Blair named Faculty of the Year
Union University presented more than 70 awards to students, faculty and staff at the annual Awards Day chapel service. The Carla D. Sanderson Faculty of the Year Award went to Ashley Fitch Blair, assistant professor of communication arts.
Blair coordinates the Public Relations major and serves as the faculty advisor for the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter, faculty director of Bulldog Communication Group, and chair of the university’s Faculty Development Committee.
In her 15 years at Union Blair has spearheaded the chartering of Union’s Public Relation Student Society of America chapter (2005), helped guide the public relations major to CEPR certification through PRSA (2012), co-founded Bulldog Communication Group, a student lead public relations agency (2011), and co-hosted a PRSSA regional conference (2008).
This year, Blair took on the role of Adviser to the Cardinal & Cream, leading them through the transition to a completely online news source and the inaugural issues of the C&C Magazine, which was ranked the #1 college magazine in the Best of the South competition at the 2015 Southeast Journalism Conference in March.
Scott Heit, Union’s assistant vice president for university communications, was awarded with the Gary L. Carter Staff of the Year Award. In addition to his work with University Communications, Heit has also served as an adjunct instructor in Communication Arts, teaching the Publication Design course.
The Awards Day chapel, held May 1 in George M. Savage Memorial Chapel, commemorated seniors, students and professors that have shown academic excellence in their studies and teaching.
An academic excellence medal is given to one student from each academic discipline. In order for a student to be eligible for the academic excellence award, the student must have at least a 3.5 GPA in their major courses and must have earned a minimum of 15 hours in their major here at Union, Hopper said.
Communication Arts Academic Excellence Awards:
ADVERTISING: Evan Estes
BROADCAST JOURNALISM: Paigh Long
DIGITAL MEDIA STUDIES: Elizabeth Fletcher
JOURNALISM: Katherine Sue Burgess
MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS: Kathryn Feathers
PUBLIC RELATIONS: Jenaye White
THEATRE: Daniel Poore
The Kina S. Mallard Communication Arts Student of the Year Award was presented to Jenaye White, senior pubic relations major and managing editor of the Cardinal & Cream.
