President Dan Mahony also will recognize two faculty members with the Outstanding
Junior Professor Award: Assistant Professor Zachary Abernathy of the Department of
Mathematics and Assistant Professor Andrew Besmer of the Department of Computer Science
and Quantitative Methods. A third award will go to Associate Professor Lisa Harris of the College of Education
during the May 3 Graduate Commencement ceremony at Winthrop Coliseum. She will be
honored with the Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award. 
Janice Chism
Zach Abernathy
Andrew Besmer
Lisa Harris
ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — Winthrop University will honor a faculty member at its
May 5 Commencement who accomplished something no other faculty member has done. In
receiving the Distinguished Professor Award, the highest recognition for faculty members, Biology Professor Janice Chism will be the first to win all four faculty awards.
President Dan Mahony also will recognize two faculty members with the Outstanding Junior Professor Award: Assistant Professor Zachary Abernathy of the Department of Mathematics and Assistant Professor Andrew Besmer of the Department of Computer Science and Quantitative Methods.
Chism will receive the Distinguished Professor Award and Abernathy will receive his award at 10 a.m., May 5, at the Winthrop Coliseum during the ceremony for the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. A 3 p.m. Commencement, where Besmer will receive his award, will be held for those graduating from the Richard W. Riley College of Education and the College of Business Administration.
A third award will go to Associate Professor Lisa Harris of the College of Education during the May 3 Graduate Commencement ceremony at Winthrop
Coliseum. She will be honored with the Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award.
Read more about the honorees:
Distinguished Professor
Janice Chism is the 2018 Distinguished Professor and the recipient of three other awards: Outstanding
Junior Professor, Kinard Award for Excellence in Teaching and Jane LaRoche Graduate
Faculty Award.
A biology faculty member, Chism started work at Winthrop in 1989 as an instructor
of anthropology and biology before becoming an assistant professor in 1992, associate
professor in 1998 and professor in 2003. She also is the director of the biology graduate
program. She teaches a wide variety of courses in biology and biological anthropology
at the undergraduate and graduate level.
An active scholar, Chism spends her research time studying animal behavior in Africa,
the Caribbean and South America. She and her husband, biology faculty member Bill
Rogers, have led class expeditions to the Peruvian Amazon and the Galapagos Islands
in the past decade.
Outstanding Junior Professors
Zachary Abernathy and Andrew Besmer are the 2018 Outstanding Junior Professor recipients.
Abernathy, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, started work at Winthrop
as an adjunct instructor in 2011 and became an assistant professor in 2013. Administrators
describe him as an engaged and prolific scholar who fosters the love of mathematics
in all aspects of his work. He uses a process-oriented, guided-inquiry learning approach
to his courses that is touted as a national best practice for teaching STEM disciplines.
Abernathy's peers have recognized his achievements, resulting in two beginner teaching
awards, one regional and one national, in the past year.
Besmer teaches computer science and digital information design courses in a field that is
constantly changing. He joined the Winthrop faculty in 2013 and has developed content
for an introductory computer science course, shared it with eight colleagues who also
teach the course and has revised it at least twice. He played a pivotal role in developing
a capstone course for seniors in which they work on real client projects at the Technology
Incubator in Rock Hill.
He also organizes hack-a-thons, including the latest semester-long project involving
24 Winthrop students and six high school students funded with help from a $10,000
grant from Comporium.
Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award
Lisa Harris, an associate professor of curriculum and pedagogy in the College of Education, is
the 2018 Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award recipient.
She joined the Winthrop community in 1997 as a technology specialist. She soon became
an assistant professor in the Center for Pedagogy and director of the Instructional
Technology Center. She moved to the Department of Counseling, Leadership and Educational
Studies as an assistant professor in 2010 and was promoted to associate professor
in 2014.
As the Master of Arts in Teaching program director, Harris collaborates with faculty
in 11 program areas across three colleges. She has taken leadership roles in the graduate
program's redesign, recruitment of students to the M.A.T. program, and works closely
with academic advisors to ensure a smooth transition for those moving from undergraduate
to graduate programs.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at 803/323-2404 and longshawj@winthrop.edu.
