UWG News

UWG professor named Professor of the Year

November 22, 2005

CARROLLTON, GA - Dr. Julie Bartley, associate professor of geology at the University of West Georgia, has been awarded the 2005 Georgia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council of Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

The U.S. Professors of the Year program salutes the most outstanding instructors in the country and uses as a benchmark how the undergraduate professors influence the lives and careers of their students. Bartley was named the best professor out of 400 nominees. The esteemed recognition is one of the most prestigious awards honoring professors.

Governor Sonny Perdue said he admired Bartley’s accomplishments and dedication.

“Dr. Bartley has set a standard of excellence as one of Georgia’s finest professors and is well-deserving of this award,” said Governor Sonny Perdue. “I am proud of her commitment to enhancing her students’ learning environment inside the classroom, while also expanding the educational experience to the research field.”

Bartley’s teaching style is tough to top according to her colleagues and her students. Since 1998, she has supervised 24 undergraduate research projects in places as remote as the Ural Mountains in Russia and frozen tundra in artic Canada and as nearby as Buffalo Swamp in Carroll County. She believes research is a key to academic success for students.

“Independent research saves the C students,” said Bartley. “It gives them something to discover. It gives them their own project and their own responsibility. Independent research is when they really become geology students and are made to feel like professional researchers.”

UWG President Beheruz N. Sethna said undergraduate student research in the field and in the lab is an important part of the university experience at UWG.

“I am proud to be Dr. Bartley's colleague,” said Sethna. “She epitomizes the combination of teaching and scholarship excellence, and student orientation, for which the university is known. This is a high honor and, on behalf of the University of West Georgia, I congratulate her on her award. It was my honor and pleasure this morning to present her with a personal letter of commendation from Governor Sonny Perdue. I thank the governor for his support.”

Bartley’s approach to teaching is uncommon at most universities where field research is done by graduate students and faculty. Most of Bartley’s undergraduates have presented their work at local, regional and national meetings. Some have made lasting contributions to the study of geology. Others, like Alice Stagner, 28, made contributions and changed their career paths.

“I thought I hated science until I met the professor,” said Stagner, who intended to study law until she met Bartley. “I got really jazzed about ancient rock formations and pre-Cambrian geology. She never teaches a textbook course in the classroom. She challenges you to think and develop a faith in your own observation, which is important to a young scientist. It’s a historical science. That’s what I love about it.”

Before Stagner graduated in 2004 with a BS in geology, she accompanied Bartley to Mauritania, West Africa, to complete six weeks of research in the Sahara Desert. Stagner plans on pursuing her doctorate in paleo-climatology.

NASA, the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society are frequent financial sponsors to Bartley’s field work. Local businesses and governments have used Bartley’s expertise and her students to monitor water quality in Carroll and Heard Counties and the city of Villa Rica.

As a scientist, research is not only important, but also essential to Bartley. “I have made undergraduate research a very high priority in my own professional development agenda,” said Bartley. “This university prioritizes undergraduate research. When I write a grant proposal I always include a project for one of my students. So far, the funding agencies have seen this as a positive aspect.”

Bartley’s interaction with students doesn’t always happen at the university level. Meeting with science club members at a presentation at Carrollton Junior High School, judging a science fair at South Paulding Middle School, and presenting her fossil collections to third grade students at Dorsett Shoals and West Haralson Elementary Schools are all on Bartley’s agenda.

Dr. Thomas J. Hynes, vice president for academic affairs, nominated Bartley for the CASE award.

“Julie Bartley has special talents,” said Hynes. “She is driven, she is thoughtful, and she is committed. She helps students and colleagues alike take broader views on ways of knowing. I am proud to be able to call her colleague.”
Bartley, 38, graduated from Bryn Mawr College with an A.B. in chemistry and went on to earn a master’s degree in chemistry and a doctorate in geology at the University of California in Los Angeles.

She’s presented and published dozens of papers and articles and has received numerous honors including a Regent’s Distinguished Professor, a University Fellow at UCLA and a Dana Fellow at Bryn Mawr College.

Bartley said getting the Georgia Professor of the Year award confirms her philosophy of teaching.

“This has validated spending so much time and effort on these projects,” said Bartley. “This gives me encouragement that it is worthwhile to do the harder stuff. Research dollars can produce learning.”

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