The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost recently announced inductees into Virginia Tech’s 2019 class of the Academy of Faculty Leadership and the Academy of Faculty Service. Among those inductees are Professor Robert Denton, head of the Department of Communication, in the Academy of Faculty Leadership, and Nyusya Milman-Miller, an associate professor of Russian, in the Academy of Faculty Service.

The honorees join a community of distinguished Virginia Tech faculty who have been recognized for their exemplary contributions in the area of leadership or in formal service roles.

“Leadership and service are tenets of Virginia Tech’s Beyond Boundaries vision and how we will distinguish ourselves as a leading land-grant university,” said Cyril Clarke, executive vice president and provost. “These outstanding faculty have demonstrated a strong commitment to these precepts and are an example of true leadership and service excellence. I want to commend and congratulate each of them for the impacts they have had on our campus community and the standard they have set for our faculty and students.”

Denton earned nomination through his strong leadership and oversight of curriculum revision and facilities development for the communication department. He also successfully developed a master’s degree program, achieved strategic hiring impacts, and co-created the Rice Center for Leader Development.

Milman-Miller’s nomination stemmed from her spectacular success in developing a Russian program and securing a Project Global Officer (Project GO) grant, which supports critical language training and global education of ROTC students.

This year’s other inductees to the Academy of Faculty Leadership are Richard Crowder, a professor of agriculture and applied economics, and Joseph Merola, a professor of chemistry. Richard Helm, an associate professor of biochemistry and director of the Mass Spectrometry Incubator, earned an appointment in the Academy of Faculty Service.

The Academy of Faculty Leadership and the Academy of Faculty Service are structured to parallel the academies of Teaching Excellence and Outreach Excellence; members are called upon for representative service to university committees.

Written by Dave Guerin