NOVA Annandale Professor Receives Outstanding Faculty Award

Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) history teacher Dr. Charles Poland is the recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Faculty Award.

According to a news release from the college, Poland, 77, is one of 12 faculty members from Virginia to receive the award. Since 1977, he has taught courses in U.S. and local history, Western civilization, and the Civil War at NOVA’s Annandale Campus. The award, which is from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and sponsored by Dominion, recognizes excellence in teaching, research, knowledge integration, and public service. 

“On behalf of the NOVA community, we would like to express our congratulations to Dr. Poland for being selected as a recipient of this prestigious award,” said NOVA President Robert G. Templin Jr. in the news release, further adding, “Dr. Poland has touched the lives of thousands of students since he began at the College in 1967. Students have embraced and praised his hands-on approach in directly engaging history and its artifacts. This is evidenced by the mobile Civil War museum now installed at NOVA that includes hundreds of historical documents and objects.”

This isn’t the first time the college has recognized Poland for his work. He won the Most Outstanding Faculty Member and the NOVA Alumni Federation Faculty of the Year awards in previous years. Poland, a Western Colorado University alumnus, is also responsible for creating the first mobile Civil War museum in the region, according to Leesburg Today.

He has also written several history books, including “From Frontier to Suburbia: One of America’s Fastest Growing Counties” and “The Lure of Loudoun: Centuries of Changes in Virginia’s Emerald County” which focuses on Loudoun County, where he and his family live.