The College of Humanities is full of passionate and talented instructors. This year, six faculty and staff from the College were honored with university awards for all they’ve done to support student learning, further research in their respective fields, and promote the goals of the College.
Heather Hammond
President’s Appreciation Award: This award recognizes staff and administrative personnel for exceptional service, creativity, and competence.
Heather Hammond is the embodiment of a proactive employee, consistently anticipating challenges on the horizon. She routinely navigates scheduling demands resulting from thousands of new university admissions and approaches scheduling with faculty and students with uppermost concern. Her respect for all extends into creating a welcoming work culture.
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Brian R. Roberts
Karl G. Maeser Research and Creative Arts Award: This award honors faculty members for outstanding research and creative accomplishments and is made possible by the generosity of the Karl G. Maeser Scholarship Society.
Brian R. Roberts (English) specializes in US literary and cultural studies. He has published two scholarly monographs and two coedited collections with some of the finest presses in the fields of American literature and cultural theory. These books focus on Black transnationalism and US cultural geography. Roberts’s work has also appeared in prestigious journal.
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Wendy Baker-Smemoe
Wesley P. Lloyd for distinction in Graduate Education: This award pays tribute to faculty members of exemplary performance in teaching, research/creative work, and citizenship in graduate education.
Wendy Baker-Smemoe (Linguistics) has established a remarkable record of distinguished teaching and mentoring of graduate students. In addition to develop important graduate courses, she has served on more than 85 thesis or dissertation committees. She loves to help her students become effective researchers and has coauthored publications with many of them.
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Kathryn L. Isaak
Adjunct Faculty Excellence Award: This award recognizes the contributions of part-time faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in teaching or in other professional responsibilities over a period of at least five years.
Kathryn L. Isaak (Comparative Arts & Letters) has taught GE humanities and writing courses at BYU for more than two decades. She has helped revise a course textbook, create an online course, and redesign another. Isaak directs the annual German Adventsingen program. She is deeply committed to creating inclusive places of learning and is known for her genuine care for her students.
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Elliot D. Wise
Early Career Teaching Award: This award encourages and acknowledges outstanding promise and contributions in teaching by faculty at an early stage in their careers.
Elliot D. Wise (Comparative Arts & Letters) is a master teacher in the field of art history. His enthusiasm for the subject matter and his innovative teaching profoundly inspires, motivates, and engages students in their learning and research. Wise consistently shows Christian kindness and charity, and his daily life is a constant demonstration of his testimony—something students regularly express gratitude for.
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Devin N. Asay
Devin N. Asay develops language learning software and custom tutorial and testing software for a number of languages. He teaches courses on the fundamentals of software development and programming to students across university using a rapid application development environment called LiveCode, for which he also created a free interactive learning application.