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During the first All-University meeting of the academic year, on Tuesday, September 3, East Stroudsburg University presented the annual Distinguished Professor Awards and the inaugural Innovator & Entrepreneur of the Year award.

The Distinguished Professor Award – the highest honor for ESU faculty to receive – is presented based on outstanding contributions to the academic life of the University and its reputation. The award of Distinguished Professor is conferred upon an individual by ESU President Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D., in recognition of exceptional achievements in teaching, research/scholarship/creative activities, and service.

Distinguished Professor Award

Terry L. Master earned his B.S. in biology from Muhlenberg College in Allentown in 1976, an M.S. in biology from ESU in 1980 and a Ph.D. from Lehigh University in 1989.  He has been a faculty member in the department of biological sciences since 1989 and has taught 18 different courses and laboratories. Dr. Master has escorted ESU students on natural history tours to East Africa and the Galapagos Islands, in addition to teaching classes in Costa Rica since 1995. His areas of specialization are ornithology, behavioral ecology and predator-prey relationships.

In his 30 years at ESU, Dr. Master has mentored 30 graduate students and 13 undergraduate research students. Many of his students have been primary or co-authors on 34 peer-reviewed articles in 11 different journals, as well as various book chapters, technical reports and online publications. He has also edited a book on Avian Ecology and Conservation and has had several photographs published.

Dr. Master and his students have given nine international presentations, nine presentations at national conferences and 13 presentations at meetings of the National Council on Undergraduate Research. Together, they have also presented 84 times at regional, state and local meetings and he has been an invited speaker at a variety of national, regional, and local conferences. His research program and graduate students have been supported by over $1 million in grant funding. Dr. Master received the Earl Poole Award from the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology in 2013 for his contributions to ornithology in Pennsylvania.

An active member of the campus and local communities, Dr. Master was interim department chair twice, has served on many departmental committees and is currently departmental graduate coordinator. Dr. Master chairs the statewide Ornithological Technical Committee that advises the Pennsylvania Game Commission on matters of avian conservation, and was a member of the both the Monroe County Open Space Advisory Council, which preserved 17,000 acres of open space in the county, and the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge Study Team Partnership, responsible for establishing what will be a 20,000 acre refuge. He has given presentations and guided nature/birding field trips for 21 different conservation organizations in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Dr. Master also played a vital role in creation of the Schisler Museum of Wildlife and Natural History. He visited often with donors Arthur and Fannie Schisler ’62 and worked in conjunction with Christine Langlois in facilities management, Dr. Howard Whidden in the department of biological sciences, Science and Technology Center architects, museum designers and exhibit fabricators to determine final museum, habitat diorama and signage designs and content.

He currently lives near Nazareth, Pa. with his wife Sally, their dog Tica and cat Jimmy.

The second Innovator & Entrepreneur of the Year Award was given to Nicole Chinnici, director of the Dr. Jane Huffman Wildlife Genetics Institute and founder and CTO of Organtick, LLC, a research and development company specializing in a three-step prevention model for personal, pet, and home tick protection. In her role as an ESU staff member and entrepreneur, Chinnici has led the research and development initiatives that have established ESU as a nationally-recognized center for tick testing and research.

In 2008, ESU’s tick testing and research efforts were initiated by Dr. Jane Huffman, professor of biological sciences. Chinnici served as her protégé beginning in 2012 and became director of the lab in 2017 following Dr. Huffman’s untimely passing. Under Chinnici’s leadership, several innovative and entrepreneurial achievements were realized that elevated and expanded ESU’s role and recognition in tick testing and research, including rebranding LymeAide under the Cutter brand, testifying at joint hearings on the impact of Lyme disease with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Resources, developing a children’s activity book to provide critical information on tick awareness and education for children, and winning the 2019 TecBridge non-collegiate business plan division for OrganTick, LLC.

Chinnici worked closely with State Representative Rosemary Brown (189th District) to raise tick awareness across the Commonwealth. Those efforts resulted in $1 million in allocations to ESU to create the PA Tick Research Lab that provides free tick testing to Pennsylvania residents. The Lab officially launched in April 2019, and to date has tested more than 5,000 ticks from all 67 Pennsylvania counties, and at least one tick from all 50 states. Efforts are ongoing to establish an annual line item appropriation from the Commonwealth to sustain the PA Tick Research Lab. The $1M allocation also supports the development of a robust database with analytic functions to identify the geographic location of the ticks tested and test results.

Chinnici’s continued success with ESU tick research and testing is supported by the students she trains and works with daily and by the faculty, staff and business/community partners who share her passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. Her efforts are creating an entrepreneurial mindset at ESU that is enhancing the learning environment and creating ESU students who are world-class trained microbiologists with promising futures.