President’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Career-Track Faculty

Awarded in 2021

Re-posted verbatim from the WSU Showcase website

Recognizing outstanding educators

This award recognizes up to two non-tenure track faculty members who epitomize the highest levels of performance and excellence and who provide a vital role in teaching WSU students.

Rebecca Cooney

Rebecca L. Cooney

Scholarly Associate Professor, Department of Strategic Communication

Scholarly Associate Professor Cooney has more than 26 years of experience in professional communication. She teaches courses in integrated campaigns, user experience design, message strategy, and digital marketing. In addition to teaching, she is the director of Murrow Online Programs and a research associate for the Center of Excellence in Natural Product-Drug Interaction Research. Outside of her work at WSU, she serves as a consultant in learning experience design and effective communication in the virtual space.

Her service to WSU includes peer coaching and serving as a representative on the Global Academic Council and Graduate Studies Committee. She was a Provost Featured Faculty member in 2019 and recipient of the Oaks Award for innovation in teaching (2019), Scripps Howard Visiting Professor in Social Media (2015), and Plank Center Educator Fellow awards (2014). Since launching a blog about online education in 2020, scholars nationwide have sought her guidance.