Associate Professor Marsha Cuddeback (far left) with students in LSU in South Africa APA program.

Beginning in 2016, the LSU Office of Academic Affairs will annually recognize a faculty member who has contributed to and participated in the Communication across the Curriculum (CxC) program in multiple ways. CxC depends on dedicated faculty for its success, with hundreds of engaged and deserving faculty certifying courses emphasizing communication at LSU. The inaugural, 2016 recipient is Marsha Cuddeback, associate professor of interior design in the College of Art & Design. Selected by faculty jury, Cuddeback demonstrates an outstanding commitment to the full breadth of the CxC program by teaching Communication-Intensive (C-I) courses, advising Distinguished Communicator candidates, participating in faculty development initiatives, supporting the CxC Studios, and publishing CxC-related scholarship.

Cuddeback has continually displayed her commitment to teaching by consistently certifying 20 C-I courses in written, spoken, visual, and technological communication. Some of the most memorable innovative assignments she has developed include a second-year architecture project translating sketchbooks to videos, an interior design project where students created biomorphic skins using laser-cutting technology, a series of assignments focused on presentation skills that used visual spark lines for student reflection and refining design narratives, and her most recent phenomenological investigation of incorporating event maps to stress writing in design, which she will present at the International Writing Across the Curriculum conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this June. Cuddeback has offered her wealth of teaching experience in numerous peer-reviewed articles and conference workshops and presentations related to communication and design instruction.

She has advised 12 recipients of the Distinguished Communicator Award within the schools of architecture and interior design. A recent graduate and CxC Distinguished Communicator, Morgan Melancon, of Houston, Texas, recommended Cuddeback, writing, “She was pivotal in laying the foundation for my college success. Marsha pushed the boundaries of ordinary achievements I was able to accomplish. Without her influence to join the Distinguished Communicators program or her robust, caring nature she dedicated towards my projects, I may not have been able to begin my career in a distinguished interior design city upon graduation.”

As the first winner of this award, Cuddeback sets the bar for commitment, dedication, and excellence that defines and enables the LSU CxC program to transform teaching, learning, and ultimately, student success. This $1,500 annual award is generously supported by the Renee and Leslie Hull Fund at the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. Cuddeback was recognized at LSU’s Distinguished Faculty Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at the Lod Cook Alumni Center.