Bi-Annual Faculty Instructional
Excellence Award of 2022
Two members of the ANU faculty — Dr. Mary Tan and Dr. Karyn Mathura-Arthur — have been named recipients of our Semi-Annual Faculty Instructional Excellence Award of 2023. Program chairs, deans, and direct managers undergo the nomination process twice each year, seeking individuals who embody ANU’s values. Nominees must display a commitment to teaching and their students, an engaging, encouraging, active teaching approach to ensure students are intellectually stimulated, the ability to effectively communicate with students, and a positive, lasting impact on students. Earning this award is how we recognize members of the faculty who embody these ANU values.
Dr. Mary Tan (nominated by Dr. Marie-Bernard Lazare, Dean of Nursing):
Dr. Mary Tan earns her Faculty Instructional Excellence Award for her continuous and tireless dedication to teaching and positive inclination and support to the innovative goals of the institution. She brings a thoughtful and considerate approach to student success without minimizing student responsibility and accountability to the learning process. Whether it is an academic performance irregularity that arises with an undergraduate nursing student, or a student in the MBA program, Dr. Tan will find the appropriate corrective method to encourage and redirect the student.
Dr. Tan is a dedicated and hard-working employee who strives to keep pace with innovation. For her, a device like Oculus Quest 2 for simulation teaching is not meant to intimidate her, but it is rather a challenging tool that can be learned with more time to understand and practice its process. That’s exactly what she did. Dr. Tan is a valuable asset to our nursing program.
Dr. Tan’s experience is extensive and diverse – including management, and clinical and didactic teaching in undergraduate to doctoral programs. She has a proficient all-around management practitioner with an applicable background and exceptional leadership, communication, presentation, and team-building skills. Dr. Tan has more than 20 years of solid and hands-on management and teaching skills. Her familiarity with online policies and procedures and accreditation policies, both state and proprietary universities will be valuable to continued success, growth, and positive student outcomes. She holds a Master of Nursing in Education degree and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Clinical Health Sciences.
Dr. Karyn Mathura-Arthur (nominated by Lyndsey Obringer, Interim Dean of Business and Accounting):
Dr. Mathura-Arthur joined American National University in 2020 looking to bring her corporate teaching and training experience to make the jump into teaching in higher education. Since starting at ANU, Dr. Mathura-Arthur has been instrumental in delivering a high-quality graduate level experience to our students. She has consistently shown her commitment to student success and supporting our students with learning strategies that fit their needs. She has used her time at ANU to teach our students the power of networking and has since hired two ANU graduates.
What started as Dr. Mathura-Arthur’s first academic teaching opportunity has led her to develop a love of the process especially at American National University. She came to the US as a foreign student from Trinidad and Tobago but ended up making it her home for the past 30 years. This experience has allowed her to relate well to both the international and American student body found at ANU.
Dr. Mathura-Arthur earned both her undergraduate degree in Communication Arts and her Doctor of Education in Innovation and Leadership from St. Thomas University. Her MBA is from the University of Phoenix completed at the campus in Vancouver, BC. Before arriving at American National University, Professor Mathura taught in corporate settings throughout the US and internationally. She currently works for a Fortune 50 organization but has been a management consultant and managed two businesses of her own. She teaches Managerial Economics, International Finance and Operations Management among other courses.
She is an Agile implementation leader with experience in Operational Excellence, Continuous Process Improvement, Business Transformation, Process Engineering, Robotics Process Automation and Organizational Change Management across multiple industries (Banking, Insurance, Healthcare, Telecom, Government, Retail etc.). Winner of numerous accolades to include a Vision Award and Caribbean Book of the Year Author for Trinidad Transcending Time: 150 Years After Cazabon’s 1857 Album of Trinidad, she currently continues to write articles on Leadership for different publications. She also published a children’s book, Trinidad Treasure Hunt.
