UW-Madison honors Academic Staff Award winners
In recognition of outstanding leadership, public service, research, teaching and overall excellence, eight UW–Madison professionals have been honored with the 2006 Academic Staff Excellence Awards.
Winners will be recognized by the Academic Staff Assembly on Monday, May 8, and will attend a chancellor’s reception at Olin House on Wednesday, May 10.
This year, awards were made in eight categories. Seven awards carry $2,500 stipends; the Chancellor’s Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching carries a $5,000 stipend. The Ann Wallace Award was not given this year.
The Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence is being awarded for the first time. The award is designed to recognize a sustained level of excellence over a long period of time.
“Academic staff members provide critical support to students, research and the overall operation of the university,” says UW–Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley. “The contributions of the award winners are invaluable and we cannot thank them enough.”
The winners are:
Richard Brooks, outreach program manager and director of the Health Promotion Project in the Division of Continuing Studies, Robert Heideman Award for Excellence in Public Service.
Brooks exemplifies the Wisconsin idea on the local, state and international levels. He has participated in an ever-growing list of endeavors, including Engineering Projects in Community Service, the Madison Home Garden Project, the Dane County Time Bank, the Wisconsin Positive Youth Development Initiative and the Japan-Sri Lanka Study Service Program.
In addition to his work on health promotion, Brooks might be best known for his commitment to Sri Lankan tsunami relief efforts through Sarvodaya USA, a nonprofit fostering grassroots development. The group has raised $3.5 million to date, and Brooks has made two aid trips to the country in the past year.
“The value of public service has been the driving force in Rick’s professional and personal life for many years, and it represents a vital part of our departmental mission,” writes James Campbell, chair of the Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies. “We all benefit by the commitment to community service that is exemplified by this nominee.”
Eileen Hanneman, assistant director of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence.
One of the highest compliments Hanneman has received in her career is that she is the “heart and soul” of the institute.
During 32 years, she has served in various capacities, including typist, departmental secretary, administrative program specialist and, in 1993, assistant director, responsible for fiscal matters, grant administration and personnel. She arrives first in the morning and is last to leave at night.
In short, she has dedicated her life to the institute, not only helping it run smoothly and efficiently, but adding a large dose of professionalism, ethical standards and creativity.
“No academic staff members that I have had the pleasure to work with in the past 30 years more richly deserves an award of this nature,” writes Frances Westley, institute director. “She embodies the ethos of the place, setting a high standard of moral integrity, collaborative spirit, and reasoned, conscientious decision making, which has helped make the institute what it is.”
Jamie Henke, faculty associate in the Department of Liberal Studies and the Arts, Chancellor’s Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Henke is known as an accomplished instructor of both traditional UW–Madison students and nontraditional students around the world.
In addition to her skill in directing the music theory class Basic Concepts of Music 660-151 course for many years, Henke has adapted her methods to new and emerging technology. Her class is offered through Learn@UW as a part of the credit outreach program sponsored by the Division of Continuing Studies.
Last fall, Henke approached the School of Music with a proposal to create a new course designed specifically for returning adult learners. She is also involved in working podcasting and streaming video into her teaching.
“She has clearly identified how music can effectively change lives and she instills this in others,” writes Jim Campbell, chair of the department. “She works tirelessly for her students located throughout the world and always goes the extra mile to be certain each works up to their potential.
“According to her colleagues and students alike, Henke is demanding, energetic, cheerful, caring, intelligent, helpful, dynamic and an exceptional teacher,” Campbell adds.
Rita Hohlstein, clinical associate professor for the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Wisconsin Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Leadership.
During the past 35 years, Hohlstein has displayed uncommon leadership in creating, implementing and sustaining interdisciplinary training and clinical service programs at the Waisman Center.
Hohlstein works within the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities with the mission of training clinicians, educations and administrators who will be working to improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities and their families.
Several thousand UW–Madison students have learned from these programs during her time at the center.
During that time, Hohlstein has made her greatest contribution to the Maternal and Child Health Leadership Program in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities as its most consistent, dedicated and creative backer.
Her own grandson was born with cerebral palsy, and it is likely that her own efforts have improved the quality of service that he has received.
“I have always viewed Rita as one who has lent a wise, calm and steady influence over the direction that Waisman clinical programs have taken over the years,” writes Paul White, a Waisman outreach manager. “She has had direct and indirect positive influences over countless people with disabilities and their families across Wisconsin.”
Jean Phillips, senior special librarian at the Space Science and Engineering Center, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Service to the University.
Phillips has transformed the Schwerdtfeger Library since she began in 1986.
At the time she started, the library was an archive for satellite data, books, periodicals and data collections donated by retired professors. Since then, she has helped change the mission, environment, clientele and philosophy of the library with the goal of providing any and all information needed by the center to accomplish its mission.
Members of the staff comment that she frequently provides information even before they realize they are in need of a particular resource. Once she learns of a particular area of interest, she follows up with unsolicited e-mails providing news and information on the area.
“Jean, more often than not, is able to take a request, understand the underlying research need and provide a more focused and higher quality response than what was anticipated,” writes director Henry Revercomb. “When clients have this experience, their working relationship with the library increases significantly, thus improving the ultimate output of the research.
“It is all done with a professionalism that is rooted in a deep knowledge of the subject, not to mention energy, enthusiasm and good humor,” he adds.
Mary Rabaglia, researcher in the Department of Biochemistry, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research (Research Support).
Rabaglia, a nationally known expert in pancreatic beta cell biology, has served as a well-respected researcher in the Department of Biochemistry for the past eight years.
Specifically, Rabaglia has worked on unlocking the mystery of why beta cells die when obese people become diabetic. The subject has been difficult to study, due to a lack of good RNA material for experimentation. Because Rabaglia has developed innovative methods for obtaining RNA, Merck has invested $6.5 million in a collaborative project examining the onset of diabetes.
In addition to her body of work, she is known as an extremely likeable colleague, with a strong drive and pursuit of a job well done.
“Apart from her excellence as a laboratory scientist, Mary is a resource on our campus and nationally,” writes Alan Attie, professor of biochemistry. “She has been very generous training other people in her techniques and providing collaborators with precious samples. Her contributions are unusually important, and thus highly deserving of this important award.”
Meredith Ross, clinical professor in the Law School and director of UW–Madison’s Frank J. Remington Center, WAA Award for Excellence in Leadership.
No one has made a greater contribution to the Frank J. Remington Center at the Law School in the past 14 years than Ross. The Remington Center is a clinical program in which law students, working under faculty supervision, learn the art of lawyering by representing actual clients.
Ross began her tenure there as a clinical instructor in 1990 and became deputy director in 1991, while the center was still known as the Legal Assistance to Institutionalized Persons Program. With limited mission, the program had a small enrollment of 70. In 1996, Ross became director and was given the directive to grow and redefine the center.
Over time, the Remington Center added numerous projects addressing social justice and the public interest and has since doubled its student enrollment and grown to a staff of 15 clinical faculty and four support staff members. Colleagues credit Ross and her innovation, creativity and management skill.
“When I think of Meredith’s job, I am reminded of that vaudeville act where the man runs around spinning dozens of plates on top of poles, while frantic music plays in the background,” writes clinical professor Michele LaVigne. “Unlike that man, Meredith makes it all look easy, and she hardly ever breaks a plate.”
Curtis Smith, research professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research (Independent Investigator).
For the past 28 years, Smith has been an essential cog in the success of the laboratory, which studies respiratory physiology.
He has produced 65 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journal, provided research training for 19 pre- and postdoctoral fellows and three undergraduate science majors and has received continuous funding from the National Institutes for Health.
More significantly, Smith has also achieved independent principal investigator status, assumed supervisory responsibility over laboratory personnel and become a mentor for several research trainees. For these attributes, he was one of very few academic staff members honored as a “research professor.”
“I believe Curt possesses a rare combination of talent,” writes researcher Kathy Henderson. “His ability to work with others … is simply amazing and provides proof to his congenial, responsible, sensitive and approachable demeanor. I have grown so much under Curt’s tutelage.”