{"id":236887,"date":"2025-10-22T10:22:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=236887"},"modified":"2025-10-24T14:53:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:53:51","slug":"uconn-honors-faculty-staff-students-and-community-partners-at-2025-provosts-awards-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/10\/uconn-honors-faculty-staff-students-and-community-partners-at-2025-provosts-awards-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Honors Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community Partners at 2025 Provost\u2019s Awards Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Connecticut celebrated faculty, staff, students, and community partners whose achievements embody the University\u2019s academic excellence and public service mission at the 2025 Provost\u2019s Awards Celebration, held Tuesday, October 14, at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts Art Gallery.<\/p>\n<p>This annual event recognizes exceptional service, scholarship, and engagement that strengthen UConn and the communities it serves. The celebration took place in the Jorgensen Art Gallery, surrounded by Eight Days a Week: An Illustrated Record of Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll \u2014 a new exhibition of rock music memorabilia from the archive of editor, journalist, and radio disc jockey Ken Best. The gallery collection features decades of iconic photographs, album covers, posters, and promotional materials, including Connecticut photographer Joseph Sia\u2019s legendary 1968 image of Jimi Hendrix, The Shadow. The exhibit\u2019s creative energy and spirit of collaboration offered an inspiring backdrop for a ceremony honoring UConn\u2019s own innovators, educators, and community builders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s honorees represent the very best of UConn,\u201d said Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Pamir Alpay. \u201cTheir teaching, research, service, and partnerships show how deeply our university community is committed to making a difference \u2014 in Connecticut, across the nation, and around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recognizing Outstanding Service and Engagement<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Vice Provost Gladis Kersaint presented the Provost\u2019s Outstanding Service Awards, honoring faculty and staff whose sustained contributions have made a lasting impact on UConn\u2019s academic mission and community. This year\u2019s recipients were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Professor Isaac (Morty) Ortega, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment<\/li>\n<li>Ada Rivera, Director, UConn Hartford Academic Achievement Center<\/li>\n<li>Jim Hill, Director, Bachelor of General Studies Program<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Vice Provost Amy Gorin next presented the Provost\u2019s Awards for Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship, recognizing exemplary collaborations among faculty, staff, students, and community partners. This year\u2019s recipients were:<\/p>\n<p><strong>COMMUNITY PARTNER CATEGORY<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Community Partner Award<\/em>: HartBeat Ensemble<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>FACULTY CATEGORY<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Faculty Community Impact<\/em><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Distinguished Faculty Community Impact Award: Laura Cisneros, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Institute of Environment and Energy<\/li>\n<li>Emerging Faculty Community Impact Award: Cristina Col\u00f3n-Semenza, Department of Kinesiology<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Faculty Instruction<\/em><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Distinguished Faculty Instructor Award: Jon Bauer, School of Law<\/li>\n<li>Emerging Faculty Instructor Award: William Davenport, Department of Extension<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Faculty Research<\/em><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Distinguished Faculty Research Award: George Plesko, Department of Accounting<\/li>\n<li>Emerging Faculty Research Award: Xiang (Peter) Chen, Department of Geography, Sustainability, and Community and Urban Studies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Faculty Team<\/em><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Faculty Team Award: Native American and Indigenous Studies (Sandy Grande, Kat Milligan-McClellan, Nate Acebo, Chris Newell, Hana Maruyama, April Anson, Josh Mayer, Bruno Seraphin, and Kali Simmons)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION CATEGORY<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Institutional Transformation Award<\/em>: Orthopedic Surgery (Dr. Kathy Coyner, Dr. Lauren Geaney, and Dr. Olga Solovyova)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>STAFF CATEGORY<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Distinguished Staff Award<\/em>: Milagros Marrero-Johnson<\/li>\n<li><em>Emerging Staff Award:<\/em>\u00a0Tanya Johnson<\/li>\n<li><em>Staff Team Award:<\/em> UConn Husky Nutrition &amp; Sport (Patricia Bellamy-Mathis \u2013 Director of Partners &amp; Programs, Catalina Quesada \u2013 Community Education Specialist,\u00a0 Brandon Keaton, Educational Program Coordinator, Veronica Jacobs, Educational Program Administrator, Sarah Larocque, Educational Program Coordinator, Roc Rochon \u2013 Postdoctoral Scholar, Courses &amp; Student Supports, Juli\u00e1n Alonso \u2013 Postdoctoral Scholar, Elementary School Partnerships, Joseph Condren \u2013 Communications &amp; Impact Specialist, Joanee Mata \u2013 Assessment &amp; Student Support Coordinator, and Madison Gonz\u00e1lez \u2013 Student Leadership &amp; Program Specialist)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>STUDENT CATEGORY<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Graduate Student Award<\/em>: Kamal Gautam<\/li>\n<li><em>Undergraduate Student<\/em>\u00a0Award: Sydney Seldon<\/li>\n<li><em>Student Team Award<\/em>: Aviral Mehta, Pratham Tallam, Faizdeenkhan Pathan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>UConn\u2019s Highest Faculty Honor<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_236893\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-236893\" style=\"width: 137px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-236893 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"A close up of a medal with a red and black ribbon\" width=\"137\" height=\"206\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-280x420.jpg 280w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-443x665.jpg 443w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Provost_Awards_Celebration-02-scaled.jpg 1707w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 137px) 100vw, 137px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 137px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 137\/206;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-236893\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The celebration concluded with recognition of the 2025 Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors, UConn\u2019s highest faculty honor: <strong>Dr. Peter Albertsen<\/strong> (School of Medicine), <strong>Dean Anne Dailey<\/strong> (School of Law), and <strong>Dr. Luyi Sun<\/strong> (College of Engineering). Their respective deans \u2014 Dean Bruce Liang, Dean Eboni Nelson, and Dean J.C. Zhao \u2014 introduced the honorees and highlighted their groundbreaking contributions in research, teaching, and mentorship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese faculty members exemplify the pursuit of knowledge and excellence that defines UConn,\u201d said Alpay. \u201cTheir discoveries and dedication elevate the reputation of our university and inspire generations of scholars to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the ceremony, guests enjoyed a reception in the Jorgensen lobby and auditorium to continue the celebration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The celebration was held on Tuesday, October 14, at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts Art Gallery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":236892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2275,1866,1857],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2162],"class_list":["post-236887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-affairs","category-engr","category-law"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 06:24:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236894,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236887\/revisions\/236894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/236892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236887"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=236887"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=236887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}