Professor Roy Burkhead is the 2025-2026 winner of the Part-Time Excellence in Teaching Faculty Award. While Burkhead as a long history with the Westen Kentucky University, the award was a nice surprise for him.

“You try to lead a humble life. You show up everyday, you work hard, and then hopefully you get rewarded at some point. This was a sort of nice recognition that, you know, people are watching and they’re, you know, paying attention and they appreciate what you do.”

He started out as a student at the university in August of 1984. He took a departure to join the Navy after his first three semesters. After his service he returned to the university and graduated in 1993 with an undergrad degree in Journalism and English. 

After earning his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, he returned to WKU as a faculty member in 2008. When asked about why he wanted to return, he admitted that the answer to that question differs depending on when in his life he’d be asked.

At the start Burkhead was looking to get some teaching experience in his academic CV. He also says part of his motivation was wanting to return to WKU because he missed the school. As he stayed longer and gained more teaching experience, where he had none when he first started, that was no longer a reason he needed to stay.

“I knew I had more to offer students now than I did before. So, I would be a better teacher, and they would be better students, hopefully because of it. It really is the biggest motivation is just that I missed the interactions with students.” Burkhead said.

After taking some time away from the university during COVID, he endeavored in post-graduate studies. With the knowledge gained in his studies post-grad and abroad he found new ways to improve upon his own teaching. He said that at this point teaching is just pure fun and meaningful work that he enjoys.

Burkhead has had the opportunity to travel abroad within his service with the Navy, but also in pursuit of post-graduate education. He mentioned WKU’s bigger picture approach to being an international beacon for education. Being immersed in other cultures has given him the perspective and knowledge to help students from differing backgrounds, English proficiencies, and cultures all over the globe. He said that these experiences have helped him see and understand things from a student’s point of view.

With all Burkhead’s years of experience in teaching, he is constantly tweaking and updating his processes to find what fits every new batch of students he receives. He makes a comparison between a new semester and a long complex mathematical equation. The result of the figures in the equation are just important as the components that achieved it.

“So, I’m always trying to experiment, in little ways here and there to see if that improves experience for the students.”

When teaching in person, Burkhead was able to take his classes on excursions to the Kentucky History Museum, the planetarium, the roof of the science building, and play rehearsals. He wanted students to get out of the classroom and into the community by finding ways to incorporate literature into his students’ everyday lives.

Burkhead currently teaches online courses as it is harder for him to commute to campus currently. Despite being online, he still makes the effort to engage with his students. His biggest way of doing this is creating channels and opportunities for communication between himself and students.

Burkhead said that he knows there are students who come to class and smile even when their world is falling apart. For him giving these places to communicate not only gives them a chance to get more out of the course, but also a chance to build a bridge of understanding between himself and his students.

 “Then you can start to help because you have to understand what’s going on before you can help,” said Burkhead.

The act of being a professor is never the same for any two students. Burkhead is constantly finding new ways to help the students he has at a given time to help them grow as scholars and as people. This award is given to him for his dedication to always providing his students with the best experience he is able to give.

“I’m not saying be the best you could be every single day because it’s impossible but just be the best you can be at that particular moment,” said Burkhead.