Two members of the faculty have been honored with the undergraduate and graduate Alpha Sigma Nu Teacher of the Year Awards, a prestigious honor bestowed by the Jesuit Honor Society.
With support from the University and the values of the Jesuit Mission, I can facilitate the students in becoming leaders for their community.
— — Dr. Cynthia Bautisa, Alpha Sigma Nu 2018 undergraduate Teacher of the Year.
Cynthia Bautista , PhD, RN, CNRN, SCRN, CCNS, ACNS-BC, FNCS, associate professor in the Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies, and Jamie Macbeth , PhD, assistant professor of computer science in the School of Engineering, have been recognized as the 2018 Alpha Sigma Nu Teachers of the Year.
The award is bestowed yearly upon one graduate and one undergraduate teacher, as a result of student feedback. Alpha Sigma Nu is the only honor society permitted to bear the name Jesuit . It recognizes those who distinguish themselves in scholarship, loyalty, and service. The society encourages its members to a lifetime pursuit of intellectual development, deepening Ignatian spirituality, service to others, and a commitment to the core principles of Jesuit education.
Dr. Macbeth has been named the 2018 graduate Teacher of the Year . He currently teaches courses in computing, fundamentals of programming, and capstone and thesis classes.
Previously a postdoctoral fellow at Clemson University and a postdoctoral research associate with CSAIL at MIT, he received his PhD in computer science from UCLA, an MS in physics from Stanford University, and a BS in mathematical physics from Brown University.
"I was surprised and very honored to be selected for this award,” said Dr. Macbeth. “Because it recognizes interactions with students both inside and outside the classroom, I feel it is in some sense a reflection of the cura personalis characteristic of Fairfield's Jesuit mission. I hope to continue to have positive impacts on students in a variety of settings."
Dr. Macbeth’s current research focuses on building and studying intelligent computing systems that interact with users through expressions in both natural and formal language. He is designing interactive systems to collect and organize the structured knowledge of human and social concepts that computers need to understand human language in-depth. He is also studying how humans interact with formal languages of software, with the intention of using those insights to building intuitive and intelligent development environments.
Dr. Bautista has been named the undergraduate Teacher of the Year. She is also a Neuroscience Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn. and owns Nursing Brains, LLC, which provides continuing education seminars for hospitals, universities, and conferences on a variety of neuroscience nursing topics.
Dr. Bautista currently teaches courses and clinics on medical surgical nursing, DNP seminars, and fundamentals of nursing care, in which she says she’s able to share her passion for caring for the most vulnerable and critically ill without forgetting one of the most important medications: a little dose of humor.
“What an honor to be recognized by my students for my ability to provide them with inspiration, passion, and to be a role model as they venture to become the next generation of nurses. With support from the University and the values of the Jesuit Mission, I can facilitate the students in becoming leaders for their community,” she said.
Bautista earned her BSN from Salem State College in Salem, Mass., her MSN in Adult Health from Louisiana State University Medical Center, in New Orleans, La., and her PhD from the University of Rhode Island’s College of Nursing in Kingston, R.I. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, MuChi Chapter; the American Association of Critical Care Nurses; American Association of Neuroscience Nursing; World Federation of Neuroscience Nursing; Neurocritical Care Society; Eastern Nursing Research Society; Society of Critical Care Medicine; and American Nurses Association – Connecticut State Nurses Association.
Also receiving honorary inductions into Alpha Sigma Nu are Linda Wolk-Simon , PhD, Frank and Clara Meditz director and chief curator of the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ÊÓƵÎÞÏÞÖƹۿ´ Art Museum, and the late professor Vincent Rosivach , who dedicated over 50 years of faculty service to ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ÊÓƵÎÞÏÞÖƹۿ´.
The formal Alpha Sigma Nu induction ceremony will be held in October, 2018.
