Four faculty members are the inaugural recipients of the Campus Award for Excellence in Faculty Leadership. The three annual awards for excellence in faculty leadership, given by the Office of the Provost, recognize faculty members who distinguish themselves with their vision of the future and their effort to enable and promote others in shaping that future.
Huseyin Leblebici, a professor of business administration, received the Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award; Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, a professor and the head of kinesiology and community health, and Dianne Harris, a professor of landscape architecture and the director of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, received the Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award; and Nicholas Burbules, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership, received the Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award.
They were honored at the Celebration of Academic Service and Leadership Excellence on May 13 at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Each award consists of a recurring salary increase of $2,000, a $2,500 honorarium for the personal use of the recipient and a personalized commemorative plaque. The event also recognized members of provost committees.
Leblebici was honored for his commitment to enhancing the personal development, intellectual growth and career progress of both junior faculty members and doctoral students. His mentees describe him as a committed mentor who has served as “an extraordinary role model in our career development” and who helped them to grow as independent scholars.
Chodzko-Zajko has led his department to achieve unprecedented growth in faculty size and student enrollment. Colleagues say, “He is masterful at addressing student problems, solving faculty and staff issues and expanding physical space to relieve pressures of a growing faculty, while always exploring new directions to take in order to improve our status on campus and our reputation nationally.”
Harris is an entrepreneurial and creative leader whose committed efforts have resulted in many strategic improvements that are impressive in both their number and scope. Thanks to her effective leadership, IPRH has become a model for humanities programs at other major universities. More people than ever see the relevance and centrality of humanities research to the university mission.
Burbules has worked relentlessly to protect the integrity and strength of the campus’ shared governance processes and to improve campus conditions for faculty and staff members, and students. For more than 25 years, he has given selflessly of his time and spearheaded shared governance initiatives designed to advance the Illinois missions and to enhance the campus’ stature as a world-class research university.
