Shaw earns Simon Distinguished Faculty Award

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Shaw earns Simon Distinguished Faculty Award

March 26, 2018

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Thomas A. Shaw, associate professor in the School of Allied Health, is the college’s 2018 E.J. and Mary C. Simon Distinguished Faculty Award recipient. (Photo by Russell Bailey)

With a “passion and exuberance” for his students and an “uncanny ability to make complex ideas simple,” Thomas A. Shaw gets excited when teaching.

Shaw, an associate professor in the School of Allied Health, has always had a passion for reaching students. That ability is among the reasons for Shaw’s selection as the College of Applied Sciences’ and Arts 2018 E.J. and Mary C. Simon Distinguished Faculty Award recipient. Shaw will receive a monetary award, plaque and speak at the college’s Honors Day ceremony on April 14.

“I don’t mean to, but I do get excited about what I teach,” Shaw said. “I tell students ‘if you don’t like what you are doing now you really need to think about doing something else because you have to enjoy and have a passion for what you are doing. Life is too short to be dreading Monday morning.”

 

Simon Award established in 2005

The award acknowledges and celebrates lifetime achievement with respect to teaching and other activities related to the education and general welfare of CASA students. It honors the founding dean of the college and his wife. E.J. Simon was dean from the college’s inception in 1951 until his retirement in 1970, and Simon and his wife, Mary C. Simon, remained strong supporters of the university and the college.  E.J. Simon died in 1989; Mary Simon passed away in 2011.

“I’m shocked and humbled,” Shaw said. “I never imagined that being eligible for something like this. It’s a very pleasant surprise. It’s stuff that I love to do. I enjoy teaching the students and working with the faculty and the general challenges of the day-to-day activities. This is icing on the cake.”

 

Part of the college for more than 20 years

Shaw has been with the School of Allied Health since 1995, primarily in Mortuary Science and Funeral Service. He also began to teach some Health Care Management program courses several years ago and joined the HCM program on a full-time basis this spring. Sandra K. Collins, professor and program director with the Health Care Management Program, nominated Shaw. 

Teaching in both programs gives Shaw an opportunity to teach in clinical and management environments and on campus, online and military-based formats, Collins wrote. Shaw has entered his new role in HCM “with excitement and curiosity and has already made impactful and thoughtful suggestions” to advance the program’s undergraduate and graduate education, Collins wrote.

“It is apparent that students are at the center of every aspect of his teaching philosophy,” Collins wrote.

 

Originated program’s Embalming Colloquium

Tony Fleege, associate professor and Mortuary Science and Funeral Service MSFS program director, notes that Shaw originated the Embalming Colloquium, a senior student presentation that highlights their knowledge and skills.

The colloquium, which just had its 20th anniversary, “is the crown jewel that sets our program apart from all of the other 53 programs in the country,” Fleege wrote. “This feat is completely due to Dr. Shaw’s foresight and innovation.”

Shaw, however, credits Abel Salazar, a clinical instructor in MSFS with taking the colloquium and making it “10 times better than when I got it going.”

 

Committed to students’ success

Former students and licensed funeral directors Tyler McGriff and Jeffrey C. Waddell II each talked of Shaw’s commitment to his students. Waddell wrote he views Shaw as a “natural teacher” while McGriff wrote Shaw is also “an outstanding advocate for his students and works diligently to help them succeed.”

 “His teaching skills are extremely through and his passion for the funeral industry truly shines through,” Waddell wrote.

Shaw worked in a funeral home in Austin, Texas but missed teaching, and came to SIU Carbondale in 1995.

 

Mentoring students is important

Shaw said it is important that he mentor students through his actions, which even includes trying to be in the classroom 10 minutes before class starts to talk with students as they arrive.

He believes accountability is also important, explaining that if he makes an error in class he will acknowledge and remedy it at that time.

Shaw enjoys the interaction with his students and that he finds them “enlightening and reassuring” for the future. He enjoys the knowledge he gains in preparing for class and then the challenge to present the material “in a way that can get students excited or see how they can take the information and how it applies to them in their career.”

 

Started career as elementary school teacher, funeral director

Shaw, who grew up in a funeral home, earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Indiana State University and taught fifth grade before moving to Texas to work in a funeral home.

He earned his mortuary science diploma from Mid-America College of Funeral Science and then his Master of Science in Business Administration from Amber University in Garland, Texas. He earned his doctorate in Workforce Education from SIU Carbondale in 2005.

Shaw and his wife, Sarah, live in Herrin and have two children, Quentin, a sophomore at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Isaac, a junior at Herrin High School.