Two Butler Community College Professors Receive National Teaching Award

Two Butler Community College professors are being honored for their exemplary work in teaching at the community college level.  A specially cast pewter medallion will be given to each John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards recipient at the Innovations Conference in March in San Francisco.

Each year, Butler faculty and staff nominate one adjunct and one full-time professor for this prestigious award. Robert Wilson and Kristy Zieman, this year’s winners, have a passion for teaching. Each of them wants to help students learn.

Wilson is known to improvise and adopt different strategies for each class. As an adjunct professor of computer information technology, his enthusiasm in the classroom helps students feel important.

“I shouldn’t, but I do take it very personally when someone drops out or does not do well in my class,” Wilson said. “We change lives and I love doing it.”

Zieman teaches microbiology and anatomy & physiology. She became interested in biology after learning of genetic syndromes and has remained passionate in both her research and her teaching.  Zieman grew up in Benton, where she still resides, and came to Butler for her first two years of college. Passing her enthusiasm and passion for biology onto her students is this researcher’s top priority.

Last semester, Zieman taught anatomy & physiology to a football player. Each day after class he came to her for half an hour for tutoring.

“His efforts definitely showed,” Zieman said. “I was very proud of him and what he had accomplished. This class changed his career path.”

After taking Zieman’s class and learning about muscles and bones, the student realized his passion and decided to look into kinesiology.

The League for Innovation in the Community College is an international nonprofit organization that was founded in 1968 and has a mission to cultivate innovation in the community college environment.  In 2012, the League established the John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards. This award celebrates faculty and staff who exemplify exceptional teaching and leadership.