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Levy and Tassoni named CAS Distinguished Educators

08/22/2007

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John Tassoni and Jonathan Levy

Jonathan Levy (geology) and John Tassoni (English, Miami Middletown) have been named College of Arts and Science Distinguished Educators for 2007-2008. Each will receive a $2,000 professional expense account and present a lecture during the academic year.

Levy teaches about the science of environmental sustainability and decay, with courses including hydrogeology, water and society, environmental geology and a summer workshop on sustainability and water resources in equatorial East Africa. He personalizes his teaching by helping students understand their place in the environment and how their life practices contribute to sustaining or endangering it. With his students he has studied how water contamination affects many people, in places such as Nepal, Kenya, Zambia and Namibia.

Locally, Levy conducts research at the Ecology Research Center, Four Mile Creek and the Great Miami River, focusing on groundwater/surface-water interaction and the transport of contaminants. Levy taught at the Luxembourg campus for two academic years and is chair of the MUDEC subcommittee of the International Education Committee.

Tassoni, director of college composition, has taught courses in the English department at every level from developmental education to the graduate program. He has been an adviser to a support group of Miami Middletown's returning non-traditional students and has developed literacy projects for students in Middletown public housing. He co-founded MUM's English 001 Studio program, which features small-group workshops to assist students with writing assignments.

Tassoni has published three books on writing pedagogy and is founding co-editor of the journal Open Words: Access and English Studies. He was recipient of the 2007 Excellence in Teaching Award at Middletown.