2018 Usibelli Award winners announced

May 2, 2018

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has announced the 2018 Usibelli Award winners. The Usbelli Distinguished Teaching Award will go to Patty Meritt, a professor of early childhood education. The Distinguished Research Award will be presented to Mat Wooller, director of the Alaska Stable Isotope Facility. Charlie Dexter, professor emeritus of applied business, will receive the Distinguished Service Award. The three will be honored at a reception for faculty on Monday, May 7 and at the annual Blue and Gold Gala in February 2019.

In 1997, Patty Meritt began teaching and coordinating the early childhood education program at the Tanana Valley Community College, a predecessor of what is now UAF's Community and Technical College. Before that she was an adjunct instructor for about 15 years, and became a full professor in 2006.

Meritt has been instrumental in expanding the type and scope of education-related offerings at the university, including teaching more than 350 classes and community workshops, adapting to changing technologies such as online teaching, and helping develop a bachelor's degree in child development and family studies. In addition to her work in teaching and curriculum development, Meritt was praised by the students who nominated her for her individualized approach to each student's needs.

One student, a non-native English speaker with three young children, wrote in her nomination letter that she was concerned about going to school full time. Meritt, however, told her she could be successful. "I ended that academic year with placement on Chancellor's Honors List, and I cannot imagine being on one without her continued encouragement and support."

Meritt earned a bachelor's degree in child development from California State University, Chico, and a master's in teaching from UAF.

Mat Wooller's research interests include applications of isotopic analyses to study wildlife migration; past environmental change in Alaska; and the food web ecology in the Arctic. Wooller has been successful in security research grants, including one in 2016 from the National Science Foundation for a mass spectrometer to analyze isotopes of heavy elements such as strontium. Such analysis can yield crucial information about the life history of animals. The mass spectrometer is one of only about two dozen of its type in the U.S., and the one housed at UAF's Alaska Stable Isotope Facility is the only one in Alaska.

Wooller's efforts to include undergraduate and graduate students in his work was noted by colleague Michael Castellini in his nomination letter. Wooller, he wrote, "is not only an extremely productive and innovative research scientist, but also focuses on how to develop and train new students in the field. He excels in teaching research methods to students and from my view, this is perhaps the most important task we have as scientists/teachers at UAF."

Wooller earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Worcester University, a Master of Science degree from Bangor University and doctoral degree from Swansea University.

Charlie Dexter won the service award for his multifaceted collaborations between business and education. Readers of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner know him from his long-running business-oriented column on personal and professional development. Dexter, who was granted emeritus status from UAF in 2012, has taught business and accounting classes at UAF since 1985, and was awarded the Usibelli Distinguished Teaching Award in 2001.

For this year's service award, Dexter was lauded for his community involvement, including public speaking roles at a variety of events, which several nomination letters noted he always accepts. In addition to his regular business column, he has served on a number of business and nonprofit boards, and has helped area businesses develop their customer-service departments. He also helped develop a dual-enrollment program to allow high school students to earn an associate of arts degree, then worked to raise money to help offset students' costs.

Dexter holds a bachelor's degree and an MBA from UAF.

The Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching, Research and Service Awards are among the university’s most prestigious awards. They are funded annually from a $600,000 endowment established by Usibelli Coal Mine in 1992.

Each year, a committee that includes members from the faculty, the student body and the UA Foundation board evaluates the nominees. Each winner receives a cash award of $10,000.