Awards

Dave Lucas never wanted to become a professor. Growing up, he saw the hard work his parents put in as teachers and thought it wasn’t for him; he wanted to be a writer. But as a graduate student, he had to start teaching to earn an income—and he fell in love with it. “I assumed my life would be…

"We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give." Stephanie Harris often reflects on this quote attributed to Winston Churchill as defining her teaching and mentoring philosophy. For the associate professor in Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine's Department of…

Tamara Randall (CWR ’96; GRS ’00, public health nutrition) is often described as someone who "makes a lot of friends on airplanes." That natural approachability and welcoming personality extends to the classroom, where she is known for creating meaningful relationships with her students. Students…

Nicole Crown always knew she wanted to be a scientist, but it wasn’t until she became a postdoc that she realized she wanted to be a professor. “I came home at the end of the day in a really good mood,” she said. “And I realized it was because I spent most of my day in the lab with an…

Reflecting on her time as a graduate student, Polyxeni Philippidou remembers two intense feelings: insatiable curiosity and endless possibilities for discovery. “My advisor, Simon Halegoua, showed me how to use the wonder of science to encourage and motivate trainees,” she said. “Every time I…

Karen Abbott’s mentoring philosophy dates back to her time as a graduate student. One day, as she was reading a research paper to “glean wisdom” from her brilliant elders, she had a revelation: Much of the work she was reading was that of her peers. She has been continuously inspired by graduate…

Sociology Professor Jessica Kelley starts every new class with the same line: “Statistics can be learned by everyone.” As the sole statistician in the department, Kelley teaches courses including Logic of Social Inquiry, Social Statistics, Health Disparities and Multilevel Modeling. Because many…

Nathanial Schreiner with his Diekhoff Award Nathanial Schreiner has seen teaching opportunities at every turn and at every level of the nursing profession. As a nurse who has worked virtually everywhere but the classroom for most of the last two decades, that has meant sometimes instructing…

As the end of the academic year nears, two Case Western Reserve University third-year undergraduates learned their work so far has earned them national accolades: Victor Sanchez Franco and Mitchell Valentine were among just 417 undergraduates from across the country named recipients of Barry…

Tyrone C. Hamler, a doctoral student in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences' PhD in Social Welfare program, was named a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni award from his alma mater, University of Cincinnati. Hamler will receive the honor from University of…