Erin Zerbe-Comer Awarded the 2021 McCoy Professorship for Teaching Excellence

I am beyond elated to announce I have been awarded the John G. and Jeanne B. McCoy Teaching Excellence Professorship.

The McCoy Award is the highest honor available to faculty at Marietta College, and was designed to recognize and reward exceptional teaching. I am so honored to join a long line of distinguished faculty who have merited this recognition.

This five-year designation, which includes an annual salary supplement, was established in 1993 as part of the McCoy Endowment for Teaching Excellence, which was donated by John G. McCoy '35, and his late wife, Jeanne. McCoy Professors are selected by an outside review committee made up of professors from sister colleges in Ohio who themselves have been recognized for their teaching ability. Finalists for the award participate in an extensive review that includes the development of a teaching portfolio, repeated observations of their classroom teaching, and interviews with students in their classes.

NATURE OF THE AWARD

• There will be up to two appointments made each year.

• The term of the award will be for five years.

• For the first four years of the term the award will be a $10,000 annual stipend, regardless of rank. During the fifth year, the award will be a $5,000 stipend.

• Upon being selected for the award, the faculty member will receive the honorific title of McCoy Professor (which will reflect rank, e.g. McCoy Assistant Professor of…). The honorific will continue during the faculty member’s employment at Marietta College and, if applicable, it will attach to emeritus/a status.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

The following criteria are considered by the McCoy Selection Committee:

• An inspiring, coherent teaching philosophy which is clearly and intentionally applied in the classroom strategies

• Current knowledge of the discipline and pedagogy

• Dynamic classroom activity and presentation

• Guidance and structure for learning beyond the classroom

• Encouragement for students to become active learners

• Ability to work with students at various levels of engagement

• Ability to facilitate the exploration of complexities, paradoxes, and various paradigms within the field of study

• Ability to provide structure for learning while allowing for independent thinking

• Evidence for transformative learning among students