Dr. Karen Anderson-Lain was recently announced as the 2018 UNT Foundation Outstanding Lecturer Award recipient. The UNT Foundation Outstanding Lecturer Award recognizes a full-time lecturer who has made significant and sustained contributions to the University as evidenced by the quality of their teaching and service. This award is the university's highest honor for full-time lecturers.

"She has established a well-deserved reputation for teaching as well as for her service to the university, particularly with regard to instructional initiatives," Communication Studies professor Dr. Jay Allison said of Dr. Anderson-Lain's commitment. "Her presence and her engagement have made a difference in the quality of pedagogy in our institution."

Dr. Karen Anderson-Lain recieves the UNT Foundation Outstanding Lecturer Award check from Michael McPherson, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Success and Mike Mlinac, President of the UNT Foundation.

Dr. Anderson-Lain is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies, where she serves as the Basic Course Director for Communications 1010 and teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate classes.

Since beginning with the Communication Studies Department in 2004, she has received several accolades for her work, to include the Outstanding Teaching Award from the CommunicationOrganization of Graduate Students (2010/ 2012) and a national recognition from the National Communication Association where she was honored as one of six Teacher on Teaching Honorees.

"I believe that goal of higher education should be to provide students a safe and supportive place to discover their own agency in their lives so that they may become productive and thoughtful members of society," Dr. Anderson-Lain said of her teaching experience. "I engage in a problem-posing education that challenges my students to consider various perspectives and question the assumptions of their beliefs--my goal is for my students to be able to articulate what they believe and why they hold those beliefs. I believe that the key to motivating students is to foster a collaborative learning environment within the classroom so that the students feel responsible to themselves and others in their learning process. Across all of my courses I focus on fostering critical thinking; group collaboration skills; and oral and written communication skills."

Dr. Anderson-Lain, who will be awarded a $5,000 cash prize for this honor, will be formally recognized at UNT's Salute to Excellence awards dinner during the Fall 2018 semester.

Please help us send our warmest congratulations to Dr. Anderson-Lain for all of her hard work and this outstanding accomplishment.