UW-Green Bay honors outstanding faculty, staff with 2012 Founders Awards
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has recognized its top faculty and staff members with 2012 Founders Association Awards for Excellence.
The award winners, honored at the annual UW-Green Bay Faculty and Staff Convocation Tuesday, Aug. 28, are:
Teaching — Associate Prof. Jennifer Ham
Scholarship — Prof. David Dolan
Community Outreach — Prof. Ellen Rosewall
Institutional Development — Timothy Sewall
Academic Support — Patrick Sorelle
Classified Staff — Mark Damie
Collaborative Achievement — The Education Center for First Nations Studies
UW-Green Bay Chancellor Tom Harden, Founders Association President Rob Cera and awards committee chairperson Prof. Kimberly Baker presented the awards before an audience of about 500 at the annual fall Convocation event, held at the University Union.
The Founders Association, a philanthropic organization, began the awards program in 1975. Below is a short biography of each of this year’s winners:
Jennifer Ham, recipient of the teaching award, is an associate professor of German and Humanistic Studies who joined the UW-Green Bay faculty in the fall of 1990. She is a specialist in German language and culture who teaches introductory and intermediate German, German semantics and other courses, along with serving as internships adviser for Humanistic Studies. Early in her UW-Green Bay career, Ham was awarded a UW System Fellowship by the Institute for Research in the Humanities at UW-Madison. She used a 1999-2000 sabbatical to spend part of the year in Berlin, attending seminars, doing research and developing two new UW-Green Bay courses. She also has worked to bring her enthusiasm for the German language to the UW-Green Bay and larger communities by organizing student conferences, German poetry readings, music and plays open to the general public.
Ham is well known for challenging her students to consider new ways of thinking and communicating, an attribute that extends to her work as internships adviser for Humanistic Studies. She has been heavily involved in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and has won praise for her efforts to improve and advance the teaching of language, helping students go further in their learning. Along with a UW System colleague, Ham recently contributed an essay, “Traditions and Transformations: Signature Pedagogies in the Language Curriculum,” to the book Approaches to Teaching Disciplinary Habits of Mind.
David Dolan, professor of Natural and Applied Sciences, joined the UW-Green Bay faculty in 1999. He teaches statistics in the Mathematics program and is a member of the graduate faculty of the Environmental Science and Policy program. Dolan’s scientific research is in the area of load estimation for water pollutants. This research also includes the detection of trends in environmental indicators. Dolan focuses most of his work on the Great Lakes, especially Green Bay and Lake Erie. He has helped numerous students, both graduate and undergraduate, to complete projects and theses on this significant freshwater resource. He has been able to consistently attract research funding for this work, mostly from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Dolan joined the faculty at UW-Green Bay after serving as an environmental statistician for the International Joint Commission and the federal EPA for 27 years. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.S. in environmental engineering from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. in statistics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in mathematics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Outside the classroom, Dolan is an avid duplicate bridge player. He is also a lifelong Detroit Red Wings fan and “bleeds Kelly green on football Saturdays in the fall.”
Ellen Rosewall, professor of Arts and Visual Design, joined UW-Green Bay’s Arts Management program in 2001, when the program consisted of a minor with six students. Now, there are more than 80 students in the program, including 30 majors. A nationally recognized arts management specialist and arts advocate, Rosewall is vice president of the Association of Arts Administration Educators, past president of the Wisconsin Public Radio Association and past president of Arts Wisconsin. She has served on several local boards of directors, including the Northeastern Wisconsin Arts Council, Film Green Bay and the ARTgarage, where she currently serves as vice president. Before coming to UW-Green Bay, Rosewall served as the first director of marketing and development for the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts, and also managed the capital campaign to build the Green Bay Botanical Garden.
Rosewall has given presentations for Americans for the Arts, the International Conference on Social Theory, Politics and the Arts, and the National Arts Marketing Conference, and in 2009 was selected as an Arts in Crisis Mentor through the John F. Kennedy Center. Her book, Managing Arts and Cultural Organizations, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2013. Rosewall is a self-described “arts nerd,” and in her free time enjoys painting, knitting, reading and traveling to experience the culture of diverse places and people.
Timothy Sewall, former Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Director of Graduate Studies, recently retired from UW-Green Bay after a 33-year career with the University. During his three-plus decades of service, Sewall played an instrumental role in numerous major initiatives that helped shape the University and its development. He has been a leader in programs for first-year students, international education programs, institutional assessment, graduate programs, faculty development and more.
Sewall also is noted for his service on numerous committees at UW-Green Bay, within the UW System and in the larger Green Bay community. He has served on UW-Green Bay’s technology council, facilities and planning committee and in other roles. Sewall has been the University’s administrative representative to the UW System’s Office of Professional & Instructional Development Council, and has worked with educators in the greater Green Bay community. In 2007, Sewall served as self-study coordinator for UW-Green Bay’s Higher Learning Commission evaluation, leading the University to a full 10-year continuing accreditation. Throughout his career, Sewall worked to improve process and resources for faculty, staff and students.
Patrick Sorelle, recipient of this year’s Academic Support award, is a 25-year employee of UW-Green Bay known for creativity, innovation, a positive attitude and a good sense of humor. As manager of The Phoenix Bookstore, Sorelle has been instrumental in leading through changing times, including the advent of new technologies and different ways of operating. Sorelle led development of UW-Green Bay’s eZ Books textbook reservation system, which allows students to order their textbooks in advance and have Phoenix Bookstore staff pull and package the items for easy pickup. Begun seven years ago, the eZ Books system has increased in popularity — more than 2,200 students used it in fall 2011 — and has been used as a model by other universities. Students and parents often comment on the ease of the system, noting it sets UW-Green Bay’s bookstore apart from those at other universities.
Sorelle has been active on a professional level in pursuing new partnerships and redesigning and updating the business model for a collegiate bookstore in the 21st century, and in promoting new e-commerce options. Last fall, he helped coordinate and was featured on segments of the “Good Day Wisconsin” program, telling viewers about the eZ Books system for one of a series of pieces on back-to-school. He is widely regarded as having a strong dedication to supporting students, campus departments and the local community.
Mark Damie, senior laboratory technician in Human Biology, has served UW-Green Bay for nearly 33 years, showing day in and day out his passion for his work, attention to detail and exceptional commitment to students and faculty. Damie has a host of responsibilities including ordering supplies, preparing chemical reagents and training student workers, all in the name of supporting teaching laboratories in the most effective manner possible. Damie also has numerous safety responsibilities, including labeling hazardous chemicals, and preparing, maintaining and annually updating the hazardous materials inventory for most laboratories in the Laboratory Sciences Building.
Damie’s knowledge and expertise are well known throughout the campus community, to the extent that new faculty members often comment that he prevents them from becoming overwhelmed by course preparation. He also is known for being a problem-solver, accommodating last-minute requests, fixing broken equipment or tracking down critical supplies as a situation may demand — all while maintaining a positive attitude and good sense of humor. A colleage describes Damie as perhaps best known “for a steadfast and enduring dedication to his work.”
The Education Center for First Nations Studies has earned the 2012 Founders Award for Excellence in Collaborative Achievement for embodying the mission of UW-Green Bay through its commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and creative initiatives to advance learning on campus and beyond. The Education Center for First Nation Studies is a collaboration of the Education and First Nations academic units in partnership with local tribes. The goal is to improve K-12 instruction in Indian history and sovereignty, required by the state Legislature’s mandate and desirable for cultural awareness. The centerpiece is the pairing of UW-Green Bay student teachers with Tribal Elders who share their experience and cultural insights. Also created via this initiative, in partnership with the DPI, is the First Nations Traveling Resource Center, a sort of cultural “bookmobile” that extends resources to the larger community.
First Nations Studies was named the 2012 UW System Board of Regents Diversity Award winner in the Institutional/Unit category and the unique Education Center for First Nations Studies — cited as a model for helping current and future teachers improve their ability to teach multicultural content — was an important factor in the selection. Representatives of the program accepted the award at the February 2012 Board of Regents meeting in Madison.
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