Faculty Mentoring, Service, and Diversity Awardees Announced

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community,

As the academic year draws to a close, it is our pleasure to recognize faculty whose work embodies Columbia’s commitment to inclusive excellence, and who help advance the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals of the University.

To that end, we are delighted to announce the 2023 recipients of the Faculty Service Award, the Faculty Mentoring Award, and Junior and Mid-Career Faculty Grants, recognitions awarded annually by the Office of the Provost.

2023 Faculty Service Awardees

The Faculty Service Award was created to recognize full-time faculty members whose extraordinary and creative voluntary service has contributed significantly to the University’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The selection of the following awardees was made based in part on moving and heartfelt testimony from colleagues, mentees, chairs, and Deans, each recognizing the tireless commitment and support of these outstanding faculty.

Modupe Akinola
Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business

Frank Guridy
Professor of History and Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies

Olatunde Johnson
Ruth Bader Ginsburg '59 Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Center for Constitutional Governance, and Provost's Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar

William Turner
Associate Professor of Medicine at CUMC

Ovita F. Williams
Lecturer in Discipline of Social Work and Executive Director of the Action Lab for Social Justice

2023 Faculty Mentoring Awardees

The Faculty Mentoring Award recognizes senior faculty who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to developing the careers of tenure-track and mid-career faculty.

Henry Hess
Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Clifford Stein
Wai T. Chang Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Professor of Computer Science, and Interim Director of the Data Science Institute

Julien Teitler
Professor of Social Work

Mabel O. Wilson
Nancy and George Rupp Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, and Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies

Junior and Mid-Career Faculty Grants

These programs offer grant support to further the scholarship of outstanding junior and mid-career faculty who contribute to the diversity goals of the University through their research, teaching, and mentoring activities. The CUIMC Junior Faculty Grant Program offers similar support to faculty at the Irving Medical Center.

The spring 2023 junior faculty grants awardees are:

Nina Alvarez
CBS Assistant Professor of International Journalism
Singed: Stanley Greene, American War Photographer

Dante Donati
Assistant Professor of Business
Can We Talk about Race and Racism? Experimental Evidence

Folarin Kolawole
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Fracture-Modulated CO2 Migration and Storage in On-Shore Saline Aquifers

Eunji Kim
Assistant Professor of Political Science
The Media Origins of Perceptions of Policing in America

Hugo Sarmiento
Assistant Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Insurgent Planning on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis: Lessons from Edgemere

Zhou Yu
Associate Professor of Computer Science
A Personalized Language Tutor via Conversational AI

The spring 2023 mid-career faculty grants awardees are:

Christine Hendon
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Provost's Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar
Optical Characterization of Uterine Pathologies

Rhiannon Stephens
Associate Professor of History
Gender, Power, and Climate Change on the Swahili Coast, ca. 500-1900 CE

As we continue the ongoing work of broadening the diversity of our talent, we are proud to recognize members of our faculty whose contributions reflect our highest ideals of inclusive excellence.

Please join us in congratulating the recipients of these grants.

Sincerely,

Mary C. Boyce
Provost
Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Dennis A. Mitchell
Executive Vice President for University Life
Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement
Professor of Dental Medicine at CUMC