During the Spring Faculty Assembly on April 11, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Faculty Senate Chair聽 presented awards to 10 faculty members who made a significant impact through scholarship, research, creative expression, service, teaching or mentoring.
Capizzi, associate professor of the practice and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Special Education at Peabody College, welcomed faculty to the assembly and gave a brief update on the work of the Faculty Senate this year.
Then, Diermeier spoke about the challenges facing higher education in general and Vanderbilt specifically. Nodding to the recent student sit-in at Kirkland Hall, as well as a campaign to persuade Vanderbilt to adopt an official definition of antisemitism, he called political pressure from the right and left the greatest threat to the university.
鈥淐onservative voices accuse us of being 鈥榳oke factories,鈥� while progressives attack us for being inequality machines. And the Israel-Gaza conflict has polarized college campuses to a degree unseen since the 1960s,鈥� he said. 鈥淗ow should universities respond to this challenge? My firm belief is that the best, indeed the only path, is to be clear about our purpose and our values and uphold the principles that support them.鈥�
He pointed to the once-influential University of Berlin (now Humboldt University) as a cautionary tale of how unchecked politicization can damage a university. That institution, he said, was undone first by the Nazis, then by the communist government of East Berlin. Diermeier stressed institutional neutrality as the best defense against politicization.
鈥淲hen a university takes political stances, it invites lobbying and competitive advocacy by various campus constituencies and turns the university into yet another political battlefield,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his erodes a university鈥檚 unique purpose: the pursuit of knowledge and truth.鈥�
Diermeier thanked the faculty for their 鈥渉ard work and thoughtful discernment鈥� over these challenging weeks.
鈥淚t is often in your classrooms and labs, and in your role as mentors, where theory meets practice, and you are faced with the hard work of putting our principles and values into action as you teach students how to think, not what to think,鈥� he said.
FACULTY AWARDS
After his address, Diermeier recognized the 28 faculty members who reached the milestone of serving 25 years at Vanderbilt.
Then, he and Capizzi presented this year鈥檚 awards.
The Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award, which recognizes scholarship that contributes to the analysis and solution of significant problems of contemporary society, was presented to Carolyn Heinrich, University Distinguished Professor of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations聽and Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy, Education, and Economics聽for her research exploring how schools can support the health and well-being of children and improve education outcomes and her examination of digital learning in K-12 schools, online course-taking in high schools, health and education outcomes of children entangled in immigration enforcement, and more.
The Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award was presented to Douglas Adams, Daniel F. Flowers Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering聽and professor of mechanical engineering, to recognize his accomplishments that further the aims of the university through creative research, teaching and service.聽His research on the health of machines鈥攖o ensure their safety, reliability and performance鈥攄efines the state of the art in advanced manufacturing and national security.聽His service includes helping secure large awards from external sponsors as associate provost and spearheading the first major curriculum innovation in civil engineering in more than 20 years as chair of the department.聽And his teaching reflects his efforts to champion innovative solutions, put out fires wherever they occur and foster a positive environment of excellence and collaboration.
The Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor Award, which recognizes faculty who develop significant knowledge from research or demonstrate exemplary innovations in teaching, was awarded to J.B. Ruhl, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair and Professor in Law, director of the Program on Law and Innovation聽and co-director of the Energy, Environment and Land Use Program. As a leading voice in environmental law, Ruhl bridges gaps between science, law, governance and policy鈥攕panning disciplines with creativity, curiosity and rigor.聽A prolific writer, he is published in journals ranging from Science to the University of Colorado Law Review with co-authors ranging from environmental scientists and EPA officials to agricultural scientists and geographers.
罢丑别听Joseph A. Johnson, Jr., Distinguished Leadership Professor Award聽went to Walter Clair, professor of medicine聽and vice chair for diversity and inclusion in the Department of Medicine, for being a member of the faculty who has proactively nurtured an academic environment where everyone feels valued and where diversity is celebrated.聽Throughout his career, Clair has supported diversity and worked to create access and opportunity in health care鈥攆or those seeking medical education and those seeking medical treatment.聽His individualized approach for making sustainable changes includes education, role modeling, active listening, community engagement and especially mentoring.聽He mentors medical students as well as young people interested in careers in science or medicine, such as those in the Aspirnaut program at Vanderbilt.
The Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching, one of the awards determined by student nominations, was awarded to Peter Kolkay, associate professor of bassoon. The student who nominated him for the award called him a 鈥渕aster teacher鈥� and described him as attentive, constructive and inspiring. Examples of his dedication to students include the notebooks he keeps for each student summarizing their lessons, the special sessions he holds for first-year students and his commitment to perform a duet with each student at the Blair Master Series recital.
The Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching went to Katherine Blue Carroll,聽associate professor of political science聽and associate director of public policy studies. Carroll directs the undergraduate program in public policy studies and teaches courses such as Terrorism, Political Islam, Middle Eastern Politics and The War in Iraq.聽Student nominations said that she creates an immersive, informative and unique lecture environment using a variety of sources to give context to political systems and overviews of current research in the field, encouraging students to think critically about the political phenomena in popular media.
This year鈥檚 Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award was awarded to Carrie Jones, associate professor of pharmacology, for her work understanding schizophrenia, Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and addiction and her willingness to support students in her lab. As one student nominator said, 鈥淎s a freshman, I was unfamiliar with the concept of 鈥榬esearch,鈥� but Dr. Jones ensured I felt welcome by regularly checking in and offering her assistance. Under her guidance, I鈥檝e taken ownership of my research projects and experienced significant growth as a student and professional. Her unwavering belief in my abilities and recognition of my efforts have fostered a sense of belonging and validation for me within the STEM community.鈥�
The Excellence in Immersion Mentoring Award recognizes a faculty member who has been an exceptional immersion mentor and was presented to Catherine Chang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. Chang studies the human brain through functional neuroimaging data, and she has provided time-intensive research guidance for five students鈥� Immersion Vanderbilt projects.聽A student who nominated her wrote that 鈥淒r. Chang鈥檚 mentorship has been instrumental to my academic and personal development. As I gained more knowledge and experience, she encouraged me to propose my own research questions and shape the next steps of my project, equipping me with the skills to develop into an independent thinker and researcher.鈥�
The assembly concluded with two new awards related to developments in teaching and mentoring. First, the Innovation in Teaching: Generative AI Award acknowledges the emergence of generative AI as a driving force in many of Vanderbilt鈥檚 classrooms and labs and recognizes a faculty member for excellence and innovation in using generative AI in the classroom.聽The inaugural Innovation in Teaching: Generative AI Award聽went to Alex Christensen, assistant professor of psychology and human development. Christensen teaches students how to use generative AI to analyze, interpret and create. He developed an innovative AI tool for students to self-assess and generate their own practice quizzes, teaching them how to use generative AI to help understand what they don鈥檛 understand.聽He introduced new tools for his students and provided a model for successful use of generative AI in the classroom, demonstrating that students need instruction tailored to their background knowledge and support to accommodate learning.
The inaugural Innovation in Teaching: Instruction and Course Design Award聽recognizes a faculty member who models intellectual risk-taking for their students by using creative approaches in course design or innovative pedagogical practices that advance student-centered learning, foster inclusivity in the classroom, and challenge students to engage with unfamiliar ways of thinking and was presented to Elizabeth Meadows, principal senior lecturer in English. Meadows uses literature and engineering science to help students understand how cities are built, what draws people to cities and why cities foster opportunity and create inequity at the same time.聽She encourages students to share their own experiences of the cities where they are from to build a teaching community in the classroom that is inclusive, student-centered and welcoming.聽Students think about the course material in terms of problems they want to solve in the world, setting the stage for them to take their passion and skills to other courses and into the world.
