FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 15, 2016

For more information:
Glenville State College
Public Relations and Marketing
(304) 462-4115

GLENVILLE, WV – Glenville State College Professor of Communications Dennis Wemm has been selected to receive the 2016 Pete and Betsy Barr Professional Development Award. The award is rotated annually between GSC faculty and staff and must be used within eighteen months of being awarded. The award is designed primarily for the recipient to further their professional growth, although the awardee can use the money to further their particular area of interest in lieu of traditional professional development activities.

Wemm, who directs the theatre program at GSC in addition to his teaching duties, has used the funds to purchase a control console for the stage lighting in the Heflin Administration Building Auditorium. “The console will usher in a new era to theatre endeavors in the Presidents Auditorium. Over the past five years, the theatre has been replacing our aging incandescent lighting with LEDs. These are great in terms of saving energy and allowing precise control of color,” said Wemm.

Pete and Betsy Barr with 2016 Barr Professional Development Award recipient Dennis Wemm (right); the new equipment Wemm purchased for the theatre program is on the table in front of them

“For the past four years we have been using either an old lighting console from the Fine Arts Center or my own personal computer with a DJ lighting program. Both of these were so complicated that students found it off-putting to try to use them. A light could be aimed in one place on stage and would light up the audience in order to get there,” Wemm explained.

The new console allows for easy, accurate, and intuitive programming of the lights. He says that theatre staff will be able to precisely control each fixture using controllers like a video game, set the show up, and run it with the touch of a button.

In addition to directing the theater program, Wemm is President of the GSC Faculty Senate, has served on the Curriculum Committee, and the HLC accreditation Steering Committee.

Wemm earned an Associate of Arts Degree in Drama/Dance from Lakeland Community College (Mentor, Ohio) in 1975, a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Communication/Theatre from Kent State University in 1977, a Master’s of Arts in Theatre and Communication from the University of Akron in 1979, and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Theatre/Performance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1985.

Professor Wemm and his wife Dr. Nancy Wemm, a full Professor at New River Community and Technical College in Summersville, West Virginia, live in Glenville. They have two children; daughter Stephanie and son Alex, whose continued academic success he says makes him mighty proud.

Previous recipients of the Barr Award have included: GSC Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Sara Sawyer (2010), Administrative Secretary for the GSC Athletic Department and Title IX Coordinator/Senior Women’s Administrator Amanda Frymier (2011), Associate Professor of Business Cheryl Fleming McKinney, CPA (2012), Registrar’s Office Certification Analyst Denise Ellyson (2013), Assistant Professor of Spanish Dr. Megan Gibbons (2014), and GSC’s Sports Medicine Staff (2015).

The next Barr Award will be presented in January 2017 to a selected staff applicant. A committee comprised of two faculty members and two staff representatives reviews all applications and selects the awardee.

For more information about the Pete and Betsy Barr Professional Development Award, contact Vice President for College Advancement and Executive Director of GSC Foundation and Chairman of the Pete and Betsy Barr Professional Development Award Selection Committee Denny Pounds at Dennis.Pounds@glenville.edu or (304) 462-6381.