Jennifer Cognard-Black, professor of English and the 2020 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching winner was recognized by her alma mater earlier this month. On Thursday, Oct. 3, Cognard Black received the Alumni Achievement Award from Nebraska Wesleyan University, where she earned her bachelor’s in English and music, summa cum laude, Phi Kappa Phi in 1991. The alumni award recognizes an individual’s vocational achievement and community Involvement.
“Wesleyan has profoundly impacted my intellectual, professional and personal life”, Cognard-Black said. “Even more, what I learned at Wesleyan has made me a better person—influencing me, as William Wordsworth once wrote, towards those 'little, nameless, unremembered, acts / Of kindness and of love' that were fostered by an education in what it means to be human.”
In addition to the Cherry Award, a prestigious national teaching award considered the Nobel Prize for teachers, Cognard-Black is a Fulbright recipient to Slovenia and the Netherlands. She has authored several books and produced two lecture series with The Great Courses. She has also had a lasting impact on many of her students over the years.
