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  • Baylor names finalists for 2022 Cherry Award, nation’s largest award for top teaching

    // Posted In Academics, Honors

    Head shots of Drs. Jeb Barnes, Hollylynne S. Lee and Randy W. Roberts

    Late last month, Baylor announced the finalists for the university’s 2022 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. (If you’re unfamiliar with the Cherry Award, it’s a unique honor — not only honoring professors for great teaching, but investing in their work with a gift of $250,000. It’s the largest monetary gift for teaching presented by a college or university, and the only award of its kind in higher education.)

    Here are the finalists, who can be considered among the nation’s top college educators:

    * Dr. Jeb Barnes, a political science professor at University of Southern California — Barnes has earned numerous awards for teaching and mentoring, including honors from the American Political Science Association and Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society. He studies the intersection between law, politics and public policy, particularly in mixed-method research strategies, and has written four books on the subject.

    * Dr. Hollylynne S. Lee, a math/statistics education professor at North Carolina State — Among her many teaching awards and honors, Lee was honored with the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2019-20. She has committed time and energy to creating open educational resources, and her scholarship includes four co-authored books and more than 100 journal articles and other papers.

    * Dr. Randy W. Roberts, a history professor at Purdue — Roberts’ resume includes academic and teaching awards from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Society of Professional Journalists. He is a four-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize in biography for books on Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, John Wayne and Joe Louis, and has worked as a consultant and has been featured in numerous documentaries on American historical figures.

    The Cherry Award winner — to be announced next spring — will receive $250,000, plus an additional $25,000 for his or her home department, thanks to a generous gift from Robert Foster Cherry (AB ’29).

    The award also greatly benefits Baylor students, as the winner will teach in residence at Baylor during fall 2022 or spring 2023.

    Sic ’em, Cherry Award finalists!