Outstanding Mentoring Award

Patricia Goodson, Ph.D. is a Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence in the Department of Health & Kinesiology. At TAMU, she has taught mostly graduate-level courses such as Health Behavior Theory, Health Research Methods, Health Program Evaluation, Health Education Ethics, and Advanced Health Behavior Theory. In 2007, as Associate Dean for Graduate Program Development, she created, implemented (and currently directs) a writing support service for graduate students and junior faculty, titled POWER (an acronym for Promoting Outstanding Writing for Excellence in Research). She has authored two academic books: Theory in Health Promotion Research and Practice: Thinking Outside the Box, published in 2009 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, and Becoming an Academic Writer: 50 Exercises for Paced, Productive, and Powerful Writing, published by SAGE, now in its 2^nd edition. In 2018 Becoming an Academic Writer was chosen to receive the Textbook and Academic Authors Association’s Textbook Excellence Award.

2017 Outstanding Mentoring Award Winner - Anat Geva, PhD a registered architect in Israel and Associate Member of the AIA is a Professor of Architecture in Texas A&M University where she teaches architectural design, history of building technology, historic preservation, and history and design of sacred architecture. She published a book in 2011 Frank Lloyd Wright Sacred Architecture: Faith, Form, and Building Technology and many articles in these areas. Currently she works on two books on the American mid 20th century sacred architecture, and co-authors a book on Israeli architecture (1948-1978) as an experimental lab of modern architecture. She also has an extensive record of editorial work, being the editor of ARRIS, and Preservation Education & Research. She is a recipient of several awards and research grants including the prestigious James Marston Fitch National Award for innovative research in historic preservation. Dr. Geva is a Faculty Fellow of the University’s Center of Heritage Conservation, serves on the Executive Board of the Forum on Architecture, Culture and Spirituality, and on the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians. She is the past president of the Southeast Society of Architectural Historians, past vice chair of the Construction History Society of America, and past secretary of the National Council of Preservation Education.

2016 Outstanding Mentoring Award Winner - Mindy Bergman (PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is a Professor and Associate Head for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and a Faculty Fellow in the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University. Dr. Bergman’s specialty is industrial-organizational psychology, or the study of people and how they influence and are influenced by the workplace. Her research focuses primarily on occupational health, including topics such as organizational climate, workplace diversity, mistreatment, stress, and safety. Her research addresses question such as “How do demographic characteristics influence the rate of mistreatment and the effects of mistreatment on well-being?” and “How does climate influence workplace mistreatment based on demographic characteristics?” Her service contributions to the university primarily focus on undergraduate programs and issues of diversity, inclusion, and climate, including leadership in the ADVANCE Center’s STRIDE training program, the development of a campus climate survey menu tool for the Diversity Operations Council, and membership on the Graduate Student Campus Climate Survey Guiding Committee for the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies. Dr. Bergman’s work appears in outlets such as Journal of Business and Psychology and Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. Dr. Bergman will serve as an Associate Editor for the soon-to-launch Occupational Health Science.

2015 Outstanding Mentoring Award Winner - Lisa Campbell, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Oceanography, with a joint appointment in the Department of Biology, at Texas A&M University. She is also a member of the Faculty of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She received her M.S. in Marine Environmental Science and Ph.D. in Oceanography from Stony Brook University, NY. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas A&M in 1996, she held Research Scientist positions at University of Hawaii (1987-1996), Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine (1986-1988) and the Oceanic Institute (1985-1986). Her research focuses on phytoplankton ecology. She has conducted field work in all oceans, but her current research centers on harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico. She has developed a system for real-time imaging of phytoplankton that has successfully provided early warning of potential toxic blooms seven times since 2007. Dr. Campbell currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and on the National Committee on Harmful Algae. She has published 90 peer-reviewed publications, 8 book chapters, and received the Dean's Distinguished Achievement Award for Faculty Research in 2009.

2014 Outstanding Mentoring Award Winner - Sue Geller, a Cornell Ph.D. has been at Texas A&M since August 1981 and has been mentoring faculty since 1983, starting with an engineering assistant professor. Dr. Geller’s mentoring career started with students at Purdue University, where she was an assistant professor. It continued while she was on a research professorship at Harvard, where she was a member of a senior common room (British style dorm housing), and has continued here at TAMU with undergraduate and graduate students as well as many faculty members. As the first and then only female full professor in math for many years, Dr. Geller has mentored all of the female assistant and associate professors in math, many of the lecturers, and has branched out to other departments, colleges, and even someone in Galveston. She has also successfully secured research grants and some non-standard grants for undergraduate travel (15K) and summer programs (1.5M). She's been teased about “give her a few K and she'll ask for a few M”. Dr. Geller’s current efforts are expanding the math honors program (as Director), attempting to improve the climate for women in math, and getting funding for a big study of early career employment and it's implications for graduate and post-doctoral education in the mathematical sciences.

2012 Outstanding Mentoring Award Winner - Evelyn Tiffany-Castiglioni, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, Professor and Department Head, was awarded the 2012 Women's Faculty Network Outstanding Mentoring Award for her outstanding mentoring efforts throughout her career.

2010 Outstanding Mentoring Award Winner - Sherry Yennello

Dr. Sherry J. Yennello, professor of chemistry and associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Science at Texas A&M University, has been selected by the Texas A&M Women's Faculty Network as the recipient of its 2010 Outstanding Mentoring Award. Yennello was formally presented with the annual award recognizing Texas A&M senior faculty members who offer copious time, effort and energy to guide and support junior faculty as part of the WFN Spring Luncheon, held April 22 in the John J. Koldus Building on the Texas A&M campus. Yennello received a commemorative plaque and a check for $500.

"Having seen the hundreds of faculty who have given graciously of their time to mentor younger faculty through the WFN mentoring program, I am honored to have been selected for this award," Yennello said. "The real reward is seeing these young faculty members thrive. I hope that this award will bring more attention to the role all of us can play in helping to integrate new faculty into our community of scholars here at Texas A&M."

Nominees for the award must be associate or full professors who have served as a mentor in the WFN Mentoring Program, a voluntary program in which experienced faculty members are paired with new faculty to aid with the latter group's transition into a new job setting. In addition, award candidates must not have previously received the award within the past five years.

Yennello, whose research in nuclear chemistry is internationally renowned, joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1993. For her efforts in both teaching and research to benefit the university and the state of Texas, she was honored by The Texas A&M University System as a Regents Professor in 2006. Yennello is a member of the Cyclotron Institute as well as a University Faculty Fellow and current chair of the College of Science Diversity Committee. A fellow of the American Physical Society, she also is a member of the American Chemical Society, Sigma Xi and Phi Lambda Upsilon.

"Sherry is a visible example for other female faculty on campus," said Dr. Mary Jo Richardson, Regents Professor of Oceanography, Geology and Geophysics, in a nomination letter for Yennello. "Sherry is a mentor, not only to female faculty at Texas A&M, but to other faculty and research scientists in her disciplines both nationally and internationally through professional organizations."

Dr. H. Joseph Newton, dean of the College of Science, praised Yennello's contributions in the Department of Chemistry and throughout the overall college.

"In addition to being an outstanding chemist, Sherry Yennello has been an extraordinary role model for both women and men chemists in her many mentoring roles," Newton said. "Chemistry is very lucky to have her, and I am very grateful that she has joined my team at the college level to enhance mentoring across the college."

Jarvis Chris