Nancy J. Hodges
UNC Greensboro
Dr. Nancy J. Hodges received her baccalaureate degree in Fine Arts from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and her master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Minnesota. She came to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro as an assistant professor in 1998, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004. She is currently serving as the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies. Over the years, Dr. Hodges has developed and taught a dozen courses. These include introductory and advanced level courses; specialized as well as general education requirement courses; bachelor's, master's, and doctoral courses; and small class size courses and courses with more than a hundred students. Five doctoral students have completed their degrees with Dr. Hodges as the Chair of their respective dissertation committees. Eight master's students have completed the thesis option and five master's students have completed the non-thesis option under her tutelage. She served on seven other Ph.D. and master's degree committees.
Professor Nancy Hodges is regularly described as "committed" and "passionate" about her work with students in and beyond the classroom. She is able to hold the attention of more than 150 undergraduate freshmen in an auditorium by setting high expectations of herself and her students. Many of her faculty colleagues confirm that she is the perfect academic role model for her students. One of her students wrote: "... Dr. Hodges is unique and cannot be boxed in. She is a professional who has mastered her craft and unselfishly shares her knowledge with her students. To know her is to love her as she is compassionate. In times when she shows you tough love, which she balances very well, she helps you dry your tears. I unabashedly know this from experience. To know her is to trust that she has your best interest at heart. This is demonstrated by her fearless commitment to stand up for her students' rights. Sports teams have separate coaches and cheerleaders, oftentimes at least two in both categories. The graduate students in Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies have Dr. Hodges!"
Dr. Nancy Hodges is a true "teacher-scholar". Professor Hodges has consistently, in the words of her Head of the Department, "out distanced the pack" in achieving the student learning outcomes, mentoring students and untenured faculty, and pedagogical research. With guidance from Dr. Hodges, graduate students have presented about two dozen refereed papers at regional, national, and international professional meetings. The students have also co-authored half a dozen journal articles with her. She has had a substantial influence on not only graduate education, but undergraduate learning as well. The latter is evidenced by her receiving the USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant (of more than $327,000) for creating learning modules for undergraduate programs around the world. She has been recognized for her exemplary teaching over the last decade. She is the recipient of the Mary Francis Outstanding Teaching Award in 2003 and the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2009 in the School of Human Environmental Sciences at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.