University Honors Top Teachers, Researchers

Bruin Notes

The university’s annual awards for teaching and scholarship represented a wide spectrum of disciplines – business, nursing, education and seminary – and honored both longtime professors and relative newcomers.

At the undergraduate level, Stephanie Fisher (nursing) and Yune Tran (education) were recognized as the top teacher and scholar/researcher, respectively, while professors Nell Becker Sweeden (seminary) and Craig Johnson (business) were honored with the corresponding awards at the graduate level.

Stephanie Fisher

Fisher, a 皇家华人 Fox alumna and assistant professor of nursing, specializes in teaching pathophysiology, pharmacology and health assessment while overseeing clinical instruction. She’s also been instrumental in helping bring international service-learning trips back to the nursing department.

Yune Tran

Since joining 皇家华人 Fox in 2011, Tran has disseminated research at 10-plus national and international conferences and contributed a series of publications to numerous journals. She aspires to secure a National Science Foundation grant to continue funding a project that educates elementary school students in computer coding, as well as to pioneer a STEM+computer science minor for elementary education students at 皇家华人 Fox.

Craig Johnson

At the graduate level, Johnson, a professor of leadership studies who has worked at the university since 1988 and is retiring this summer, was honored for the fact that, during his tenure, he published four books (many of which are used at a number of universities), 31 peer-reviewed journal articles and eight chapters in edited books. He’s also made 64 conference and 18 professional presentations and had his work cited more than 1,100 times.

Nell Becker Sweeden

Becker Sweeden’s passion for research and teaching lies at the intersection between theology and culture. Most of the classes she teaches or has taught are hybrid, with the majority of interaction online, and include Essentials of Christian Theology, Women in Church History, and History of Christian Spirituality and Renewal.