Buena Vista University honors Marian Riner with top teaching award

Buena Vista University has named Marian Riner the 2026 recipient of its George Wythe Award, the school’s highest honor for teaching excellence, recognizing work that reaches well beyond campus in Storm Lake. Riner, program director and assistant professor of social work, was selected from four finalists and received BVU’s 40th George Wythe Award.

The honor carries a $30,000 cash award and a sabbatical for professional development or research. BVU endowed the award in 1988 through a gift from the late Drs. Paul and Vivian McCorkle, both Life Trustees, and it is named for George Wythe, the educator who taught Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, James Monroe and Henry Clay.

Riner brought 20 years of social work experience to BVU after practicing in Arkansas, Texas and Iowa. Her background includes hospice care, work with homeless students and services for children and families involved in the foster care system. BVU says her early career included home studies for prospective foster parents, intensive in-home family therapy for children at risk of removal and training for foster and adoptive parents.

That experience has shaped her work in Storm Lake, where BVU has expanded its social work offerings under her leadership. The university says Riner created its first Social Work minor and helped develop its online Social Work program. BVU’s academic catalog now lists the Social Work minor, and the program’s mission is to prepare culturally competent, service-oriented professionals through experiential learning and focused research.

The recognition matters locally because BVU is one of Buena Vista County’s major institutions and a key feeder of human-services talent into the region. The National Association of Social Workers’ Iowa schools listing identifies Buena Vista University in Storm Lake as a Council on Social Work Education-approved school offering a BSW, placing Riner’s teaching inside a broader accredited pipeline for future social workers.

BVU named Brian Pattie, Sarah Schlichte, Karin Strohmyer and Riner as finalists for the 2026 award on Feb. 16. Riner said hearing how former students continue to be affected by her teaching has been humbling and rewarding, and she said she hopes graduates stay grounded in ethics, advocate for vulnerable groups, build the profession and remain lifelong learners. For Storm Lake and surrounding communities, that means the award is not just a faculty accolade. It is recognition of a teacher helping prepare the workforce that serves some of the region’s most vulnerable residents.