The Southern Conference named its All-Southern Conference Faculty and Staff Team on Thursday, with two representatives each from all 10 member schools being recognized by the league.
While the selections were left up to each institution’s discretion, the recipients all shared the common characteristics of demonstrated service to the institution and contributions to campus life and the local community. Faculty members selected should have a proven record of high scholastic achievement among students and/or recognition for a research project or written academic piece, while staff members could be from the instructional/teaching ranks or the non-instructional ranks and should be recognized for bringing out the best in others and creating conditions for success.
The inaugural team consisted of just faculty members, but the team was expanded this year to include staff, as well, doubling the number of recipients of the honor.
The Citadel’s Melanie Maddox and Sally Keltner; ETSU’s Dr. Andrea “Andi” Clements and Stefanie Murphy; Furman’s Sandy Roberson and Rob Carson; Mercer’s Dr. Laura Lackey and Emily French; UNCG’s Dr. Jerry Walsh and Dr. Brett Carter; Samford’s Dr. Robert Hensarling and Michelle Durban; Chattanooga’s Dr. Gretchen Potts and Lisa Tarr; VMI’s Col. W.G. “Grigg” Mullen Jr. and Lance M. Fujiwara; Western Carolina’s Dr. David Claxton and Christy Wyatt; and Wofford’s Dr. Nancy M. Williams and Dr. Phillip Stone comprise the all-league faculty and staff team.
Each member of the All-SoCon Faculty and Staff Team will be presented a plaque and honored at a home basketball game at his or her institution.
Col. W.G, “Grigg” Mullen Jr., VMI
Colonel W.G. “Grigg” Mullen Jr. is in his 25th year as a professor of civil and environmental engineering at VMI. An expert in geotechnical engineering, rigging and raising, and in the fabrication and construction of timber frame structures, Mullen is a member of the engineering honor society Tau Bata Pi and Phi Kappa Phi national teaching honor society. He is also a member of the Timber Frame Engineers Council of the Timber Framers Guild. Mullen organizes both a fall and spring Timber Frame Field Training Exercise (FTX), each of which is a community service project. Among the many structures he has organized and helped cadets to build are a pavilion at the VMI rifle range, an overhead enclosure at the Lexington city pool, a wayside structure at historic Goshen Pass, and an entire new house for Project Horizon, a local nonprofit dedicated to reducing dating, domestic and sexual violence in Rockbridge County, Virginia.
Lance M. Fujiwara, VMI
VMI’s head athletic trainer/director of sports medicine since 1988, Lance Fujiwara has also served as an associate athletic director for the Keydets since 2008. Fujiwara is a certified member of The National Athletic Trainers Association and is also a licensed athletic trainer in the state of Virginia. He is a member of the McCue Sports Medicine Society and serves as a clinical instructor in athletic training for the University of Virginia, Western Carolina University and Longwood University. He is also on the editorial board of the journal Training & Conditioning. Fujiwara has cared for, or directed the care of, thousands of VMI cadet-athletes, faculty and staff, and others who needed his care throughout his career.
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