Cheryl J. Wachenheim, associate professor of agribusiness and applied economics, was awarded the 2009 Board of Directors Award at the 15th Sloan Consortium Annual Awards Meeting. Wachenheim received the award for inspirational online teaching at NDSU while serving with the Army National Guard in Iraq during 2008-09.
A captain in the Minnesota Army National Guard, she was deployed in August 2008 to Balad, Iraq, for a 10-month stay. Wearing the required body armor and armed with an M-16, she continued to teach courses online from a fortified medical supplies trailer.
Wachenheim joined NDSU in 1998 and currently teaches undergraduate courses in agrisales, commodity marketing, macroeconomics and microeconomics. She also team-teaches a graduate course in strategic marketing and management.
The selection committee recognized her exceptional dedication to her profession, acknowledging also the many others who go above and beyond the call of duty to teach students in online courses. Her actions represent exceptional dedication to her students and her institution, and provide tangible evidence of how far online education has advanced in the past 15 years.
She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics from Michigan State University, and taught at Illinois State University before joining NDSU.
The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article on Oct. 10, titled “Teaching Under Fire and Online from ‘Mortaritaville’ in Iraq.” For more information, go to