Cotten, Hodhod and Jones Big Winners at CSU Awards Ceremony

One faculty member from each of the Turner College’s three academic departments won big at the Spring 2023 CSU Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony.  Professor of finance Brett Cotten won the 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award.  Cotten has been twice nominated for the Educator of the Year Award (2018 and 2020), CSU’s highest faculty honor for teaching.  In April of 2020, Cotten received a “Great Teaching Note” from the CSU Faculty Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in recognition for his pedagogical endeavors.  Student evaluation scores on the quality of his teaching typically range from 4.5 to 5.0 (out of 5.0).  Turner College finance students appreciate the effort Cotten puts into teaching, including his development of (1) a trading simulation in which students manage an investment portfolio, (2) out-of-class exercises related to capital budgeting tools, and (3) a senior project related to security analysis and portfolio management. 

Joining Cotten on stage was TSYS School associate professor of computer science Rania Hodhod, who won the 2023 Excellence in Service Award.  Between the summer of 2020 and the fall of 2021, Hodhod secured 20 virtual and seven on-site internships for junior and senior computer science students with IRS and local businesses.  Relatedly, that same year she developed an internship program with Teikyo University for computer science students.  From 2018-2020, Hodhod served as Acting Learning Scholar for the USG Chancellor.  During this time she completed an MOU between CSU and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transportation in Egypt.  In September of 2022, Hodhod was awarded the Edwin and Florette Rothschild Chair.  As holder of the Chair, she focuses primarily on online learning excellence in the Turner College. 

Also among the winners is assistant professor of marketing Becca Jones, who earned the 2023 Teaching Innovation Award.  Between 2019 and 2022, students in Jones’ sport and event marketing course engaged in and created a marketing promotional plan to assist with the Annual Tennis Tournament held at CSU.  Students in this course also teamed up with the Fort Benning Chapter of Team River Runner to locate grant funding to help create, market, and produce an event on the Chattahoochee River called “Warriors on the Water.”  The students came up with the name of the event, designed the logo and t-shirts, made the grant applications accessible to the organization, and promoted and produced the event alongside Whitewater Express.  Lastly, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she invited sales industry professionals to visit her virtual classes to speak about their careers in sales and how the pandemic has impacted their jobs.