FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 13, 2011
Contact: Anika Mitchell Perkins
(662) 329-7124
aperkins@pa.muw.edu

Bunnell named MUW Faculty Member of the Year

COLUMBUS, Miss. – Todd Bunnell, instructor of English, was named Faculty Member of the Year at Mississippi University for Women.

MUW’s Mortar Board Honor Society and Alumni Association co-sponsor the award. Nominations were accepted from students, and the faculty member with the most votes was selected for this honor.

Bunnell said he was honored and humbled to receive the award.

“When I look up at all of the pictures of the previous winners hanging up in the hallway of Whitfield, they represent some of the finest teachers to have ever taught in the classrooms of MUW, and to even be mentioned alongside them is quite a humbling experience, and to top that off, to have been nominated by the students, that is truly amazing.

“But with that said, I don't see this as a Sally Field moment. This award is not about me. I can be a good teacher, but I can only do so much in the classroom if the students do not want to learn. Teaching is not a one way street. Teaching involves interaction. It's two ways, and I am just so thrilled to be a teacher at MUW where we have such incredible students. They are the ones who challenge me, who make me want to go home and redo my lesson plans to better challenge them. They make me want to strive to be a better teacher in the classroom every day. So to be honored with this award by such wonderful students is beyond anything I can really even imagine."

Bunnell currently serves as coordinator of composition and director of the TESL Certificate Program and the Writing Center. He developed the TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) program in 2003 and started and opened the Writing Center in January of 2010.

In 2010, he was named the Mississippi Humanities Council MUW Teacher of the Year.

Bunnell also served as sports information director at MUW from 2001 until 2003.

After teaching overseas, Bunnell joined MUW in 1996 where he was an adjunct instructor and taught full-time as a lecturer at Mississippi State University. He is originally from Urbana, Ohio.

His degrees include a master’s degree in English with a creative writing emphasis and a TESL Certificate both from Mississippi State University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Wright State University (Dayton).