CITATION OF DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI
photo submitted
FACULTY DISTINGUISHED RISING TEACHING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dr. Douglas E. Spearot
Janie Simms Hipp ★ LLM’96
For Douglas Spearot the most rewarding part of teaching is when students feel confident enough in their understanding of a newly-learned engineering principle to ask a question about the real-world application. Joining the University of Arkansas faculty in 2005, Spearot’s research and teaching focuses on nanoscale structure-property relationships, molecular dynamics, phase-field simulations, interface behavior, and dislocations and defects in materials. He was awarded the 2010 National Science Foundation CAREER Award to explain the nanoscale mechanisms associated with phase selection during vapor deposition and the 2007 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award to study plasticity in nanostructured materials. Spearot believes a great teacher understands that his role extends beyond the lecture, including advising and mentoring to challenge top students to pursue opportunities in research or internships in the industry or at national laboratories. Similarly, great teachers make time to work with eager but lower-performing students to forge a path for them to improve their understanding of the course material. He employs three philosophies in his teaching: he brings a genuine enthusiasm to the classroom for both the course material and the academic process, he attempts to integrate the foundational engineering material that his students learn in class with real-world example of how those engineering principles are applied and he teaches within a defined structure. The Michigan native hopes his students see him as a role model and respect the effort he puts toward their education.
Janie Simms Hipp’s career path was influenced by her childhood in Idabel, Oklahoma, where agriculture dominated the rural economy. With both sides of her family involved in agriculture and education, it was a natural fit for her career to focus on rural people and places, farming, ranching and education. She obtained a juris doctor from Oklahoma City University in 1984. Then, in the late 1980s, she began working in food and agricultural law, spending eight years as a commercial litigator. She spent four years within the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office as the agricultural and rural legal affairs advisor, launching state-level initiatives and providing assistance to the Oklahoma and national food and agriculture sector to stem the tide of farm foreclosures during that time. Her early legal career focused on a blend of commercial issues, banking and mortgage foreclosure issues. She soon realized she needed to attend the new agriculture law program at the University of Arkansas to obtain specialized knowledge. Later, she served as the director of the Risk Management Education Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the national program leader for risk management education, farm financial management and trade adjustment assistance for the USDA. She was the senior adviser for tribal relations to Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hipp is the founder of the USDA’s Office of Tribal Relations in the Office of the Secretary and served two terms on the USDA Secretary’s Advisory Committee for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. In January 2013, Hipp returned to the U of A as the director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative and a visiting law professor.
Associate Professor and 21st Century Professorship Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
42
Director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative Visiting Professor, University of Arkansas School of Law
ARKANSAS • Winter 2014