Dean of College of Health and Public Service wins national award

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) award recognizes outstanding efforts within emergency management and homeland security disciplines every year. This year’s award was presented to the dean of UVU’s College of Health and Public Service, David McEntire.

Presented at the Federal Emergency Management Agency Higher Education Symposium, the SoTL award was given to McEntire for his excellence in Homeland Security disciplines.

The award, sponsored by the University of Central Florida’s School of Public Administration, is given based on SoTL efforts both within the discipline, the teaching and learning in the community and peer recognition of the publication of research and creative efforts.

“It is a great honor to be recognized by my peers. My work and interest in promoting excellence in research and teaching has been both exciting and rewarding,” McEntire said. “I have thoroughly enjoyed learning more about my disciplines of emergency management and homeland security.”

With the second edition of his textbook scheduled to release next month, McEntire says that being able to publish works that help students is a passion of his.

“I am grateful to have published a number of books and journals, both professional and academic,” McEntire said. “Most of all, I love to see students engaged in the material, and witness them develop their own knowledge and skills.”

The 2018 FEMA Higher Education Program Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award is McEntire’s second award received for his contributions to his discipline. His first award was the Dr. B. Wayne Blanchard Award for Academic Excellence in Emergency Management Education in 2011.

In addition to previous achievements McEntire has made, he says he hopes winning the SoTL award will assist in growing the College of Health and Public Service, as well as UVU as a whole.

“I sincerely hope this award will bring additional recognition to Utah Valley University, and in particular, the outstanding faculty, staff and students we have here,” McEntire said. “My contributions are just one small example of the wonderful things we have going on here at this institution of higher learning.”

Photo courtesy of David McEntire