(Posted May 3, 2006)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Three Juniata College faculty members were honored Tuesday, May 2, with distinguished teaching and service awards during the College's Spring Awards Convocation in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts. Honored for their work were Jack Barlow, professor of politics; Judy Katz, associate professor of English; and Lynn Cockett; assistant professor of communication.

The convocation was held in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts.

Barlow , a Huntingdon, Pa. resident, was honored with the 17th annual Beachley Award for Distinguished Academic Service, and Katz, a State College resident, was named the 39th recipient of the Beachley Award for Distinguished Teaching. Cockett, a Huntingdon resident, received the Henry and Joan Gibbel Award for Distinguished Teaching by a faculty member with fewer than six years of service.

The Beachley Awards were established by the late Donovan R. Beachley, Sr., a 1921 graduate of Juniata; the late Mrs. Grace Rinehart Beachley; Donovan R. Beachley, Jr., a member of the class of 1947 and an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees; and Mrs. Mary Ellen Beachley, all of Hagerstown, Md. Additional support for the awards is provided by Donovan R. Beachley Jr. and David C. Beachley, a 1977 Juniata graduate and current president of the Beachley Furniture Co. of Hagerstown, Md.

The Beachley Award for Distinguished Teaching provides a $5,000 stipend to a professor who contributes to the development of the nominee's department and the college as a whole. Teaching effectiveness, scholarly activities, service beyond the campus, and length of service to the college also play roles in the process.

The Beachley Award for Distinguished Academic Service also provides a $5,000 stipend. The award is made to a professor showing outstanding service to students through advising, counseling or development of student-related activities, and outstanding service to the college through curriculum or department development, committee activities, or collegewide activities.

The Henry and Joan Gibbel Award for Distinguished Teaching recognizes excellence in teaching among faculty members who have been at Juniata College for fewer than six years. The recipient receives with the honor a $2,500 stipend. The award is sponsored by Henry H. Gibbel, president and chief executive officer of Lititz Mutual Insurance Company and chairman of the Juniata College Board of Trustees, and his wife, Joan.

Nominations for the awards are received from students, faculty, administrative personnel, alumni and trustees. The college president, the provost, the student government president, and the three most recent recipients of the award make the final selections.

The last three Distinguished Teaching Award recipients were Jack Troy, associate professor of art (2005); Peter Goldstein, professor of English (2004); and Henry Thurston-Griswold, professor of Spanish (2003). The first academic service award was presented in 1989 to the late Mary Ruth Linton, professor emerita of music. Last year's recipient was James Lakso, provost at Juniata. The recipient of the 2005 Gibbel Award for Distinguished Performance was Jay Hosler, assistant professor of biology.

As he introduced Professor Barlow, Juniata President Thomas R. Kepple said "Jack Barlow is literally a role model for all college faculty. He is a superb teacher, a caring adviser and a diligent steward for Juniata's high academic standard. He is active in the community and has revitalized our pre-law program. No one has better helped our students excel in national competition and no one is prouder of our students' achievements than Jack."

Barlow joined the Juniata faculty in as an assistant professor in 1991 from a long stint at the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution where, as associate director for higher education programs and staff historian, he worked closely with the late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Warren Burger. Barlow started at the commission in 1986, after earning his doctoral degree in government from the Claremont Graduate School in 1984. He also earned a master's degree in 1981 from Claremont. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Carleton College in 1976.

Barlow, currently chair of the politics department, was promoted to associate professor in 1997 and to full professor in 2001. He received the college's Junior Faculty Award for Excellence in teaching in 1995. Barlow also was named a Fulbright Lecturer at the Brno University of Technology and Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic during the 1998-1999 academic year.

He has taught a variety of politics courses, including courses on constitutional law, American political thought, the U.S. Constitution and international law. He has been the college's prelaw adviser since 1991. His academic interests center on political philosophy and he is currently working on an annotated volume of the writings of colonial patriot Gouverneur Morris. He also has edited three books commemorating the bicentennial of the U.S, Constitution and has published a number of academic articles in various journals, including papers on Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. He also has worked for the Center for Civic Education and helped write their textbook "We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution."

He has served on a variety of committees at the College is is an active member of the American Political Science Association.
The 2005 recipient of the Beachley Award for Distinguished Teaching, Judy Katz
came to Juniata in 1988 and was appointed to the full-time faculty in 1991. She has been instrumental in acting as an advocate at the college for women's programs. She created the college's first "Women in Literature" course, and in 1994 established Unlock Your Voice, a program of readings from women's literature. This celebrated program, along with Lift Ev'ry Voice," a program centering on readings from African-American literature, are among the most popular public programs at the college.

Katz earned a bachelor's degree in English from the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1966 and earned master's and doctoral degrees in English from Penn State in 1968 and 1972, respectively. Katz began her academic career teaching freshman English at Penn State Altoona from 1971 to 1980.

Katz also took a break from her academic career in 1982, working at the Centre County Women's Resource Center, a social service agency dedicated to counseling women who are the victims of violence or sexual assault. She returned to teaching at Juniata in 1988.

She is a member of the Modern Language Association and the National Council of teachers of English. She also has edited, books, catalogues and newsletters. In the early 1980s, she served as a press secretary and speechwriter to a U.S Congressional candidate.

She was promoted to associate professor in 1997. She teaches such courses as World Literatures, Women in Literature, The Contemporary Novel and College Writing Seminar. In 1994 she taught at Humberside University in Hull, England as part of a faculty exchange program.

She is active in her State College community, remaining active with the Centre County Women's Resource Center ,ad serving as a member of the executive committee of the Centre County Chapter of PFLAG.

"Judy is a tireless teacher whose activism for women's literature and African-American literature has energized the campus and helped the college become a more diverse academic community," Kepple said.

Lynn Cockett. this year's recipient of the Gibbel Award for Distinguished Performance, came to Juniata in 2001 after working as an assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies at Rutgers University. She is a specialist in group communication, particularly in the workplace. She teaches a variety of communication courses, including the department's research methods course.

Cockett earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1989 from Messiah College. She went on to earn a master's degree in library science in 1993 from Rutgers and earned a doctoral degree in communication in 2000 from Rutgers.

Her research has been published in such journals as Knowledge Quest and Library Trends and she has written chapters in a variety of books centering on young adult literature and library science. Her main area of research focuses on how professional work practices relate to issues of identity.

Before arriving at Juniata, she worked as an assistant professor at Rutgers and worked as an instructor in the communication department from 199 to 2000. Cocket has served on a variety of professional and academic committees and served as a member of the board of directors for the Children's Literature Council of Pennsylvania and served as the group's president in 1998. She is a member of the Huntingdon County Library board of trustees.

She is a member of the International Communication Association and the national Communication Association.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.