The Faculty Service Award recognizes full-time faculty whose extraordinary and creative voluntary service has contributed significantly to the University’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Recognized activities may include substantial service on a university-wide or school-wide diversity/equity committee and/or development/implementation of DEI programming that impacts Columbia and its neighbors (i.e. anti-racist initiatives, pipeline programs, community service programs).
The recipients of the 2021 Faculty Service Award are:
Marcel Agüeros
Associate Professor of Astronomy
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
"I have a deep belief in the possibility of Columbia, in this institution’s ability to both model and lead us to the society we wish for."
Casey N. Blake
Mendelson Family Professor of American Studies; Director, Center for American Studies
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
"In its curriculum and public programming, the Center for American Studies seeks to prepares students to confront with historical awareness the most pressing problems that face our society. [We take our] inspiration from the great Columbia philosopher John Dewey, who insisted that “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.”
Geraldine Downey
Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters in Psychology
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
"[I am] motivated by the belief that universities need to take the lead in making the pathway to higher education more accessible to men and women from Brown and Black communities—like those that surround us in New York City—than the pathways to the New York jails and prisons in which the many excellent students who enroll in college in prison reside."
Cristiane Duarte
Ruane Professor for the Implementation of Child Mental Health for Child & Adolescent Mental Health
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
"As a strong proponent of the view that making university training programs accessible to diverse scholars could leave the strongest, most sustainable mark in academic institutions and beyond, I dedicate a significant portion of my time to help change and refine administrative and structural matters that prevent scholars [from thriving]."
Jean E. Howard
George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
"I have tried, whenever possible, to use service as a chance to identify the root causes and systemic consequences of inequality and to propose remedies at local and larger scales."
Jamal Joseph
Professor of Professional Practice in Film
School of the Arts
"[Our group members serve as] active mentors as incoming students move through rigors of our demanding curriculum and the challenges of being from a marginalized identity at a prestigious institution still immediately associated with elite exclusivity."
The Faculty Service Award is a project of Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement.