Faculty Excellence Award
Dr. Kari Dahle-Huff
Assistant Professor, Educational Theory and Practice, COE
Dr. Kari Dahle-Huff, an Assistant Professor of the Educational Theory and Practice Department in the College of Education, is a deserving recipient of the Faculty Excellence Award due to her commitment to her students, scholarship, service, and leadership.
Dahle-Huff has extensive content knowledge in a variety of areas and is flexible in her teaching. During her past six years at Montana State University Billings, she has taught sixteen different course preparations. Dahle-Huff continually has high student evaluations scores, and students report high course satisfaction.
Along with her exemplary teaching, Dahle-Huff demonstrates creativity in her course design and delivery. She is currently teaching the COE’s first Hy-Flex course. Additionally, Dahle-Huff uses local resources in order to keep her classes relevant and interesting, bringing in local experts as guest speakers to class. To keep her courses unique, she partners with organizations like Yellowstone Public Radio, Billings Public Library, and Skyview High School.
Dahle-Huff played an instrumental role in redesigning the Reading Master’s program. She helped secure a $7,000 e-learning grant which prompted the program to move online. “This change has resulted in a significant increase in interest and enrollment in the program and has significantly improved the delivery of content to extend to communities throughout the entire state of Montana,” remarked a colleague.
In addition to the work she puts into her department, Dahle-Huff continues to establish herself as a scholar. In the past five years, she has published three book chapters, a journal article, and three peer-reviewed encyclopedia entries. She has also completed fifteen professional presentations.
Dahle-Huff serves on department and college committees and is chair of the graduate committee. She was recently elected co-department chair for the Department of Educational Theory and Practice. Outside of her college, Dahle-Huff serves as the co-chair for Higher Education Consortium (HEC) and as the Montana representative for the Northern Rocky Mountain Educational Association. She is also a co-editor of the Montana State Literacy Association’s Literacy Voices journal.
Her classroom innovations, departmental contributions, and influence on campus and in the community make Dahle-Huff a worthy recipient of this award.