Haley receives Chairs' Faculty Teaching Award at Pitt-Bradford

Dr. Tammy Haley, assistant professor of nursing, has received the 2012 Chairs’ Faculty Teaching award for excellence in teaching at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

“Tammy stands out for her high teaching scores, her leadership in a campus outreach project to help a struggling clinic in Cameroon, Africa, and in the way she brings an analytical, evidence-based nursing approach to Pitt-Bradford students,” said Dr. Mary Mulcahy, associate professor of biology and chairwoman of the Division of Biological and Health Sciences, who nominated Haley.

Haley was chosen for the award by the chairmen and chairwomen of Pitt-Bradford’s five academic divisions.

In choosing an award recipient, the chairpersons reviewed letters of recommendation, student evaluations of teaching, syllabi and grade distribution. They also considered the teachers’ knowledge of subject matter and their advising and dedication in working with students beyond the classroom in such activities as internships and research projects.

The award, which is now in its 11th year, is open to any full-time faculty member who has taught at Pitt-Bradford for at least three consecutive academic years.

In June 2011, Haley and nursing student Amy Silvis traveled together to Cameroon to help bring money and medical supplies to the Good Samaritan Clinic in the town of Ekona. Although everyone in the nursing program helped to raise the money and gather the supplies for the effort, Haley was one of the leaders of this effort and worked with students across campus to coordinate the distribution and transport of the supplies.

“Dr. Haley has an impressive active research program and recent publication,” Mulcahy said, “including a 2011 publication in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing.”

Mulcahy said that Haley is also an exceptional classroom teacher. “She has used the audience response system to her courses, where student responses to questions are recorded electronically during a lecture. She integrated a ‘food day’ across the entire nursing curriculum as a way of instructing students about the importance of food in societal issues.”

In her observations of Haley in the classroom, Mulcahy said, “I was impressed by her calm, interactive and very collegial approach to teaching. Tammy is an instructor who is moving around the room all the time, even in a large class, asking questions and leading the students in discussion. I do not recall ever having been in a class that involved instruction of math where students appeared so attentive to the instructor.”

Haley is the coordinator of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Pitt-Bradford. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing and recently completed her doctorate in nursing from the Pitt School of Nursing.

Before coming to Pitt-Bradford in 2003, she worked for the Family Health Council Inc. of Bradford, where she was the primary provider in the Family Planning office. She lives in Bradford.

Past recipients of the Chairs’ Faculty Teaching Award are Isabelle Champlin, Dr. Hashim Yousif, Dr. Jean Truman, Andrea Robbins, Dr. Helene Lawson, Dr. Joanne Burgert, Dr. Nancy McCabe, Donald Lewicki, Dr. Donald Ulin and Dr. Lauren Yaich.

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