Smolensky Named Carl Sandburg College Faculty Member of the Year
Aaron Frey
Friday, May 17, 2019 10:16 AM
Campus News
Galesburg, IL
Marjorie Smolensky has been named the 2019 Carl Sandburg College Faculty Member of the Year after students and fellow faculty members nominated her for her outstanding work in the classroom. Smolensky was introduced as the winner during the 51st Carl Sandburg College Commencement on Thursday night at Galesburg High School.
Smolensky has been as associate professor of biology at Sandburg for more than 15 years, teaching courses such as biochemistry, cell biology, anatomy & physiology, microbiology and vertebrate zoology.
Smolensky was an adjunct instructor at Sandburg for several years before becoming a full-time faculty member in 2002. Prior to that, she taught at Kean College, Augustana College, Monmouth College and Knox College. Smolensky earned her Bachelor of Science from Kean and a Master of Science from Rutgers University. Her first job out of graduate school was doing research as an electron microscopist at the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
While at Sandburg, Smolensky has chaired the Faculty Council and served on the Tenure Committee and Technology Committee. She currently serves on the Outcomes and Assessment Committee.
Smolensky won a 2015 Innovation of the Year award from the League for Innovation in the Community College for her use of apps and smartboards to display 3D and 4D animations of the human anatomy for instruction. She also was named a 2019 winner of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Excellence Award, but Smolensky considers her greatest achievement the successes of those she has taught.
“She is always there for her students,” one nomination for Smolensky read, “even if they’re no longer her students.”
Carl Sandburg College Faculty Member of the Year Recipients
2019 — Marjorie Smolensky
2018 — James Hutchings
2017 — Christina Stone
2016 — Kylie Price
2015 — Michael Crandell
2014 — Lara Roemer
2013 — Dia McKillip
2012 — Shanon Dickerson
2011 — David Kellogg
2010 — Vickie Culbertson
2009 — Lisa Walker
2008 — Dave Burns
2007 — Keith Williams
2006 — Linda Lee
2005 — Wendel Hunigan
2004 — James Craig Sanford
2003 — Carol Petersen
2002 — Larry Schroeder
2001 — Dave Wujek
2000 — Norm Burdick
1999 — Michael Crandell
1998 — Cathy White
1997 — Julie Gibb
1996 — Jack Daddona
1995 — Carlene Woodside
1994 — Marilou Schisler
1993 — Cynthia Thompson
1992 — Janet LaDage
1991 — Carol Eiten
1990 — Jim MacDonald
1989 — Jim Graham
1988 — Jim Graham
1987 — Judy Helm
1986 — Gen Yaw
1985 — Jim Graham