Prof. Mary Ashlock (University of Louisville Department of Communication) is the winner of the 2021 A&S; Distinguished Teaching Professor for Full-Time Teaching in the Social Sciences. Prof. Ashlock is the quintessential “team player” who has taught classes at all levels - 21 different classes at UofL from the 100-level to 600-level on campus as well as in Ghana and Panama! And she is not only a skilled and adaptable teacher but her style really resonates with her students as evidenced by her extremely high course evaluations.

Way to go, Prof. Pamela Beattie (Department of Comparative Humanities), the 2021 A&S; Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching in the Humanities. Prof. Beatties's engaged, student-centered approach to instruction, outstanding commitment to developing new courses, enthusiastic mentoring of graduate students and of our ’25 cohort of Brown Fellows, and rigorous and rewarding integration of scholarly research in the classroom, make her a truly exceptional teacher. Her positive impact on students is one that alumna Kathryn Green describes as a “continuous support and commitment to my progress [that] has helped me immensely in terms of balancing school and home life, lowering my stress level and always building my confidence.”

Congrats to the multi-talented Prof. Biberman (U of L English), who has established a unique reputation as an accomplished scholar AND a widely admired non-fiction author. One nominator, commenting on Biberman's ability to produce academic works as well as the compelling memoir Big Sid’s Vincati stated “…only Professor Biberman could have written both. His ability to write across disciplines and fields to speak to a variety of audiences is highly unusual and speaks not only to the depth of his rhetorical talent and the breadth of his mind, but to his great work as a teacher and researcher-one man who can do what would normally be the work of two.”

Congrats to Prof. Rodger Payne ( UofL Political Science ), recognized for a distinguished career of service! His colleagues describe his dedication as unrelenting and energetic. Prof. Payne’s service record spans multiple decades and involves a steady stream of high-quality efforts, including but not limited to the following: 

• 17 years directing the Grawemeyer Award for ideas Improving World Order, and his colleagues credit him with elevating this award to national and international prominence
• 10 years on the Sustainability Council where he helped write the first Climate Action/Sustainability Plan for the University
• 15 years as a permanent contributor to the Duck of Minerva, the most influential blog in the international relations scholarly community
• 7 years as department chair
• Regularly shares his expertise with local groups and schools, and various civic organizations across the country and around the world. 
• Media expert, with well over 100 media interviews 
• 29+ public talks 
• Reviewer for the Fulbright Commission
• Fulbright recipient 
• Peer reviewer for more than thirty different journals in the field including the top journals in international relations
• Served on countless departmental and college committees

Congratulations to Linda Baldwin (U of L English) for her 2021 A&S; Outstanding Performance Award. She's been keeping things going in our English Composition Program for years now!!!!

Says one nominator, "Linda facilitates the operation of every aspect of Composition—including event planning (instructor orientation, publisher book fair); coordinating our annual performance review and instructor observation processes; scheduling over 200 sections of English 101, 102, and other composition courses per year; and interfacing with students, graduate student instructors, part-time faculty, and tenured/tenure-track and term faculty. Given that she has worked for at least seven (!) Directors of Composition, she is also the keeper of the program’s institutional memory; in that regard, she has educated me on countless issues, such as the history of our portfolio program, of the Shelby Campus, and the evolution of the annual performance reviews for GTAs and PTLs. In everything she does, Linda is meticulous, resourceful, patient, thoughtful, and enterprising and creative."

Dr. Jason Sievers, Coordinator in the UofL Department of Chemistry, is no ordinary staff person, and for that reason, he is a 2021 A&S; Outstanding Supervisor. He not only basically runs the operations of the department, he does so in a way that improves the workplace for others. At no time was this more true than over this past year. According to his nominator, "Through the pandemic and change in leadership within the Department, Dr. Sievers has steadily kept the department running over this past year. He is a leader within the department and is willing to take on any task no matter how big or small. Dr. Sievers willingness to step in and assist has helped to improve the moral of the staff."

Kudos to Prof. Angela Storey (University of Louisville Anthropology for winning this year's A&S; Teaching Innovation Award in the Social Sciences for her "outstanding contributions to innovative and creative teaching pedagogy, which has enhanced the undergraduate experience of so many students of anthropology, and has served the department by attracting new students to the anthropology undergraduate degrees."