Recipients from left are: Carol A. Reeves, Larry Foley and Amy Apon
Since 1961, the Arkansas Alumni Association has proudly recognized the exemplary achievements of University of Arkansas faculty through the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards amongst three categories of accomplishment: teaching, research/creative activity, and public service. This year’s recipients will be honored at Homecoming this fall:
Named the recipient for Teaching, Carol A. Reeves, is Associate Professor of Management in the Walton College of Business. She is lauded as an exceptional individual who has accumulated an impressive record in teaching while dramatically enhancing the entrepreneurial spirit of students. Nationally recognized for entrepreneurship training and innovative teaching, Reeves founded the S.A.K.E. program (Students Acquiring Knowledge through Enterprise) which is a not-for-profit organization operated by a select group of students within the Walton College of Business. The business offers students first-hand knowledge of business enterprise operations and is a part of the management curriculum. Reeves is also well known for the development of business plans through the entrepreneurship course in which students have participated in business competitions landing them with numerous regional and national awards. Most recently, the “Tears for Life” team (a student run medical diagnostic-equipment company) placed or won in five competitions, earning the team members more than $85,000. This student-run company is a medical diagnostic-equipment company that is licensing technology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Its screening test uses proteins found in tears to detect breast cancer.
Professor of journalism and 1976 University of Arkansas alumnus, Larry Foley has been named the recipient for Research/Creativity. Foley’s contributions to the field of documentary video are widely known and his work is highly regarded. A three-time Emmy award winner, Foley has been a member of the Lemke Department of Journalism faculty for 17 years coming to the university from AETN. He has developed a body of work that includes 20 documentaries, which have received more than 40 national, regional, academic and professional awards. Many of his works have been selected for national distribution by the Public Broadcasting System. Though he is nationally renowned for his work, his most significant contribution has been to the State of Arkansas—in telling stories through images and sound of its natural, cultural and historical heritage. Included in his works are the Emmy award-winning documentaries: the 2008 documentary film “The Buffalo Flows” about the first ‘national’ river; the 2007 “Beacon of Hope,” a first-ever documentary film that chronicles the history of the state’s flagship institution of higher learning; and the 2006 documentary “Charles Banks Wilson: Portrait of an American Artist” on the life of 88-year-old artist and the people he has known and painted.
Professor Amy Apon of Computer Science and Computer Engineering is receiving the award for Service. She also serves as director of Arkansas High Performance Computing Center. Apon led the effort to bring a high profile team of experts in high performance computing to the State of Arkansas and coordinate this advisory committee visit with state academic and business leaders. After presenting the recommendations of this committee to the governor and other advisory councils and committees, the Arkansas Cyberinfrastructure Initiative was funded through the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority in May 2008. Dr. Apon led initiatives for cyberinfrastructure for the state of Arkansas, which resulted in two bills being passed by the Arkansas General Assembly in support of these initiatives. The supercomputer resources have been instrumental for the study of computing policies and software architectures. Besides providing a service to the university as a leader in this industry, Apon also provides extensive professional service to many professional organizations including the coalition for Academic Scientific Computation, Association for Computing machinery, and SIGMETRICS.
