SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference named its All-Southern Conference Faculty and Staff Team on Tuesday, with two representatives each from all 10 member schools being recognized by the league. Wofford's Dr. Stacey Hettes and Mark Olencki were among those honored.
 
While the selections were left up to each institution's discretion, the recipients all shared the common characteristics of demonstrated service to the institution and contributions to campus life and the local community. Faculty members selected have demonstrated strong contributions to teaching, research and/or service, while staff members are being recognized for bringing out the best in others and creating conditions for success.
 
"These outstanding faculty and staff members exemplify the excellence and commitment that define the Southern Conference. Their dedication to mentorship, teaching, leadership and service, their contributions to their institutions, and their positive impact on students and communities make them truly deserving of this recognition," said SoCon Commissioner Michael Cross. "We are proud to celebrate each of these dedicated individuals who go above and beyond in their roles and help make each SoCon campus a special and exceptional place."
 
The recipients from Wofford will be recognized at the men's basketball game against UNC Greensboro on January 7.   
 
Dr. Stacey Hettes is Professor of Biology and serves as Faculty Ombuds, a role she was instrumental in establishing during her tenure as Wofford's first Associate Provost for Faculty Development from 2014 to 2020.  As associate provost, she was privileged to work with faculty members from across the SoCon, co-led by Dr. Bill Kwochka of Western Carolina University, to build SoCon's Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF), now in its tenth year. Hettes' sense of vocation is deeply embedded in undergraduate education. Upon returning to the classroom full-time, she began work on her most ambitious teaching project to date: a memoir, Dispatches from the Couch: A Neuroscientist and Her Therapist Conspire to Reboot Her Brain, published by Loyola University's Apprentice House Press in May 2025.  She hopes it will become a widely used resource for training the next generation of trauma-informed psychologists.  

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Mark Olencki '75 has captured the stories of millions of moments in Wofford College history. A student photographer in the early 1970s, his photographs in the Bohemian student yearbook are some of the only photos of that era. After graduation, he did printmaking and worked in photography before opening Olencki Graphics where he extended his photography services to include graphic design and other creative projects. He has designed dozens of books for the Hub City Writers Project, and his photographs have been included in art exhibits and permanent collections across the region. Olencki joined the staff in Wofford's Office of Marketing and Communications fulltime as photographer and digital imaging manager in 2008. Since then, he has captured events large and small, from Commencement and Homecoming to students studying on the lawn of Main Building. While athletics is not his primary responsibility, he's nevertheless a fixture on the sidelines of athletics events and he spends hours photographing student athletes in the studio for promotional shoots. From championships to huddles, headshots to incredible action images, Mark Olencki is always there.