Four UAFS faculty recognized with cash awards

The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith has announced the names of four faculty members who received awards in recognition of their efforts in the classroom, in research and scholarship and in community service.

Recipients are Dr. Linda Tichenor of West Fork, the Lucille Speakman Master Teacher Award; Dr. Ragupathy Kannan of Fort Smith, the Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Award; Dr. Argie Nell Nichols of Roland, the Faculty Service Award, given in recognition of excellence to UAFS, to the profession and to the community; and Steven A. Coppinger of Fayetteville, the Luella M. Krehbiel Teaching Excellence Award for Adjunct Faculty.

Tichenor, associate professor of biological sciences, joined the UA Fort Smith faculty in 2002. In addition to teaching in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, she is a college science teaching specialist, by doctoral training, research and scholarly work.

Tichenor has been involved with Equestrian Bridges in Siloam Springs, a foundation which introduces children with autism to horses. She has also worked with the Black Stallion Literacy Project, which encourages children to read using the horse as a point of encouragement. She also volunteers in the Equine Program at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville during their fund-raising events. She has conducted summer workshops for area science teachers using the inquiry pedagogy. Tichenor is an active faculty participant in UA Fort Smith’s Cub Camp, the orientation event for first-time, full-time students, enabling her to engage students in fun, non-academic ways.

The Speakman Award is named for a longtime teacher, administrator and Board of Trustees member, the late Lucille Speakman. Recipients receive a $2,500 monetary award.

Kannan is a biology professor in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Since joining the UA Fort Smith faculty in 1994, he has won numerous awards and recognitions for his teaching and research, including a six-month stint in India in 2007 as a Fulbright Scholar and a teaching award at UAFS in 1999.

He has also been involved in obtaining several grants to fund student research projects at UA Fort Smith, was accepted by Cornell University for one of the volunteer search teams tracking the Ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas and has published numerous articles in national and international journals.

Kannan will receive $2,500 as recipient of the Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Award, which recognizes full-time faculty members for the results they have shown in the award areas.

Nichols, an associate professor in Computer-Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) in the College of Applied Science and Technology, came to UAFS in 1994. She was an instructor of CADD at Arkansas State University in Beebe, Ark., prior to coming to UAFS and also taught 13 years in middle and high schools at Fourche Valley, Ark., and Spiro, Okla.

Nichols was director of the UAFS AutoDesk Training Center and received numerous awards for the center during that time. She currently serves on the Executive Board for the professional group, the Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering.

Nichols is active in Partners in Education through the Fort Smith Public School System, with a main focus on the Meals for Kids backpack program. As a cancer survivor, she also actively supports numerous cancer awareness events in the community.

Nichols will receive a monetary award of $2,500 for receiving the Faculty Service Award.

Lt. Coppinger, who has taught criminal justice classes part time at UAFS since 2008, is a 16-year veteran of the Arkansas State Police and serves as commander of Company D in the Criminal Investigation Division. He has also served as a special agent in the Executive Protection Detail under former Governors Jim Guy Tucker and Mike Huckabee and in other key positions with the state police.

He was previously employed by the Fayetteville Police Department and as a police and fire dispatcher with the Fort Smith Police Department. He is a 1980 graduate of Van Buren High School and grew up in Kibler. He attended UAFS, then Westark Community College, from 1980 to 1983 and sees his teaching on campus as a “circle of life” — giving back from where he previously received.

Coppinger, with more than 3,000 hours of specialized law enforcement training, possesses a senior certificate from the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training (CLEST) and has been a certified law enforcement instructor since 1988. He regularly teaches during ASP recruit schools and also has numerous other awards and citations.

The Luella M. Krehbiel Teaching Excellence Award for Adjunct Faculty is named for Luella Krehbiel, who taught English and literature at the university from 1929 until 1958. Coppinger will receive a monetary award of $2,500.