Claudia Turner with students in the Nursing Education Center. Claudia Turner with students in the Nursing Education Center.Claudia Turner, a professor of nursing at Temple College, has been selected to receive the school’s 2018 Claudia and W.T. Barnhart Teacher of the Year Award. The award includes a $2,000 stipend and the winner becomes Temple College’s nominee for a statewide teaching excellence award sponsored by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation.

Turner has been teaching in Temple College’s Associate Degree Nursing program since 1999. She has brought new teaching techniques into her classrooms and shared new teaching strategies with other faculty members.

Outside the classroom, Turner serves as the faculty liaison for the Temple College Associate Degree Nursing Student Organization and has helped nursing students coordinate activities such as food drives, assisting with sports physicals, and administering flu vaccines. She also serves as a faculty mentor for 14 ADN students, providing support and encouragement as well as sessions on test-taking skills and study skills.

Turner has held several leadership positions at Temple College, including serving as president of the Faculty Council. In 2016, she was one of seven faculty and staff members from the college who were selected to receive awards from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD). In 2018, she was selected to be among the first recipients of the Dale P. Parnell Distinguished Faculty recognition presented by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).

“Claudia is truly a leader for student success, not only in nursing, but throughout the college,” said Dr. Glenda O. Barron, president of Temple College.

Turner holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from The University of Texas School of Nursing in Galveston and a Master of Science in Nursing from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. She taught at Galveston College prior to joining the Temple College faculty.

Turner is the 30th Temple College faculty member to receive the Barnhart Award, which was created in 1989. Previous recipients of the award include Robert Schlieker, Gwen Hauk, Virginia (Willis) Leak, Wayne Toone, Michael Donahue, Danny Scott, Sarah Nell Summers, Ed Morgan, Hal Ward, Nancy Burroughs, Billye Weaver, Pat Simpson, Sharon Burson, Talma Botts, Karen Robinson, Leigh Boyd, Paul Foutz, Kerry Aguillon, Kirby Johnson, Cynthia Martinez, Terry Austin, Norma Maedgen, Leslie Keeling-Olson, Neil Coker, Tom Fairlie, Craig Collins, Jason Locklin, Brent Colwell and Dr. William “Bill” Cornelius.

Two faculty members from Temple College – Robert Schlieker and Michael Donahue – have gone on to receive the Piper Professor Award.

The Barnhart Award is named in honor of Claudia and W.T. Barnhart, whose family established an endowment through the Temple College Foundation in 1988 to make the award possible.