Seven Broward College professors learned they were recipients of an Endowed Teaching Chair award for the 2021-2022 academic year during a special faculty meeting on Friday, April 16.

The recipients were recognized for their excellence in the classroom and will receive a one-year grant of $13,500 divided equally ($6,750) to support professional development and projects to improve classroom excellence and efficiency, and $6,750 for an honorarium to be used at the recipient’s discretion.

The Endowed Teaching Chair awards were launched in 1989 in celebration of the College’s 30th anniversary in recognition of faculty’s outstanding efforts in the classroom. With the support of philanthropic individuals, businesses, foundations, and city organizations, 36 Endowed Teaching Chairs have been been awarded.

2021-2022 Endowed Teaching Chair Award Recipients: 

Professor Ruth Lazard-Germain received the R. Irene Craney Fischley ETC. Lazard-Germain, a native of New Jersey, has been an instructor at Broward College for eight years. She teaches at the school of Nursing. She is passionate about family, wellness and shaping our future nursing leaders.

Throughout her life, Irene Fischley had been involved in activities focused on helping young people. Her involvement with Broward College began through her contributions to Health Sciences Education programs. When she met students who had benefitted from her support, she said, “I realized it was important for these students to know someone cared about their futures and was there to help them.” When she learned about our Endowed Teaching Chair program, she decided to establish an award for the Health Sciences, saying if professors wanted to do research or further their own education through this funding and then pass their knowledge on to their students, she will have felt the program is successful.

 

 

Professor Mariah Reed received the Gaddis Corporation ETC. Reed is a tenured professor at Broward College who is also a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Radio and Television Artists and the Actors Equity Association. When not teaching acting or directing at Broward College, Reed spends her time writing plays or performing in television and film projects.

When the late Fort Lauderdale businessman Jesse Gaddis heard about the Endowed Teaching Chair program, he decided to become a participant because a large number of his employees had attended or were attending classes here. He felt it was an appropriate way to give back to the community. He liked that we both educate young people who are just beginning their education journey AND that we provide training for those already in the workforce, who go back to college to upgrade their skills.

 

 

Professor Oyinka Coakley was awarded the Bank of America II ETC. Coakley is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant with more than 20 years of experience in public and private accounting. She has been a faculty member at Broward College for 14 years and was previously awarded the William D. Horvitz Endowed Teaching Chair in 2014. She is an entrepreneur as the owner of SuiteOne event venue and an advocate for teens with her nonprofit organization My Future My Choice Inc.

This chair started off as one of two established by NationsBank, and the name was changed when that organization was acquired by Bank of America. The leadership of NationsBank recognized that education is a critical factor in ensuring a bright future for our children and our communities, for our businesses and for our nation. As a national company with a community spirit, they believed it had the power to make a difference in the communities it served.

 

 

Professor Pezhman Jatala received the Bank of America I ETC. Jatala grew up in Lima, Peru and fell in love with movies early on from watching them on Betamax tapes. He went on to study film at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts, and later at Florida State University, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts. After several years of working in the film and television industry in Los Angeles and Miami, he found his true path in teaching filmmaking at Miami International University of Art and Design, Miami Dade College, and now at Broward College, where he launched the Film Production Technology program and currently serves as its program manager since 2014.

This ETC started off as the Barnett Bank of Broward County ETC, and the name was changed when that organization was acquired by Bank of America. Richard Anderson, CEO of Barnett Bank, said his company believed education was the foundation that builds tomorrow’s leaders and enhances the growth of life in a community. Through this support, Anderson believed the quality of education offered through the college would continue to strength and grow.

 

Dr. Joanne Kampiziones-Ying was awarded the Cleveland Clinic ETC. Dr. Kampiziones-Ying has taught at Broward College since 2009, and she performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, including numerous performances and lecture recitals at universities both in the states and abroad. She is an Associate Professor of Music at Broward College’s North Campus, where she remains active in bringing performing arts to the campus and serving as a member of the College Assessment Team, a position she has held since it first started at Broward College more than ten years ago. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Miami and received her master’s and undergraduate degrees from the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Carl C. Gill, chief executive officer of Cleveland Clinic Florida at the time the chair was established, felt the college was a vital educational component in our community because it provided a large majority of Broward County’s healthcare professional. He believed their gift would promote education and be a factor in the growth of both the clinic and the college. Dr. Gill’s hope was that the Endowed Teaching Chair would help attract the very best faculty and encourage them to pursue research endeavors.

 

Professor David Hennessy was awarded the Children’s Opportunity Group ETC. Hennessy earned his Bachelor of Arts and his Master of Arts in English at the University of Miami and a graduate certificate in Community College Education at the University of Central Florida. After teaching at the high school level in Miami-Dade county, he joined Broward College in 2001, serving in the English department at Central Campus. He specializes in the use of online and blended technologies in order to help make a quality college education accessible to all learners.

Children’s Opportunity Group has been involved in civic activity since 1949, when this women’s organization was founded to support Broward County’s Foster Children program. Their first association with Broward College was in 1989, when they established a scholarship. With their focal point being the welfare and enrichment of young people, they felt our Endowed Teaching Chair Program was a natural tie-in for them. Children’s Opportunity Group was the first women’s civic organization to endow a teaching chair at Broward College.

 

Dr. Rajendra Shakya was awarded the Margaret and Cato Roach ETC. Dr. Shakya is a faculty of chemistry at Broward College South Campus. He completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2007 from Wayne State University and joined Broward College the fall of 2012. Since then, he has striven to develop his students’ learning abilities, problem solving skills, and critical thinking capacity in general and organic chemistry

Margaret Roach began a 24-year career as an administrator in the Broward County public school system in 1963. She was appointed to the college’s board of trustees by Governor Reuben Askew in 1974 and served until 1990. She was also a director of the foundation. Cato Roach was assistant principal at Dillard High School, school principal for Walker Elementary, and served as coordinator and director of special programs for Broward County schools. He was also a teacher and a coach. This ETC was established with the money Margaret was awarded as recipient of the 1991 Sun-Sentinel Publisher’s Award, a perfect example of the lifelong dedication she and her husband exhibited toward providing educational opportunities for others.

We are grateful to Dr. Maria Bernal and Dr. Behnoush Memari, who served as co-chairs on the College Endowed Teaching Chair Selection Committee, and to Broward College Foundation Board of Directors member Ann Porterfield, who chaired the Community Endowed Teaching Chair Selection Committee, members of which were John Bochak, JoAnn Cremata, Tom Schon, David Verlen, and Barbara Wells.