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Members in the News:
Dr. Sheela Vemu Receives Two Awards for Two-Year Teaching
Congratulations to Dr. Sheela Vemu, who was recently named the 2024 Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Member by the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA) and is one of the winners of the 2024 Dale P. Parnell Faculty Distinction Recognition Award from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).
Both of these awards honor Sheela’s outstanding teaching practice. The Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Member Award from ICCTA recognizes the high achievement of Illinois full-time community college instructors. The Dale P. Parnell Faculty Distinction Recognition Award, named in honor of the former AACC President and CEO, recognizes individuals making a difference in the classroom.
Sheela is an Associate Professor of Biology at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, IL., where she has been a full-time faculty member since 2013. Upon joining the biology department at Waubonsee (which was also home to one of her mentors, NABT Past President Dan Ward), Sheela quickly set up immersive, inclusive, student-centered learning environments to “inspire academic growth.”
“As a community college teaching practitioner, my primary objective is to cultivate a robust scientific identity within my students and empower them with the skills and confidence needed for successful careers in transfer and allied health fields,” Sheela said in a statement when she received the 2023 NABT Two-Year Teaching Award.
To meet that objective, Sheela consistently adopts High Impact Practices (HIP), highlights the work of diverse scientists, and nurtures mentor-mentee relationships with her students. Sheela has also built an impressive professional network and project portfolio that not only benefits her students but also improves the teaching and learning of life science on a broader level.
She is a recognized leader in science education and is involved in numerous NSF projects. She is a member of BioQUEST, the PALM Network, and the Tiny Earth Project and serves on the editorial board for CBE-Life Sciences Education (LSE). She is also a highly engaged member of NABT who coordinates some of our online “Community Conversations” and served as chair of NABT’s Two-Year College Section.
Sheela expertly leverages her contacts to create connections for her students. As a result, they have opportunities like internships with the Chicago Council of Science and Technology (C2ST) and the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL). They have been accepted to programs like the NSF-funded Microbial Interactions Create Research Opportunities for Community College Students (MICRO-CCS) project. She has helped create interdisciplinary research projects for students, many of whom present their work (and win awards) at various local and national poster sessions. Recently, Sheela started working with Waubonsee’s Latinx Resource Center to create more programming specifically centered around Latinx/e representation in STEM.
Sheela is always looking for ways to improve her classroom practice, inspire her students, and encourage her colleagues. She is an exceptional educator and advocate for students and instructors at the two-year college level, and we are thrilled to see Dr. Sheela Vemu recognized by the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA) and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).
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