Dr. Flora Wei Receives Chairs' Faculty Teaching Award

Dr. Fang-Yi “Flora” Wei, associate professor of communications, has received the 2014 Chairs’ Faculty Teaching Award for excellence in teaching at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

“Flora Wei is a real gem of a teacher at Pitt-Bradford who uses the latest technology with ease in the classroom and is always ahead of the curve,” said Jeff Guterman, associate professor of broadcast communications and chairman of the Division of Communication and the Arts.

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

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

The award, which is now in its 13th year, is open to any full-time faculty member who has taught at Pitt-Bradford for at least three consecutive academic years.

“Her students love her,” Guterman said, adding that Wei has excelled as a scholar as well as a teacher. “Her empirical studies on text messaging have brought her much acclaim as a researcher in the communications field, and she has been quoted by literally dozens of national and international news outlets.”

Wei has taught public speaking, organizational communication, quantitative research methods, mass media culture and society, mass media effects, communication research methods, broadcasting and social media.

She has worked with fellow Pitt-Bradford faculty Dr. Y. Ken Wang, assistant professor of computer information systems and technology; Dr. Michael Klausner, associate professor of sociology; and Dr. Warren Fass, associate professor of psychology, to study the effects of students’ text messaging in class on their ability to learn and focus. She also taught a social media course that was among the first of its kind in the country.

Wei will leave Pitt-Bradford following the summer term. She has accepted a position at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta in order to live nearer to her family.

Past recipients of the Chairs’ Faculty Teaching Award are Dr. Francis Mulcahy, Dr. Tammy Haley, 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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