Gajanan, Ziaukas to receive president's faculty award

Dr. Livingston Alexander, president, will present the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship and Service to two faculty members, Dr. Shailendra Gajanan, professor of economics, and Tim Ziaukas, professor of public relations.

They will be honored during commencement exercises April 30.

“Professors Gajanan and Ziaukas have demonstrated all-around excellence throughout their careers at Pitt-Bradford,” Alexander said.  “Their selection for this award is our way of thanking them for the significant contributions they make in the all-important instructional programs and in scholarship and service.”

Gajanan, who is the chair of the Division of Management and Education, has been teaching at Pitt-Bradford for 25 years.

He was nominated by Dr. Nancy McCabe, professor of writing.

“Dr. Gajanan is well known on campus as an excellent educator,” she wrote in her nomination. “His introductory courses are always full, his student evaluations are consistently excellent, and the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association honored him with its Teaching Excellence Award in 2011.”

As a researcher, he has published 17 articles in refereed academic journals and two books on food security and nutrition policy. He has obtained many internal and external grants, including collaborating with fellow faculty to study the use of Marcellus Shale impact fees and the potential for growth in the Pennsylvania wine industry.

Administratively, Dr. Gajanan has served as the chair of the Division of Management and Education since 2013 and has been reappointed for a new four-year term.

He has been a faculty liaison and advisor for the Pitt in India Study Abroad program in 2007 and 2016 and has been instrumental in fostering an exchange relationship with Heilbronn University, where he has taught twice.

Ziaukas, professor of public relations and director of the program, was nominated by Dr. Richard E. McDowell, president emeritus.

Since coming to Pitt-Bradford in 1994, Ziaukas has had 15 journal and book articles published in many publications, including the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Quarterly, Western Pennsylvania History, American Journalism: A Journal of Media History, and KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt.

One of his most talked about articles was “Oz in the Oilfields? Searching for L. Frank Baum in Bradford,” which appeared in Western Pennsylvania History in the summer of 2014. In it, he laid to rest the long-debated notion that the “Wizard of Oz” writer had lived and worked in Bradford.

He has taught 17 different courses, developing 11 new and revising six others. In addition to public relations courses, Ziaukas has taught journalism and communication courses as well as classes in popular culture. He has served as the faculty advisor for The Source, Pitt-Bradford's award-winning student newspaper.

He also served as the marketing director of the Bradford Creative and Performing Arts Center for two decades. Additionally, he spearheaded and has continued to raise money for the James Guelfi and Madeline Miles scholarship funds at Pitt-Bradford.

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