February 10, 2022
At its February 7 formal meeting, the Oakland University Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Andrea Eis, MFA, and Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Ph.D., to the rank of Distinguished Professor.
A selection committee of their peers recommended Professors Eis and Zeigler-Hill for consideration for the appointments and submitted letters of support on their behalf. The Office of the Provost also reviewed each professor’s body of work prior to recommending them for consideration by the Board. The appointments take effect on August 15, 2022.
Andrea Eis |
Professor Eis has contributed decades of exemplary service to OU within various departments and programs. She led the initiative to start a studio art major and served as its coordinator and adviser from 2004 to 2009. During her tenure as chair of the Department of Art and Art History, Eis guided the creation of a new major in graphic design. In 2012, she joined the Department of English to support the newly established Cinema Studies program (now Film Studies and Production), of which she has served as chair since 2016.
Eis has served on the University Senate for 17 years, including nine as a member of the steering committee. She has also been a member of the College of Arts and Sciences Assembly for 14 years, along with serving on numerous faculty committees. Her contributions and commitment to her female colleagues was honored with the Phyllis Law Googasian Award.
In addition to her leadership at OU, Eis has written book chapters, published refereed journal and newspaper articles, and presented at national and international conferences. Her creative work and scholarship have been supported by prestigious organizations such as the National Art Education Foundation, the Arts Foundation of Michigan and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Virgil Zeigler-Hill |
Professor Zeigler-Hill is an internationally recognized scholar of social-personality psychology. His work is highly cited, with over 10,000 citations on Google Scholar. In addition to peer-reviewed journal articles, his contributions include nine books or edited volumes, 39 book chapters and more than 200 conference presentations. He serves as a reviewer for numerous journals and serves on the editorial board for prestigious journals, including the Journal of Personality and Journal of Personality Assessment.
Zeigler-Hill’s most significant contributions are in the areas of high and fragile self-esteem, dark-personality traits that lead to narcissism and other socially harmful effects, and personality traits’ impact on interpersonal relationships. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles since graduating from his doctoral program in 2004.
Zeigler-Hill came to OU in 2011 to support the development of a new graduate program in psychology and serve as its founding director. He continues to serve in this role, and has mentored hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students. Additionally, he was nominated for a Teaching Excellence Award in 2014 and received the Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award in 2015. He was also nominated for the SAGE Young Scholars Award through the Foundation for Social and Personality Psychology.
The Distinguished Professor recognition includes a one-time salary stipend of $2,500 plus an annual supplies and services allocation of $1,500, up to five years, to be paid from the provost’s discretionary fund.
In 1988, the Oakland University Board of Trustees established the rank of Distinguished Professor to be conferred on eminent faculty members for the duration of their service at Oakland. According to the criteria for Distinguished Professor status, the individual must be preeminent in at least one of three categories: scholarship, teaching, or public or professional service. This distinction has been conferred on a small and highly select group of outstanding individuals. Honorees are selected by the Provost and the Distinguished Professor Advisory Committee.