Joe Gibbons has been selected as the recipient of the St. Clair County Community College (SC4) Distinguished Faculty Award for 2022. Gibbons has been a professor of chemistry at SC4 for 31 years.
For Gibbons, staying focused on his students and their needs is essential. He is proud of their accomplishments and stays in contact with numerous former students, now calling many of them friends. “It has been a privilege to accompany them on their journeys,” Gibbons says.
In addition to a full-time teaching schedule, Gibbons has served the College in a variety of other ways.
He has taken a leadership role as a department chair several times, currently serving as department chair of SC4’s Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Division (STEM). In this position, he brings a thoughtful, historical and forward-thinking perspective to STEM departments and disciplines.
Gibbons also has been at the forefront of assessment at SC4 throughout his 31 years of service, leading committees and taking on significant projects to ensure that the information extracted from assessment data is meaningful and leads to improvements for SC4 students.
Also nominated this year for the SC4 Distinguished Faculty Award were Sandra Geliske in radiologic technology, Brandis Hubbard in biology, and Katy McCullough in nursing.
The Professional Development Committee annually coordinates nominations of faculty by their faculty peers for the Distinguished Faculty Award (DFA). As a member of NISOD, SC4 award nominees and winner also are submitted for the NISOD Excellence Award.
The winner is awarded a Golden Apple and also receives a $1,000 stipend to use toward professional development. NISOD provides medals to all of the nominees and a plaque for the winner.
