{"id":158817,"date":"2026-05-07T12:06:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=158817"},"modified":"2026-05-07T12:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:06:35","slug":"two-um-faculty-members-honored-as-2026-distinguished-professors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/two-um-faculty-members-honored-as-2026-distinguished-professors\/","title":{"rendered":"Two UM Faculty Members Honored as 2026 Distinguished Professors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Faculty, staff recognized for outstanding research, scholarship, support of students<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

University of Mississippi<\/strong> professors Barry Babin<\/strong> and John Bentley<\/strong> were recognized this week as Distinguished Professors<\/strong> for their devotion to training the next generation of pharmacists and business professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Barry Babin. Photo by Thomas Graning\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0university<\/a>\u00a0established the Distinguished Professor title in 2018 to recognize full-time faculty for excellence in research,\u00a0teaching and service. The recipients were announced Monday (May 4) at the spring faculty meeting in Fulton Chapel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Distinguished Professor award is an outstanding way for us to properly acknowledge the value of excellence and the significant contributions made by these faculty members to their disciplines and community of scholars,” said Noel Wilkin<\/strong>, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs. “The Distinguished Professor award is an award that recognizes the faculty with sustained excellence at the university.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce (left) presents a Distinguished Professor medal to John Bentley, professor of pharmacy administration and marketing and director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management, during the 2026 spring faculty meeting in Fulton Chapel. Bentley is one of two recipients this year of the Distinguished Professor Award. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Babin is the Phil B. Harden<\/strong> Professor of Marketing and chair of the\u00a0Department of Marketing, Analytics and Professional Sales<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0School of Business Administration<\/strong><\/a>. He has authored more than 200 professional publications and multiple textbooks on marketing and data analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also was recognized as the\u00a0Academy of Marketing Science<\/strong><\/a>‘s 2024\u00a0Vector Marketing and Outstanding Marketing Educator Award<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0winner and with the\u00a0Harold W. Berkman Distinguished Service Award<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He is internationally known as an expert in marketing research and is a frequent guest speaker at universities and conferences around the world,” Wilkin said. “He has also served as a consultant to institutions of higher learning in structuring graduate business programs and as an expert witness in matters involving marketing and consumer research.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
John Bentley. Photo by Thomas Graning\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce (left) presents a Distinguished Professor medal to Barry Babin, the Phil B. Harden Professor of Marketing and chair of the Department of Marketing, Analytics and Professional Sales, during the 2026 spring faculty meeting in Fulton Chapel. Babin is one of two recipients this year of the Distinguished Professor Award. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bentley, professor of\u00a0pharmacy administration<\/a>\u00a0and marketing and director of the\u00a0Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management<\/strong><\/a>, has worked at the university since earning a doctoral degree at Ole Miss in 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A nationally and internationally recognized researcher, his work spans medication use and quality of life, patient-reported outcomes, health economics and outcomes research, biostatistics, pharmaceutical marketing, and patient behavior,” Wilkin said. “He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications and given more than 250 presentations at regional, national and international conferences.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His work has been recognized with the Outstanding Article of the Year Award<\/strong> from\u00a0Quality of Life Research<\/strong><\/a>, the Best Research Publication Award<\/strong> from the\u00a0American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Journal of the American Pharmacists Association’s<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Wiederholt Prize for the Best Published Paper in Economic, Social and Administrative Sciences<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was also this year’s recipient of the\u00a0Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award<\/strong><\/a>, the university’s highest honor for faculty success, and previously received the\u00a0Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher Award<\/strong><\/a>, the institution’s highest teaching honor, as well as the\u00a0Graduate School Distinguished Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also recognized at the meeting was Jeremy Loenneke<\/strong>, associate professor of\u00a0health, exercise science and recreation management<\/a>, who received the Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring<\/strong>. Melissa Rodriguez King<\/strong>, program manager for the\u00a0School of Pharmacy<\/strong><\/a>‘s\u00a0Office of Research and Graduate Programs<\/strong><\/a>, received the Donald R. Cole Excellence in Advancing Access and Belongingness in Graduate Education Award<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meng-chieh Lin<\/strong>, instructor in modern languages, and Katherine Ann “Kakky” Brown<\/strong>, assistant director of student support in the\u00a0William Magee Center for AOD and Wellness Education<\/strong><\/a>, were awarded the\u00a0Frist Student Service Award<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for outstanding support of students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What makes these awards special is that these stories \u2013 these moments of care, intervention and belief \u2013 often happen behind the scenes,” said Shawnboda Mead<\/strong>, vice chancellor for student affairs. “They don’t always make headlines, they don’t always show up in metrics, but they truly change lives.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Clara Turnage<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faculty, staff recognized for outstanding research, scholarship, support of students University of Mississippi professors Barry Babin and John<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":158818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25263],"tags":[25771,23026,34583,17698,34574,34588,17990,31849,625,34580,34592,17696,34584,34508,14749,34590,7067,34581,34575,20196,14909,34586,34579,34585,26979],"class_list":["post-158817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-academy-of-marketing-science","tag-barry-babin","tag-best-research-publication-award","tag-center-for-pharmaceutical-marketing-and-management","tag-distinguished-professors","tag-distinguished-teaching-award-for-excellence-in-graduate-teaching-and-mentoring","tag-elsie-m-hood-outstanding-teacher-award","tag-frist-student-service-award","tag-fulton-chapel","tag-harold-w-berkman-distinguished-service-award","tag-jeremy-loenneke","tag-john-bentley","tag-journal-of-the-american-pharmacists-associations","tag-meng-chieh-lin","tag-noel-wilkin","tag-office-of-research-and-graduate-programs","tag-ole-miss","tag-outstanding-article-of-the-year-award","tag-phil-b-harden","tag-school-of-business-administration","tag-school-of-pharmacy","tag-social-and-administrative-sciences","tag-vector-marketing-and-outstanding-marketing-educator-award","tag-wiederholt-prize-for-the-best-published-paper-in-economic","tag-william-magee-center-for-aod-and-wellness-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3Panel-Distinguished-Profs-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1434&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158827,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158817\/revisions\/158827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}