Five faculty members from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University were recognized with top honors at the annual Academic Affairs Awards and Recognition ceremony.
The faculty awards went to:
- Majel Baker, assistant professor of psychology
- Steven Lemke, visiting assistant professor of art
- Jason Schlude, professor of classics and history
- Anne Sinko, professor of mathematics
- Parker Wheatley, professor of economics
Academic Affairs also recognized faculty for retirements, tenure and promotions, and for 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: Jason Schlude, professor of classics and history
Schlude’s nomination letter included these powerful words: “[W]hen you take a class with Dr. Schlude, let alone become his advisee, you are signing up for a relationship that includes a deep commitment to your education, growth and value as a person that can extend well beyond your college career.”
Schlude represents the best of CSB+SJU’s liberal arts identity in the service of student growth. His teaching philosophy is organized around four pedagogical bases.
First, his classes are deeply interdisciplinary, allowing students to think with and through very different texts and disciplines (including archaeology) to reach new and unexpected conclusions. Second, he empowers students to be brave and creative in tackling big questions as well as to be humble and empathetic in the face of historical and cultural differences. Third, Schlude’s seminar-style classes demonstrate learning as a communal endeavor. He functions not as a subject matter expert but a Socratic midwife, helping students bring new insights forth.
Finally, Schlude is radically present to his students, not only academically but in some of their most significant intellectual and personal growth moments. As one former student described it, Schlude is not merely educating students but forming them for a lifetime of learning and relationship.
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 including as president of CSB from 1963 to 1968. Spaeth served as dean at SJU for nine years, in addition to his service as a professor of liberal studies from 1979 until his death in 1994. Each year since 1995, Grell’s and 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.
Sister Linda Kulzer Gender Educator Award
Recipient: Majel Baker, assistant professor of psychology
Baker joined the CSB and SJU psychology department in 2022. Her deep and unwavering commitment to addressing representation and marginalized voices is a hallmark of her work – visible in her teaching, research and service. In her own words, Baker grounds her “approach to psychology within an understanding of systemic structures of misogyny, racism and class oppression.” And that grounding comes through clearly in every aspect of her work. One student wrote, “you helped my love for learning about gender and equality grow.”
Baker’s influence reaches far beyond the classroom. As a mentor, she has guided meaningful undergraduate research on topics of inequality and inclusion, helping students grow into thoughtful scholars and leaders. Her scholarship on sexism in STEM fields and broader culture has also strengthened gender education across the institution, in her field and in higher education.
In the past three years, in addition to several co-authored conference presentations with both students and colleagues, Baker has published five co-authored journal articles on gender- or identity-related topics and has two more under review.
Through her service, Baker has advanced gender education across the campus community. She is a member of the Gender Studies Steering Committee, and she serves as an ad hoc member of the Women in STEM Faculty Advisory Committee and a mentor for students in that program. Baker was appointed as an interim member of the General Education Curriculum Committee and has been an invited speaker for faculty development workshops.
This award recognizes a member of the CSB and SJU faculty who has contributed to students’ gender education through curricular leadership, courses taught, scholarship and mentoring of students independent of normal classroom teaching. The award is named for Kulzer, CSB’s vice president for academic affairs from 1977 to 1985 and a professor emerita of education who was a pioneer in the colleges’ earliest efforts to integrate gender into the curriculum.
Linda Mealey Faculty/Student Collaborative Research and Creativity Award
Recipient: Anne Sinko, professor of mathematics
For Sinko, the math classroom is not simply where we learn concepts, equations or solutions to long-standing problems. It can also be a place where one can “discover their personal mathematical voice,” as Sinko often tells her students. Such a voice emerges especially through research when students take ownership of their learning and gain confidence, courage, joy and insight regarding their subject.
Every class that Sinko teaches involves a research component, effectively using diverse problems to garner student interest and helping them see the ethical implications of certain mathematical designs. As one of her students wrote, “[h]er ability to blend her own research with her teaching, while also giving students the tools and confidence to explore new problems, is what makes her such a great professor.”
Outside the classroom, Sinko collaborates with student researchers on original mathematics research. While she scaffolds the initial project with curated readings, students increasingly determine the research’s direction relevant to actual problems debated by mathematicians. This student-driven research always results in papers, whether these are shared with the next student researcher or presented at local, national and even international conferences.
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 spring 2002, died in November 2002.
Catholic Benedictine Educator Award
Recipient: Steven Lemke, visiting assistant professor of art
As an environmental art professor, Lemke enjoys collaborating with students to cultivate their studio art skills in relation to ethical, social and spiritual themes. Highlighting the rich engagement of the Benedictine tradition with the arts, he encourages students to employ their technical skill and artistic expression in service of the common good.
In Lemke’s Environmental Art and Architecture course, students connect the Catholic, Benedictine values of human dignity, preferential option for the poor and care for creation with contemporary ecological challenges. Students especially enjoy the challenges of innovative, timed, team-based competitions such as building a suspended chair from recycled cardboard within just one hour.
Lemke has been actively engaged in Benedictine Institute programming and the Collegium Colloquy on Catholic intellectual life and teaching. He has also supported diverse environmental art initiatives that align with Benedictine values of stewardship and care of place.
As Br. David Paul Lange, OSB, notes in his nomination letter, “The list of Steven’s Benedictine and Catholic practices goes on and on, and it is making – and has indeed already made – an important contribution to the character of these two exceptional institutions.”
The Catholic Benedictine Educator Award recognizes creative engagement between the Catholic Benedictine tradition and teaching throughout the curriculum. This award affirms a CSB and 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: Parker Wheatley, professor of economics
Since starting his career at CSB and SJU in 2005, Wheatley has ceaselessly engaged himself in a variety of service opportunities. His sincere efforts have benefited the institutions, students and various academic departments.
Wheatley’s career exemplifies his efforts to serve in faculty governance persistently and meaningfully. As a member of the Faculty Compensation and Benefits committee, Wheatley worked with colleagues to advocate faculty welfare by developing a systematic method to forecast faculty salaries. This work continues to be the basis of current FCBC efforts.
Besides serving in faculty governance standing committees such as the Rank and Tenure Committee, the General Education Curriculum Committee and the Task Force on Joint Governance, Wheatley served as vice chair and chair of the faculty at a challenging time immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic, which was followed by the Academic Program Prioritization process. Both circumstances required overtime work to advocate for faculty.
Serving the Department of Economics as chair for seven years and program review coordinator during the department’s last program review, Wheatley has worked for the welfare of students and the well-being of colleagues. Whether it is by mentoring junior colleagues, organizing departmental socials to foster a collegial environment or by advocating on behalf of the department to other campus constituents, Wheatley has worked with dedication to strengthen the quality of teaching and maintain high departmental standards.
Wheatley developed and co-directs the data analytics minor and was active in the process of creating the finance major and minor.
This award, presented for the first time in 2020, is named for Jennifer Galovich, who retired in 2019 after serving on the mathematics faculty for 28 years. She served as chair and vice chair of the Joint Faculty Assembly and served on numerous other committees at CSB and SJU. She is best known for her exemplary work as the Faculty Handbook chair.
Additional recognition
Academic advising awards:
The Academic Advisor of the Year Award, established in 1985, 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. This year’s recipients include:
Bob Kachelski, psychology
Alicia Peterson, chemistry
Tenure and promotion to associate professor:
Chris Bolin, English
Ashley Fink, biology
Promotion to professor:
Amelia Cheever, theater
Kristin Colberg, theology
Amy Grinsteiner, music
Amanda Jantzer, psychology
Rachel Marston, English
Deborah Pembleton, global business leadership
Shannon Smith, history
Erica Stonestreet, philosophy
Laura Taylor, theology
Special appointments:
Fr. John Klassen, OSB, Nicholas and Bernice Reuter Professor of Science and Religion
Brittany Merritt Nash, Joseph P. Farry Professorship
Professor alumna and retirement:
Julie Lynch, strategic communication studies
Professor emeriti and retirements:
Phil Chu, biology
Noreen Herzfeld, computer science and theology
Bill Lamberts, biology
Parker Wheatley, economics
Special thanks
Department chair, program director term completion:
Kelly Berg, strategic communication studies
Ellen Block, sociology
Amelia Cheever, theater
Kari Shane Davis Zimmerman, theology
Sam Johnson, art
Jennifer Peterson, graduate nursing
Imad Rahal, computer science
Erica Stonestreet, philosophy
Joint Faculty Senate Chair term completion:
Sucharita Mukherjee, economics
Inclusive Pedagogy Practitioner Certificate and Badge:
This annual recognition honors faculty who demonstrate a sustained commitment to inclusive, equity-minded teaching each academic year. To receive the certificate and badge, participants attend at least three eligible Center for Teaching and Learning events and complete brief reflections that show how they have applied their learning and supported their ongoing growth as inclusive educators.
Bret Benesh, mathematics
Kate Cary, biology
Amelia Cheever, theater
Kristin Colberg, theology
Amanda Jantzer, psychology
Jake Jantzer, psychology
Brittany Merritt Nash, history
Ellie Perelman, history
Alicia Peterson, chemistry
Christine Shikutwa, global business leadership
Christi Siver, political science
Yvette South, English
Greg Taft, physics