{"id":28066,"date":"2025-04-21T09:35:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T13:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/?p=28066"},"modified":"2025-04-21T11:35:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T15:35:22","slug":"marshall-educator-named-2024-professor-of-the-year-for-west-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/2025\/04\/marshall-educator-named-2024-professor-of-the-year-for-west-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshall educator named 2024 Professor of the Year for West Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Marshall University\u2019s Dr. Rachael Peckham, a member of the university&#8217;s Department of English, has been named the 2024 Professor of the Year by the Faculty Merit Foundation of West Virginia.\u00a0 <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Peckham was presented with the award during an event on April 17 in Charleston. She was one of five finalists for the recognition that included professors from Glenville State University, West Virginia University Institute of Technology, Shepherd University and West Virginia University.\u00a0 <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cThere is not a day goes by that I don\u2019t count myself lucky to be a part of the Marshall family,\u201d Peckham said during the awards ceremony. \u201cThe abundance of teaching awards, fellowships, grants and opportunities for collaboration at Marshall continually remind me of my good fortune, to be teaching at a university that so clearly values the work of its faculty \u2014 and for good reason; there is so much talent here. I am a better teacher for working alongside colleagues I admire and feel inspired by every day.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u201cBut it\u2019s the students, more than anything, that bring me purpose and joy. I get to know them personally through their autobiographical writing, so to watch them grow and thrive, not just as writers but as\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">people<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"none\">, brings meaning and power to every day.\u201d <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Peckham earned her bachelor\u2019s degree from Hope College, a master\u2019s in creative writing from Georgia College and State University and completed her doctoral work in creative writing at Ohio University. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">She is the author of<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u202f<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Alight: &#8220;Flights\u202fof Prose&#8221;<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u202f<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">(Uncollected Press) and\u202f&#8221;Muck Fire:\u202fProse Poems and Other Cultivations\u202f&#8221;(forthcoming from Compass Press). Peckham\u2019s articles, essays, and poems have received other awards and distinctions, including two honorable mentions in the\u202fBest American Essays<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u202f<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">series, the\u202f\u00bd\u202fK Prize at\u202fIndiana Review, the\u202fOrison Anthology\u202fNonfiction Award, and the Special Feature Literary Nonfiction Award at\u202fCrab Orchard Review.\u202fShe is a frequent lecturer and presenter and has performed numerous public readings of her writings.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In addition to the 2024 Professor of the Year honor, Peckham has been presented with the Marshall University Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award (2022-2023); John Marshall Scholar Award (2021); the Love of Learning Award from Phi Kappa Phi (2020); and a John Deaver Drinko Distinguished Fellow (2017-2019).<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Peckham becomes the fifth Marshall University professor to receive the state Professor of the Year award. Other Marshall winners include Dr. Kateryna A.R. Schray (2013), Dr. Bonita Lawrence (2009), Dr. Montserrat Mart\u00ed Miller (2007) and Dr. Robert B. Walker (1989). <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marshall University\u2019s Dr. Rachael Peckham, a member of the university&#8217;s Department of English, has been named the 2024 Professor of the Year by the Faculty Merit Foundation of West Virginia.\u00a0 \u00a0 Peckham was presented with the award during an event on April 17 in Charleston. She was one of five finalists for the recognition that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,38,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-cola","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28066"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28073,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28066\/revisions\/28073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}