Statler College establishes first-ever Teaching Faculty Fellowships

Omar Al-Sheeb and Dimas Abreu Archanjo Dutra have been named recipients of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellowships and Amy McBrayer has been named the Dean and Cathy Harvey Teaching Faculty Fellowship (WVU Graphic/ Megan Rinker)

Glen H. Hiner Dean, Pedro Mago, announced the creation of three new Teaching Faculty Fellowships at the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University, marking the first time fellowships of this kind have been established in the college’s history. 

Story by Emily Handrahan

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

These fellowships were created to support and recognize the exceptional teaching, innovation, and scholarly contributions of junior teaching faculty within the college.

Omar Al-Shebeeb, teaching assistant professor in industrial and management systems engineering and Dimas Abreu Archanjo Dutra, teaching assistant professor in mechanical,materials and aerospace engineering have been named recipients of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellowships, while Amy McBrayer, teaching assistant professor in mining engineering, has been named the Dean and Cathy Harvey Teaching Faculty Fellowship.

“These fellowships celebrate teaching faculty who enhance the student experience through creativity, dedication and scholarship, thereby fostering excellence, innovation and professional growth,” Mago said. “This initiative reflects the College’s commitment to teaching as a core value and recognizes the outstanding faculty who shape learning, strengthen programs, and contribute to our academic community.” 

The fellowships were created with the support of alumni, highlighting the critical role alumni engagement plays in advancing the Statler College’s mission and priorities. These new fellowships recognize the vital role teaching faculty play in student success and in preparing graduates for professional and academic achievement.

“We are deeply grateful for the strong support of our alumni, whose generosity makes initiatives like these possible,” Mago said. “In particular, we thank Dean and Cathy Harvey for their continued commitment to the College’s vision and mission. Their investment in teaching excellence helps ensure that our faculty and students thrive, now and in the future.”

The creation of these fellowships marks a significant milestone for the Statler College. Recipients were chosen for their classroom effectiveness, curriculum innovation, engagement in educational research, and broader impact on the institution and its students. The selection process demonstrates the college’s commitment to high-quality teaching and recognizes faculty who strengthen academic programs and support student success.

Dean’s Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellowships:

Omar Al-Shebeeb is recognized for faculty development through emerging technologies. “I have led workshops … introducing faculty to virtual makerspaces, AR/VR welding, and simulation-driven workflows,” he stated. “Moving forward, I will expand these efforts through faculty learning communities and host a dedicated workshop on these methods at the ASEE North Central Section Conference in 2026 to promote collaboration and innovation.” 

Al-Shebeeb is also continuing to strengthen alumni-student engagement through Statler Connect, an alumni mentorship and networking platform designed to support career readiness and professional development.

“Through programs such as Statler Connect, I aim to create sustainable models for professional development and community building,” Al-Shebeeb said. “I will leverage alumni success stories through Statler Connect and offer interactive workshops for prospective students featuring modern engineering tools and technologies.”

Al-Shebeeb plans to develop an online faculty certification program. “Building on my experience leading online course development workshops and eCampus training, this platform is focused on online pedagogy and andragogy, —helping faculty identify best practices for online teaching, establish instructor presence and explore strategies for engaging diverse learners,” he said.

Dimas Abreu Archanjo Dutra is recognized for his work focusing on open educational resources.“My current plans are developing OER material on mechatronics, which is the main topic which I teach at the sophomore and senior levels,” Dutra said. He has already produced an early draft of a textbook on embedded systems programming, which is publicly available through GitHub.

OER is able to lower the cost of education for students. “The state has several initiatives related to OER, and usually they are presented as a mechanism to lower the cost of education because the students have access to free or lower-cost textbooks,” Dutra said.

Along with developing OER, Dutra is creating a textbook for his students to use in the classroom. “I have trouble finding a book on embedded systems programming that is at the appropriate level, depth, and length for my students,” Dutra said. “More than the basics of the specific programming language, I want them to understand the general concepts and jargon, how to structure an embedded program, and how to integrate third-party code and libraries.”

Reflecting on the impact of his work, Dutra emphasized its potential value to the university. “My hope is that this can help the Statler College by producing high-quality course material and incorporating best practices in teaching and learning in existing courses,” said Dutra.

Dean and Cathy Harvey Teaching Faculty Fellow:

Amy McBrayer is recognized for her focus on curriculum advancement and new teaching methods. “This fellowship will provide me with additional resources for curriculum development focused on expanding the integration of these methods in my courses,” McBrayer said. “The support of this fellowship will allow me to continue dedicating resources to my outreach activities focused on broadening the awareness of mining engineering as a career path and the importance of the minerals industry. These resources will be beneficial to my continued growth as a faculty member.”

“I see students enrolled in my courses benefiting from my plans by receiving instruction utilizing cutting-edge technologies and innovative methods that have not been widely applied in mining engineering education,” said McBrayer. “For the broader Statler College community, I plan to participate in future teaching symposiums to share the successes or failures of implementing these methods as much of what I am planning to employ would be beneficial to the broader engineering education community.”

McBrayer also participates in K-12 outreach programs and noted that those programs attract 25 percent of an incoming freshman class to that program after students in the inaugural event reach the point of selecting a program and university. “This indicates that with continued engagement, it is likely that students will consider enrolling in the Statler College,” McBrayer said.

“VR has been beneficial to outreach efforts and engaging with prospective students,” McBrayer said. “This effort has opened up multiple opportunities to share a lesser-known engineering discipline and engage with interested students.”

“I do plan to enhance the use of VR in mining engineering to expand to mining methods that are not feasible to visit from Morgantown as well as document the success of the current modules,” McBrayer said. “I plan to collaborate with other faculty in the department to expand the use of this technology beyond the courses I am responsible for.”

McBrayer noted, “This fellowship supports the Statler College by providing additional support and recognition to faculty pursuing a teaching track career path and further recognizes their role within a diverse and evolving higher education landscape.”

The Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellowship offers a stipend for up to three years or until the recipient advances to the rank of teaching associate professor, whichever comes first. Additionally, fellows get annual funds to support teaching related initiatives.

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