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To recognize and celebrate faculty efforts and excellence in teaching, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) hosted the Celebration of Teaching on Wednesday, May 11th. This was a time for faculty to showcase the innovative and interesting assignments, activities, and/or approaches they have been using in their classrooms. Poster presentations were judged by a panel of external reviewers and the top two winners received $1,000 towards their professional development and the Teaching Innovation certificate. The winner’s at this event were Dr. Michael Slavkin and Dr. Lorie Hacker.

Dr. Lorie Hacker has been a nurse for over 21 years working in a variety of nursing positions such as emergency, geriatrics and palliative care. Much of this time she has been affiliated with Franciscan Health. She has been a nurse educator for 17 years working with pre-licensure and post-licensure nursing students and is a certified nurse educator from the NLN.  Dr. Hacker’s winning poster is titled Death Cafe' Fire Pit Experience: Nursing Students Engage the Community & Talk about Death & Dying. Her poster was about The Death Cafe', an international movement with the purpose of increasing awareness of death with a view of helping people make the most of their finite lives. Students were invited to the Oriental Garden fire pit on All Soul's Day for a time of memorial and candid conversation and the death and dying process. S’mores and snacks, and a warm fire created a relaxed environment for these students to engage in having a conversation about death. The activity is culminated with a Death Cafe' reflective written assignment. 

Dr. Michael Slavkin, Ph.D., NCC, LMHC is the director of the Master of Science in Counseling program and assistant professor at Â鶹ֱ²¥. He earned his doctorate in counseling and educational psychology from Indiana University–Bloomington, as well as a master’s degree in counselor education and research from Saint Louis University. His Bachelor of Arts in Psychology is from DePauw University. He is a licensed mental health counselor in the State of Indiana, a licensed practicing counselor in the State of Missouri, and a nationally certified school counselor through the National Board of Certified Counselors. Dr. Slavkin’s winning poster presentation is titled Connecting Community and Curriculum - Engagement Is the Answer. His poster was about how community engagement transformed curriculum into relevant and meaningful learning experiences as students put into practice objectives aligned with state and national school counseling practices. .