Dr. Litasha Dennis, Professor of English, is the 2016 recipient of the Archie Vernon and Margaret Wannamaker Huff Faculty Award. The award is given to a Spartanburg Methodist College faculty member who exemplifies outstanding professional qualifications and teaching ability. Dr. Dennis was presented with the award during the college’s Commencement Exercises on Saturday, May 7.

Dennis was recognized for her deep commitment to her students and her outstanding ability to engage them in critical thinking through the use of masterful questioning and discussion strategies, says Dr. Ann Bowles, Vice President for Academic Affairs. “She has a wonderful way of instilling the belief in each student that they can accomplish their goals,” she said. “As an adviser, coach and mentor to her students, as well as a teacher, Litasha works right alongside each and every one of them.”

The Huff Award includes an $800 stipend for further study, travel for professional purposes or to defray the cost of publication expenses for scholarly work.

In 1970, Dr. A. V. Huff, Jr., a former SMC Board of Trustees member and a retired faculty member of the History Department at Furman University, along with his wife, Kate, established the endowed award in memory of his parents, Archie Vernon and Margaret Wannamaker Huff.

Dennis, who was awarded tenure by the college this spring, received her doctorate in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2005. She received master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English from Winthrop University in 1998 and 1996, respectively.