Jody
Clay-Warner
Assistant Professor of Sociology
By Phil Williams
 |
Jody Clay-Warner |
The department of sociology at UGA has always taken great
pride in teaching, but few, even in a department full of highly
honored professors, have achieved as much in undergraduate
instruction as Jody Clay-Warner. For her, going the extra
mile goes without saying.
An assistant professor here since 1998, Clay-Warner has already
made her mark on undergraduate teaching, winning both a Special
Sandy Beaver Teaching Award and an Excellence in Undergraduate
Research Mentoring Award.
“Students who write about her show that high evaluations
are quite compatible with being a demanding instructor,”
says her department head, William Finlay. “It would
be difficult to find a more complimentary set of student comments.”
Indeed, students routinely give rave reviews to Clay-Warner’s
classes.
“Dr. Clay-Warner is fantastic,” writes one student.
“She’s brilliant, kind, dynamic, stimulating and
passionate.”
Another student writes, “She is a wonderfully animated,
intelligent, articulate and caring professor.”
While teaching classes such as criminology, sociology of gender,
and research methods, she also carries on a respected research
program that focuses on, among other things, violence against
women.
Clay-Warner earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communication
from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a
master’s in psychology from Georgia State University.
She was awarded a doctorate in sociology from Emory University.
Her own teaching philosophy lies at the heart of her accomplishments.
“I approach teaching and research as complementary endeavors,”
she writes. “In doing so, I hope that students leave
my class as competent consumers of research, able to think
critically about any research study they may encounter, whether
on CNN or in a textbook.”
Whatever her goals, her students just know they love being
in her classes.
“Dr. Jody Clay-Warner is one of the best professors
that I have had at this university,” a student writes.
“We are lucky and privileged to have her here.”
Marisa Anne Pagnattaro
Assistant Professor of Legal
Studies
By Jim Kvicala
 |
| Marisa Anne Pagnattaro |
When Marisa Pagnattaro told her undergraduate adviser she
would be going to law school after graduation, her adviser
told Pagnattaro it would be a big mistake.
“She said, ‘You really should be a teacher,’
” Pagnattaro recalls. “She was ultimately right.”
It took five years of working at a big corporate law office,
however, for her to realize she didn’t want to be
a corporate attorney. Few understood when she decided to
go back to school for her Ph.D. in English instead of staying
on the track to a partnership in the law firm. “I
didn’t have a passion for it,” she says. “I
felt used by clients who didn’t want justice—they
just wanted to win.”
Pagnattaro quickly found she had finally made the right
career choice when she first began teaching as a doctoral
student. “Teaching is something I really enjoy,”
she says. “It’s something I really love doing.”
Pagnattaro began her career at the Terry College of Business
as a Terry Teaching Fellow in 2000 and joined the faculty
as an assistant professor in legal studies in 2002.
In addition to conducting her academic research and writing,
Pagnattaro does a lot of preparation for her classes. “I
try to make everything practical by relating it to current
events as opposed to abstract legal principles. I want to
give them a sense of application,” she says.
She also emphasizes writing assignments for her students—not
surprising, given her doctorate in English, yet no small
feat when one considers that most of her classes contain
80 students or more. “Dr. Pagnattaro’s commitment
to the students’ full educational experience is evident
in the writing requirement despite substantial commitment
on her part,” wrote one of her Terry colleagues.
That commitment extends beyond instruction alone. As a mentor
and adviser, Pagnattaro has been unstinting with her time,
guidance and support. “She listens.
She inspires me. She encourages me to go after my dreams,”
says one Honors student.
In short, the reluctant lawyer is a success as a teacher,
just as her undergraduate adviser foresaw. A veteran faculty
member and past Russell honoree concludes: “I have
worked with the best professors on campus. . . . Dr. Pagnattaro
belongs to that selective list. She is a model professor.”
Denise Mewborn
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Education
By Kristen Heflin
 |
Denise Mewborn |
For Denise Mewborn, teaching is more than a career, it
is a passion and a privilege.
In the classroom, she fosters mutual respect by treating
her students as colleagues and demonstrates the characteristics
of a role model and a friend.
Now in her ninth year in the mathematics education department
in the College of Education, Mewborn has published more
than 30 articles and chapters on her teaching and research
in the fields of mathematics education, teacher education
and educational leadership. She has received several awards
for teaching excellence in the college.
Improving the methods and skills of future mathematics teachers
has been a career-long quest for Mewborn. In 2000, the prestigious
Spencer Foundation awarded Mewborn a $250,000 grant for
her five-year project, “Learning to Teach Elementary
Mathematics.”
“Denise’s work truly exemplifies what it means
to engage in the scholarship of teaching,” says Jeremy
Kilpatrick, Regents Professor of Mathematics Education.
To instill confidence and a love of mathematics in her students,
Mewborn provides opportunities for students to make sense
of her lessons by working with children. In one class, university
students go to Barrow Elementary School weekly to work one-on-one
with children in mathematics.
This type of hands-on approach consistently yields positive
feedback in student evaluations. One student says, “I
came into this class not liking math and actually being
afraid to teach it. Dr. Mewborn changed that in me. I am
now confident in my ability to teach mathematics and I am
excited about it.”
Mewborn’s teaching style inspires students to look
at mathematics in new ways, to make the subject more exciting
for both teacher and student.
Erica Rapp, a former student of Mewborn’s and now
a primary school teacher in Oconee County, wrote: “She
has helped me to grow in tremendous ways as a teacher, and
I will never be able to thank her enough for that.”
• 2004
Josiah Meigs Award for Excellence in Teaching
•
Regents Award for Exellence in Teaching
•
Research Awards
