Saint Mary’s College honors 3 faculty members with awards

February 22, 2017 (Notre Dame, Ind.) — Saint Mary’s College is proud to recognize three professors with prestigious faculty awards for demonstrated excellence inside and outside of the classroom and dedication to students and their profession. The Academic Affairs Council, chaired by President Janice A. Cervelli and made up of administrators, faculty, and staff, votes on the most deserving recipients after reading through nominations. The vote results are kept secret until the honors are bestowed.

Faculty Awards for WEB

The recipients were announced at the Faculty Award Luncheon on February 17. All three awards were established through the Faith Always, Action Now capital campaign which concluded in January 2015 after raising $105 million for the College.

Pictured from left: Ann Marie Short, President Janice A. Cervelli, Janet Fore, and Nancy Nekvasil

Donald R. and Nora Barry Fischer ’73 Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence

Ann Marie Short, associate professor of English Literature, was presented with the Donald R. and Nora Barry Fischer ’73 Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.

As stated in the citation, Short helps students to overcome the anxiety they experience in studying literature from unfamiliar cultures, addressing the fraught themes of inequalities of power and privilege, social injustice, and racism that confront our global society. She empowers students by establishing protocols for conversation that create freedom for the students to speak and be heard non-judgmentally. Short provides students with tools that enable them to interpret how texts examine the operation of power and shape the readers’ experience through the articulation of multiple perspectives, using author Chimamanda Adichie’s consideration of “the dangers of a single story” as a touchstone for analysis that engages textual multiplicity.

Short mentors students through the creation of graduate level work composed in their own confident, analytical voices as part of the English Literature senior seminar. 

Kevin J. and Marijo Rogers Kelly ’77 Faculty Service Award

Janet Fore, director of the Cushwa-Leighton Library was honored with the Kevin J. and Marijo Rogers Kelly ’77 Faculty Service Award.

According to the citation, Fore has served the field of library science with distinction for the past 30 years. Beginning in 1987 as co-chair of the Association of College and Research Libraries Science Databases Group, she has steadfastly and actively participated in national, regional, and state library organizations.

At the regional level, she has served on the board of directors for Midwest Collaborative for Library Services, a consortium that shares library services’ best practices, facilitates group purchasing and resource sharing for Midwestern libraries working together to enhance the region.

She has been elected repeatedly to the Board of Directors of Academic Libraries of Indiana, an organization representing all 72 academic libraries in the state, including major research libraries, law and medical libraries, theological school libraries, and many undergraduate libraries.

Carmi & Chris Murphy Faculty Award for Student Mentorship of the Senior Comprehensive

Nancy Nekvasil, professor of biology, was honored with the Carmi and Chris Murphy Faculty Award for Student Mentorship of the Senior Comprehensive.

The citation estimated that Nekvasil has served as the Senior Comprehensive project advisor to at least 100 students — she is notorious for picking up extra students when needed or while on sabbatical.

As one student wrote in the recommendation for the award, “The skills that I have developed as a result of her influence have shaped me into the student I am today and the professional I hope to be in the future.”

About Saint Mary's College: Celebrating over 175 years of empowering women to make a difference in the world, Saint Mary’s College is recognized as a pioneer and continued force in the education of women. A Catholic, liberal arts institution in Notre Dame, Indiana, the College offers more than 50 undergraduate academic programs and also offers co-educational master’s degrees.

Contact for News Media: Haleigh Ehmsen, Media Relations Associate, Saint Mary’s College, hehmsen@saintmarys.edu (574) 284-5343

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