Honestly engaging instructor

Talk to OCC biology professor Ann Harmer’s colleagues and students and you’ll know why she was named this year’s Faculty Member of the Year.

Is the award something she earned for her teaching, or something she earned because she’s loved?

Considering it’s her last year at OCC, maybe the award is recognizing both.

“Well, you know it’s one of those things. How many accolades can you give a person or how do you let them know how their faculty feels about them?” said biology professor Sharon Daniels. “[The award] says a lot about what her peers think about her. It’s well earned.”

Harmer, 63, was nominated by Daniels, one of her best friends, and selected by the faculty.

This is her second time being named faculty member of the year. She was first honored for the 1995-96 academic year and is the only two-time winner in the award’s 18-year history.

“I was pretty stunned the first time it happened, and the second time — I’m still in shock over it,” Harmer said.

Harmer’s personality seems to match her teaching style. Intelligent, fun and engaging.

“She’ll teach us in a way we’ll remember,” said Nora Perez-Moreno, one of Harmer’s diagnostic medical sonography students.

“She’s strict but fair. She cares about us,” said student Veasna Kuoch. “She doesn’t stop teaching you until you get it.”

Harmer’s students say they know when they ask questions, even awkward ones, they’ll get honest answers.

Over her 29-year career, many students have asked her about drug effects on the body.

“I give them answers based on my knowledge as a scientist,” she said. Laughing, she added, “and a little based on my experience as a child of the 1960s.”

Harmer officially retires at the end of this school year but will remain on campus as a part-time teacher.

“I’m looking forward to retirement in a lot of ways, but I’m going to miss my job terribly,” she said. Health issues stand between Harmer and the job she loves.

She suffered a stroke a few years ago and recently beat breast cancer.

“Right now I feel like I’m the cat with one life left so I better go now,” she said.

“We’ve worked together for a long time. I’m going to miss that, having someone that has your back,” Daniels said. “My one real worry is that she’ll miss her students. She’ll find something else, I’m sure. But that kind of passion doesn’t go away easily.”

Harmer will be recognized for her award and career April 3 in OCC’s Student Center.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].