NRM's Warren Conway receives Texas Tech Professing Excellence Award
By: Norman Martin
A nationally-known water bird and wetland ecology expert with Texas Tech University's Department of Natural Resources Management has been selected to receive a Professing Excellence Award from the Tech's University Student Housing office. Warren Conway, the Bricker Endowed Chair in Wildlife Management, was presented the honor in a special ceremony on Wednesday (Mar. 29) in the Matador Room of Tech's Student Union Building in Lubbock.
Each year, the housing office provides students living in the residence halls at Tech the opportunity to nominate outstanding instructors for their dedication and commitment to student learning. From the nominations, a committee of students selected 10 individuals to receive the award. This year, Conway's nomination came from Adriel Herrera, a senior from El Paso.
Program officials note that in addition to demonstrated exceptional educational skills, the award recognizes outstanding faculty who go above and beyond, both inside and outside the classroom, to impact their students' learning and academic success.
In the classroom, the Rhode Island native, and two-time Texas Tech alum ('97 M.S. & '01 Ph.D.), is known for encouraging student-led dialogue and challenges undergraduate students to engage in both the topical materials within the classroom, but in professional development opportunities outside the classroom. Developing a personal rapport in class, and having an open-door policy is fundamental to his undergraduate mentoring approach that includes co-advising the student clubs and teaching a field-based wildlife techniques class in Junction.
"For wildlife management and other natural resources students, it's critical to provide experiential learning opportunities by integrating undergraduate and graduate students into research collaborations," he said.
Over the years Conway's research has focused on migratory connectivity of snowy plovers; mule deer and pronghorn survival and habitat selection; urban mesocarnivore community ecology; elk response to prescribed fire and thinning; wintering waterfowl ecology and response to moist-soil management; and wildlife disease and toxicology of populations of bighorn sheep, axis deer, and American woodcock.
Previous winners of the Professing Excellence Award from Tech's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources include Scott Burris (2013), an associate professor and interim chairman of Tech's Department of Agricultural Education and Communications.
Prior to joining the Tech faculty in 2014, Conway worked as a professor of wildlife management at Stephen F. Austin State University's Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Prior to that he worked as a site operations manager at the Museum of Texas Tech University-Lubbock Lake Landmark, and served as a post-doctoral instructor and graduate teaching assistant with what was known at the time as Tech's Department of Range, Wildlife and Fisheries Management.
He received his bachelor's degree in wildlife biology and management from the University of Rhode Island. His master's and doctorate degrees in wildlife science are from Texas Tech. He is a past president of the Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society, and remains involved in several professional organizations.
CONTACT: Mark Wallace, Chairman, Department of Natural Resources Management, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2841 or mark.wallace@ttu.edu
0419NM17 / PHOTO: Adriel Herrera (pictured sixth from left) and Warren Conway (far right)
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