The Metro State community is encouraged to come out in support of 12 of their colleagues who will receive Distinguished Service, Teaching Excellence and Golden Key awards at the Welcome Back Ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 7:30-9:30 a.m. in the King Center. More than 110 Length of Service Award winners will be recognized at the event, as well.

Distinguished Service Awards
President’s Award

Cookie Hetzel developed the theatre program from a club into a bachelor's degree program. Photos by Dave Neligh

Marilyn “Cookie” Hetzel,will receive the second-ever President’s Award, a category of the Distinguished Service Award established last year to acknowledge outstanding contributions and commitment to Metro State that are clearly above and beyond the norm.

Hetzel, director of theatre, professor and chair of the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, has spent 20 years—half of her career— in exemplary service to Metro State, its students and the Denver community.

She developed the Theatre Program over 16 years from a club to a full-fledged degree program that offers a B.A. and a B.F.A. She directs, produces and oversees several productions each year that routinely attract sold-out audiences and garner critical praise. Her commitment goes even further as she often locates scholarships for her theatre students and lines up summer stock internships for them around the city, state and country. A two-time chair of the department, last year Hetzel supervised three program reviews and coordinated the department’s strategic plan.

Administrator

Among Paul Cesare's achievements for which he is being recognized are the highly successful open houses he developed and the MetroLeads program.

Paul Cesare has spent 21 years with the Office of Admissions. As an admissions counselor and representative to Colorado high school counselors from 1987-93, Cesare personally visited more than 100 high schools throughout the state. He developed the Metro State Open House beginning in 2001; it now boasts more than 1,000 guests per event. He also developed the ADVANCE alumni/admissions recruitment program in 1999, an innovative program in which alumni help in student recruitment. One of Cesare’s recent accomplishments is MetroLeads, the year-long program that provides leadership development opportunities and career exploration for Metro State employees.

Classified Staff
Lora Hansen, a 20-year employee of the College, started her Metro State career as an administrative assistant for Alumni Relations, which is one of the departments within Institutional Advancement. She has held positions of increasing responsibility within IA over the years, and in February was promoted to her current position of manager of private scholarships and donor relations.

Lora Hansen's colleagues describe her as the "go to" person in Institutional Advancement.

Hansen is widely considered as the “go to” person in IA. She is a resource for College procedures, past and current projects, budget and human resources policy. Hansen orchestrates the annual scholarship dinner, one of the Office of Development’s biggest stewardship events, in which scholarship donors have an opportunity to meet their recipients. She also coordinates the scholarship center, working with student scholarship recipients, donors and faculty members who determine awardees.

Teaching Excellence Awards
Erick Erickson, professor of economics, will receive the Tenured Teaching Excellence award. His teaching method of speaking with his students without lecturing them and using multimedia to engage them has proven successful for Erickson, who has been told that he is “in danger of giving economics a good name.” One former student said, ““Dr. Erickson was one of the greatest lecturers I had the pleasure of hearing, at the undergraduate as well as the graduate level.”

Aaron Richmond, assistant professor of psychology, will receive the Tenure-Track Teaching Excellence award. Richmond’s classroom activities actively involve students in the learning material and illuminate difficult concepts. In addition to his pedagogical approach of active and experiential learning, Richmond uses the “wealth of personal experiences” that Metro State students bring to the classroom. He leads his department in teaching research practicum students averaging four to five every semester and they have presented their research at regional conferences.

Jeff Simpson, assistant professor of biology, will also receive the Tenure-Track Teaching Excellence award. In meeting his goal to “create a unique learning environment,” Simpson has developed one course that is unlike any in North America: Advanced Human Cadaver Anatomy. Students work in groups that rotate among four stations: dissecting the cadaver; using x-rays and MRI to understand skeletal anatomy; studying cross-sections of the human body; and clinically applying human anatomy and pathology through case studies that Simpson has written.

Allison Wilder, visiting assistant professor of recreation professions, will receive the Full-Time Temporary Teaching Excellence Award. Wilder uses self-directed and applied-learning methods and incorporates service learning into many of her courses. Her colleague Jane Broida writes in a letter of support for Wilder, “I continually hear all positive comments from students related to Allison’s teaching. Students have noted her ‘enthusiasm for teaching,’ content-rich courses and her availability to meet them outside of class.”

Golden Key Honor Society Awards
Outstanding Full-Time Faculty
Sheila Rucki, assistant professor of political science is considered an “interesting and rewarding professor who not only knows her subject but goes above and beyond to explain the subject.” In spite of her reputation among students for having the toughest classes every semester, her classes still fill up.

Maria Rey-Lopez, associate professor of Spanish, teaches her Spanish literature class in a way that is “like being in a time machine transporting students to another time and country.” Rey-Lopez has described teaching Spanish literature as “her life’s mission.”

Outstanding Affiliate Faculty
Wendy Gallagher, affiliate faculty of Spanish, was critical in reinstituting Spanish translation courses at the College. In her classroom it is easy to see the passion she has for her subject and through her personable teaching style her students not just learn the Spanish language but develop that same passion.

Regina Huerter, affiliate faculty of human services, brings her valued experience as a nationwide expert in her field of high-risk youth, gangs, youth subcultures, crime prevention and treatment methods to her teaching. On student said of Huerter, “…any student enrolling in one of her classes will acquire worthwhile lessons that will be applicable in their everyday life.”

Outstanding Researcher
Doug Laufer, professor of accounting, has given over 75 professional presentations and has published refereed work 18 different times in his 13 years at Metro State. Some of his publications directly applied to helping students and career accounting professionals understand how to move forward in accounting careers.