Prospective Students--Meet Our Faculty
Over 500 faculty members are actively involved in graduate education at California State University, Fresno. Exit surveys continually show that graduates believe the unusually strong commitment of graduate faculty has been one of the most notable aspects of their educational experience. Our Graduate Programs section identifies many of the graduate faculty, their graduate institution, and their area of teaching. You may contact these faculty members through their department office.
Provost's Teaching Awards
Every May, the university provost recognizes excellence in graduate-level teaching, with particular emphasis on the special mentoring that results in the exemplary professional development and scholarly achievement of graduate students, with the Provost's Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching and Mentoring.
The 2008 recipient of the award is Dr. Saeed Attar of the Chemistry Department.
Dr. Attar was honored at the Graduate Degree Hooding Ceremony in the Save Mart Center May 16.
2007: Connie Hales, English
2006: Alejandro Calderon-Urrea, Biology
2005: Marilyn Wilson, Psychology
2004: Alice Wright, Biology
2003: Sharon Brown-Welty, Educational Research, Administration, and Foundations
2002: Ali Peyvandi, Accountancy
2001: Gerardo Munoz, Physics
2000: Scott Stevens, English
1999: Diane Yerkes, Educational Research, Administration, and Foundations
1998: Karen Carey, Psychology
1997: David Chesemore, Biology
1996: Shirley Kovacs, Biology
1995: Wallace Harmon, Biology
Each year our Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs recognizes the outstanding faculty on our campus. Here are some faculty recognized for their excellence in teaching.
Roy
Bohlin
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
While technology overtakes the world, Dr. Roy M. Bohlin feels mastery lies at the heart of a simple, time-honored platform: We learn by doing. Dr. Bohlin is at the forefront of a movement that provides professional development and support for the university faculty and master teachers: The TALENT project, (Teaching And Leading for Educational Needs with Technology). As director and principal investigator of the $1.14 million project, Dr. Bohlin practices his philosophy daily -- executing meaningful tasks that solve real world problems. He feels that, while technology is a very powerful tool. The focus of any real learning should not be merely on the technology, but instead should be on meaningful applications of that technology while solving important problems. In addition to six years as a high school math and science teacher, he has taught 10 different courses with innovatively infused technology to more than 1,000 students, as well as taught technology infusion professional development workshops for more than 100 Fresno State faculty and more than 1,000 teachers. He has served as a charter member of the digital equity task force sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
Paulette
Fleming
Department of Art and Design
Paulette Spruill Fleming is an artist
in more ways than one. She is intensely involved with art, culture,
technology and community as an artist, a researcher, a teacher and
a mentor. With creativity at the core of her approach to life and
to teaching, she has embraced the theme adopted by the Fresno Arts
Council,"Art Is the Soul of a Culture," because "it
crystallizes thecritical role of the arts in revealing, enriching
and enlivening our inner personal lives as well as our community,
our nation, and the world." Dr. Fleming wants students to be
actively involved in traditional and contemporary arts disciplines
so that their lives may be informed and enhanced by art's unique contribution.
She believes service earning can be an integral part of this active
involvement by helping students use what they are learning in the
classroom to strengthen the community.
Dr. Fleming serves as the director of Partners-in-Art, a collaborative
program between the university, local schools, parents, teachers and
the arts community that explores the valley's artistic, cultural and
ethnic heritage. Through a series of workshops, field trips, classroom
units, guest lectures, and a youth Art Hop program, university students
can participate in valuable service-learning experiences.
Helene
Joseph-Weil
Department of Music
If music is the international language of understanding, Helene Joseph-Weil could be considered one of its most vocal ambassadors. She has performed in opera, concert, oratorio and solo recitals in Italy, Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, and throughout the United States. Her most recent international performances were as Artist-in-Residence for the Ascoli Piceno Music Festival in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. She has premiered many new works, including "Where Lilacs Last In the Dooryard Bloomed" by Roger Sessions and the West Coast premieres of "Circles" by Berio and "Philomel" by Babbitt. A Mozart specialist, she was the Founding Artistic Director of the Mozart Opera Studies Institute (MOSI) in Austria and San Francisco.
She is a professor of Music (Voice/Opera) at Fresno State, where she oversees the vocal performance majors and directs the Opera Workshop. Other academic appointments include guest professorships at the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg and Stanford University.
Gerardo
Muñoz
Department of Physics
Physics students find Dr. Gerardo Muñoz's classes notoriously
difficult, and they like it that way. While being rated superb on
student evaluations and serving as adviser for graduate students,
Dr. Muñoz has helped forge Fresno State's Physics Department
into one of the top producers of post-doctoral students in the nation.
He joined a small but strong graduate program faculty in 1991 and
has helped the department gain recognition in a National Science
Foundation study of doctoral degrees as being among the top three
U.S. master's colleges and universities that produce master's gradates
who go on to receive Ph.D.'s in physical sciences. In addition to
teaching most of the program's graduate core courses, he has also
developed three new courses. From a small university in his native
Chile to a large, first-rate program such as Johns Hopkins, Dr.
Muñoz' experiences provide a useful perspective on students
from underprivileged backgrounds and on the role the department
can play in building a successful future for its students.
As a professor, adviser and mentor, Dr. Muñoz has endeared himself to students with whom he builds strong bonds and inspires understanding of a complexsubject. His exemplary teaching techniques, peer accolades and strong student evaluations led to the 2001 Provost's Teaching Award at Fresno State.
Paul
Ogden
Department of Communicative Disorders & Deaf Studies
A world of silence does not mean a world of disappointment for
Dr.Paul Ogden, a professor in the Department of Communicative
Disorders and Deaf Studies. He and his brother were born deaf
into a family with hearing parents, so his home was always characterized
by a very special communication. For the last 22 years he has
been involved in teacher preparation and has presented at a variety
of conventions and workshops throughout the U.S. He also has served
as a consultant to the California and U.S. Departments of Education.
Among his major recent awards are the Literary Achievement Award
from the National Association of the Deaf, the "Outstanding
Professor of the Year" citation conferred by the faculty,
staff and students at Fresno State, and the Outstanding Professional
of the Year award from California's Governor's Committee on Employment
of the Disabled. When teaching his students, Paul embodies the
philosophy he hopes they will use in their future classrooms:
all students are unique individuals, and teachers should be prepared
to provide the best possible individualized education to each.
He strives to emphasize that deafness is not about hearing loss,
it is about communication.
His hearing dog, Avalanche, alerts Paul to noises in his environment, such as the sounds issuing from an alarm clock, fire alarm, doorbell or telephone.
Art
Parham
Department of Animal Sciences & Agricultural Education
Dr. Art Parham believes students must be actively involved in
their education, and one organization that practices that at its
core is the Future Farmers of America -- a student organization
that comes to Fresno State from throughout California every year
for the FFA Field Day. Dr. Parham has been a major figure in this
event, and he thrives in the underlying premise that FFA provides:
working with students to accomplish tasks that are large in service
and scope where responsibility for success or failure is borne
by the student or student group. Observing his 30th year as an
educator, he strives to instill in his students and colleagues
his philosophy that students must be provided an environment to
succeed, as much from their trials as from their triumphs, many
times the by product of perseverance.
At Fresno State he has been at the forefront of training and influencing future and present agricultural professionals since 1982, not only as a faculty member but also as chairman of the Department of Animal Science since 1996. He also has been a coach and adviser to the Fresno State Bulldoggers Rodeo Team.
Ali
Peyvandi
Department of Accountancy
A 2002 Provost’s award winner for graduate teaching and mentoring, Dr. Peyvandi is something of a pied piper for international students in the Craig School MBA Program. As Director of International Business Programs, his personal attention, commitment, and promotion of student exchanges with various universities abroad resulted in an increase in enrollment from 20 to more than 90 in three years.
By developing a personal relationship with each undergraduate international student and helping them make the most of their stay at Fresno State, he also makes them want to return for their MBA. Dr. Peyvandi sees value in helping students to understand not only the class subject matter, but also the real world around the educational environment. Dr. Peyvandi is also the co-founder and co-chairman of the Asian-Pacific Conference on International Accounting Issues, and a member of the European Accounting Association, The International Trade and Finance Association and the American Accounting Association.