WVUToday Archive

Robert E. Blobaum, Jr., professor, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Jonathan R. Cumming, associate professor, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Peter F. Ehrlich, associate professor, School of Medicine

Stacy A. Gartin, professor, Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences

Virginia Franke Kleist, assistant professor, College of Business and Economics

Dorian J. Williams, associate professor, School of Medicine

PADDING -RIGHT: 0in; BORDER -TOP: #d4d0c8; PADDING -LEFT: 0in; PADDING -BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER -LEFT: #d4d0c8; PADDING -TOP: 0in; BORDER -BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND -COLOR: transparent”>

A strange twist of fate early in his career required Robert Blobaum to hastily revise his teaching strategy. Dr. Blobaum’s carefully prepared lecture notes were stolen, along with all of his other possessions that he was transporting by U-Haul to Central Michigan University. Upon arriving at his first full-time teaching job Blobaum said,”I had no choice but to’wing it,’as one of my new colleagues advised me. I couldn’t hide behind the podium, but had to teach on my feet, to rely on my own knowledge of the subject matter, and to communicate rather than recite that knowledge to students. That year I learned how to teach.”

Students describe Blobaum as an enthusiastic, dynamic teacher who encourages thought-provoking class discussions. A colleague noted that the History Department’s graduate program in Modern European history was”resuscitated and revitalized”under Blobaum’s leadership and the record number of doctoral graduates produced by the department over the past several years is evidence of his impact on the graduate program.

Blobaum teaches a wide range of classes, ranging from undergraduate classes such as Western Civilization and World War II in Europe to graduate courses like Modern East European History. His research focuses on early 20th century Polish politics and society. Currently, he is directing an international research project on antisemitism in 19th- and 20th-century Poland and is completing an individual research project on Polish society on the eve of the World War I.

Blobaum joined the WVU faculty in 1984 as assistant professor of central and east European history. He was promoted to associate professor in 1987 and to full professor in 1995. In 1997, Blobaum received WVU ’s Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award in the area of Humanities and the Performing Arts. In the fall of 2002, he was appointed Eberly Family Professor of History and recently was named a recipient of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Blobaum is a 1974 graduate of the University of Northern Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in history. He earned both his master’s degree (1976) and doctorate (1981) in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

PADDING -RIGHT: 0in; BORDER -TOP: #d4d0c8; PADDING -LEFT: 0in; PADDING -BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER -LEFT: #d4d0c8; PADDING -TOP: 0in; BORDER -BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND -COLOR: transparent”>

Jonathan Cumming always envisioned himself as a university researcher, but it wasn’t until a hiring freeze at the University of Vermont and the retirement of one of his colleagues there that his career as a teacher developed. The department chair asked Dr. Cumming, who was employed as assistant professor for research, to take over the retiring faculty member’s 8 a.m. botany class for non-majors. During that class, Cumming says he developed the ability to translate complicated terminology and concepts to everyday experiences.

Cumming brought this experience with him to WVU in 1995, when he accepted an assistant professor of biology position and was charged with creating a new undergraduate environmental biology course for non-majors.

“Many students have lost their interest in biology by the time they reach college,”says Cumming.”Teaching about the environment offers unique opportunities to rekindle students’fascination with the living world around them.”

Colleagues and students note Cumming’s dedication and commitment to offering top-notch learning experiences for his students. WVU ’s Core Arboretum, local streams, an abandoned coal mine, Coopers Rock State Forest and the Chesapeake Bay are some of the destinations used for hands-on learning in his laboratory classes. Cumming has additionally developed new upper division and graduate courses in plant physiology while continuing his research on plan response to human-damaged environments. He also has directed numerous undergraduate research and honors research projects, some of which have resulted in published journal articles.

Cumming was promoted to associate professor at WVU in 2001. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the College of William and Mary in 1981, his master’s in forest resources from the University of New Hampshire in 1984 and his doctorate in natural resources from Cornell University in 1990.

In addition to his work at WVU , Cumming lends his knowledge to the City of Morgantown by chairing the Morgantown Tree Board and assisting the city in developing an action plan for care and diversification of the city’s urban forest.

PADDING -RIGHT: 0in; BORDER -TOP: #d4d0c8; PADDING -LEFT: 0in; PADDING -BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER -LEFT: #d4d0c8; PADDING -TOP: 0in; BORDER -BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND -COLOR: transparent”>

A pediatric surgeon, Dr. Peter Ehrlich balances a busy clinical practice with teaching duties in the School of Medicine.

“The heart of my educational philosophy is that I am passionate about my career. I enjoy going to work and I believe that pediatric surgery is the best area of medicine. It is challenging, fun and very rewarding. As a parent, I feel it is a privilege to care for someone else’s children,”Ehrlich said.

Since coming to WVU in 1998, Ehrlich has worked diligently to improve the education of surgery students. One such effort was creating a surgery-specific evaluation form. Another was helping to revive the Surgical Interest Group, for which he has served as faculty coordinator for the past two and half years. He also revised the Surgery Clerkship, adding six new learning experiences for students.

Since 1999, Ehrlich’s surgical residents’research projects have won six awards that have been presented at national and international surgical conferences.

Ehrlich joined the WVU faculty in 1998 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 2002. He has served as medical director of the Pediatric Trauma Program since 1999 and is a member of the Center for Rural Emergency Medicine faculty. The School of Medicine honored him as one of two Distinguished Teachers in 2002.

He earned an undergraduate degree in physiology from the University of Toronto (1985) and is an honors graduate of the University of Toronto Medical School (1989). He earned a master of science in molecular biology from the University of Toronto Institute of Medical Science in 1994.

PADDING -RIGHT: 0in; BORDER -TOP: #d4d0c8; PADDING -LEFT: 0in; PADDING -BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER -LEFT: #d4d0c8; PADDING -TOP: 0in; BORDER -BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND -COLOR: transparent”>

Stacy Gartin joined the WVU faculty in 1984 and since that time has educated a new generation of agriculture educators in the state of West Virginia.

In his recommendation of Dr. Gartin for the Outstanding Teacher award, Dean Cameron Hackney described Gartin’s diligent work in coordinating for the past 18 years the State Agricultural Career Development Days, an event that brings more high school students to the WVU campus than any other single activity.

“It’s a tremendous amount of work, and pulling it off smoothly would be accomplishment enough, but there’s an added layer that makes it particularly special: virtually every vocational agriculture teacher in the state has been Professor Gartin’s student at some point, either undergraduate or graduate,”Dr. Hackney said.

Gartin also is known for his popular Agricultural and Natural Resources Communications course which draws students from a variety of disciplines across the University, such as geology, psychology and marketing, as well as students from the many divisions within the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences. Gartin designed the course in 1991 to address what he perceived as a weakness in oral and written communication hindering some students from finding employment upon graduation. Initially, he taught the course just once per year, but soon had to offer it both semesters to meet student demand. Students must each make 10 in-class presentations that are videotaped so they can carefully analyze their performance and set goals for improving their delivery. Those completing the course have a high success rate in securing employment.

He has taught over 20 different courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, earning outstanding teacher honors in the Davis College five times since 1988. He was promoted from assistant to associate professor in 1989 and then to professor in 1995. Davis College students have recognized Gartin as the college’s outstanding advisor twice in the last five years. In 2000, the American Association for Agricultural Educators recognized Gartin’s scholarly efforts as the Outstanding Research in the Eastern Region.

Gartin earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Colorado State University (1976) and a master’s degree (1982) and doctorate (1983) in agricultural education from The Ohio State University.

In just four years of teaching at WVU , Virginia Kleist has distinguished herself not only as a researcher but also as a successful professor.

Dr. Kleist, assistant professor in the College of Business and Economics, teaches in the highly specialized field of Management Information Systems (MIS), including courses such as Data Communications, Management and Technologies of Electronic Commerce and MIS at the grad student level.

“I know that training in the technologies will always keep changing, but hope that the underlying framework of their education will always stay with them,”Kleist said of her teaching at WVU .

She believes in individual learning and hands on interactivity to convey material to her students. Kleist, who worked as a manager in MIS for ten years, employs real-world instructional tools in the classroom and uses as examples actual networks she has built and run.

As one former student commented,”Dr. Kleist has the rare ability to take technical material, teach it in interesting and understanding terms and then apply her teachings to real world situations.”

One student she mentored, Gino Degregori, recently finished second in a national McNair Scholar competition.

A 1978 graduate of Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and history, Kleist received a master of arts in economics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979 and a master of business administration from Marquette University in 1981. She earned a master’s in MIS in 1991 and a doctorate in MIS and telecommunications in 2000both from the University of Pittsburgh. Last year she received the College of Business and Economics’Outstanding Teaching Award.

PADDING -RIGHT: 0in; BORDER -TOP: #d4d0c8; PADDING -LEFT: 0in; PADDING -BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER -LEFT: #d4d0c8; PADDING -TOP: 0in; BORDER -BOTTOM: #d4d0c8; BACKGROUND -COLOR: transparent”>

In the past decade, family medicine Associate Professor Dr. Dorian Williams has been involved in the formal education of nearly a thousand medical students at all four levels, about 75 family practice residents and hundreds of physicians and other learners in a variety of venues.

“One of his greatest impacts upon our school has been the marked improvement in the education of our second year students,”said School of Medicine Dean Robert D’Alessandri.”He revamped physical diagnosis into a dynamic and progressive traditional class course.”

The Physical Diagnosis and Clinical Integration (PDCI) course teaches second year medical students how to obtain medical histories, perform physical examinations and begin to integrate basic sciences into clinical practice. Since PDCI was redesigned by Williams and Dr. Michelle Nuss of WVU ’s internal medicine faculty, Dr. D’Alessandri believes students not only leave the program better trained, but they also score higher on national standardized tests.

“While I wanted to become a physician and take care of patients for as long as I can remember, my passion for teaching came much later,”Williams said.

He maintains a busy clinical practice in addition to his teaching duties, and also directs an annual statewide course for Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) in West Virginia. The course teaches emergency procedures encountered in labor and delivery.

Williams joined the WVU faculty in 1992 and was promoted to associate professor in 1998. He currently is director of student programs in the Department of Family Practice.

He graduated from WVU in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and received his M.D. from WVU in 1989. He received the School of Medicine’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 2002 and the Department of Family Medicine’s teacher of the year honors in 1994.

WVU Foundation honors six for outstanding teaching