Dr. Kelley Kline earns second FSU University Teaching Award

Dr. Kelley Kline, a psychology instructor at Florida State University Panama City, recently earned her second University Teaching Award from FSU. Kline also earned the distinguished teaching award in 2009.

The University Teaching Awards, which are based on recommendations from students and alumni, recognize faculty for excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching. Recipients must be outstanding in the many aspects of teaching which contribute to successful teaching and learning. Each recipient receives a $2,000 award.

"I did not expect to win this award, and I am absolutely thrilled,” Kline said. “The first thought I had was complete gratitude to the students who supported me, to the faculty for being great colleagues, to the university, and to the deans.”

Kline said her teaching philosophy focusses on the interdisciplinary style of learning because she believes “it is important to integrate a variety of perspectives because you come up with a much more comprehensive answer.”

“My goal is to reach each student,” she said. “I like to poke fun at myself because I want to show the students that I am human too. I have faults, anxieties just like them, and it’s OK.”

Kline said she enjoys teaching at FSU Panama City because of the students.

“The students at the Panama City campus are some of the most wonderful people that I have ever met,” she said. “They are engaging, driven, have wonderful humor, and their desire to learn is incredible. I have never seen the desire to learn like it is here at any other university.”

Kline has also taught at Florida State’s Tallahassee campus, State University at Stony Brook and Richard Stockton College of New York.

Although she said the award marks her proudest professional accomplishment, she noted she also is proud when she hears from former students about their success stories both professionally and personally.

“I look at my students as my academic children,” she said. “I know that they are not children, but I feel like they are my legacy. … It is important to me to engage each student and to relate to the student. I remind myself that I was once on the other side of the desk.”

Kline earned her Ph.D. in biopsychology in 1998 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She obtained her MA in psychology in 1995 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her BA in psychology in 1992 from Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, graduating as a Summa Cum Laude scholar.

She is affiliated with the American Psychological Society and the Society for Psychophysiological Research. Along with many other published works, she has done extensive published research on the sensory and perceptual factors underlying the ability to detect sensations produced by the beating heart.

Kline, Kim Fazzone and Dr. Colin Peeler presented research in May 2003 to the American Psychological Society on the correlation of women’s hair length and its male attraction. The findings have been featured in the New York Post, Yahoo News, The Times of India, Macon Online, CNN, Fox News, and Regis and Kelly. Kline and Fazzone were interviewed by Fox News and Friends on July 1, 2003, during the morning show, which appeared throughout the nation.

In her spare time, Kline said she loves to write fiction and is working on a novel. She encourages her students to write because it promotes critical thinking.

Kline said she would like acknowledge her parents, Joseph and Diana Knapp, for their lifelong support.

“I want my students to learn concepts and apply them but also be inspired by the process,” she said. “In whatever profession they choose, I want that love of learning to be there.”

About 20 Florida State instructors earn the University Teaching Award each year. Past recipients from FSU Panama City include Dr. Sandra Halvorson, Dr. Amy Pollick and Cristina Rios.