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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign presents Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership each year to distinguished faculty who enrich the intellectual vitality of campus and the broader community.

The awards were presented in three categories faculty mentoring, distinguished executive officer and outstanding faculty leadership to four faculty members during a ceremony on campus this week.

The awards and recipients, with descriptions from their nominations, are:

Tandy Warnow

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Tandy Warnow, professor and associate head of computer science and Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, received the Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award. This award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to faculty mentoring by actively assisting pre-tenure and mid-career faculty in developing their career.

Warnows work with faculty to develop the skills needed to manage their diverse responsibilities, including research, grant writing, teaching and student supervision. She pursues mentorship through both systemic and informal means, formally mentoring five computer sciences faculty. She regularly meets with these colleagues to review dossiers, edit proposals and advise on topics such as advising graduate students and teaching. In addition to secondary appointments in multiple departments, including bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering, she brings the same level of commitment and passion to projects such as the CS Future Faculty Fellows program (postdoctoral researchers), chairing the 2020 Grainger College of Engineering Anti- Racism Task Force and formal and informal individual mentorship.

Mariselle Melndez, professor of Spanish and Portuguese and interim director of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and Yoon Pak, professor and head of educational policy organization, and leadership, received Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Awards. The award recognizes outstanding academic leadership and vision by an executive officer within a college or campus unit who has led diverse groups through strategic improvements within their unit or campus.

Mariselle Melndez

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Melndez believes an active commitment to collaborative decision-making and the ability to listen and learn from others are key constituents of effective leadership. She promotes excellence and diversity in her unit and raises the visibility of the work being done in the unit by people at all ranks. She embodies the spirit of when one of us succeeds we all succeed, and uses individual successes to improve the collective. Melndez has also excelled in conveying the central role of the humanities to global and community stakeholders. As a 2019-20 University of Illinois Presidents Executive Leadership Program Fellow, she completed national-level training to prepare herself for critical leadership roles at the university. As a mentor and colleague, she shares the insights she has learned from these experiences with faculty members and graduate students. The resulting conversations have reshaped the possibilities for mentorship in the department and improved representation at high levels within academia.

Yoon Pak

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Paks leadership is guided by the principle of equity as excellence, and she serves to facilitate, collaborate, and innovate for structural inclusion. As a stalwart advocate of faculty success and growth, Pak encourages and incentivizes innovation and leadership, particularly among newer (including junior) faculty. She navigates challenges and opportunities in a manner that exudes administrative savvy, confidence and care for EPOL students, staff and faculty. She genuinely cares about and listens to different perspectives. Over the years, she has also been intentional about bringing students to the table in matters related to the college and department.

William Gropp

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William Gropp, director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in Computer Science, received the Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award. This award recognizes a faculty member who has provided extraordinary leadership contributions across many dimensions of shared governance that advance the excellence of a unit, a college and/or the campus, and who exemplifies the campus commitment to collaborative decision-making. This award is the highest accolade honoring a faculty member whose professional service has advanced progress toward the Illinois mission.

During his time as acting, interim and, now, director of NSCA, he has guided the department through the conclusion of three major, long-term projects: Blue Waters, XSEDE, and LSST data management. In the face of these transitions, Gropp masterfully orchestrated an effort to diversify the NCSA funding portfolio. He helped build the centers strong expertise and developed partnerships across campus, helping deploy such projects as the Delta supercomputer, Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem, Services and Support (ACCESS) and the Center for Astrophysical Surveys. He continually expands NCSAs expertise and services into all areas of data science. He is also deeply invested in the success of the computer science department, where he has chaired and re-invigorated the advisory committee to make it an effective part of the shared governance in the department.

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Faculty members honored with 2023 Campus Awards for Excellence ... - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign