TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama National Alumni Association has announced the four recipients of its 2004 Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award (OCTA), the University's highest honor for excellence in teaching.

The winners are Dr. James Bindon, professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences; Bryan K. Fair, professor of law in the UA Law School; Dr. Roy Ann Sherrod, professor in the Capstone College of Nursing; and William C. Teague, professor of theatre and dance in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Established in 1976, OCTA recognizes dedication to the teaching profession and the positive impact professors have on their students. Presentation of the awards to this year’s winners took place Wednesday, Sept. 22, during the UA fall faculty-staff meeting at the Bryant Conference Center.

Dr. Jim Bindon joined the UA anthropology department in 1978, after working on his doctorate at Penn State with National Academy of Sciences member Dr. Paul Baker. Much of his research has involved how culture affects health among Samoans. He has pursued that same area of research among the Mississippi Choctaw, on Tuscaloosa’s West Side and currently among many ethnic groups in Hawaii.

Bindon has obtained support from the National Institutes of Health in all of these studies. At UA he has taught from the freshman to the doctoral level, garnering a reputation as a demanding teacher. His most recent new course is “Race, Ethnicity, and Human Variation” where the biological inadequacy of the concept of race is explored by lower division students using a combination lecture and wide-ranging discussion format. He is the faculty sponsor of the UA chapter of Lambda Alpha, the national anthropology honorary society, started at UA this year, and wrote the proposal for the chapter himself. His wife Dr. Kathy Bindon, UA associate professor of accounting, won the OCTA in 1991.

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Professor Bryan K. Fair joined the UA School of Law in 1991. He was named the Thomas E. Skinner Professor of Law in 2000. After earning his law degree from UCLA, Fair worked as an associate with Bryan, Cave, McPheeters & McRoberts in Los Angeles. In 1987 he joined the UCLA faculty as a lecturer and co-directed UCLA’s academic support program. He served as a commissioner of the California State Bar Commission on Minority Access to the Legal Profession and as a Public Counsel legal services volunteer.

Fair has twice been named a Dean’s Scholar at the UA School of Law and is a frequent commentator in local, national and international press on the constitutional issues pending before the Supreme Court. He is a six-time member of the law school commencement hooding team, and has twice been named the law school’s outstanding faculty member. Fair has served as the faculty adviser to the Black Law Students Association and other student groups. He directs the University of Fribourg/UA cooperative educational program and serves as a summer academic support administrator and teacher.

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Dr. Roy Ann Sherrod joined the Capstone College of Nursing in 1981 after completing graduate work at Mississippi University for Women. Prior to that time she worked as a staff nurse in the West Alabama area. During her tenure at the University, Sherrod has taught in a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. Her initial undergraduate teaching responsibility was in adult health nursing. She later taught in maternity nursing, research and concepts. Her most recent teaching responsibility has been in leadership and management which are linked to a practicum experience for students with registered nurses at various healthcare facilities.

Sherrod has been instrumental in the development and implementation of the College’s graduate program in case management where she teaches in the human relations management course. Her belief in case management as a way to improve health care services and cost has been the foundation for her continued commitment to the program. She has also taught in graduate issues and roles courses through a former outreach program with UAB.

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Professor William Teague joined the UA department of theatre and dance in 1981. His area of specialty is entertainment technology, with an emphasis on lighting, audio and computer assisted design. He has worked extensively in outdoor drama, television, film and special event production as well as traditional theatre and dance. He has lighted University theatre and dance performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, as well as the Biennial Dance Festival at the Universite de Lumiere in Lyons, France.

He has served as theatre consultant on many projects including the restoration of Mobile’s Saenger Theatre, the Ritz Theatre in Gadsden and, most recently, he coordinated the University’s restoration of historic Morgan Auditorium. Teague is also active in regional and national theatre organizations, serving on the executive board of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology for six years, currently serving as vice president for special operations.

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The UA National Alumni Association, which gives the annual OCTA awards, is made up of more than 30,000 active alumni and friends of the University, organized into more than 100 local chapters nationwide. The association stimulates interest in and supports the betterment of the University, with member contributions accounting for more than $2 million per year in academic scholarships.