FPA faculty win three 2012-2013 Achievement Awards

On behalf the Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic), we are pleased to announce that the following individuals were successful in their applications for the 2012-2013 Achievement Awards.

Teaching Achievement Awards

Simon Power, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Public Affairs
Project Title: The Undergraduate Econometrics Curriculum Revisited

Simon Power specialises in the teaching of econometrics- the specification, estimation, and testing of statistical models in economics. He will be revisiting the undergraduate econometrics curriculum at Carleton with a view to restructuring and re-visioning this critical component of our Honours Economics and Honours Applied Economics programs. This project is particularly timely due to the increasingly rapid development of the econometrics field with the concomitant requirement for ever-increasing levels of skill and understanding among our graduates, together with the associated problem of providing our students with appropriately sophisticated econometrics training at an early enough stage in their programs to facilitate the completion of state-of-the-art empirical projects in final-year capstone seminar courses.

Professional Achievement Award

Danette Nearing-Guibord, Instructor II, Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice

My teaching philosophy is quite simple, to engage students and to help them to link theory with practical experience. As co-ordinator of the field placement program and instructor for their seminar class I have an audience of the top 80 third and fourth year criminology students for the whole school year. I provide them with an opportunity to work in the criminal justice field and, through the seminar classes, I expose them to current topics in criminal justice, through a variety of mediums such as: guest speakers; videos; current news and research. The classes provide interactive discussions and opportunities to share placement experiences. I communicate regularly with the students about job postings and volunteer opportunities. Outside the classroom I promote community-university engagement by being active on various committees; I am active in recruitment events; and I am also the Faculty Advisor for the Criminology Society where I provide contacts and support for the students in doing institutional tours; guest speakers etc.

Contract Instructors Award

Vlasios Melessanakis, School of Public Policy and Administration, Faculty of Public Affairs

As a lecturer in the SPPA and Kroeger College, the centerpiece of Vlasios’ teaching approach is to exhibit to his students his own sense of vibrant passion for public policy discourse and development. His teaching style can be characterized as “story-telling” and sharing with his students his own personal (and purposely comical) anecdotes and professional experiences in government. Vlasios teaches a highly popular graduate seminar on the regulation of financial institutions- the only one of its kind in Canada. The innovative aspect of this course, which he developed, is that it is specifically designed for non-economics and non-business students. In this course, he “de mystifies” the root causes of the recent global financial crisis and explains, in a layman’s fashion, the often technical economic concepts that are frequently referenced in the business media, but yet few understand outside of financial circles.