MACON/ATLANTA — Two Mercer University faculty members were among 12 educators from across the state selected to participate in the prestigious Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program this summer. Donald Ekong, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School of Engineering, and John Summerville, R.N., M.N., an assistant professor in the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, were selected to participate in the program’s intensive summer symposium.
“These appointments are a great credit to these accomplished faculty members and to the University,” said Horace Fleming, university provost.
The elite program was established in 1995 by then Gov. Zell Miller to provide Georgia’s higher education faculty with expanded opportunities for developing important teaching skills, particularly those addressing how to use emerging technologies in the classroom. As Fellows, Ekong and Summerville will attend a two-week symposium on the University of Georgia campus. The symposium includes a combination of structured instructional and faculty development activities and independent study on the part of each participant.
Faculty members from colleges and universities throughout the state apply to become one of the 12 Fellows chosen for the highly competitive program. It is unusual for more than one professor from a university to be selected for the program.
Some of the criteria for selection in the program include: excellence in teaching, interest in continuing to improve instruction, ability to have an impact on the home campus and the strong commitment of the home institution to the faculty member’s participation.
About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University has 7,300 students; 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies; major campuses in Macon and Atlanta; four regional academic centers across the state; a university press; two teaching hospitals — Memorial Health University Medical Center and the Medical Center of Central Georgia; educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta; an engineering research center in Warner Robins; a performing arts center in Macon; and a NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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