Denny C. Davis, professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering and director of the Engineering Education Research Center (EERC), earned the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Leadership. Four WSU faculty members have been named recipients of the annual 2010–11 Sahlin awards. The awards were presented at WSU’s annual Showcase celebration of excellence on March 25, 2011.
Professor Davis is recognized as a leader in engineering education at the local, national and international levels because of educational innovations and scholarship he has catalyzed through the EERC. He has provided vital leadership for instructional innovations leading to a nationally recognized interdisciplinary engineering entrepreneurship senior projects experience at WSU.
Davis’ servant-leadership has had numerous impacts. He has mentored faculty locally and nationally to become successful in engineering education scholarship. His mentoring has yielded a diverse, well funded cadre of engineering education scholars at WSU and collaborators across the nation. He has traveled abroad as an expert in his field to introduce others to his innovations in engineering design education, and international scholars have visited WSU to personally explore the uniqueness of the programs developed by Davis.
He was a founding member of the President’s Teaching Academy, a group that was charged with helping to lead WSU’s educational process. With his contributions and leadership, the academy developed and implemented several programs and tools that have advanced WSU’s instructional mission.
