Dr. Ada Leung
assistant professor of marketing, 308.865.8621
Dr. Ron Tuttle, University of Nebraska at Kearney industrial technology professor, has been named College Educator of the Year by the AIM Institute.
Dr. Tuttle received the award at the InfoTech conference, held at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha earlier this month. More than 900 people were in attendance.
According to Dr. Tim Obermier, UNK industrial technology chair, the College Educator of the Year award is presented to a postsecondary educator who has risen to the top of the profession as an outstanding technology educator/administrator, a dynamic colleague and as a caring mentor to the students. The educator may be a full-time, part-time or adjunct faculty member, teaching courses in any of the information technology areas. He/she keeps current and technically competent, demonstrates involvement in business and industry, is technically effective and motivational in the classroom, and is helpful to students outside of class as a counselor and mentor.
Dr. Obermier noted that Dr. Tuttle was instrumental in the development of the original telecommunications management degree on the campus in the 1980s.
“He attended numerous professional events, assisted in gathering information about the structure of the program and hired the first individual who taught in the program,” Dr. Obermier said. “This was accomplished during his tenure as chair of the Department of Industrial Technology.
“Among Dr. Ron Tuttle’s most significant attributes are his personable nature, desire to serve and ability to stay current with networking issues,” Dr. Obermier said. “He has a unique ability to take countless hours of studying essential networking content and turn that information into a logically sequenced, understandable curriculum for students.
“Only a finely developed educator can master the art of taking new information, and presenting it in a sequence along with real-work examples to help students understand the art and science of networking,” he said. “I believe Dr. Tuttle’s largest contribution is the restructuring of the curriculum in 1997. This propelled the program into the digital data world and in many ways, was ahead of the curve compared to other programs.
“Over the years, his service to the program has been instrumental in preparing more than 250 students who have graduated from the program,” Dr. Obermier said. “This is a substantial impact upon the information technology industry in the state of Nebraska.”
Dr. Tuttle has been a member of the AIM Institute for almost 10 years. The institute is a not-for-profit membership organization, which is designed to empower communities, organizations and individuals through information technology. The organization collaborates with business leaders, educators and government officials to help citizens in Nebraska, and the surrounding region, develop the skills needed in an information economy and to prosper through the application of information technology.
