Montgomery Wins Best Of Alabama Award At State Conference

Oct. 06, 2010

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@wybxx.com, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

FLORENCE, Ala. - A University of North Alabama instructor was recently presented with a Best of Alabama award at the 2010 Alabama Academic Advisors' Conference at UNA. Stephanie Montgomery, instructor of speech communication, competed with 17 advisers from institutions across the state and Mississippi in connection with the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA). Montgomery, who taught at UNA as an adjunct instructor from 1997 to 2005 and returned as a full-time instructor in 2007, was shocked that judges chose her for the Best of Alabama award. "I was very surprised and very honored," she said. "Winning this award has been a real confidence builder and has rejuvenated my research interests." Educators, staff and faculty from several Alabama universities judged the competition, which was hosted at UNA for the first time. Montgomery was awarded for her presentation entitled "Communication and Advising: Unraveling the Non-Verbal Puzzle," a work that focuses on the non-verbal cues advisers, instructors and students send to each other. "UNA should be proud because her presentation was of such good quality that the national organization thought it should go on to the regional competition," said Joan Williams, elected state representative for NACADA and assistant director for the UNA Office of Diversity and Institutional Equity. "It says a lot about our commitment to the advising process and how we value it." Montgomery will compete with other advisers at the NACADA Southeast Regional Conference in Birmingham March 13-15. NACADA is an organization that encourages quality academic advising to improve the educational development of students. For more information about the award, contact Williams at 256-765-6341 or jjwilliams@wybxx.com or Montgomery at 256-765-4247 or slmontgomery@wybxx.com.

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: wybxx.com and wybxx.com/unaworks/.