2000 Orien B. Hendrex Distinguished Teacher
Paula S. Steiert
Paula S. Steiert, instructor of biology, was chosen as the 2000 Orien B. Hendrix Distinguished Teacher. The recipient of this honor is selected each year by the previous three years' and current year's graduating classes. This award honors Southwest Baptist University's late academic dean and is presented annually to a faculty member for "outstanding teaching ability and personal guidance." Dr. Hendrix's tenure at Southwest Baptist was from 1946 to 1966.
Mrs. Steiert joined the SBU faculty in 1990 and has taught classes in microbiology, patho-physiology, principles of chemistry, general biology and anatomy and physiology at SBU's Springfield Center. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in biology from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1981 and a master's degree in microbiology from the University of Minnesota in 1984.
Before joining the SBU faculty, Mrs. Steiert was employed at the Upjohn Company as a microbiologist for four years and an adjunct faculty member at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.
She was also a reaserch assistant for two years in the department of microbiology at the University of Iowa. Mrs. Steiert is the coauthor of more than a dozen papers covering her research experiences and is a member of the American Society for Microbiology.
She and her husband, Jack, live in Springfield and have one daughter, Brianna, who is 5. They attend Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Ozark.