Shannon and Vila-Parrish receive Blessis Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor Awards

Drs. Steven Shannon and Anita Vila-Parrish are the winners of this year’s George H. Blessis Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor Award, given by the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University.

Shannon is an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the departmental ABET coordinator. Vila-Parrish is the director of undergraduate programs in the Edwards P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE).

The award, given during the College’s spring faculty meeting on April 22, recognizes faculty members who consistently and willingly give their time and effort to advising, counseling and mentoring students and assisting student groups. It is also a continuing memorial to George H. Blessis, a faculty member whose interest in undergraduate education and advising serves as an example today.

Candidates are nominated by departments and selected by the College of Engineering Teaching and Advising Awards Committee. The awardee receives $1,000 and a certificate and the recipient’s name is engraved on a permanent plaque displayed in Page Hall, the administrative building for the College of Engineering.

Shannon has been a part of the NC State faculty for eight years. He was an NC State University Faculty Scholar Award nominee in 2012, won the patent of the year at the 2010 Applied Materials, Inc. Engineering & Technology Conference, and was nominated and inducted into Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society in 2010.

He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan.

Vila-Parrish is an alumna of the ISE department and has been a part of the NC State faculty for more than five years. She is a recipient of the NC State New Faculty Advisor Award (2011-2012) and an NACADA Outstanding New Advisor Certificate of Merit in the New Faculty Advisor category (2012), and is an NC State TH!NK Faculty Fellow.

She received a B.S. degree from NC State, an MIE from Texas A&M University, an MA from Duke University and a Ph.D. from NC State.