The Opal Goolsby Award
The Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award is a traditional recognition of our very best teaching on the HBU campus. Some of the best judges of great teaching are our students. Our Student Government Association conducts nominations each Spring for faculty representatives from each of our colleges and schools. A selection committee with representatives from Student Government Association, the faculty Professional Development Committee and the Provost’s Office examine the record of accomplishment for each nominee and carefully select the faculty member who best represents the ideals of outstanding teaching. We’re proud to shine the spotlight on these wonderful examples of wisdom and inspiration on the HBU campus.
Professor Opal Goolsby
Opal Goolsby was a legendary faculty member at Houston Baptist College. She was a member of the original faculty in 1963 and taught English and French. With her husband, Bill, Opal had experienced a global life in a day when the presence of a woman in some sections of the globe had to be justified. She told of wonderful Middle East events where her presence at an oil contract signing with her husband in the desert, under a tent, on a Persian carpet was permitted because she had been named the guest of honor by the Sheik. She learned French at the Sorbonne when she became separated from her husband for more than a year in the political strife in Europe in the late thirties. She was a quick study and taught French the rest of her life. She was a generous, selfless teacher, who loved life and demanded the best of her students while endlessly offering them her encouragement and assistance.
2020 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
Professor of Business, Archie W. Dunham College of Business Dr. Levon Hayrapetyan, Professor of Business, started teaching at HBU after moving from Armenia in 1999. Dr. Hayrapetyan created a unique blend of American and European teaching methods and styles, which has enabled him to identify students’ strengths and arrange their learning around those strengths. His excellence in teaching and innovation has earned him multiple local, regional and international awards. Among them is The Teaching Excellence International Award given by ACBSP – a competition that included 253 business schools and programs from around the globe. In 2020, Dr. Hayrapetyan became HBU Piper Professor and a recipient of the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation Piper Professor Award. |
2019 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
Assistant Professor of Biology, College of Science and Engineering |
2018 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
Assistant Professor of Theology, School of Christian Thought Dr. Sorgwe joined the HBU faculty in 2006. He earned his PhD in Religion degree, with a minor in the Biblical Languages, from Baylor University, after having obtained his Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Religious Education degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. At Southwestern he won the H.C. Brown Preaching Award in 1981. He is the faculty sponsor of Theta Alpha Kappa, the honor society for religious studies and theology, as well as the African Student Association. He is a regular speaker at Thursday convocations. He considers himself blessed to be combining the complementary roles of theology professor and pastor as he gladly exercises his spiritual gifts of preaching and teaching. Before winning the Opal Goolsby Award this year, Dr. Sorgwe was a nominee (finalist) in 2007, 2010, and 2015. |
2017 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
![]() Professor of Government, School of Humanities Dr. Christopher Hammons is the Director of the Morris Family Center for Law & Liberty and a professor of Government at Houston Baptist University. He teaches courses in constitutional history, political thought, and presidential politics. Dr. Hammons received a B.A. in Government and History at the University of Texas at Austin in 1991 and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Houston in 1997. Dr. Hammons is the recipient of several teaching awards and is a sought after speaker on the American founding. |
2016 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
![]() Professor of Chemistry, College of Science and Mathematics Chair, Department of Chemistry Dr. Woods completed her thirty-third year of teaching at HBU in May 2016. She earned B. S. degrees in chemistry and in mathematics from Mankato State University in her native Minnesota and a PhD in chemistry from Rice University. She mainly teaches the organic chemistry lecture and laboratory courses now, but has also taught general chemistry and advanced organic chemistry. She has been part of faculty teams for interdisciplinary classes at HBU in various topics such as the future, bioethics, and the principles of research for scientists. During her time at HBU, she had a sabbatical year teaching at the University of Minnesota and also taught organic chemistry at Rice for one semester. She was named Outstanding Academic Advisor at HBU in 1995 and in 2002. Dr. Woods was previously honored with the Opal Goolsby Award in 1996. |
2015 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
![]() Assistant Professor of History Department of History and Great Texts, School of Humanities Dr. Garbarino’s “Augustine, Donatists, and Martyrdom” appears in An Age of Saints? Power, Conflict and Dissent in Early Medieval Christianity, edited by P. Booth, M. J. Dal Santo and P. Sarris (Leiden: Brill, 2011). He has written for a number of popular publications, including Touchstone, First Things, and The Federalist. Dr. Garbarino writes about himself, “I grew up in Louisiana, where the best food in the world can be found (although Thailand ranks a close second). I met my wife at LA Tech, we’ve been married for 15 years (sic), and we have four young children. Though we now live in Houston, we still consider ourselves Louisianans. Living in Texas is a lot like being in captivity in Egypt—there’s work to do and the government is rich. Though we’re living in exile now, we make frequent trips across the Sabine River, our River Jordan, to the promised land, a land flowing with gumbo and boudin.” |
2014 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
![]() Dr. Jackie Peltier Horn |
2013 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
|
2012 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
![]() J. Daryl Hinze, JD |
2011 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
![]() Nicole Pinaire, PhD |
2010 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner: |
![]() Saul Trevino, PhD |
Past Opal Goolsby Recipients
2009 | Dr. Ron Homann | Dr. Melissa Wiseman |
2008 | Dr. Miguel Estrada | Dr. Valerie Bussell |
2007 | Dr. David Adcock | Alexis Knapp |
2006 | Dr. Chris Salinas | Dr. Martha Maddox |
2005 | Dr. David Capes | Deb Berry |
2004 | Dr. Robert Towery | Dr. Ruth Ann Williamson |
2003 | Dr. Christopher Hammons | Dr. Melissa Wiseman |
2002 | Dr. Randy Wilson | Dr. Brenda Whaley |
2001 | Dr. Joe Blair | Dr. Constantina Michalos |
2000 | Dr. Randy Hatchett | Dr. Susan Cook |
1999 | Dr. James Taylor | Dr. Jacqueline Horn |
1998 | Dr. Avin Brownlee | Dr. Ann Owen |
1997 | Dr. Ernie Pyle | Dr. Linda Roff (Brupbacher) |
1996 | Dr. David Capes | Dr. Treacy Woods |
1995 | Dr. James Ulmer | Dr. Rhonda Furr |
1994 | Dr. Curtis Freeman | Dr. Beth Boyce |
1993 | Rex Fleming | Alice Rowlands |
1992 | Dr. Louis Markos | Patricia Dominguez |
1991 | Dr. Daton Dodson | Dr. Sally Phillips |
1990 | Dr. John Alexander | Ruth Stritmatter |
1989 | Dr. James Taylor | Dr. Brooke Tucker |
1988 | Dr. Avin Brownlee | Dr. Phyllis Nimmons |
1987 | Bob Marley | Dr. Marion Webb |
1986 | Dr. Paul Leath | Dr. Brooke Tucker |
1985 | Dr. Robert Creech | Dr. Patricia Pando |
1984 | Dr. Stephen Wentland | Dr. Elysee Peavy |
1983 | Dr. James Tsao | Dr. Marilyn Colvin |
1982 | Dr. Avin Brownlee | Dr. Marion Webb |
1981 | Dr. Paul Leath, Dr. A.O. Collins | Ruth Stritmatter |
1980 | Dr. Rick Denham | Dr. Brooke Tucker, Dr. Joyce Fan |
1979 | Dr. James Tsao, Dr. Stephen Wentland | Susan Wilson |
1978 | Dr. Avin Brownlee | Dr. Gerda Smith, Dr. Elysee Peavy |
1977 | Dr. James Taylor | Monteen Maczali, Dr. Cynthia Rogers |
1976 | Dr. Newell Boyd | Mrs. Cheryl Simmons, Opal Goolsby |
1975 | Dr. Rick Denham | Dr. Elysee Peavy, Grace Johnson |
1974 | Dr. Steve Donohue | Marion Webb, Dr. Marilyn Sibley |
1973 | Dr. Daton Dodson | Dr. Phyllis Nimmons, Dr. Cynthia Rogers |
1972 | Dr. A.O. Collins, Dr. Don Byrnes, Dr. Steve Donohue | |
1971 | Marianne Miller, Dr. Elysee Peavy, Dr. Marilyn Sibley |