Hart Recognized for Teaching Excellence, Named Foundation Professor

Dr. Beverly Hart has earned Eastern Kentucky University’s highest honor for teaching excellence.

Hart, a professor in the Department of Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing, has received the 2012-14 EKU Foundation Professorship. The annual honor recognizes those who demonstrate outstanding abilities in the three primary roles of a faculty member: teaching, service and research. The professorship provides a salary supplement for two years.

“Dr. Hart exemplifies the high standards for quality instruction and academic excellence that this award honors,” EKU President Doug Whitlock said.

Hart, who joined the EKU faculty in 1989, has taught a variety of courses across the department and has served since 2001 as coordinator of the RN-to-BSN program. She has been instrumental in the expansion of the program at the University’s Corbin campus and, while based there, became the first EKU regional campus faculty member to gain tenure and full professor status. She also was a pioneer in the use of interactive television as a medium to expand educational opportunities and thereby enhance the quality of health care in rural Kentucky.

In addition to her service on numerous departmental, college and university committees, Hart has been active in her profession, serving in various capacities at the state and national level.

“Dr. Hart has served with enthusiasm, creativity, leadership and dedication to our students and programs,” said Dr. Deborah Whitehouse, interim dean of the College of Health Sciences. “Recognized by her colleagues for her expertise in emergency nursing and psychiatric mental health nursing, she is first and foremost a remarkable and gifted teacher. Dr. Hart draws on her clinical expertise to capture students’ interest and curiosity and to capitalize on the teachable moments when students learn so much. She … is able to present subject matter in a way that stimulates and challenges students to think, grow and mature academically and professionally.”

In addition to a baccalaureate degree in nursing from EKU, Hart earned a master’s degree in nursing from Bellarmine College and a doctoral degree in nursing from the University of Cincinnati.

All full-time tenured faculty members are eligible for the award. The selection is made by a committee composed of faculty, and the process provides for a high degree of peer review.

Fifty-three professors have been honored for teaching excellence by the EKU Foundation since the awards were first given in 1988.