Western honors faculty, staff for excellence in leadership, community engagement, bridging and teamwork
Contact: Paul Cocke, Director, University Communications, (360) 650-3350 or Paul.Cocke@wwu.edu
BELLINGHAM – Western Washington University honored outstanding faculty and staff members Friday with annual awards highlighting the best in faculty leadership, diversity achievement, bridging and community engagement. Awards were also given to the year’s outstanding classified and professional staff members and an interdepartmental team devoted to streamlining financial aid processes.
WWU President Bruce Shepard presented the awards at Opening Convocation for faculty and staff Sept. 16. This year’s award winners were Secondary Education Professor Angela Harwood, who received the Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award; Student Outreach Services Academic Support Coordinator Joan Ullin, winner of the Diversity Achievement Award; Associate Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance Cher Carnell, who received the Carl H. Simpson Bridging Award; Residence Life Program Support Supervisor June Fraser Thistle, honored with the Outstanding Classified Staff Award; and CASAS Coordinator Devlin O’Donnell, who won the Professional Staff Award for Excellence. In addition, the Team Recognition Award was presented to staff members who collaborated on the Institutional Scholarship and Waiver Streamlining Project.
The faculty leadership and diversity achievement awards include $1,500 stipends to use for research, teaching equipment and supplies, or professional enhancement. The bridging award recipient receives $1,000.
Outstanding Faculty Leadership award: Angela Harwood
Harwood, a professor of Secondary Education at Woodring College of Education, is beginning her 20th year of teaching at Western. She graduated from the University of Utah with dual degrees in English and Political Science and earned her master’s and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership at Emory University. She is the co-creator of the Service-Learning Faculty Fellows program run through Western’s Center for Service-Learning and has been recognized nationally for her work in the field. Shuksan Middle School named her “Community Volunteer of the Year” in both 2004 and 2010 in recognition of her extensive work with local school districts to support students and families and her creation of after-school mentoring programs for at-risk students. Currently, she is working with a team of Western students and staff, community partners and school personnel to more effectively support Latino and Latina students and families. This is also not her first university-wide recognition: In 2001 Harwood received the Excellence in Teaching Award.
Diversity Achievement Award: Joan Ullin
Ullin, coordinator of academic support in Western’s Student Outreach Services office, first joined Western’s multicultural community when she entered Western Washington State College at the age of 17 and immediately joined the Hui ‘o Hawaii student club to build community and cultivate leadership skills. Ullin received her bachelor’s degree in English with a teaching certificate from Woodring College of Education, and later earned a master’s in Student Personnel Administration from Western as well. Since then, she has notably fostered partnerships between Northwest Indian College and Western’s College of Sciences and Technology, and will soon introduce a WWU chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Hispanics, Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. Ullin is president of Western’s Minority Employees Council and, continuing her work to empower women and support multi-ethnic advancement, she is serving her second term as president of the Bellingham YWCA. Joan also received the Women of Color Empowerment Award this year for her work in coordinating their annual dinner.
Carl H. Simpson Bridging Award: Cher Carnell
Carnell has been teaching at Western since 1996 and is currently associate chair of Theatre and Dance as well as coordinator of Dance. Before coming to Western, she danced ballet professionally for 11 years, followed by a nine-year stint as chair of The University of Louisville Dance Department. Carnell teaches two courses in dance history and courses in all levels of ballet technique, both for Western and for community members at the Firehouse Performing Arts Center. She also serves as director of the Western Arts Preparatory Academy and chair of the College of Fine and Performing Arts Integrated Arts Council.
Outstanding Classified Staff Award: June Fraser Thistle
Fraser Thistle’s first job at Western was collecting on the Federal Perkins Loan Program, where her creative approach resulted in achieving the lowest default cohort rates of any Washington state school to date. She then went on to supervise the Student Accounts department, where she continually worked to improve Western’s customer service and guide students through the sometimes confusing aspects of financing their education. Fraser Thistle now manages the Residence Life office, which actively engages students in leadership roles in Western’s residence halls.
Professional Staff Award for Excellence: Devlin O’Donnell
O’Donnell has worked in the field of violence prevention in Whatcom County since 2001 and been the Coordinator of Crime and Sexual Assault Support Services (CASAS) since the fall of 2006. As CASAS coordinator, O’Donnell provides support for students after a traumatic event and helps survivors connect to all available resources. O’Donnell also coordinates two peer educator groups, Women’s Empowerment and Violence Education and the Men’s Violence Prevention, which lead violence prevention programs in residence halls and across campus. She trains hundreds of student leaders each year on bystander intervention tips, how to recognize abusive behavior and how to support survivors.
Community Engagement Award: Korry Harvey
Harvey is a senior instructor in the Department of Communication and assistant director of Western’s nationally recognized debate program. Harvey has served as chair of the Whatcom Human Rights Task Force, co-directed the Community Advocacy Support Center (known on campus as CASCAID), co-founded United Parents for a Brighter Future (UPFRONT) and its Kids’ Peace and Global Awareness Faire and served as a founding member of the Whatcom Progressive Grassroots Network (now known as “Solidarity”). Harvey has served on a variety of committees including the Los Niños Fund, Human Rights Commemorative Project, ECO-Integrity Center of Bellingham, the ACLU campaign to end capital punishment in Washington, Community To Community’s Immigrant Justice Summit, and others.
Team Recognition Award: The Institutional Scholarship and Waiver Streamlining Project
This interdepartmental team collaboratively designed, wrote, tested and implemented software to more efficiently provide critical information to staff members who award and process institutional scholarships and tuition waivers. Thanks to this concerted, cross-departmental undertaking, users can now see all this information quickly, in one place, and determine where student financial awards are in every stage of the delivery process. The end results are not only improved efficiency for users, but more timely processing of awards for students. Members of the team were Aspen apGaia, systems analyst; Tom Baldridge, information technology specialist in Financial Aid; Clara Capron, director of Financial Aid; Margie Conway, assistant director of Admission and Information Systems; Karen Copetas, director of Admissions and Enrollment Planning; Donna Janigo, director of Advancement Records and Reports; Lisa Keene, fiscal specialist in the Western Foundation; Jim Kelly, systems analyst; Lori Larkin, Admissions information technology specialist; Jean Meyer, manager of Student Financial Aid Systems; Carole Morris, administrative services manager in Woodring College of Education; Dina Murphy, manager of the Scholarship Center; Linda Norman, systems analyst; Jaime Prada, systems analyst; Bob Schneider, director of Administrative Computing Services; Stephanie Wanne, administrative services manager in the College of Business and Economics; Billie Watts, manager of application systems; Patricia Woehrlin, former senior director for the Western Foundation and Patricia Wood, information technology specialist in the Graduate School.