Faculty Awards Mary Theresa Hall, Ph.D. Distinguished Service Award
In addition to her excellent record of preparing students to effectively communicate their ideas in verbal and written form, Dr. Mary Theresa Hall is actively involved in preparing students for presentations at Sigma Tau Delta conferences, works with the English Club and promotes the liberal arts by helping to organize poetry readings and other events on campus. She is an adviser to many English majors and minors as well as students pursuing secondary education certification in English. She serves as a mentor for students preparing honors projects and is adviser to The Phoenix, Thiel’s literary journal. From 2005-2008, she served on the Scholarship and Awards Committee of Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honorary society; the Alpha Iota Kappa Chapter, for which she has served as advisor since 2000, received the Outstanding Chapter Award at the international conference in 2005, after being in existence for only five years. Hall joined the Thiel College faculty in 1999 as an associate professor of English and earned professor status in 2004. From 2008-2011, she served as Chair of the English department. She has served on numerous campus committees, including Academic Standing, Vira I. Heinz Scholarship, Enrollment Management, Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees, Institutional Planning and Budgeting (for which she served as co-chair), First-Year Experience, Secretary for faculty and Faculty Council meetings, Executive Committee and Faculty Council. She currently serves on the Promotion and Tenure Committee, the ACT 101 Advisory Board, the selection committee for the Distinguished Library Awards, Chair of the Faculty, and the Convocation Committee. Hall holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Seton Hill University, a master’s in English from Carnegie Mellon University and a doctorate in English from Duquesne University. She and her husband, the Rev. V. Donald Hall, live in Hermitage, Pa.
Jie Wu, Ph.D.
Distinguished Teacher Award Based on evaluations from students and peers in the past seven years, Dr. Wu is an excellent mathematics teacher. In addition to his expertise in teaching courses over a wide range of subjects and his passion to pursue teaching excellence at Thiel College, he is also a dedicated adviser to students majoring in actuarial studies and mathematics. He has devoted a considerable amount of time and effort in preparing students who are working on actuarial exams, shaping the actuarial studies program to assist students in reaching their full potential and providing students with advice and references in searching for jobs. Wu has shown dedication to helping students outside the classroom. He has served as a mentor preparing students on honors projects as well as providing international students with guidance and transportation. He continually works to improve the actuarial studies program by developing and revising courses in the major. He employs current technology into his curriculum. He also maintains his ongoing scholarly development by successfully passing four challenging actuarial exams. Wu joined the Thiel College faculty in 2007 as an assistant professor of mathematics and earned associate professor status in 2013. He has served on the Environmental Scanning and Campus Safety committees and is now an active member of the Academic Standing and Curriculum Studies committees. Wu received the “Excellence in Teaching” award from the Lambda Sigma Honor Society in 2008 and 2014. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematics from Central South University and a Master of Science degree in economics from Zhejiang University in China. He earned a doctorate in mathematics from Louisiana State University in 2006.