CUA's Ernest Suarez Named D.C. Professor of the Year

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ernest Suarez, associate professor and chair of the English department at The Catholic University of America, has been named the 1999 District of Columbia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The award will be presented by John Convey, provost of the university, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25, as part of the third annual Lewis W. Britton Lecture and Readings at Caldwell Hall auditorium.

Suarez’s selection marks the seventh time in 11 years that Catholic University professors have won this honor, which recognizes excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Students have recognized his excellence in the classroom with several awards. The Undergraduate Student Government selected Suarez as the 1993-94 James E. Dornan Memorial Teacher of the Year. The student publication Symposia in 1996 named Suarez one of the university’s six "Best and Brightest" faculty members.

An innovative educator, Suarez has designed a number of new courses, and constantly seeks ways to bring the world of contemporary literature and culture into the classroom. When a group of students asked him to teach a course on Faulkner, Suarez responded with a senior course on the novelist.

Washington Post reporter Amy Joyce, a 1996 Catholic University graduate, wrote of Suarez: "He opened a world to me, helping me to become a clearer writer, a better thinker."

In 1999, Suarez won a Fulbright fellowship to teach American Southern literature at the University of Valladolid, Spain.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education in Washington, D.C., established the Professors of the Year program and works with the Carnegie Foundation, a policy center in Princeton, N.J., and other

higher education associations to announce professor of the year winners. This year, awards were made in 48 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Criteria for the award include: impact on and involvement with undergraduate students; scholarly approach to teaching; service to undergraduate education in the institution, community, and profession; and support from colleagues and current and former undergraduates.

Previous Catholic University recipients of the award are John White, professor of politics; Ernest Zampelli, associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Business and Economics; Diane Bunce, associate professor of chemistry; Joan Barth Urban, professor of politics; Monsignor Robert Paul Mohan, professor emeritus of philosophy; and Benedict DeCicco, professor of biology.

For more information, call Ernest Suarez at 202-319-5488, or Rosemary Harty, director of media relations, at 202-319-5600.

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Revised: January 19, 1999

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