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Bay College names six as Outstanding Educators

AL BACIAK SPEAKS after receiving an Outstanding Part-Time Educator Award as a adjunct mathematics instructor at Bay College West in Iron Mountain at Bay College West in Iron Mountain. He taught secondary mathematics from 1974 to 2008 at Niagara School District in Niagara, Wis.

ESCANABA — Bay College honored its 2019 Outstanding Educators at an awards dinner April 23.

Don Johnson Agency/MEEMIC Insurance sponsored the Outstanding Educator Awards. To receive consideration for the award, faculty were nominated by a colleague, student or someone from the community.

The primary focus of the award is to acknowledge faculty’s commitment to education and excellence in service to others.

Those receiving the part-time educator awards were:

— Al Baciak, an adjunct mathematics instructor at Bay College West in Iron Mountain. Baciak has been employed at Bay College since 2008. Before coming to Bay, he taught secondary mathematics from 1974 to 2008 in the Niagara School District in Niagara, Wis. He earned a bachelor of science degree summa cum laude in 1974, and a master of arts degree in 1983 from Northern Michigan University. Baciak previously was named Outstanding Adjunct Educator for Bay College in 2010-2011.

— Laurie Johnson’s teaching experience started as a graduate student at Northern Michigan University, where she earned a master’s degree in biology and conducted her thesis researching black bears. She taught biology for three years at North Central Michigan College, including field studies classes to the Everglades and Yellowstone National Park. She came to Bay College in 2000 and has taught a variety of non-major biology classes.

— Penney Parmet began as an adjunct instructor at Bay College in 2011. She teaches classes in interpersonal communication, exploring teaching and educational psychology. In addition, Parmet also is an English/language arts and Academic Success teacher and mentor with the Upper Peninsula Virtual Academy online school for kindergarten through 12th grade. Parmet began teaching in 1974 and has taught at the elementary, middle school, high school, undergraduate and graduate college levels.

The outstanding full-time educators honored that same night were:

— Brian Black has been a biology and environmental science instructor at Bay College since 2000. He also presently is chairman of the Math Science Division.

— Joyce King is a computer information systems instructor at the college, a position she has had since 1988. During her tenure, King developed most of the current CIS curriculum, including the CIS: Software/Network Support degree, the CIS: Programming and User Support degree and the Computer Applications Certificate. She has taught more than 15 different CIS courses and currently is the program leader for the CIS department. She was named Distinguished Faculty in 2002 and Outstanding Educator in 2011.

— Matthew P. Krynicki is the physics, engineering mechanics and astronomy instructor at Bay College. He pursued his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, graduating in May 2006. His graduate research focused on ground-based measurements of upper-atmospheric vertical winds and temperatures and on space-based measurements of upper-atmospheric composition disturbances associated with these vertical winds. He is considered an expert on the aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights. He has been teaching physics at Bay since August 2006.

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