Faculty Awards

Annual Awards

Faculty Diversity Award

The Faculty Diversity Award is designed to recognize distinctive and outstanding teaching, research or creative work and/or service/outreach that advance diversity and equity at Washington State University. Diversity includes the cultures, world views, values and personal experiences that may result from differences in race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, geographic region, and more.   All career- and tenure-track faculty (half-time or greater) are eligible.

Criteria

The award will recognize outstanding accomplishments and general impact in any or all of the following areas:

• Teaching
  • Development and implementation of effective strategies for teaching that advance understanding of underrepresented groups in the field of instruction and/or for advancing the education of students from underrepresented groups in the field of instruction and to include activities such as classroom instruction; direction of independent study, theses and dissertations; and mentoring.
• Research or Creative Work
  • New knowledge or creative work that advances understanding of underrepresented groups in the field of study and/or has the potential to improve the quality of life among underrepresented groups in the field of study.
• Service/Outreach
  • Activities that promote the professional and/or academic advancement of underrepresented groups in the applicant’s field of study; contributions to diversity and equal opportunity in the university through activities such as recruitment and mentoring of faculty and students; activities that promote the well-being of underrepresented communities in the applicant’s field of study.

Application Process

Nominators are asked to submit the nomination form, a copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae, and a narrative of 1000 words or less, stating why the nominee meets the award criteria and is deserving of the award.

Please do not submit additional information during the initial phase.  At a later date, for those nominees moving forward for secondary consideration, the nominator(s) will be asked to provide additional supporting information. Representative examples of additional information may include:

• A brief description of the nominee’s position at Washington State University and the approximate percentages of assignment to instruction, service, and research, scholarship or arts.
• An interpretive evaluation of the nominee’s contribution in relation to the award, including a summary of major accomplishments and evidence of impact on the nominee’s field and students.  In the evaluation, please directly address the criteria for the award.
• Up to three letters of endorsement from individuals who can evaluate the nominee’s contribution relevant to the award.
• A list of honors or recognitions received.
• A list of invited addresses and other honors related to the nominee’s contribution.
• A list of graduate students for whom they served as major professor.
• A recent summary of teaching evaluations, courses taught (going back five years, and including, if available, response rates and college average) and class sizes.

Previous Award Recipients

2024 recipient Alexis Tan
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2023 recipient Katherine Rodela
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2022 recipient Zoe Higheagle Strong
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2021 recipient Melissa Parkhurst

2020 recipient Gisela Ernst-Slavit

2019 recipient Shira Broschat
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2018 recipient Raymond Herrera
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2017 recipient Paul Kwon
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