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Gerard Dumancas, Ph.D.

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 EXCELLENCE IN INTEGRATING DIVERSITY IN LEARNING

This award recognizes the efforts of a faculty member whose efforts to integrate diversity in the curriculum have enriched the students’ learning experiences.   The successful applicant will be able to show that in the course of her/his teaching, s/he incorporates a broad mix of perspectives reflecting the richness of our pluralistic society, including substantial readings about ethnic, racial, class, religious and feminist issues.  She or he shall also have a well-developed approach for addressing different learning styles and teaching to cognitive diversity. The award is a special recognition of the faculty member’s efforts to ensure that when students leave the University, they will possess the competence, awareness, skills and insights required for successful participation in our pluralistic society.  The recipient of this year’s award is Dr. Gerard Dumancas.

Dr. Dumancas came to the University, in January of last year, from Louisiana University at Alexandria where he was an Associate Professor of Chemistry.

As the Principal Investigator, of a NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship award, entitled, “Recruiting, Preparing, and Retaining STEM Educators to Serve in High-Need Schools in Central Louisiana,” Dr. Dumancas transferred this grant to the University when he arrived in January of 2022, and is now being directed towards a vital need in Pennsylvania; helping to prepare future STEM educators in Northeastern PA. The grant involves collaborative work between our Education and STEM departments, together with partner area high schools to provide funding, scholarships, stipends, and programmatic support to recruit and prepare STEM majors and professionals to become K-12 teachers.

Dr. Dumancas also serves as a Community-Based Learning Faculty Fellow where he is collaborating with the Lackawanna River Conservation Association and is combining research and teaching by implementing novel analytical chemistry experiments for use in his lab classes.

Dr. Dumancas also currently serves the University as a Faculty Fellow in the Office of Education Assessment.

He is also serving as the faculty lead for a Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) grant. This program takes a comprehensive approach to student development and retention. Particular emphasis is placed on transforming undergraduate STEM education through innovative, evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies, and relevant educational experiences in support of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines. The program requires significant coordination of partnerships between the institutions of higher learning in our region, and Dr. Dumancas is leading these efforts.

 

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