in gaps in our understanding of which types of aquatic life are affected, and why, information that is crucial for conservation efforts.”

His passion for research is reflected in the classroom, and Gillette has encouraged his students to research the biodiversity and ecosystems surrounding UNC Asheville. His work has helped to build and strengthen UNC Asheville’s connections with collaborating/funding agencies such as the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the Lake James Environmental Association, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Amanda Wolfe, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, was also awarded a Distinguished Scholarly/Creative Achievement Award. Wolfe has worked extensively with undergraduate research students, publishing seven peer-reviewed journal articles with student co-authors.

Wolfe has presented or collaborated on 17 presentations in the last five years. Her in-progress funding exceeds $1.4 million awarded by the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation, among others. In addition to the undergraduates who appear as co-authors on her publications, Wolfe counts 43 current and former students whom she has mentored or co-mentored and whose research and presentations she has guided, and 19 Journal of Undergraduate Research publications from 2018-2022.

Associate Professor of Political Science Ashely Moraguez is also a recipient of a Distinguished Service Award.

Christopher Oakley, assistant professor of new media, was awarded the Feldman Professorship Fund for his innovative project, "The Virtual Lincoln Project."

Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship Fund Prize

Each year, UNC Asheville faculty select two of its members to receive the Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship Fund prize, which honors faculty who have excelled in service to the community and to UNC Asheville; and demonstrated competence in the areas of teaching, research, and published writings.

The first recipient of this award was Sam Kaplan, professor in the Math Department, which he also served as chair from 2018-2022. The award recognized Kaplan’s involvement with the Marvelous Math Club, a math club for elementary school students at Pisgah View apartments that Kaplan co-founded in 2016 and has co-directed since. The Marvelous Math Club (MMC) uses math as a catalyst to build community, foster relationships and leadership among elementary-aged students, and seeks to embody justice and racial equity in all its strategies and activities.

Christopher Oakley, assistant professor of new media, was also awarded the Feldman Professorship Prize. As a former Disney and DreamWorks animator and an artist, Oakley introduced the industry-standard practices and the creative frameworks to let students learn and grow as they wanted and needed.

Beginning in 2011, Oakley began “The Virtual Lincoln Project,” in which students worked to create a photoreal, digital Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address. As part of this work, Oakley discovered a previously unidentified image of Lincoln within a photograph taken of the crowd attending the ceremony where he delivered the address. Through the pandemic Oakley continued this work outside of teaching as he combined 19th century analog materials with 21st century 3D digital technology to reveal where Lincoln stood when he delivered his Gettysburg Address. This question had been debated for 150 years, and Oakley’s solution has won him features in Smithsonian Magazine, C-Span, CBS Evening News, and The New York Times, and has drawn attention to UNC Asheville.