Dr. Rebecca Townsend Receives Board of Regents System Scholarly Excellence Award
Dr. Rebecca Townsend, MCC professor of communication, is the Connecticut Board of Regents recipient of the System Scholarly Excellence Award for the 2013-14 academic year.
The Board of Regents Scholarly Excellence Awards were established to recognize faculty members who conduct work befitting the community college mission. Dr. Townsend is also the recipient of one of the 12 awards granted to nominees at each of the state’s community colleges. It is from this pool of institutional winners that the system-award winner is chosen.
Dr. Townsend was nominated by Endia DeCordova, MCC’s associate dean of institutional advancement and community engagement, who cited her for “her commitment and passion to student success and advancing the mission of the community college.”
Dr. Gena Glickman, president, MCC, added: “These two awards represent a special honor for Dr. Townsend and for the college. As we strive to meet the continuing needs of the community, her work to expand the scope of the college’s course offerings and programs and to further our outreach is to be commended.”
Dr. Townsend is widely published in her field. Her scholarship on public policy and communication has appeared in national journals, and she has presented at and co-chaired conferences around the country. She is a member of several scholarly associations including the Eastern Communication Association and the National Communication Association. Among her many honors, she was named a White House Champion of Change for Transportation Innovation in 2012.
At MCC, she has developed and established new courses as well as created a new associate in art degree in interpersonal and organizational communication. She has served on the MCC faculty since 2008. She was recently named a full professor and received tenure, effective this summer.
She also serves as the faculty coordinator for the college’s Institute for Community Engagement and Outreach, whose mission is to offer and respond to requests for education, career placement, service learning, training, programming, service projects and technical assistance designed to enrich the economic, civic and cultural lives of area residents and prosperity of local businesses. She has helped affiliate MCC with the National Issues Forum network, the only college or university in Connecticut to do so. This achievement involves organizing and neutrally facilitating discussions on public policy issues and training in public deliberation moderating.
