JACKSON, Miss.--The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named Dr. Kimberly Burke at Millsaps College as the 2008 Mississippi Professor of the Year.
Burke, professor of accounting, assistant dean of the Else School of Management and Kelly Gene Cook Chair of Business Administration is the fifth Millsaps professor to receive the honor. Previous winners are Dr. Sarah Lea McGuire (biology), Dr. Bob McElvaine (history), Dr. Greg Miller (English) and Dr. George Bey III (anthropology).
An associate professor of accounting, Burke was selected from nearly 300 top professors in the United States. She has taught at Millsaps College and The Else School of Management since 1995.
“I feel very honored and very grateful to the college for providing a supportive environment where it’s possible to flourish as a teacher,” Burke said.
Burke teaches undergraduate and graduate auditing, immediate and advanced accounting, accounting information systems, principles of financial accounting and introduction to liberal studies. She also leads study abroad programs in both Europe and Merida, Mexico. In every subject she teaches, Burke communicates excitement and enthusiasm.
“Dr. Burke is very knowledgeable and loves her students,” said Liz Smith, a senior accounting major from Alexandria, La. “She’s a lot of fun and is actually concerned about her students’ well-being and success.”
“Dr. Burke has been an outstanding teacher-scholar since her first days on the Millsaps campus. She exemplifies the model of a Millsaps faculty member with her commitment to teach in a way that motivates students to learn at the highest levels of intellectual exploration,” said Dr. Richard A. Smith, senior vice president and dean of the college.
CASE and the Carnegie Foundation have been partners in offering Professors of the Year since 1981. TIAA-CREF, one of America's leading financial services organizations and higher education's premier retirement system, became the primary sponsor for the awards ceremony in 2000. Additional support for the program is received from a number of higher education associations, including Phi Beta Kappa.
This year, there are winners in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. CASE assembled two preliminary panels of judges to select finalists. The Carnegie Foundation then convened the third and final panel, which selected four national winners. CASE and Carnegie select state winners from top entries resulting from the judging process.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905 by Andrew Carnegie “to do all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify the profession of teaching.” The foundation is the only advanced-study center for teachers in the world and the third-oldest foundation in the nation. Its nonprofit research activities are conducted by a small group of distinguished scholars.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is the largest international association of education institutions, serving more than 3,400 universities, colleges, schools, and related organizations in 61 countries. CASE is the leading resource for professional development, information, and standards in the fields of educational fundraising, communications, marketing and alumni relations.
Millsaps College, founded in 1890, is an independent, national liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Consistently ranked in the top tier of national liberal arts colleges, Millsaps is located in Jackson, Miss., a metropolitan capital city of 425,000. Millsaps College is also the only Mississippi institution featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges, and is cited as one of Loren Pope’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives.
