Four faculty members received awards for service and instruction at the School of Information’s first faculty meeting of the 2020-21 academic year on September 23.

Lecturers IV Elena Godin and Vadim Besprozvany were co-recipients of the Excellence in Instruction award. They were cited for using the most updated techniques in teaching when transitioning their courses online this past spring. Godin and Besprozvany teach SI 320/520: Graphic Design, SI 582: Introduction to Interactive Design and SI 616: Advanced Topics in Visual Communication and Graphic Design. They were also recognized for two on-campus exhibitions they helped organize in the past year, Missing Migrants of the Mediterranean and Hidden 2 Observation.

Associate Professor Sarita Schoenebeck received the Michael D. Cohen Outstanding Service Award. This award was named to honor the memory of professor emeritus Michael D. Cohen and recognizes commitment to serving the UMSI community and mission. Schoenebeck was honored for her efforts in creating the race+tech reading group, her service on the Dean’s Advisory Committee (DAC) and her leadership in converting the Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing conference from an annual to a quarterly event.

This year’s recipient of the Joan Durrance Community Engagement Award is Professor Ron Eglash. The award recognizes excellence in building partnerships with communities in order to develop information-related projects that can lead to social change and is named for professor emerita Joan Durrance, who was devoted to  conducting research that helped underserved populations. Eglash was praised for his STEM education work with Native American students in Detroit, and African-American and Latinx students in Ypsilanti, as well as his “Train the Trainer” work with Kumasi Hive in Ghana.

Previous honorees:

Joan Durrance Community Engagement Award

UMSI Excellence in Instruction Award

Michael D. Cohen Outstanding Service Award