Dr. Donna Summerlin, professor of English, has been selected as the winner of Lee University’s 2016 Excellence in Teaching Award. Lee President Dr. Paul Conn recognized her for this honor during spring commencement.

The Excellence Awards are the highest honors presented to Lee faculty members and recognize advising, scholarship and teaching. The oldest award and considered to be superior among the three is Excellence in Teaching. The winner of this award is chosen by a special committee which includes representatives of six different academic departments.

“I am deeply honored by this award and grateful that what I do here is valued by others in such a significant way,” said Summerlin. “I am blessed to work with colleagues who value the things I hold dear and to teach students who display a sincere desire to learn and to fulfill God’s purposes in their lives.”

A graduate of Lee’s English program, Summerlin earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, her Master of Education and a Master of Arts at UTC. Her specializations include young adult literature, literary theory, American literature, and ethnic literatures, including Southern and Appalachian literature. Her dissertation focused on the Appalachian woman as an artist in the fiction of six Appalachian woman authors.

In 2003, Summerlin received Lee’s Excellence in Advising Award. She also received fellowships from the Appalachian College Association from 1992-93 and 1993-94.

Summerlin currently leads the cross-cultural trip to New England and previously led one around the Southern United States. She has incorporated community involvement and service learning in her Multi-Ethnic U. S. Literature class in 2011 and in her Young Adult Literature and Introduction to English Studies classes during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 terms.