Dr. Amanda Dunagan, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the associate’s in nursing program, was awarded the Troy University Montgomery Gamma Beta Phi’s 2023 Teacher of the Year Award on Monday during the campus’ spring commencement ceremony.

The award is presented each spring to an outstanding faculty member on the University’s Montgomery Campus by the chapter of Gamma Beta Phi, the national honors and service society. Chapter President Wanda Rousseau presented the award to Dunagan.

“Dr. Dunagan is truly deserving of this award. She is an outstanding faculty member and has a heart for the students that she serves,” said Dr. Wade Forehand, Director of the School of Nursing. “She is exemplary in the classroom and displays all the characteristics of an excellent educator. She not only works hard for her students but for the faculty and nursing program on the Montgomery campus.”

Dunagan has been a member of the Troy University faculty since 2016. She earned her Bachelor of Science of Nursing degree from TROY in 1997, and her Master of Science in Nursing in Clinical Nurse Leader from the University of Alabama in 2016. She holds a Ph.D. in nursing education from William Carey University.

She is a member of the Epsilon Omega Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International and Healthcare Educators of Alabama, and is a Certified Clinical Nurse Leader, a Certified Nurse of the Operating Room, a Basic Life Support Instructor, an Advanced Cardiac Life Support Instructor, and a Pediatric Advanced Life Support Instruction.

Dunagan said she was honored to receive the award.

“Being named Teacher of the Year for the Montgomery Campus is such an honor for me,” she said. “I was nominated by students that I taught in the nursing program. An award of this nature makes all the hard work of preparing lectures that reflect current best practice, spending time with students in the lab, and teaching students in the clinical setting come full circle. I am truly humbled and honored.”