College of Arts & Sciences recognizes outstanding alumni

Mark J. Brewin ’08, David Fuhr ’00 and Erin Krupa ’02 are the recipients of the 2013 Elon College Distinguished Alumni Awards.

Three outstanding alumni from Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences were honored at a special luncheon Thursday afternoon for their accomplishments in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and the natural, mathematical and computing sciences.

Honored were:

l-r: Dean Alison Morrison-Shetlar, English Professor Kevin Boyle, Mark J. Brewin ’08 and President Leo M. Lambert
Mark J. Brewin ’08
Elon College Distinguished Alumnus
Award in the Arts & Humanities

Brewin graduated from Elon with a double major in art and English with concentrations in creative writing and photography. He later obtained a master’s degree in poetry from Southern Illinois University at  Carbondale and has since become a poetry editor of an online journal, professor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., and a published poet.

Brewin’s new book of poems, Scrap Iron, which was publised in April by University of Utah Press, was selected for the prestigious Agha Shahid Ali Prize. Awarded once a year, this prize is given to any poet publishing in English. His poems have been featured in Southern Poetry Review, Los Angeles Review and Poet Lore, to name a few. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a finalist for the Guy Owen Poetry Prize, the 2011 Poetry Prize and the Literary Award Contest.

l-r: President Leo M. Lambert, David Fuhr '00, History Professor David Crowe and Dean Alison Morrison-Shetlar
David Fuhr ’00
Elon College Distinguished Alumnus
Award in Social Sciences

Fuhr graduated from Elon with a major in international studies. Before attending Duke Law School, he worked for two years at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, one of the nation’s top think tanks in Washington, D.C. He later worked for two years in international litigation with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York before going to Minneapolis to clerk for a federal judge.

Fuhr returned to Debevoise et al. in Washington, where he specialized in U.S. legal work in Germany. He recently became a federal prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, focusing on the prosecution of foreign bribery.  He has written and published on issues of public international law, while his pro bono practice includes the successful representation of individuals in asylum hearings. He has also worked on various issues involving criminal law reform with the Sierra Leone Special Court for war crimes. Fuhr’s presented a paper at the Elon Law School’s conference on international law, which was co-sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences. The paper will be included in a special edition of the Elon Law Review this spring.

l-r: President Leo M. Lambert, Instructor in Mathematics Helen Walton, Erin Krupa ’02, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Education Janice Richardson and Dean Alison Morrison-Shetlar
Erin Krupa ’02
Elon College Distinguished Alumna Award
in the Natural, Mathematical & Computing Sciences

Krupa graduated from Elon with a degree in mathematics and later earned a doctorate in mathematics education at North Carolina State University in 2011. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

A prolific scholar, Krupa has made 16 presentations including a paper, The Effects of An Integrated Mathematics Professional Development Project, which she presented at the International Symposium for Research in Mathematics Education, Fortaleza, Brazil in 2012.

She was a keynote speaker for the 2012 N.C. Council of Mathematics Conference in Greensboro and is the author of five peer-reviewed articles. Her research pays close attention to the learning opportunities provided to students within the classroom and how teachers can increase this index for all students, regardless of demographics.