York Tech's Macdonald Named a Finalist for Governor's Professor of the Year Award

November 10, 2008

COLUMBIA—At a press conference last week, York Technical College English Instructor Dr. Martha Macdonald was named a finalist for the 2008 Governor’s Professor of the Year award.  Macdonald was one of only eight university and college faculty members who were recognized as finalists.

Each year, the Governor and the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education jointly sponsor the Governor’s Professor of the Year awards. One of these awards is conferred on a faculty member at a South Carolina public or private senior college or university. The other is conferred on a faculty member at a two-year institution of higher learning.

Macdonald is a dedicated faculty member with endless energy in the classroom, on campus, and in the community. She is also a published author and accomplished musician.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities at York Tech, Macdonald serves on the Retention Oversight, Marketing Retention, Ad Hoc Quality Learning Council, and Teleproduction Technology Program Advisory committees. She has presented at the No Frills English Conference in 2005 and 2007 at Midlands Tech as well as Baton Rouge Community College in spring 2007. She is a member of the South Carolina Technical Educators Association, Sigma Kappa Delta, and the Southeastern Interpreters Association, where she presented at the 2008 conference. Three years ago, she founded the ARTS 4 U 2 program which creates monthly presentations on the York Tech campus. She volunteers at the York Tech Tutoring Center and START Center, where she advises first-time freshmen, and offers student sessions on grammar, MLA, writing and public speaking.

Macdonald also tutors local elementary school children, interprets at Historic Brattonsville and the Fairfield County Museum in Winnsboro, and is a co-founder of the Red Hills English Country Dance Society.

Macdonald has won numerous awards for writing and teaching and has published historical children's stories, poems and plays. Most recently, she published Psaltery at White Oak, a novel in the Southern historical literary tradition. Macdonald has also taught at William and Mary, Rappahannock Community College, UNC-Asheville, and Belmont-Abbey College.

Macdonald graduated from Erskine College with a bachelor’s degree in French and English.  She completed her master’s degree in English at the University of Maryland and earned her Ph.D. in Education and the Arts at Walden University.

In 2001, Macdonald began teaching at York Technical College as an adjunct for the English Department and accepted a full-time position in fall 2003. She has been called a gifted teacher.  During her 7-year affiliation with the college, she has received numerous teaching awards:

• Recipient of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) honor society Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008 and nominated by students approximately four times during the past seven years

• Nominee for SCTEA Educator of the Year (2007)

• Recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008 and nominee for 2005 and 2007

Michele Wells, department manager for York Tech's Radiologic Technology program, was named a finalist last year. Previous winners of the Governor's Professor of the Year award from York Tech include Christine Crosby (2005) and Dee Smith (1999).