GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY May 16, 2016 Dear Tenure and Promotion Committee, Itis my pleasure to write in support of Dr. Jeff Hartman's promotion to professor. Dr. Hartman's mentoring of students, leadership on faculty issues, engaged scholarship, and dedicated Christian service make him the model professor at Gardner-Webb. His passion for health continues to shape our community for the better. The impact Dr. Hartman creates on campus, both inside and outside of the classroom, sets a high bar that junior faculty aspire to follow, Student Mentor & Respected teacher. Students made me aware of Dr. Hartman before I met him. J entered Gardner-Webb with an insatiable desire to get a feel for the place, often asking students which professors challenged them to perform beyond their own perceived limits. These were the people I wanted to learn from and imitate. Repeatedly, students told me that Dr. Hartman was that kind of professor. These students shared that he combines his high standards for students with an equally supportive encouragement that those standards can be achieved. This is the ideal, indeed vital, role of a professor in a university like ours. Students do not want to feel cheated of a rigorous education, but neither do they want that rigor foisted upon them without the mentoring and support that Dr. Hartman provides. I have asked this question (who are your really challenging professors?) and received that answer (Dr. Hartman) for the past five years. For proof of the impact of his mentoring, observe the pipeline of undergraduates producing sound scholarship at the LOTS-MC and regional disciplinary conferences whose projects blossomed under Dr. Hartman's guidance. His students are also a mainstay of honors. theses presentation week. Anna Pashkova, whose 2016 honors thesis on bone health won support from the National Institute of Health and two other foundations, is one recent example among many. Lauren Dunn’s research on energy expenditure estimates in current digital fitness gear, which involved the most complex use of the Carolina Chiropractic Plus Human Performance Laboratory, is instructive as well. Not only are GWU students working with state of the art technology (acquired in no small part thanks to Dr. Hartman's advocacy), but they are probing past cultural assumptions and questioning the world they live in to make it better. Whereas most students are content to cede the standardization of their metabolic accomplishments to technology, Dr. Hartman’s students are investigating that technology and what it means for consumers. Mary Toohey, 2016's most outstanding female graduate, won a LOTS-MC outstanding presentation prize for her honors thesis research under Dr. Hartman, Faculty Leader & Scholar Dr. Hartman has played a significant role in reviving the university’s chapter of AAUP. Catching details others miss, he takes his membership in the faculty body as seriously as GARDNER WESB.EDU 20, BOX997 | BOILING SPRINGS, NC 28017 704-406-4000,eee eee \y GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY anyone I know not named David Yelton. Voices like his are shaping the faculty's conversations for the better in tangible ways. This leadership includes the Purposeful Running Group, which many community members credit with energizing their lives well beyond the road. A relentless advocate for the health and well being of our university community, Dr. Hartman has encouraged all of us to adopt better lifestyles. I experienced one of these many community impacts through his coordination of student fitness instruction for faculty and staff. I came away from the experience healthier and more aware of my body’s needs because his well-prepared and professional student took her role as seriously as her mentor did. As a side note, that Hartman protégé went on to her graduate school of choice. Beyond his student and community focus, Dr. Hartman remains an engaged scholar with his field. His vita displays an active role in the Southeastern American College of Sports Medicine regional conferences, where he has presented research each of the last three years. He also has several published works, and another recently submitted to the National Strength and Conditioning Association. This type of scholarly engagement advances our knowledge of the human body and Gardner-Webb's reputation amongst peer and aspirant institutions. Christian service Dr. Hartman also models the mission of Gardner-Webb by serving God and Humanity in my local church, Covenant Presbyterian, in Charlotte, NC. What impresses me most about Dr. Hartman's Christian commitment to our shared congregational home is his quiet, behind the scenes presence that seeks the greater good. Whereas my family rushes into the contemporary worship service at the last possible minute and whisks out the moment the benediction is given, Dr. Hartman and his family help with the necessary tasks of set up and take down that allow the service to function seamlessly each week. Beyond that, he volunteered to help with a pre-service running group for families who want to get a healthy morning in without sacrificing the opportunity to worship on Sunday. Whether on our university or church campus, Dr. Hartman's Christian commitment to his field shines through in everything he does to make other people healthier and better off for their interaction with him. Tam proud to work at Gardner-Webb because, at our best, we come together from a variety of disciplines to form one Christian community of teaching, mentoring, scholarship, and service. Dr. Hartman exemplifies Gardner-Webb at its best, and I hope you will promote him to professor so he can continue to serve as a model to which future faculty can aspire, Sincerely Joseph S. Moore, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History GARDNER WES8.E0U 0. 80X997 | BOILING SPRINGS, NC 28017 704-406-4000,