Texas Tech Chancellor’s Council Announces Outstanding Teaching, Research Awards

Associate Professor of Marketing Robert "Bob" McDonald (center) receives the Chancellor's Council Distinguished Teaching Award. Pictured with McDonald are Texas Tech Provost William M. Marcy (left) and Chancellor Kent Hance (right).

Two faculty members from Texas Tech University received the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching and Research Awards.

The Distinguished Teaching Award went to Robert “Bob” McDonald, professor in the Rawls College of Business Administration. The Distinguished Research Award went to Stephen Graham Jones, professor of English at Texas Tech University.

This is the seventh year for the Chancellor’s Council to present the awards. The winners  received a plaque and a $10,000 cash award. The Chancellor’s Council raises funds for student scholarships, faculty recruitment and support, and other programs.

McDonald, an associate professor of marketing, has been with Texas Tech since 2001. He teaches several classes including sales management and business-to-business marketing, where he consistently receives top marks on student evaluations. He received the Texas Tech President’s Teaching Award in 2005 and is this year’s winner of the Marketing Management Association’s Teaching Excellence Award. He also is a member of the executive council of the university’s Teaching Academy and served as a service learning faculty fellow mentor. He received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, his master’s degrees from the University of Houston and his doctorate from the University of Connecticut.

Jones, who joined the university in 2001, is an associate professor of creative writing in the Department of English. He has published four novels, with a fifth due next year. He also has published one collection of short stories and more than 80 short stories in prominent literary journals. Jones has received the Independent Bookseller's Award for Multicultural Fiction, the Texas Institute of Letters Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction, a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature and a Texas Writers League Fellowship in fiction. He has twice received a second-place award in the Texas Tech President's Book Award Competition. He has also been a finalist for the International Horror Guild Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Texas Writers League Violet Crown Award. Jones earned his bachelor's degree from Texas Tech, his master's from the University of North Texas and his doctorate from Florida State University.

Two faculty members at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center also receive awards. The Distinguished Teaching Award went to Jon A. Weidanz, and the Distinguished Research Award went to Thomas Thekkumkara, both in the Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy.