Welding Instructor Erick Martin Receives Outstanding Faculty Award

Kalamazoo Valley Community College welding instructor Erick Martin has been named the Michigan Community College Association’s 2021 Outstanding Faculty Award recipient. “This is a great recognition of the high quality faculty from your college,” said MCCA President Michael Hansen. Martin will be honored at the organization’s summer conference in July.

“We are proud of Erick and his latest achievement,” said college President L. Marshall Washington, Ph.D. “He’s one of a kind and we’re fortunate to have him sharing his expertise with our welding students.”

He has worked at Kalamazoo Valley since 1998. Martin helped to develop rapid training options that enable students to achieve a welding skill set and degree in one semester with both daytime and evening classes. He has represented the technical trades department on the Academic Leadership Council for 10 years and has served on a number of hiring and search committees, ensuring that the college is hiring the most qualified applicants.

He is a passionate advocate for the technical trades and works collaboratively with colleagues in other disciplines and on the college’s other campuses to make them aware of the welding program. For example, he is serving on the development committee with staff from the college’s Food Innovation Center, an urban farm and food processing hub, helping to develop a grant-funded urban horticulture program.

He is currently collaborating with our women’s studies instructor to ensure that her students are aware of the lucrative careers in the skilled trades. “I have a strong passion for the skilled trades,” he said. “It’s a viable career path for anyone.”

Erick has always fostered an open and inclusive welding program and strongly encourages participation in the skilled trades by non-traditional students. He is active on the advisory boards for local career centers and can therefore tailor his program to employers’ needs. Erick is an outspoken advocate for his program, but more importantly, he’s an advocate for his colleagues. In October 2019, he helped organize Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s first Skilled Trades Expo. The event attracted more than 800 participants including local employers, students, potential students and their parents. “To me, what’s more important than anything is that we all get recognized. We all contribute to the economic development of our community. Businesses have to know where they can find a quality and skilled work force. We’ve turned Kalamazoo Valley into that spot,” he said.

In 2020, Erick received a Faculty Instructional Award and was nominated for the recognition by his colleagues and students. His nominators praised his exceptional skills as a welder and instructor, saying, “I nominate Erick Martin for being competent, organized and energetic as an instructor as well as extremely knowledgeable in his trade. I feel that Erick Martin had the most organized system of hand outs, vocabulary, presentation lectures, and lab based demos, above and beyond that of any other teacher I've encountered in any class here, regardless of department. His welding lab is also better than most in Southwest Michigan because it has a larger variety of equipment that better reflects the industrial work environment.”

“Erick changed my life. That's all the reason I need,” another student said. “Erick deserves this award because he has been more than an instructor to me. He has been a mentor, a friend and a person you can turn to for advice. He goes to every length to help his students succeed and develop the skills required in the welding trade. All he asks for in return is the sincere effort of his students."