Congratulation to Rita B. Dandridge, professor of English and Foreign
Languages. She was selected as the is one of 11 recipients of the TIAA-CREF
Virginia Outstanding Faculty Awards, the Commonwealth highest honor for
faculty at Virginia colleges and universities.
For the first time, TIAA-CREF, which manages the premier retirement system
for people employed in education and research in the U.S., has stepped
forward to sponsor the awards program after the Virginia General Assembly
cut all state appropriations.
Each recipient received a $4,000 award and a
specially designed commemorative plaque from the State Council of Higher
Education for Virginia (SCHEV), which administers the OFA program.
RITA B. DANDRIDGE, Ph.D. – Norfolk State University
Rita B. Dandridge is a professor in the Department of English and Foreign
Languages at Norfolk State University (NSU). A recipient of NSU’s Roy A.
Woods Outstanding Teacher Award in 1998, Dandridge was elected to the
Delegate Assembly of the Modern Language Association in 2003. She has
published three books and dozens of research and review articles in her
specialty of African-American women’s literature during her 29-year tenure
at Norfolk State. A recipient of various stipends and study grants from
the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education, and the Office of Civil Rights, Dandridge has
enhanced the quality of the teaching through extensive travel to Africa as
well as academic and literary conference across the United States.
Dandridge has received perfect scores on the teaching component of her
annual evaluations 27 out of the 29 times that she has been evaluated by
her professional peers at Norfolk State.
Norfolk State University
700 Park Avenue
Norfolk, VA 23504 USA
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