Five Professors Receive CSUS Highest Recognition

Five Connecticut State University System (CSUS) faculty members were awarded the prestigious title of Connecticut State University Professor in recognition of academic excellence. Created in 1987, the title is bestowed upon up to 12 CSUS faculty recommended by their university president and the chancellor. Candidates are chosen for their significant contribution in their fields of research and study and remain CSU Professors for their tenure.

“This prestigious title reflects the high caliber of these professors who are leaders in their field and excel in the classroom,” said John Doyle, chair of the CSUS Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee. “The title reflects our commitment to recognizing excellence in research, teaching and scholarship.”

Imna Arroyo

Professor of Visual Arts
Eastern Connecticut State University

Imna Arroyo, faculty member at Eastern since 1992, has garnered international acclaim for her artistic endeavors as her works have been exhibited overseas and throughout the United States. Arroyo was born in Guayama, Puerto Rico, studied at La Escuela de Artes Plásticas del Instituto de Cultura in San Juan and obtainedher BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., and her MFA from Yale University. She also studied printmaking techniques at the Tamarind Institute, New York University Printmaking Studio and at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico.

Her work is in numerous collections, has appeared in several publications and has been exhibited in Connecticut, New York and Mexico. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the Latin American Distinguish Service Award (2008), the Eastern Connecticut State University Distinguished Faculty Member (2006) and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award (2005). She also received the 2003 Steinkraus-Cohen Memorial and Outstanding Women of Connecticut Award.

James Mazur

Professor of Psychology
Southern Connecticut State University

James Mazur joined Southern in 1988 and has sustained an active program of laboratory research in behavioral psychology. His work focuses on animal learning and behavior, classical and operant conditioning, decision making, self control and impulsiveness. For 24 consecutive years, the National Institute of Mental Health has supported Mazur’s research project titled “Molecular Variables Affecting Choice Behaviors.” Mazur’s work allows students to participate in laboratory research and develop an understanding of animal care and requirements.

Mazur received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1973 and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1977. He has published 45 articles in top-tier journals and is best known for his teaching book Learning and Behavior that introduces students to behavior analysis. Mazur has served on the board of editors for both the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. He is editor of an ABA international journal and has served on the boards of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior.

Heather Munro Prescott

Professor of History
Central Connecticut State University

Heather Munro Prescott, an international leader in the field of gender and medicine, has been a member of Central’s Department of History since 1992. She teaches United States and women’s history, the history of medicine and public health, childhood and disability history.

She held a National Institutes of Health Publication Grant from the National Library of Medicine and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Her first book, A Doctor of Their Own, received the Will Solimene Award of Excellence in Medical Communication from the New England Chapter, American Medical Writers Association. She completed her second book, Student Bodies: The Impact of Student Health on American Society and Medicine and is working on the history of emergency contraception.

Prescott received her undergraduate degree in comparative religion, summa cum laude, from the University of Vermont in 1984 and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. She has served as co-coordinator of Women’s Studies and chair of the Department of History. In 2001, she was the A. Lindsay O’Connor Distinguished Visiting Associate Professor of American Institutions at Colgate University.

Timothy Reagan

Professor of Teacher Education
Central Connecticut State University

Timothy Reagan is a nationally and internationally recognized figure in language and culture in education and a three-time Fulbright Senior Specialist. Reagan served at Central from 1986–90 and returned in 2006 as a member of the School of Education and Professional Studies. His studies focus on theoretical and applied linguistic education and in foreign language education, language planning and policy in education and education of the deaf.

He received his Ph.D. in educational policy studies from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1982, and served on the faculties of Gallaudet University, University of Connecticut, Roger Williams University and University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He was executive associate dean of the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, dean of the School of Education at Roger Williams University and executive dean of the faculty of humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Reagan has co-authored more than a dozen books and published more than 125 book chapters and journal articles. He has given numerous talks at major conferences, and his work with the linguistics of American and South African sign languages has led to international recognition.

Joseph Solodow

Professor of World Languages and Literatures
Southern Connecticut State University

Joseph Solodow, an internationally renowned scholar of Latin language and literature, joined Southern in 1992 as assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Languages where he was chairman from 1994–2000. He was also founding chairperson of the Judaic Studies Program. He teaches Latin, Spanish and Spanish-American literature. His book, Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages, is addressed to a general rather than scholarly audience, and his English translation of G. B. Conte’s Latin Literature: A History, won the Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Translation Prize.

Solodow graduated magna cum laude in Latin from Columbia University and earned A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in classical philology from Harvard University. He was a visiting research scholar and lectures at Yale University.