Hundreds gather to honor distinguished colleagues

Nearly 600 Lehigh University faculty and staff members gathered for the 2011 Lehigh Appreciation Dinner—Celebrating Achievement ... Committed to the Future—Tuesday night at Rauch Fieldhouse. Vice Provost of Institutional Research Gary Lutz served as emcee of the evening’s proceedings.

“Tonight, we celebrate the contributions of our co-workers, and we congratulate those who are achieving milestones of service,” President Alice P. Gast noted in her welcoming remarks. “We also renew our commitment to making Lehigh the best possible learning experience for our students.”

Presentation of the 21 Lehigh University Awards was the centerpiece of the evening. The criteria for each award can be read on the Awards website.

Staff:

ERAC Distinguished Service Award: Heidi Casiano, Director of Advancement Administration, for her combination of extremely high competence, managerial and interpersonal skills.

Paul J. Franz Award: John Foley, Director of Sports Medicine, for excellence in his work caring for Lehigh’s student athletes and his consistent devotion to Lehigh University.

John W. and Barbara R. Woltjen Award: Louise Adams, Child Care Center. She was nominated by parents wishing to honor her exceptional dedication to their children.

Perry and Carol Zirkel Nonexempt Staff Award: Kathy Plotts, College of Engineering. Her nominators noted that her commitment to supporting the mission of the college and the Dean’s Office is “legendary.”

Louis and Helen Zirkel Library Staff Award: Helen Zuercher, LTS Administration and Planning. Her nominators stated that she is “one of the people who make a difference at Lehigh.”

Lehigh University Award for Distinguished Service: Vivien Steele, English Department. Her work includes coordinating more than 1,000 first-year students, exemplifying “sustained excellence” in everything she does.

Alfred Nobel Robinson Staff Award: Nancy Merritt, Alumni Affairs. Her numerous efforts with student leaders and young alumni will benefit Lehigh for years to come.

Hillman Nonexempt Staff Award: Anne Noon-Scaggs, Community Relations. Highly organized and dependable, Noon-Scaggs also goes above and beyond to represent Lehigh in the community.

Hillman Exempt Staff Award: Lisa Getzler-Linn, Baker Institute and Integrated Product Design Program (IPD). Managing sponsors, students, senior peer mentors and more, Getzler-Linn has had a major impact on advancing the role of entrepreneurship at Lehigh.

Faculty:

Robert C. and Virginia L. Williamson Award for Social Research: Bruce Moon, International Relations, for his paper “Long Time Coming: Prospects for Democracy in Iraq” in the journal International Security.

Carl R. and Ingeborg Beidleman Research Award in Business and Economics: Paul Brockman, Finance and Law. Brockman has developed a reputation in his field through consistent publication in top finance journals.

Robert and Christine Staub Faculty Excellence Award in Business and Economics: Robert Trent, Department of Management. Trent has been instrumental in designing and expanding the Supply Chain Management program.

Eleanor and Joseph F. Libsch Early Career Research Award: Eugenio Schuster, Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics. His impressive early record of research and publication includes 30 journal articles and multiple grants.

Eleanor and Joseph F. Libsch Research Award: Lee Kern, College of Education. Kern is considered one of the nation’s leading experts on emotion and behavior disorders in youth, authoring books, chapters and 60 journal articles.

Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award: Emory Zimmers, Industrial and Systems Engineering. Over his four decade career, Zimmers has kept his students at the forefront of manufacturing systems thinking and practice.

Lehigh Junior Award for Distinguished Teaching:  Suzanne Edwards, English Department, and Michelle LeMaster, History Department.  Edwards’ students emphasize her rigor and supportiveness. And a graduate student noted, “Our students are fortunate to have an instructor as pedagogically gifted as Michelle LeMaster.”

Alfred Nobel Robinson Faculty Award: Chad Meyerhoefer, Department of Economics. Meyerhoefer played a lead role in developing a major overhaul to the Ph.D. program in the College of Business and Economics.

Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Award for Excellence in Teaching: Hyun Tae Jung, Art, Architecture and Design, and Richard Vinci, Materials Science and Engineering. Jung’s students wrote “The word ‘dedication’ doesn’t even begin to encompass” his commitment.  Of his teaching, Vinci’s student nominator wrote, “… few come close to matching the impact.”

Hillman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Student Advising: Raymond Pearson, Materials Science and Engineering. An advisee praised Pearson: “Four years ago I was a naïve freshman. Now I am a prepared research engineer.”

Hillman Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Advising: Anand Jagota, Chemical Engineering. “While he could easily present us with all the answers,” one nominator wrote, “he provides us with the resources for independent thinking.”

R.R. and E.C. Hillman Faculty Award: Ned Heindel, Chemistry Department. His nominators wrote, “Put simply, Ned is a world-renowned medicinal chemist with more than 280 publications and numerous patents.”

Faculty and staff marking their retirement at this year’s event included:

David Altemus, Engineering Research Center, 11 years
Glenn Blank, Computer Science & Engineering, 27 years
Susan Cady, LTS Administration & Planning, 29 years
Joseph Cheszar, Engineering Research Center, 10 years
R. Kirkwood Colton, Development Office, 22 years
Bruce Correll, Registrar’s Office, 23 years
Terry Delph, Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics, 32 years
Ian Duffy, History, 36 years
Joan Fox, Enterprise Systems Center, 23 years
J. Bruce Gardiner, Admissions, 39 years
Kathleen Haas, Development Office, 22 years
Elaine Haug, Printing & Mailing Services, 23 years
Maria Hernandez, Residential Services, 28 years
Ruth Kneller, Chemical Engineering, 27 years
Eugene Kozma, Center for Advanced Nanotechnology, 43 years
James Largay, Accounting, 31 years
Loretta Long, Risk Management, 32 years
Rosemary Makosky, Distance Education, 29 years
Ronald Oberdoester, LTS Technology Management, 20 years
Bernadette O’Connor, Registrar’s Office, 20 years
Diane Oechsle, Marketing Department, 42 years
John Paul, Accounting, 38 years
Nicklas Pontician, Printing & Mailing Services, 10 years
Clifford Queen, Mathematics, 39 years
Donna Reiss, English Department, 33 years
John Sale, Energy Research Center, 16 years
Janet Tucker, Alumni Association, 26 years
John Vegetabile, Facilities Services, 29 years
Robert Yuhasz, Facilities Services, 22 years

Full coverage and photos of this year’s Appreciation Dinner will be featured in the June issue of Spotlight.