CSC wildlife professor receives two awards

Assistant Professor Teresa Zimmerman, who teaches wildlife management courses at CSC, has been recognized this spring with two awards.

Zimmerman won the Professional of the Year Award from Nebraska’s chapter of The Wildlife Society in February. She also won the Alumni Award from the Wildlife Club at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, which was presented to her last weekend.

The UNL Alumni Award is presented to former Wildlife Club graduates who make contributions in their field of study. Zimmerman was a former treasurer and president of the club as a student.

The Professional of the Year Award came as a surprise to Zimmerman because she did not know she was nominated.

She was nominated by Bill Vodehnal of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Chuck Butterfield, department chairman of applied sciences at CSC.

The award was presented during the chapter’s Feb. 26 – 27 meeting in Norfolk. The award was for her work at CSC in the two years she has been teaching here.

Other institutions at the meeting were UNL, University of Nebraska Kearney, Wayne State College, and the University of South Dakota.

Speaking of her awards, Zimmerman said, “both are the high point of my career.” Her future goals include improving her teaching and incorporating more undergraduate research at CSC.

Zimmerman helped CSC acquire a collection of mounted animals from Cabela’s called the High Plains Wildlife Collection.

Of the collection’s 75 mounted animals 65 of the specimens were donated by Cabela’s. Some of the other donators included the Weedon Herbarium Trust, Wayne and Janette Zimmerman, and Brian Pienicky.

At an open house Monday in the Burkhiser Technology Complex, CSC President Janie Park thanked all the donators for the collection.