Summer - Lee University

Faculty Honors:11On Saturday morning at 9:30, the threat ofinclement weather moved the commencementceremonies indoors to the Paul Dana Walker Arena.While thousands were able to pack the field house,an overflow crowd of hundreds more watched theceremony via live feed in the Dixon and Conn Centersacross campus. The event was also available throughstreaming on the Lee University website.President Conn welcomed the graduates’ familiesand friends, many of whom had spent days travelingto Cleveland, Tennessee, to see their loved one crossthe stage.Delivering the commencement addressthis year was Dr. Donald N. Bowdle, distinguishedprofessor of history and religion at Lee,who had previously announced his retirementfrom the Lee faculty after a record 50 years (seefeature article in this issue). Following the awardingof degrees to the Class of 2012, President Connintroduced the three highest awards given to facultyat Lee. Recipients included Dr. Lisa Stephenson,Excellence in Scholarship, Dr. Kevin Brown, Excellencein Teaching, and Dr. Skip Jenkins, Excellencein Advising.Brown Receives Excellencein Teaching Award;First to Receive All ThreeDr. Kevin Brown, professor of English,was selected the 2012 recipientof Lee University’s Excellence in Teachingaward. The award is considered the mostprestigious of the three honors presented to Leefaculty each year: Teaching, Scholarship, and Advising. Brown isthe first person to receive all three of these awards.Nominated from the faculty at large, they are selected by a committeeof six representatives, three professors, and three seniors fromdifferent academic departments.Brown’s poetry and scholarly articles have appeared in numerousjournals. His essays on teaching and education have appearedin such publications as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Academe,and The Teaching Professor, among others. His first full-length collectionof poetry, Exit Lines, was published in 2009 by Plain ViewPress, and a chapbook, Abecedarium, was published by FinishingLine Press last month.Brown serves as the sponsor for Lee’s English Honor Society,Sigma Tau Delta, where at the 2011 Sigma Tau Delta InternationalConvention, Brown received the Outstanding Sponsor awardfor the Southern Region.Brown received a doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in English from theUniversity of Mississippi with a dissertation on Mark Twain’s influenceon Kurt Vonnegut. He also has a master’s degree in Englishfrom East Tennessee State University, a master’s degree in libraryscience from the University of Alabama, and a bachelor’s degreefrom Milligan College.Stephenson Chosenfor Excellence inScholarshipDr. Lisa Stephenson, associateprofessor of systematictheology, is the 2012 Excellencein Scholarship Award recipient.Since coming to Lee in the fallof 2007, Stephenson has taught introductory coursesin Christian theology, as well as upper level theologycourses for department majors and graduate seminars.In 2010, Stephenson and her husband, Dr. ChristopherStephenson, led a study abroad trip to Cambridgefor a semester.She has presented several papers at various conferences,as well as published articles in the ScottishJournal of Theology, Journal of Church and States, Religions,and Pax Pneuma.Stephenson received a doctorate degree (Ph.D.) fromMarquette University in religious studies. Her dissertation,titled, “It Seems Good to the Holy Spirit and toUs: A Feminist Pneumatological Approach to the Roleof Women in the Church,” was accepted for publicationin Brill’s Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies. Itwas published in 2011 titled, Dismantling the Dualismsfor American Pentecostal Women in Ministry: A Feminist-Pneumatological Approach.Stephenson’s scholarly interests include theologicalanthropology, ecclesiology, political theology, andfeminist theology.10 T RCH T RCH | summer 2012 | www.leeuniversity.edu11