University of Wisconsin Oshkosh faculty and staff were welcomed and recognized for their accomplishments and contributions at the annual Opening Day Convocation Sept. 4.
The following award recipients were honored during the event:
Distinguished Teaching Award
Edward M. Penson Distinguished Teaching Award recipients are selected based on their teaching excellence, service, professional commitment and scholarly growth. A committee of faculty, students and staff determines who will receive the honor.
- Carmen Heider
Heider’s teaching and research areas of expertise are in the disciplines of rhetoric, women’s and gender studies and social justice. She has co-led eight study-abroad programs to Tanzania and to several European countries. With the development of her Inside-Out Prison Exchange course taught in partnership with Taycheedah Correctional Institution, she has been a leader in the area of community-engaged education. - Misty McPhee
McPhee is an impassioned and dedicated teacher. In the classroom, she makes strong connections with each individual so they can strive to be their best. She also incorporates students into her research on whooping crane conservation in central Wisconsin, an opportunity that provides unusual and highly sought after skills in new graduates. - Yoko Mogi-Hein
Mogi-Hein, a native of Tokyo, Japan, is a senior Scholar of Teaching and Learning and teacher education expert. She brings to the University more than 25 years of professional experience in teacher training, research and education management. Her teaching experiences include the University Studies Program, Cooperative Academic Partnership Program and SoTL. As a practitioner, Mogi-Hein has taught music, language acquisitions and arts at the Children’s Center preschool and Upward Bound Pre-College Summer Program.
Sniffen Faculty Governance Service Award
The Barbara G. Sniffen Faculty Governance Service Award recognizes faculty members who have exceptional University service records.
- Karl Loewenstein
Loewenstein is a historian who studies bureaucratic mechanisms of the Soviet Union and Russia. Although he has published, presented and taught on this topic, it may have served him best by helping him understand the workings of the administration at Oshkosh and at UW System.
Outstanding Service Award
UW Oshkosh has many non-teaching faculty and academic staff members whose contributions enhance the University’s overall academic environment and support our educational goals. The Outstanding Service Award recognizes excellence of service that touches each member of the University community.
- Sabrina Johnson
Johnson’s 20 years of experience in various university departments (Chancellor’s Office, Human Resources and currently the Provost’s Office) have provided wide-ranging skills and knowledge. She currently serves as a member of the Academic Staff Professional Development Fund (ASPDF) and the Faculty and Academic Staff Restructuring Group. She was elected to the Senate for Academic Staff. She also serves as a Title and Total Compensation Project Team member and leads efforts to get the Children in the Workplace Policy approved. - Michael Lueder
Lueder’s superpower is bringing students and the community together to do good, meaningful work. Over the past four academic years, he has worked with University Studies Program Quest III faculty, instructors, students and community partners to collaboratively produce nearly 85,000 hours of community impact in our region, state and globally. - Erin McArthur
In her six years as Polk Library’s online learning librarian, McArthur has become known as a passionate and enthusiastic teacher, a determined and efficient researcher, and an innovative, collaborative colleague. She has played a key role in developing new library initiatives and assessments, and her expertise and support have helped countless students and faculty members succeed.
Outstanding Performance Award
The University’s Outstanding Performance Award recognizes exemplary members of the University staff whose activities, accomplishments and service are most deserving of acknowledgement.
- Susan Jaeke
Jaeke is the registration manager in the Registrar’s office. Her passion is mentoring student workers to learn and polish their customer service and leadership skills so they effectively and professionally communicate in their future careers. She just finished her term as University Staff Senate president, during which she helped create a new campus policy approval process and assisted with creating the University Resource Alignment process and Shared Governance Restructuring process. - Linda Koon
Koon started working at UW Oshkosh in November 2004. In her current role as the Reeve Union office manager, she is often the first person students and guests interact with when visiting the office. She focuses on building relationships with students and staff around campus. Koon coordinates the student employment program within Reeve Union, ensuring that over 120 student employees are properly hired, trained and evaluated annually. She is an active member of the University Staff Professional Development Day planning and facilities committees as well as the staff adviser for Collegiate 4H.
LGBTQ+ Ally Award
The UW Oshkosh LGBTQ+ Ally Award is dedicated to creating a stronger and more affirming campus environment for teaching, learning, serving and growing. The purpose of the award is to recognize a UW Oshkosh employee who is neither a member of nor an out member of the LGBTQ+ community for their excellence in leadership, advocacy, and support for the LGBTQ+ community.
- Kathleen Corley Schuhart
Schuhart is a professor of the New Testament and Christianity. Her many books include Private Women, Public Meals: Social Conflict in the Synoptic Tradition and Women and the Historical Jesus: Feminist Myths of Christian Origins. As a volunteer for AIDS Project Los Angeles and the Fox Valley AIDS Project, she has helped create inter-religious pastoral manuals for those ministering to people with AIDS. At UWO, she works with students from many religious backgrounds, serves as the co-chair of the LGBTQ Education and Resource Council and is a certified SAFE Trainer.
Queer Faculty/Staff Award
The UW Oshkosh Queer Faculty/Staff Award recognizes a queer staff or faculty member at UW Oshkosh for their excellence in advocacy, teaching, service, leadership and/or research on behalf of people of LGBTQ+ identities. The impact of such work includes, as well as exceeds, the critical role of validating the lives of queer students, faculty, staff and community members.
- Rich Marshall
Marshall’s passion and dedication to social justice and the LGBTQA+ community shine in his work at UW Oshkosh. Through his role as a career adviser and internship coordinator in Career and Professional Development, he has advocated making the professional world more inclusive to UW Oshkosh LGBTQA+ students, faculty, staff and the greater community. Additionally, he has actively promoted positive change in the LGBTQA+ community by serving in a variety of ways, including as a Tier 1 SAFE Trainer, co-chair of the LGBTQ Education and Advocacy Council and as co-adviser of Rainbow Alliance for HOPE.
Inclusive Excellence Award
The purpose of the Inclusive Excellence Award is to emphasize the critical role that inclusivity plays on this campus. This award recognizes faculty or staff members who promote equity, inclusion and diversity on campus.
- Jennifer Schuttlefield Christus
Christus is a strong advocate for inclusion and diversity in the many roles she plays at UWO and across the UW System. She devotes significant time to learning about inclusive excellence, broadening participation, equity, and diversity, and subsequently finds or creates pathways to pass her knowledge on to the rest of our community. Her work on inclusive excellence pervades everything she does at UWO, from teaching, to service, to informal interactions with colleagues and students.
Edward M. Penson Faculty Award
The Edward M. Penson Faculty Award recognizes faculty members who have made significant contributions to their colleges and the University.
- Chad Cotti
Cotti is a professor of economics and chair of the Economics Department. His research has been published extensively in the fields of health economics and public policy; earning recognition nationally, including a recent appointment as a research affiliate at UW-Madison. He also currently serves on the Faculty Senate and committees involved in Strategic Enrollment Planning, University Restructuring, University Budget, University Compensation and Faculty Salary Equity (among others). This is the second time Cotti has received this award. - Suzanne Fondrie
In her 16th year at UWO, Fondrie has worked with more than 2,000 future educators, helping them develop the reflective mindset, cultural awareness and content expertise necessary for today’s classrooms. She continues to mentor students long after they have moved on to their own classrooms. - Daniel Gier
Gier is in his 22nd year at UWO as a professor of Spanish, and in his second as chair of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department. He enjoys collaborating with his colleagues in the department who every day—via the learning of languages—stress the vital importance of introducing students to cultures other than their own. He would like it known that as of fall 2019, the department will be known as world languages and cultures. - Ryan Haley
- Karl Loewenstein
Loewenstein is an associate professor of history. He has published articles on censorship, literature and repression in the Soviet Union of the 1950s. This summer, he led groups of students to Poland and China. Loewenstein believes history provides some of the best tools for understanding the world today. - Alan Saginak
As a well-respected counselor educator who has been at UW Oshkosh since 1998, Saginak continues to make significant contributions to his graduate students’ professional and personal development most notably in the areas of career development over the lifespan, student affairs and college counseling, and clinical supervision and training in counseling. Also, his contributions outside the classroom are extensive through his leadership roles and collaborative work across many areas of campus, including Student Affairs, faculty governance, graduate council and his own department. - Bonnie Schmidt
Assistant professor Schmidt is student-centered and strives to ensure an inclusive learning environment that both supports and challenges students. A board member of the National Association for Men in Nursing, she has published in the areas of professional nursing values, men in nursing, diversity, inclusive excellence and online education. - Tracy Slagter
An enthusiastic and energetic teacher, Slagter is known as a champion for liberal arts education and innovative and inspiring pedagogy. Encouraging and celebrating student achievement has been at the heart of her career at UW Oshkosh, whether it was working in the University Studies Program or developing semester-long projects for students in her classrooms.
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