ALUMNI “WALL OF HONOR” The West Liberty University Alumni Board of Directors instituted a project in 1990 to demonstrate to current students, visitors, and friends that the college has some very successful graduates. This project, known as the “Alumni Wall of Honor,” is a dramatic way to honor some of the college’s most distinguished alumni and display pride in the accomplishments of its graduates. The concept was suggested by then Associate Professor of Physics Robert W. Schramm, who is a 1958 graduate of the college and a 2002 Alumni Wall of Honor inductee. The Alumni Wall of Honor is housed in the south end of the Union known as the Alumni Lounge.
Zachary Loughman
Inducted 2018Zachary Loughman is a graduate of WLU, where he earned a bachelor’s in biology in 2002. After West Liberty, Loughman earned a master’s degree in biology at Marshall University focusing in herpetology, and earned his doctoral degree in evolution and ecology from Indiana State University in 2011.
His professional tenure at WLU started as a natural history research specialist in 2006, hired to help develop an environmental science initiative at West Liberty. Loughman joined the faculty in 2008, at which time he developed the Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology major, as well as the Environmental Education and Stewardship Major.
Loughman also secured funding and began an ambitious research program focusing on North American Freshwater Crayfishes, which gained him and his students a reputation as one of the top crayfish labs in the world.
Loughman’s most notable accomplishments include his receiving the prestigious Faculty Merit Foundation of West Virginia’s Professor of the Year for 2014. He also received the International Association of Astacology’s Noble Crayfish award, which is awarded to those the association deems the most notable advocate for crayfish education and student development in the world.
In recent years, Loughman was instrumental in the development of the Zoo Science and Applied Conservation major, which he serves as both curator of living collections and the major’s coordinator. He also assisted in the development of the Master of Science/Master of Arts in Biology Degree program at West Liberty University, where he currently maintains the busiest graduate laboratory on campus.
He lives in Wheeling with his wife, WLU alumna Kathy Vopal Loughman, and their son Colin.