in his class. No question was too big to tackle because Matt encouraged us to ask and answer the difficult but important questions.” Students seem to emulate Professor Martinson’s enthusiastic and creative approach to teaching and learning and leverage that enthusiasm to produce work that is both creative and of high quality. Those student comments are confirmed by Professor Martinson’s SEOIs. While an admittedly imperfect metric of teaching, Professor Martinson’s SEOIs give insight into the consistency of his teaching excellence and provide important student perspective. Professor Martinson’s quantitative scores were uniformly extremely high. The student comments reinforce the high quality of Professor Martinson’s teaching. One student wrote: “This class had a lot of vital information pertaining to writing. It was a great resource for learning how to write at a college level. It was also a great atmosphere in the classroom, the students and the teacher made for a fun class that was still productive. I would love to take more classes like this!” Comments like these illustrate that in addition to creating classroom environments that are fun and exciting, Professor Martinson is able to also create rigorous classes and assignments that succeed in effectively teaching his students. Professor Martinson has also found time to pursue a research agenda and publish book reviews regularly and has presented at SOURCE. He has been active in writing grants for course development. For his manifold contributions to his students, he was awarded the GNAC Faculty Mentor Award in 2024. Many students spoke of the confidence and support that Professor Martinson extended to them throughout their educational experience. Several found that support especially helpful during trying personal times. Students reported Professor Martinson’s passion for teaching being a crucial anchor that kept them grounded during the online learning of the COVID-19 pandemic. That confidence has been a sustaining force for students since leaving Professor Martinson’s classroom and Central Washington University – several of his former students are now teachers, librarians, professors, and writing center directors. All of them write fondly of their time with Professor Martinson as being a seminal moment in their professional careers and personal lives. There can be no greater achievement as a teacher – that his students learned much while in his classes and have used what they have learned to go and lead happy and successful lives. Professor Martinson’s commitment to teaching is impressive. He is a faculty member in the highest tradition. The committee commends his accomplishment and recommends him for this year’s Distinguished Non-Tenure Track Faculty Teaching Award. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes endeavors that contribute to the welfare of individuals, professional organizations, university groups, the community at large, or the university. The following is this year’s recipient: Dr. Eliatamby-O’Brien, Distinguished Faculty Service Award, Department of English. Dr. Eliatamby-O’Brien, an Associate Professor in the Department of English, joined the CWU faculty in 2017. In their time here, they have taught classes specializing in Global and Transnational Literature. Since 2019, Dr. Eliatamby-O’Brien has served on the Steering Committee for Africana and Black Studies, and since 2020 as the Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Eliatamby-O’Brien’s service at CWU is a continuation of their work at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, and the National University of Singapore.
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