Cincinnati State honors two faculty members for teaching excellence

May 25, 2011

Cincinnati State Technical and Community College has presented faculty members David Killen and Robert Eveslage with its 2011 House/Bruckmann Awards for teaching excellence.

The House-Bruckmann Awards are given annually on the basis of nominations and secret ballots by Cincinnati State faculty members. They are named after Clifford House, the first president of Cincinnati Technical College, and Alice Bruckmann, a member of the College’s first board of trustees.

In presenting the awards during a recent ceremony, President O’dell M. Owens said the awards reflect the work of a faculty that is quickly changing the perception of Cincinnati State. “We’re not your grandfather’s community college. We’re not your perception of a community college any longer,’’ Dr. Owens said. “It’s because of great faculty like you.’’

Both award winners are veteran instructors at Cincinnati State.

• Eveslage, a Springfield Township resident, earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati and a graduate degree from Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis. He came to Cincinnati State in 1979 to teach in the Respiratory Therapy program. In 1986 he moved to the Biology Department in response to increasing demand, and in 1988 became chairman of the department. In 1994, when the Biology Department moved into the then-new Health Professions Building, it had four full-time faculty and about 1,200 students. Today it numbers nine full-time faculty and two lab techs who help serve more than 4,000 students.
  
  “He is insightful, and has very high standards,’’ said Dr. Marianne Krismer, Dean of the Health and Public Safety Division at Cincinnati State. At the same time, she said, Eveslage is resourceful. “If it needs to be done, he figures out a way,’’ she said. “He makes it happen.’’
   
• Killen – a Fort Thomas, Ky. resident who studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., and holds a bachelor’s degree from Wilmington College ¬– started at Cincinnati State as an adjunct after 12 years as an audio engineer, broadcast producer and editor. He is now chair of the College’s Audio-Video Production program, which has seen its enrollment increase by more than 30 percent in the past two years. He also remains active in the industry.
  
  Doug Bowling, Associate Dean at Cincinnati State’s Center for Innovative Technologies, said Killen has assembled a team that has made the College’s Audio-Video Production program one of the most respected of its kind in the country. “He has that great gift of presenting complex technical terms in words that everyone can understand,’’ said Bowling, who added that Killen is consistently praised by one of the most diverse groups of students in the College.
   

In addition to a monetary award, House/Bruckmann winners will be honored at the next meeting of the Cincinnati State Board of Trustees and featured during commencement ceremonies next month.