Courtesy Photo Alpena Community College’s 2019-20 Endowed Teaching Chair Award was presented as a joint award to faculty members Matthew Dunckel and James Berles. Pictured left to right are Dunckel, award presenters John and Lisa Pfeiffenberger, and Berles.

Two instructors received the Russell H. and Fromilda Y. Wilson Endowed Teaching Chair Award at Alpena Community College’s annual staff recognition dinner on May 10. James Berles, math, engineering and GIS instructor, and Matthew Dunckel, geography, anthropology and history instructor, collaborated to produce an interdisciplinary project that earned them the award.

The late Lucas E. and Janet G. Pfeiffenberger established the Russell H. and Fromilda Y. Wilson Endowed Teaching Chair Fund in 2005 with the ACC Foundation. Their gift now provides a $5,000 annual award to a deserving faculty member. The award was presented by the Pfeiffenbergers’ son John and his wife Lisa.

Berles and Dunckel’s project centers around geological and geographical research. For three weeks this month, they will participate in an archaeological research study at and around the buried Bronze Age city of Gournia, on the island of Crete in Greece and on the island of Chrissi. They will conduct GIS mapping, field and lab work at the Gournia archaeology site and coastal cliffs stratagraphic analysis. They will gain knowledge and experience to enrich the curriculum in geography, anthropology, history, GIS math and science at ACC.