Senior Class Honors Baylor Lecturer As Collins Outstanding Professor

April 10, 2008

Media contact: Lori Fogleman, director of media communications, (254) 710-6275

Dr. Mona M. Choucair, a lecturer in English at Baylor University, has been selected by this year's senior class as the 2008 Collins Outstanding Professor, an annual award provided by the Carr P. Collins Foundation that recognizes and honors extraordinary teachers at Baylor.

"I am both humbled and honored by this recognition from the senior class," Choucair said. "I have loved working with so many of these young people both in the classroom and through extracurricular events. I love what I do here at Baylor, and I pray daily that it shows through my words and my actions. Thank you to the Collins family for their generosity and support."

The Collins Professor receives a cash award of $10,000, recognition in university publications, citation on a plaque and recognition at spring commencement. As the 2008 Collins Outstanding Professor, Choucair will give deliver a special lecture later this semester on a subject of her choice. The lecture will be published and made available to the university community. Choucair's lecture and topic will be announced at a later date.

Choucair earned a bachelor's degree and her doctorate from Baylor. She received her master's degree from the University of Dallas, where she pursued an interdisciplinary degree in the humanities. Choucair's teaching interests are in American literature with an emphasis on contemporary women writers, and she currently is working on a guidebook for educators on teaching Toni Morrison's novels at the secondary school level.

In addition to teaching an American literature course through the department of English, Choucair has a dual teaching appointment in Baylor's School of Education. Along with Dr. Randy Wood and Dr. Doug Rogers, Choucair teaches a freshman academic seminar on English research and writing topics for one of Baylor's first Engaged Learning Groups (ELG) - Hispanic Families in Transition: A Study of Literacy and Education. She also teaches education courses on Young People's Literature and Teaching English in the Secondary School.

Previous recipients of the Collins Outstanding Professor Award are Dr. Joe Cox (1994), Dr. Rosalie Beck (1995), Dr. Randall O'Brien (1996), Dr. F. Ray Wilson (1997), Dr. D. Thomas Hanks (1998), Rachel Moore (1999), Dr. Chris Kearney (2000), Dr. Robert G. Packard (2001), Robert Jones (2002), Dr. Blaine McCormick (2003), Dr. Susan Wallace (2004), Maxey P. Parrish (2005), Dr. Michael F. Korpi (2006) and Dr. Martha Colvin Agee (2007).