DURHAM, N.C. - Four North Carolina Central University (NCCU) professors were honored for teaching excellence this spring. Veronica Chima Nwosu, associate professor in the Department of Biology, received the Board of Governors (BOG) Teaching Excellence Award. She received a cash award of $7,500 and a bronze medallion.

"Being the recipient of this prestigious award for teaching excellence in the UNC system is a very great honor,” said Nwosu. “It validates my love of teaching. It also reflects recognition of my teaching ability by my students and peers. My faculty position has given me the cherished opportunity to teach, do research, and serve both the NCCU community and the public at large. It is an opportunity to influence the minds and future of our students so that they, in turn, will make positive contributions to our world.”

In the Department of Biology, Nwosu combines inspired teaching, dedicated service and committed research. She demonstrates impressive scholarly productivity, including numerous publications, presentations, and participation in a variety of workshops and seminars in her discipline. Nwosu is the principal investigator of the Extramural Associate Research Development Award Program (EARDA), funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), designed to help support faculty research in the sciences at NCCU. She is also the principal investigator of a Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) SCORE grant.

Nwosu’s administrative service to North Carolina Central University includes serving as interim chair of the Department of Biology from 2004-2005, as past director of the Biology Graduate Program, and as a member of numerous university and departmental committees and advisory boards.

Nwosu received her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences form the University of Illinois, Chicago. She holds a master’s and doctorate degrees in microbiology from Roosevelt and Wayne State Universities, respectively.

NCCU awarded three professors its Awards for Teaching Excellence: Dr. Jim C. Harper, II, an assistant professor in the Department of History where he teaches African, African American, and United States history; Dr. Sylvia Jacobs, a professor of African history in the Department of History; and Dr. Patricia Wigfall, a full professor in the Department of Public Administration. Each received a plaque and a check for $2,500.

"It is an honor and privilege to receive the North Carolina Central University Excellence in Teaching Award because it is one symbolic way to uplift the motto of the university as I serve in truth and service and prepare students academically and professionally to enter the global workforce," said Harper, an alumnus of NCCU.

Along with his teaching and advising, Harper serves as an advisor to the C.A. Jones History Club, the NCCU Student Think Tank, and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

His primary area of research is African history, and Harper has presented his scholarship at a variety of national and international academic conferences. He has just published his first book, Western-Educated Elites in Kenya, 1900-1963: The African American Factor.

Harper earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from NCC, and his Ph.D. in African history from Howard University in 2004.

Having taught at Historically Black Colleges and Universities for over 30 years, Jacobs is passionate about her teaching saying, “I want students to be able to use what they learn and translate it into preparation for life.”

As an active scholar, Jacobs publishes regularly in the field of African and African American history. In addition to over three dozen articles and essays, Jacobs’ publications include The African Nexus: Black American Perspectives on the European Partitioning of Africa, 1880-1920 and Black Americans and the Missionary Movement in Africa.

Jacobs’ exemplary service to NCCU includes serving as past chair of the Department of History; chair of the department’s curriculum committee; director of the Undergraduate Program in History; and advisor to the C.A. Jones History Club and the John Hope Franklin Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Jacobs received her bachelor’s degree and master’s in business administration from Wayne State University and her doctorate in African history from Howard University.

Always seeking ways to involve her students, Wigfall has presented papers with them and co-developed and co-taught the course that laid the groundwork for a peer-directed student educational campaign against smoking resulting in the initiative for smoke-free dormitories at NCCU.

“I feel honored to have received one the NCCU teaching awards for 2005-2006,” said Wigfall. “I believe effective teaching is a continuous learning process that involves the sharing of ideas and feedback among instructor, students, and colleagues. I thank my peers and both former and current students for their contributions to this process. The incorporation of their perspectives in my research and teaching agendas is critical to the on-going effort to be a better and more effective instructor and communicator in both the classroom and in experiential teaching settings. I sincerely appreciate the support of the NCCU campus community and the broader academic community in helping me to help others go on to teach - - as academicians, practitioners, and as well-informed citizens.”

She has served as principal investigator or co-investigator for several grant awards that have centered on policy training and skill development of NCCU students.

Her service to the university has included membership on the Graduate Council, faculty representative for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship, vice chair of the Faculty Senate, chair of the university Grievance Committee, chair of the Shepard House Restoration Committee, and Graduate Student Association advisor.

Wigfall has a master of arts in labor and industrial relations with specialization in organizational theory from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received a doctorate in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a focus on public administration and public policy.