Dr. Sharon Mitchler, an English professor at Centralia College, is the recipient of the Faculty Member Award from the Association of Community College Trustees Pacific Region.
The award honors professors who demonstrate excellence in teaching, engage and encourage students, participate in innovation, and lead on campus and in the community, according to a news release from the college.
The award will be presented in Chicago in October. Mitchler’s name has been forwarded for consideration for the national ACCT Faculty Member Award.
“For her entire career, Dr. Mitchler has embodied the spirit of the community college mission, putting students first and exhibiting a strong commitment to teaching and learning,” Dr. Bob Mohrbacher, Centralia College president, said in the release. “She has served Centralia College and its students in many capacities for many years. She has a high degree of professionalism and dedication to her craft.”
Mitchler has taught at Centralia College for 28 years and has won the college’s Exceptional Faculty Award a record three times.
She’s a previous winner of the Two-Year College English Association’s Nell Ann Pickett Service Award and the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Excellence Award.
Mitchler is a pioneer in the Teaching for Transfer movement, a teaching strategy designed to help students apply knowledge learned in one context to other contexts and applications. Through that work, she has participated in multi-institutional research funded by the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Her work on the Writing Passport Project has influenced how community colleges nationwide design composition curricula for diverse populations, while her leadership in anti-racist "communities of practice" has modernized pedagogical standards for two-year institutions.
She also published an academic monograph, “Critical Rural Pedagogy: Connecting College Students with American Literature,” in 2023.
Beyond the classroom, she has served in leadership roles in the college’s Guided Pathways, JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) and sustainability committees and is a longtime CC101 College Success Team Leader, in which she mentored new students through the critical transition to academic culture.
“I am honored and want to point out that the work I am being recognized for was made possible through the support and encouragement of Centralia College staff, faculty, and administrators,” Mitchler said in the release. “This is a college that encourages professional growth of faculty.”
