He served as the Regents Distinguished Teaching Professor from 1997-99 at Gainesville College and was awarded the Regents Excellence in Teaching Award in 1999. He also acquired a grant from the University System to construct a Laboratory for Classroom Research by integrating several technologies. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a policy center located in Palo Alto, Calif., is devoted to strengthening America's schools and colleges. Georgia Perimeter College historian Tommy Barber researched and wrote more than 100 summaries about Georgia athletics, geography and history that are displayed on 13 panels throughout the new Mall of Georgia in Gwinnett County. If you've been shopping at the new Mall of Georgia, you might have seen many facts and other tidbits of information about Georgia athletics, geography, and history, all thanks to the research and work of Georgia Perimeter College historian and geographer Tommy Barber .
Barber credits the mall's architects with providing the vision.
From this labor of love, he developed more than 100 one-line quips about some of the things that make Georgia unique. Minor Southern Polytechnic State University and Kennesaw State University are collaborating to offer an unprecedented Asian Studies minor. The minor is the first in the University System, as well as the first such collaboration between the Asia Resource Group of KSU and Southern Poly. This joint minor aims broadly at an increased understanding of contemporary Asia in light of its history and hopes for the future. The new program also seeks to bring together professors with teaching and research focus on Asia with students pursuing Asia-related careers.