Magazine honors Cincinnati State faculty
December 11, 2008
Four Cincinnati State faculty members have been honored by Ohio Magazine for their classroom accomplishments.
The magazine’s December 2008 edition includes Crystal Bossard, MSW, Tom Burns, PhD, PE, Larry Feist, BSEE, and Debra Lierl, MEd, among the 145 recipients of its 2008 “Excellence in Education’’ awards.
The four Cincinnati State faculty members are among 145 educators across Ohio honored by the magazine. Those selected represented public and private two-year, four-year and specialized institutions, ranging in size from The Ohio State University to the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science.
The Cincinnati State honorees come from several disciplines:
• Bossard, a Madisonville resident, is program chair of the Early Childhood Care and Education program at Cincinnati State. The program has 300 registered students and hundreds more in the pipeline. Under Bossard’s leadership the program was approved by the Ohio Department of Education Office of Educator Preparation. Early Childhood Education students are now eligible for scholarship funding provided through the "Step Up to Quality" program, a state initiative, and through the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.
Bossard also leads one of the Ohio Board of Regents transfer agreement teams. She is a licensed social worker, a licensed certified dependency counselor and a disaster mental health worker. She has used her knowledge in these areas to build new certificates and courses at Cincinnati State.
• Burns, a resident of Cold Spring, Ky., is program chairman of civil engineering technology in the Center for Innovative Technologies. His responsibilities include three majors and three certificate programs.
Dr. Burns is a licensed professional engineer and earned his Ph.D. from Indiana State University, specializing in construction management. He sits on the governing board of the American Council for Construction Education and has served as an external reviewer for construction programs in Texas, Florida, and New York. He has published three textbooks with a fourth, Applied Statics & Strength of Materials (2e), set for publication in January, 2009.
• Feist, a Delhi resident, is program chair for electro-mechanical engineering technology and industrial design technology in the Center of Innovative Technologies. He helped develop the first renewable energy major to win approval by the Ohio Board of Regents.
Feist also chairs the Energy Task Force Team for the city of Cincinnati’s Climate Initiative Program, helped develop an energy efficiency and renewable energy outreach program for primary and secondary schools, and serves as a board member for the Civic Garden Center.
• Lierl, a Finneytown resident, is program chair for emergency medical services technology and respiratory care in the Health and Safety Division at Cincinnati State. She also teaches First Year Experience classes, coordinates service learning for respiratory care and leads a number of training programs involving Cincinnati police and firefighters.
Lierl has served as president of the Ohio Society for Respiratory Care (2007) and has long been active in the American Association for Respiratory Care. Honors include 2000 AARC Educator of the Year and 2001 AARC Fellow.
Ohio Magazine is headquartered in Cleveland and distributed statewide.
Its “A for Effort’ story in the December issue includes a salute to innovative programs at various schools. Among them are scholarship initiatives at the University of Toledo, environmental efforts at Oberlin College (including a student-designed residential structure where thermostats are set no higher than 60 degrees in winter and showers are timed -- and tracked) and community service at Otterbein College.
