CONSERVATIVE AND PROLIFE PROFESSOR AWARDED PROFESSOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 CONTACT:

November 17, 2005                                                    Jill Minette, CASE, 202-478-5666

                                                                                    Professor Lawrence Roberge, 413-547-8448

NATIONAL HONORS FOR TOP PROFESSOR IN CONNECTICUT

(Washington, DC)-The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named Lawrence F. Roberge at Goodwin College the 2005 Connecticut Professor of the Year.  Professor Roberge was selected from among nearly 400 top professors in the United States.

Professor Roberge was the Chair of the Science Dept and Associate Professor of Science at Goodwin College from 2003 until 2005.  During his tenure, he organized the construction of science labs and developed the science curriculum for the Nursing Program students.  Professor Roberge actively built up the science and medicine collection of the Goodwin Library as well as advising students in their science studies.  He is credited with implementing multi-media and computer technologies into the curriculum, including use of MS Producer, CHIME, Molecules Modeling, FLASH, and PowerPoint. 

He taught courses in Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry, and Microbiology courses for pre-nursing students.  In March 2005, Professor Roberge was awarded for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology at the 16th International Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Technology hosted by the Center for Teaching (Jacksonville, FL).

Prior to working at Goodwin College, Professor Roberge taught in the Biology Department at SUNY-Orange (Orange County Community College, Middletown, NY).  Besides teaching undergraduate biology courses, he also worked in the development of the distance learning program for the college and experimented with video microscopy techniques to improve student learning.

From 1997-2000, Professor Roberge taught at the Springfield High School of Science & Technology (SCITECH), where he designed and taught a year long course in Biotechnology as well as taught courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Human Biology.  In 2000, he was honored as a Celebrated Teacher in the Teaching Excellence awards hosted by the Springfield Chamber of Commerce for his work at SCITECH. 

With almost 20 years of teaching experience, Professor Roberge has taught various science and technology courses at such colleges as Bay Path College (Longmeadow, MA), Quinsigamond Community College (Worcester, MA), Lesley University (Cambridge, MA), Holyoke Community College (Holyoke, MA), Elms College (Chicopee, MA), Assumption College (Worcester, MA) and Anna Maria College (Paxton, MA).  Presently, Professor Roberge is teaching online courses for Becker College (Worcester, MA) and for Florida Community College (Jacksonville , FL).

Professor Roberge has been a leader in prolife and conservative research.  He is the author of the Book, THE COST OF ABORTION: An Analysis of the Social, Economic, and Demographic Effects of Abortion on the United States.  He has done research on abortion vaccines and their health effects on women.  Professor Roberge had the prescience to warn of the life threatening effects to women using the drug, RU-486 six years before the drug became available.  His research and writings have covered such topics as immunology, reproductive medicine, endocrinology, and neuroscience.  Recently, Professor Roberge presented a paper at the St. John University law school’s biotechnology conference where he demonstrated technologies that would circumvent laws banning reproductive human cloning and discussed with legal scholars the ramifications of this technology on the production of human clones.

Professor Roberge received his undergraduate degrees in Zoology and Psychology at University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his graduate degree at University of Massachusetts Medical School (Worcester, MA).  He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), New York Academy of Science (NYAS), and World Future Society (WFS).  He currently resides in Ludlow, MA with his wife, Cynthia.

CASE established the Professors of the Year program in 1981 and the Carnegie Foundation became the co-sponsor a year later.  TIAA-CREF, one of America’s leading financial service organizations and higher education’s premier retirement system, became the primary sponsor for the awards ceremony in 2000.  Additional support for the program is received from the American Association of Community Colleges and other various higher education associations.

This year there are winners in 40 states, Guam and the District of Columbia.  CASE assembled two preliminary panels of judges to select finalists.  The Carnegie Foundation then convened the third and final panel, which selected four national winners and state winners.  Professor Roberge was selected from over 400 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905 by Andrew Carnegie “to do all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify the profession of teaching.”  The Foundation is the only advanced-study center for teachers in the world and the third-oldest foundation in the nation.  Its non-profit research activities are conducted by a small group of distinguished scholars.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is the largest international association of education institutions, with more than 3,200 colleges, universities, and independent elementary and secondary schools in nearly 50 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.  Representing these institutions are more than 38,000 professionals in the disciplines of alumni relations, communications, and fund raising.  Additional affiliates include educationally related non-profit organizations and commercial firms.

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Editor’s Note: The official list of Professor of the Year awards can be viewed on the CASE web site:

http://www.case.org/Content/POY/Display.cfm?contentItemID=5659