2014 SNB Teaching Excellence Award at WSC

May 12, 2014 – Dr. Laura Dendinger of Wayne State College was named the State Nebraska Bank & Trust Teaching Excellence Award winner during commencement on May 10, 2014.

Dr. Dendinger, WSC professor of Business and Economics, received the State Nebraska Bank & Trust Teaching Excellence Award. Matt Ley, chief executive officer of State Nebraska Bank in Wayne, presented the award. David Ley, the bank’s chairman of the board, established the award in 1998 as a way of recognizing and strengthening outstanding teaching at Wayne State. David Ley and State Nebraska Bank of Wayne support the college in many ways, including scholarships and as a trustee of the Wayne State Foundation Board of Trustees.

LauraDendingerThis prestigious honor is awarded on the basis of rigorous standards that require a superior level of effective teaching. Dendinger also was Wayne State’s nominee for the Nebraska State College System Teaching Excellence Award.

Dendinger began teaching at Wayne State, serving as an adjunct family member from 1993 to 2000. She was hired as an assistant professor in 2000 and was granted tenure in 2006 as an associate professor and promoted to full professor in 2011. She earned a juris doctorate from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1985 and a bachelor of arts degree in political science, speech and organizational communications from Creighton University in 1983. She has practiced law from 1985 to the present, most recently general practice and formerly as a prosecutor.

In addition to publishing and presenting in a variety of journals, textbooks and conferences, Dendinger has been active with many professional and community organizations throughout her career. She is a member of the Nebraska State Bar Association and is a certified mediator/facilitator. Her work with the community has included Haven House, Wakefield Community Foundation, Coleridge Community Educational Foundation, Northeast Nebraska Child Advocacy Center, and the Wayne United Way.

The nomination materials for the Teaching Excellence Award note that Dendinger “has an open and personable demeanor that makes her well-liked by students and faculty” and “her entire professional, academic, and personal life has been a record of service to students and to humanity in general as attorney, professor, counselor, advisor, friend and humanitarian.”