Four faculty members from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University have been recognized with top faculty honors at the annual 2022 Academic Affairs Awards and Recognition ceremony. 

The CSB+SJU faculty awards went to:

• Corrie Grosse, assistant professor of environmental studies
• Pedro dos Santos, associate professor of political science
• Ana Fonseca Conboy, associate professor of languages and cultures
• Greg Schroeder, professor of history

Academic Affairs also recognized faculty for years of service, retirements, tenure and promotions and contributions as department chairs and leaders during the ceremony in May.

Additional background on the award recipients and retirees can be found on the Academic Affairs website.

Sister Mary Grell/Robert Spaeth Teacher of Distinction Award

Recipient: Corrie Grosse, assistant professor of environmental studies

Grosse has been teaching in the environmental studies department since 2018. Her understanding of teaching as a transformative act for both students and society is realized in her efforts to help students develop critical thinking skills, form community connections and foster collaboration with these community partners. As she notes in her teaching philosophy, “My goal is to enable students to build social just solutions to the challenges we face through knowledge, skills, empathy and passion.”

All aspects of her teaching are grounded in a deep-rooted commitment to social and environmental justice. One student wrote, “Grosse continually repeats throughout her courses how vital education is to make a difference. Through her educating students like myself and others, we move forward to create change.”

Another student wrote, “Grosse helped transform my feelings of guilt and frustration into action by moving my understanding of climate change to a systems level. This class provided me with a pathway to enact positive change in the world.”

Ultimately, Grosse’s passion and skill for guiding students to generate solutions about pressing issues in today’s society is evident during her time as a faculty member here at CSB and SJU.

This faculty award is named for two outstanding teachers. Grell, a noted biologist who was a 1933 graduate of CSB, served students at CSB and SJU for more than 35 years with intelligence, dedication and affection. Her lifetime of teaching at CSB is celebrated through the recognition of a faculty member who represents the best teaching and learning at CSB and SJU. Grell served as president of CSB from 1963-68.

Spaeth served as dean at SJU for nine years in addition to service as a professor of liberal studies from 1979 until his death in 1994. Each year, Spaeth's commitment to teaching is remembered by honoring a faculty member who brings a special passion and mastery to the classroom and the learning community. This award has been presented yearly since 1995.

Sister Linda Kulzer Gender Educator Award

Recipient: Corrie Grosse, assistant professor of environmental studies

Grosse’s wide-ranging gender scholarship addresses topics related to climate justice, activism, pedagogy and gender, indigeneity, colonization and carework. She has co-authored and co-presented multiple articles with CSB and SJU students on these topics and has a forthcoming book on this work with the University of California Press in 2022.

Grosse is a mentor and advocate for our students, serving on the board of the Institute for Women’s Leadership, working with students in the year-long Hynes Scholars program on gender and leadership, the Climate Justice Club, and more. She has been a tireless advocate on institutional inclusion, equity and justice topics through her work on the Joint Faculty Senate’s IEJ Committee and the Presidents’ Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Coordinating Council. Among other important initiatives, these committees have made specific recommendations to make our campuses more gender inclusive, including revising our transgender policy and the use of gendered language.

This award recognizes a member of the CSB+SJU faculty who has contributed to students' gender education through curricular leadership, courses taught, scholarship and mentoring of students independent of normal classroom teaching. This person demonstrates leadership and fosters an atmosphere that encourages exploring gender issues from many angles. The award is named for Kulzer, CSB's vice president for academic affairs from 1977-85 and a professor emerita of education, was a pioneer in the colleges' earliest efforts to integrate gender into the curriculum.

Linda Mealey Faculty/Student Collaborative Research and Creativity Award

Recipient: Pedro dos Santos, associate professor of political science

During his time at CSB and SJU, dos Santos has mentored many students in research regarding issues of representation and empowerment of minorities in Brazilian politics. The award nominator wrote, “The depth and the breadth of Prof. dos Santos’s commitment to collaborative research is noteworthy in its own right. It also evokes Linda Mealey’s own multifaceted approach to exciting and engaging students in the pursuit of new and innovative research questions, thereby helping to create the next generation of scholars.”

The diverse backgrounds of the students dos Santos has recruited and mentored is particularly noteworthy. From inviting students to collaborate on high-level research, to preparing them to present at international conferences alongside professionals in the field, dos Santos’ efforts reveal his thoughtful and intentional mentoring of his student collaborators and co-researchers.

The Linda Mealey Faculty/Student Collaborative Research and Creativity Award is given annually to a faculty member who exemplifies demonstrated excellence in scholarship as well as teaching, conducts student/faculty collaborative research or creative work and excels in the mentoring of students. The award, which was established as the Teacher-Scholar Award in 2000, was renamed for Mealey in 2004. Mealey, who had received the award in the spring of 2002, passed away in November 2002.

Catholic Benedictine Educator Award

Recipient: Ana Fonseca Conboy, associate professor of languages and cultures

In her classroom, and in life, Conboy notes she is “committed to the cura personalis, and to Benedictine and Catholic intellectual traditions. I encourage students to reflect on our institutional values as I strive to provide an example to them.” Conboy creatively and rigorously incorporates traditions and practices from the Catholic intellectual tradition into her French courses on the campuses and during study abroad.

As one of her colleagues wrote, “Dr. Conboy shows her skill as Catholic, Benedictine educator in her choice of readings, incorporating elements from the Rule of Benedict, Catholic theologians and French authors whose work animates issues of importance to the Catholic intellectual tradition.”

The Catholic Benedictine Educator Award recognizes creative engagement between the Catholic Benedictine tradition and teaching throughout the curriculum. This award affirms a CSB+SJU faculty member whose exemplary teaching successfully integrates the Catholic Benedictine tradition with courses in their academic discipline and/or the Integrations Curriculum.

Jennifer Galovich Service Award

Recipient: Greg Schroeder, professor of history

Schroeder’s career spans more than two decades of deep commitment to the institutions, shared governance and his faculty colleagues. His leadership over the course of his career included service as department chair for two terms, American Association of University Professors president, the Higher Learning Commission Reaccreditation Team and vice chair and then chair of the faculty. He used each of these platforms to represent the interests of his colleagues, the jointness of the academic mission and the importance of the liberal arts.

Schroeder’s dedication to the essential and sometimes thankless tasks of faculty governance was evident throughout his career, in his active participation in both Faculty Assembly and Senate meetings, even when not a senator. In his two terms on the Joint Faculty Senate, he spent three years of service on the executive committee. This past year, Schroeder led the ad-hoc committee on faculty representation to the common boards, using his extensive experience in faculty leadership and his understanding of the principles of shared governance to create a structure for effective faculty voice on the new boards and the board committees. Over the past three years, Schroeder was involved in four separate presidential searches, either as a member of the search committee itself, or on the faculty interview team, working hard to ensure faculty input at several stages of the hiring process.

From 2019 to 2021, Schroeder served as vice chair and then chair of the Joint Faculty Assembly. His term as vice chair was focused on the boards’ work on joint strategic visioning and to encourage communication about that work to the faculty. As Schroeder began his term as chair of the faculty, the COVID-19 pandemic required the campus to shut down and the move to remote instruction. Acting swiftly to ensure a coherent process, Schroeder convened Joint Faculty Senate and Assembly meetings throughout the summer. His commitment to good process and coherent governance was evident in his leadership throughout the year. He worked on the scenario planning team through the summer of 2020 and the subsequent year, striving to ensure transparency and faculty input. Working tireless throughout his term as chair, Schroeder coherently presented the faculty perspective to the boards and in the Leadership Team and was a consistent voice promoting the liberal arts and joint academic mission of the institutions.

The Jennifer Galovich Service Award is named for Galovich, who retired in 2019 after serving on the mathematics faculty for 28 years. She was known for her commitment to her students but especially as having strong and exemplary service to the institutions. She served as chair and vice chair of the Joint Faculty Assembly, and also served on numerous other committees at CSB and SJU. However, she is best known for her exemplary work as the Faculty Handbook chair. This award was presented for the first time in 2020.

Special appointment:

Ted Gordon, integrations curriculum, to the Joseph Farry Professorship.

Academic advising awards:

The Academic Advisor of the Year Award was established in 1985. It is awarded to two faculty and/or professional advisors who have distinctly contributed to the advising program, as well as to individual student development and growth throughout the academic year.

• Carie Braun, nursing
• Robert Campbell, mathematics

Tenure and promotion to associate professor:

• Robert Campbell, mathematics
• Chris Conway, theology
• Alexa Evenson, nutrition
• Emily Paup, communication

Promotion to professor:

• Sophia Geng, languages and cultures
• Jean Lavigne, environmental studies
• Anna Mercedes, theology
• Jennifer Schaefer, biology
• Christi Siver, political science
• Mary Stenson, exercise science and sport studies

Professor Alumni and retirement:

• Jeanne Cofell, education
• Marietta Franulic, Hispanic studies
• Kate Graham, chemistry
• David Hartz, mathematics
• Nicholas Hayes, University Chair in Critical Thinking
• Patricia Kent, music
• Maureen McCarter, languages and cultures
• Nicholas Raths, music 

Professor Emeriti and retirement:

• Karen Erickson, languages and cultures
• John Hasselberg, global business leadership
• Ken Jones, history
• Jeff Kamakahi, sociology
• Scott Richardson, languages and cultures
• Elena Sanchez Mora, Hispanic studies
• Steve Saupe, biology
• Bruce Thornton, music
• Richard Wielkiewicz, psychology

Registrar Emerita and retirement:

• Julie Gruska, registrar

10 years of service:

• Jennifer Beste, theology
• Robert Campbell, mathematics
• Clark Cotton, biology
• Amy Grinsteiner, music
• Jonathan Nash, history
• Emily Paup, communication
• Alicia Peters, education

15 years of service:

• Sophia Geng, languages and cultures
• Elizabeth Johnson, English
• Jennifer Kramer, communication
• Rachel Melis, art
• Anna Mercedes, theology
• Shane Miller, communication
• Sucharita Mukherjee, economics
• Kristina Timmerman, biology
• Sarah Yost, physics

20 years of service:

• Kelly Berg, communication
• Jim Crumley, physics
• Nelsy Echavez-Solano, Hispanic studies
• Bernadette Elhard, nutrition
• Claire Haeg, political science
• Christina Mougoyanni Hennessy, Hispanic studies
• Linda Shepherd, nutrition

25 years of service:

• Mani Campos, biology
• Louis Johnston, economics
• Katie Johnson, communication
• Michael Reagan, biology
• Chuck Wright, philosophy

30 years of service:

• Jeff Anderson, peace studies
• Scott Johnson, political science
• Vincent Smiles, theology 

35 years of service:

• Dean Langley, physics
• Kathy Ohman, nursing

40 years of service:

• Patricia Kent, music

45 years of service:

• Dan Finn, economics and theology
• John Merkle, theology

Department chair, program director term completion:

• Karyl Daughters, communication
• Kari-Shane Davis Zimmerman, first-year experience
• Mark Hennigs, theater
• Mary Jepperson, global business leadership
• Sam Johnson, art
• Jeff Kamakahi, sociology
• Shane Miller, integrations curriculum
• Jason Schlude, languages and cultures
• Erica Stonestreet, philosophy

Joint Faculty Senate Chair term completion:

• Claire Haeg, political science

Academic Dean leaving CSB+SJU:

Barb May will become the next provost at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana effective July 1, 2022.

Faculty who have attended five of more Becoming Community Professional Development Workshops this past academic year have earned the Becoming Community Practitioner certificate.

Practitioner Certificate recipients:

• Amelia Cheever, theater
• Whitney Court, political science
• Kari-Shane Davis Zimmerman, theology
• Sophia Geng, languages and cultures
• Emily Heying, nutrition
• Jacob Jantzer, sociology
• Jennifer Kramer, communication
• Peter Ohmann, computer science
• Annette Raigoza, chemistry
• Mary Stenson, exercise science and sport studies

Advanced Practitioner Certificate recipients:

• Shannon Smith, history
• Mary Stenson, exercise science and sport studies