WSU Vancouver capped the 2020/21 academic year with three awards for faculty excellence and one for student achievement.
Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence—Dave Kim, professor of mechanical engineering
The mission of land-grant universities such as WSU Vancouver is to advance student knowledge and opportunities while also supporting the local community. Dave Kim has made that mission his own. His record demonstrates a commitment to collaboration and mentorship while advancing and applying new research.
Kim’s work has not only fostered scientific innovation but also strengthened science education. His technical research on aerospace materials has influenced the broader community through collaboration with regional industries, such as Boeing and Fatigue Technology. His efforts to improve student writing in engineering education has helped faculty learn strategies for improving lab report writing in undergraduate laboratory courses.
Kim’s technical research has impacted regional industries and been recognized internationally. For example, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s final assembly draws on carbon composite/titanium hybrid materials and techniques in his research, and fatigue simulation technologies developed from his research group have fostered a new engineering service. His research in engineering education has influenced engineering laboratory instructions for multiple engineering schools nationwide. It has also influenced the first-year writing program in English, shown how students can transfer knowledge about writing conventions from one context to another, and demonstrated how experts in STEM and the humanities can work together to develop innovative approaches to student learning.
Since joining WSU Vancouver in 2003, Kim has brought in nearly $2 million in research funding from federal and state agencies, industries and nonprofit organizations. He has published 68 papers in prestigious journals and prepared 70 refereed conference papers. His work resulted in best paper awards from the International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering in 2016, and the American Society of Engineering Annual Conference in 2019. As head of the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Lab in the School of Engineering and Computer Science, he strives to build a tradition of research excellence that will improve society into the future. Graduate students he has mentored have gone on to positions in highly competitive companies, such as Boeing, Intel and Microsoft.
Kim completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea, and his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Equity—Katherine Rodela, associate professor of educational leadership
Future teacher leaders who pursue graduate and certificate programs in educational leadership through WSU Vancouver’s College of Education get to know Katherine Rodela well. She teaches courses on leadership for social justice; race, identity and representation; and seminars on school administration, social justice and community engagement. “In all my work, I seek justice and equity for all people, but particularly students and families who face systemic inequities and unjust treatment in our schools, particularly students of color, immigrants and families living in poverty,” she said.
A faculty member at WSU Vancouver since 2014, she has become highly influential in nurturing a climate of justice and understanding to create a learning environment where all students can feel like they belong. Her equity-mindedness extends beyond the campus, as she strives to ensure K-12 students throughout the state receive fair and equal treatment and opportunities to excel.
At WSU Vancouver, Rodela has served as faculty advisor for the Collegiate League of United Latin American Citizens since 2015 and has mentored students in the group. She leads workshops in the university’s professional development program, Building a Community of Equity, and is a faculty affiliate of the Collective for Social and Environmental Justice. She is dedicated to ensuring her courses are accessible, using universal design in teaching. She mentors both faculty members and students of color and is accessible to students.
Rodela is a third-generation Mexican American and first-generation college student. Her background has instilled not only a deep understanding of the issues but also a commitment to advancing educational equity and culturally responsive education for marginalized communities.
In her Ph.D. dissertation at Stanford University, Rodela worked with Latina immigrant mothers to learn how they navigated U.S. early childhood education and became advocates for their children. She co-founded the Southwest Washington Latino Parent Leadership Institute with community leader Diana Avalos Leos, which offers parent education and leadership workshops to Spanish-speaking parents. Her numerous publications and conference presentations have explored such topics as activism for social justice in politically divisive times; dilemmas of Whiteness and representation in educational leadership; and negotiating racism and deficit ideologies facing Latinx families in parent education.
Rodela earned her bachelor’s degree at Seattle University. She has been a Fulbright Scholar in Peru and taught Spanish and service learning in a high school in Oregon before going on to Stanford to earn her Ph.D.
Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence—Dene Grigar, director and professor, Creative Media and Digital Culture
There’s a reason why WSU Vancouver’s Creative Media and Digital Culture program has grown exponentially since it was founded in 1997: Dene Grigar, its director. Since she arrived on campus in 2006, the program has grown from 44 to 232 majors and serves 600 WSU Vancouver students each semester. Mindful of the competitive nature of the work environment her students will face when they graduate, Grigar is exacting in her demands and rigorous about deadlines. And she is tireless in creating opportunities for them to do good work and get that work recognized.
The result: CMDC has become one of the signature programs on the Vancouver campus and has been adopted by the Pullman and Tri-Cities campuses as well. Ninety percent of CMDC graduates find jobs in their chosen field.
Blending the disciplines of the humanities, communications and technology, the CMDC program teaches students to think critically about digital media and the ways people interact and engage with them. This approach has attracted a wealth of collaborators from the local community and beyond who have engaged the CMDC to develop real-world digital projects. For example, CMDC created a website for the Northwest Food and Wine Society, marketing materials for the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency, and, most recently, a virtual museum/library/preservation space for an international arts organization.
One student nominator observed, “Dr. Grigar’s compassion and the attention she gives to all is boundless: She holds mock interviews with individual students, hunts for jobs to offer them, has bought professional clothes for students who couldn’t afford them and makes sure students have food and housing.” Nominators praised Grigar’s ability to pivot seamlessly to online learning in 2020 and to build a powerful sense of community and caring even though students couldn’t meet face-to-face.
Grigar teaches classes in digital curation and preservation, digital storytelling, multimedia design and project management. She also directs two labs at the CMDC—the Electronic Literature Lab and the MOVE Lab. From 2013 to 2019, she was president of the international Electronic Literature Organization, which is housed on the WSU Vancouver campus. She also writes articles and books, curates exhibitions, and conducts research on born-digital literature and electronic art.
Grigar earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has also studied digital media around the world.
Chancellor’s Award for Student Achievement—Rebecca Daniel, B.S. computer science
For students, the past year has been anything but typical. The pandemic has meant online classes and a lack of the usual opportunity for the teamwork and interaction that can help build enthusiasm and lead to success.
Under the circumstances, computer science and engineering student Rebecca Daniel considers herself lucky. The professors in her department are technically inclined, and the students are used to being on computers all the time for their highly demanding program.
Daniel created her own opportunities to learn and help other students while maintaining her presence on the President’s Honor Roll. Her teachers consider her a role model for female students in STEM and for future female leaders.
For example, as the campus Wi-Fi system was being upgraded over the last two years, Daniel stepped in. She assisted in upgrading the campus print server and enhanced the current printer installation website. She also stepped in when a popular tutoring service for computer science students was discontinued for budgetary reasons. Daniel proposed to set up a new, free tutoring service with student volunteers. She took it upon herself to persuade several juniors and seniors to serve as tutors, then worked with faculty to coordinate the volunteer-based service, with no cost to the School of Engineering and Computer Science. The service was so useful that it attracted the attention of other majors that were then able to form their own tutoring services.
Daniel has also served as vice president and president of the WSU Vancouver chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery for Women. Over the years, she helped organize and lead skills and networking events, including Intel Tech Talks, a four-week program focusing on current work in artificial intelligence and game design.
The ACM-W club enabled Daniel to develop another skill as well. “I forced myself to go to networking events,” she said. “It was terrifying. But it forced me to get out of my shell and learn how to speak to people on a professional level. That was a huge thing for me.”
Daniel moved to Washington a decade ago after growing up in Utah and Florida. She plans to stay in this area after graduation and find a job related to information security.