The James Pinckney Kinard and Lee Wicker Kinard Award for Excellence in Teaching, established in honor of former president James Pinckney Kinard and his wife, Lee Wicker Kinard, in 1984 by their family, is based on dedication to teaching, reputation on campus for teaching, and reputation among students.
Winthrop does not offer a degree in Bollinger’s field (geology) but that has not stopped her from showing leadership in curriculum development, student assessment and personal innovation. "Marsha is an outstanding teacher with tremendous personal qualities. She greatly enriches the quality of the educational environment for both faculty and students," Pat Owens, chair of chemistry, physics and geology, said in his nomination form. He noted that Bollinger recently was required by her doctors to stop talking for a month to correct a persistent hoarseness problem. "She taught all of her classes without speaking or whispering," Owens said of Bollinger’s creativity. "She took advantage of her typing skills, a computer projector, increased group class exercises, hand and arm signals, a dry erase clipboard for personal conversations and a continual smile to get her teaching points across."
Since she joined the Winthrop faculty in 1986, Bollinger has created a Summer Safari for Girls to provide academically at-risk middle school girls with a positive science experiment. She developed the project first as a pilot project and then saw it funded more fully with a grant from the Eisenhower Math and Science program. She continues to hold weekend workshops for the students throughout the academic year.
Bollinger also has taught in the Summer Science Program for ninth graders at the Governor’s School of Science and Mathematics. She led a group of colleagues in writing a revised curriculum development proposal to the National Science Foundation to develop an integrated undergraduate science curriculum which, if implemented, would make Winthrop a leader in science education. In addition, she has been involved as a principal or co-investigator in grants that have brought more than $150,000 to Winthrop.
"I am truly honored to be recognized in this way," Bollinger said. "Teaching is a faculty member’s primary job; I work hard at it and have a sense that I do an adequate job. But to be considered excellent at this task by my peers is really exhilarating."
Bollinger earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in geology from the University of South Carolina and her B.S. in geosciences from The Pennsylvania State University.