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Faculty and Staff Awards

The College of Letters and Science presents faculty awards thanks to the generosity of friends and alumni.

The Eugene Katz Letters and Science Distinguished Faculty Award has been presented to faculty members of the UW-Stevens Point College of Letters and Science in recognition of ongoing excellence in teaching and/or scholarship. The first award was made in 1999 and it has been presented through the generosity of and in memory of Eugene Katz, a long-time friend of UW-Stevens Point. All full-time faculty members of the College of Letters and Science are eligible for this award.

Meet our Honored Faculty Members

Each COLS department chair may nominate one faculty member from their department for the Eugene Katz Letters and Science Distinguished Faculty Award.

Jeff Leigh

Professor of History and International Studies
Faculty Bio

Nancy Lo-Patin Lummis

Professor of History and International Studies
Faculty Bio

Amy Zlimen Ticho

Chair, Department of Sociology and Social Work
Faculty Bio

Distinguished Faculty Award Recipients

Faculty Awards 1985-1998

Dr. Jeffrey Leigh embodies our ideals of teaching, scholarship, and service. While teaching five years at UW-Stevens Point and over 19 years at the former UW-Marathon County, Jeff has taught a remarkable range of courses including: World History, Western Civilization, Twentieth Century European History, Modern Middle-Eastern History, Recent Chinese History, Modern Revolutions, Terrorism, Russia and the Soviet Union, and The World Wars.

Leigh’s scholarly work includes numerous articles and book reviews, including his book titled Austrian Imperial Censorship and the Bohemian Periodical Press, 1867-71, which was recently translated into German. He earned his B.A. in History and B.F.A. in Russian with Honors from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Indiana University-Bloomington.

Professor Leigh has received the UWSP-Wausau John Runkle Community Service Award (2022), UWSP-Wausau Foundation Barrington-Musolf Faculty Scholarship Award (2020), a Fulbright grant (2010-2011), UW-Marathon County Faculty Member of the Year Award (2003), and a U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History Grant.

In addition to this work in the classroom, he has also served as the UW Colleges History Department chair and vice chair. On the Wausau campus, he chaired numerous major committees, and at UWSP he has served in many ways, including as a peer judge for the Fulbright U.S. Scholars’ Program. He has also served our community by providing dozens of public lectures and programs, spent over six years on the Wausau School Board (one year as President), and was President of the Wausau School District School Foundation.

 

Professor Nancy LoPatin-Lummis is an internationally renowned scholar. In her 34 years of service to UWSP, Nancy contributed immensely to the training, support, and success of her students in the Department of History and International Studies. She has mentored over a dozen students through the research and presentation process at the annual College of Letters and Science Research Symposium. She is proud to have mentored a student senior seminar paper which was published in The Historian soon after the student graduated from UWSP. Nancy’s scholarly career and devotion to student training is extraordinary.

She has a long history of university service at UWSP, serving on the History Department Curriculum Planning Committee, General Education Committee, and as chair of the University College Curriculum Committee, chair of the History Department, and interim coordinator of the International Studies major and minor.  She was part of the academic strategic planning for the UW System restructuring.  She developed and taught a dozen different classes in her teaching career.  Nancy has taught classes in European nationalism, Literature and History in Nineteenth Century Britain, and Modern French History.

Nancy has published, by herself or collaboratively, approximately 24 national and international, articles or books and provided dozens of scholarly book reviews.

Thanks in large part to the work of Professor Amy Zlimen Ticho, the UWSP Department of Social work is a well-respected, collaborative and CSWE-accredited program. Zlimen Ticho is the winner of the 2022 Eugene Katz Letters and Science Distinguished Faculty Award.

After she was named the Department of Sociology and Social Work Chairperson in 2018, she spearheaded the expansion of the Social Work Program to the Wausau and Marshfield campuses and later also successfully advocated for the expansion of the Sociology Program to the Wausau campus.  Recognizing the growing social work needs in north central Wisconsin, Professor Zlimen Ticho also facilitated the establishment of partnership between UW-Green Bay and UW-Stevens Point, which has brought the UWGB’s Master of Social Work (MSW) program to the UWSP-Wausau campus. In the meantime, she also played an instrumental role in the formation of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences during the reorganization of the College of Letters and Science.

Working to foster positive change, Zlimen Ticho remains extensively involved in community-academic initiatives, including the Portage County Coalition for End-of-Life Care, Conversations About Care program, and Wisconsin Area Health Education Center. She has been recognized by world-renowned researchers and authors for her end-of-life research. Amy has presented at numerous workshops and conferences for statewide and national health care professionals.

She is a previous winner of the University Scholar Award in 2014 and the University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2005. Throughout her 20-plus years at UWSP, Amy has developed and taught a wide range of courses in the social work curriculum.

Her nominator said Amy is a trusted and respected colleague and leader who fosters a positive working environment and a teamwork culture.

Professor of molecular biology and genetics Dr. Diane Caporale joined the Department of Biology at UWSP in 1999.  When she was asked to develop a molecular biology course it was an opportunity to broaden her research into tick-borne diseases. During the first week of October each year since 2000, her molecular biology students collect blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis). It gave students the opportunity to use DNA as a tool to forecast the incidence of disease.

Blacklegged (or deer) ticks carry three pathogens that can cause human disease. Caporale’s students analyzed all three: Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease; Anaplasma phagocytophilum, a bacterium that causes Anaplasmosis; and Babesia microti, a protozoan that causes Babesiosis. The latter presents with malaria-like symptoms, while the others have flu-like symptoms.

Caporale and her students conducted research in what is known as a microgeographic region that is also convenient to campus: the Schmeeckle Reserve trail around Lake Joanis. They use white flannel flags to collect the ticks – a total of 2,008 in 21 years.

 Tick surveillance is useful for predicting human disease risk. What’s especially significant about Caporale’s research is its duration. This is the first continuous surveillance of tick-borne pathogens for two decades in the nation.

Caporale also served as academic director of MS Applied Biotechnology. She retired in 2022.

Dona Warren is one of the most respected and dedicated members of the UW-Stevens Point faculty with high achievements in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Among her many teaching, administrative, and scholarship accomplishments, she is perhaps best known on campus for working to integrate critical thinking into teaching a variety of disciplines.

John Coletta coordinates the biomedical writing minor and environmental studies minor at UW-Stevens Point. He is a former vice president and president of the Semiotic Society of America and currently sits on the editorial board of the American Journal of Semiotics. John is also a peer reviewer for the Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment and Biosemiotics journals.
Professor Coletta won a University Teaching Award in 1995. He created the biomedical writing minor roughly a decade ago, and through his work with the admissions department at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, his biomedical writing course is now regularly recommended to and taken by those incoming medical students in Madison who lack the now required upper division course in writing in the humanities or social sciences. Many of Coletta’s students have been paid interns in scientific writing at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation.
He has also supervised interns at the Portage County Department of Health and Human Services. Professor Coletta has been a pioneer on campus in interdisciplinary studies courses, teaching for two decades courses such as science literature and literature and ecology. He also created two writing awards, the Erik S. Munson Science and Environmental Writing Award and the Ron Pine Technical Writing Award.
John has published, by himself or collaboratively, approximately 24 refereed, national and international, articles or substantial book reviews and entries in anthologies. His published work is primarily in the fields of literature and ecology, the history and representation of ecological ideas, the origin of language and syntax growing out of the solving of complex visual puzzles by predators, and biosemiotics criticism, a field he helped to originate. Professor Coletta is also one of the few English professors nationally to have published articles in the American Biology Teacher, one on teaching color, one on teaching evolutionary ecology, and one on the structure of the natural history field guide.

In 26 years at UW-Stevens Point, Theresa has maintained an impressive and ongoing record of excellence. She has taught an impressive array of courses, received consistently glowing evaluations from students, and published three monographs, in addition to other scholarly achievements.
For the general education program, Professor Kaminski regularly taught both halves of the U.S. History survey as well as a survey of U.S. Women’s History. Her upper-level offerings include Women’s Rights and Feminism in the United States and Women, War, and Peace. Most recently, she developed two new courses, Sexuality in American History and The U.S. and the Two World Wars. She has regularly taught both of the core seminars of the history major — History 300 and a capstone seminar on the history of the 1960s. Theresa has also mentored many junior faculty and played a significant role in curriculum planning and assessment. Students consistently rate her courses highly.
In addition to her excellence in the classroom, Professor Kaminski has maintained an admirable level of scholarly productivity. In 2001, the university rewarded her with the University Scholar Award following the publication of her first book, Prisoners in Paradise. In the intervening years, she has published two additional monographs, making her the department’s most productive scholar.
In 2011, Theresa published her second book, Citizen of Empire: Ethel Thomas Herold, an American in the Philippines. Four years later, she published Angels of the Underground: The American Women who Resisted the Japanese in the Philippines in World War II. Having completed what she thinks of as her “Philippine trilogy,” Theresa has begun planning a new biography of popular entertainer Dale Evans.
Beyond the 2001 University Scholar Award, Professor Kaminski’s achievements have been acknowledged and supported by a number of other honors and fellowships. In 2003, the Organization of American Historians and the Japanese Association for American Studies awarded her a short-term residency to share her work at Japan’s Chiba University. In 2005-06, she received a travel fellowship to conduct research for her Ethel Thomas Herold project at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library. In 2012, she earned a UW System Fellowship at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, an award that recognized the scholarly importance of the then-in-progress Angels of the Underground.
The Department of History and International Studies takes pride in Professor Kaminski’s many accomplishments, is grateful for her example and mentorship, and believes she is very worthy of the 2018 Katz Award.

Bob is an outstanding teacher in and out of the classroom, highly committed to student success. His course evaluations are consistently high, and he has a very positive reputation among students. His success is evidenced by being awarded the University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004. Throughout his time at UW-Stevens Point, Bob has taught a wide variety of courses, demonstrating his versatility as an educator. His particular expertise in the field of gerontology is truly beneficial to our students. Professor Enright is student-centered, striving to stay current in his classes and meet the changing needs of our student population. He developed courses to meet the Communication in the Major requirement and facilitated courses and supervised students during three semester-abroad experiences. He extends his teaching outside the classroom, with his participation in the Learning Is Forever (LIFE) Program, other community forums and at the Oxford Correctional Institution.

Professor Enright also has a strong track record as a scholar. Of special significance among his publications is the book titled “Perspectives in Social Gerontology.” Additionally, Bob has an impressive list of refereed papers and presentations he has given on various topics over the years. He has demonstrated success in securing funding for projects through grants. He has twice been awarded a sabbatical, and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging in which he conducted research on family members who provided care for adult victims of chronic brain disorders. Most recently, he presented at the 2016 Conference on the Small City and Regional Community on the topic of urban/rural differences in crime.

Bob’s service record is also impressive. He provided leadership within the Department of Sociology and Social Work, through his role as chair since 2002. He has coordinated the gerontology minor since 1985 and has coordinated the sociology internship program since 2009. During his time in the department he has served on every committee. Bob has served on multiple university committees, including Faculty Senate, the University Affairs Committee and the Program Review Committee.

Professor Enright was extensively involved in developing a Council on Social Work Education accredited social work program at UW-Stevens Point. The development of this program involved significant changes in the curriculum and has required important personnel decisions. Bob was involved in numerous committee meetings to prepare accreditation documents, design the program, and form policy. Our department now houses two successful and interdependent majors. Our success with this initiative is owed, in part, to Dr. Enright’s leadership and commitment to both disciplines represented in the department.

A member of the Bad River Band of Chippewa, Sonny is the first Native American faculty member to be tenured at UW-Stevens Point. Throughout his career, Professor Smart has demonstrated excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. He is committed to our students, department, institution and community.

One of Sonny’s most significant accomplishments during his time at UW-Stevens Point has been developing an accredited social work program. He was initially hired to teach Introduction to Social Work and the generalist practice courses in the Department of Sociology, and he later spearheaded the development of a Native American and Rural Social Work minor. Developing an accredited social work major was no small task. It involved extensive curriculum and policy development, as well as collaboration with personnel across campus and in the community. Sonny demonstrated considerable leadership and skill throughout this process and was instrumental in its success.

Sonny’s colleagues are impressed by his ability to engage with students, get them to critically think about their own views and the world around them, and consider new approaches to resolving complex issues. He is creative in his style, weaving in cultural stories and real-world examples. He takes students beyond the classroom in ways that are significant to them. For years he took students in one class to the Lac Du Flambeau Reservation for a field trip, and more recently he has taken them off-campus to demonstrate the sweat lodge ceremony. Through such activities, Professor Smart affords our students access to a world that is often restricted from the general public.

Sonny’s contributions to his home department as well as students across campus have been significant. Over the years, he has taught a variety of courses in both sociology and social work. He is always willing to be a guest presenter in colleagues’ classes.  Professor Smart is known as a leading expert on campus regarding Native American culture and other diversity issues. He has further benefitted campus by serving on Equity and Affirmation Action Search and Screen, Letters and Science Advisory Committee, as well as all of the department’s standing committees. He has also acted as mentor to African American, Latino, Hmong and Native American students as part of the institution’s Multi-Cultural Affairs initiative.

Professor Smart is also deserving of this recognition because of his significant work within the tribal communities across Wisconsin. He has worked with various state/tribal organizations such as the State Indian Child Welfare Program Directors Association, the Wisconsin Tribal Judges Association, the Wisconsin State Indian Child Welfare Act Advisory Board and the Great Lakes Intertribal Council. He serves as a tribal judge for the Bad River Band of Ojibwe. These interactions have allowed him to stay current in child welfare practice, family law, cultural competence, mental health and policy changes, while also providing expertise to the tribes and universities in the Great Lakes region as well as nationally.

Recently retired as chair of the Department of World Languages and Literatures, Richard has been a dedicated teacher, both respected and liked, by the many German students he has taught during the past three decades. During his career he has taught nearly every course in the German curriculum, having focused on language, literature and culture. He is viewed as a rigorous professor who seeks to challenge his students to do the very best they can, yet in the end he is known for awarding them fair grades.

Richard believes that German is a window to another world. He encourages his students to use the language as a key to unlocking another culture, another way of viewing the world and oneself. Critical thinking and cross-cultural and interdisciplinary thinking is as central to his classroom as language learning. One simply has to learn how to do this all in German. As an adviser, he has travelled that extra length to help his German   students — and as chair all students of World Languages — to succeed. He has written hundreds of letters of recommendation for his students, sending them off to graduate school, medical school, veterinary school and dentistry school. He has been adviser to the German Club since 1985.

He is perhaps most broadly known for his longtime service on the University Personnel Development Committee, on which he served for 14 years and chaired seven times. He was also a Faculty Senator for 12 years and served on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee for seven years. He chaired the University Awards Committee for two years. He was a member of the Graduate Council for two years. He has served on the Phi  Kappa Phi Executive Board since 2002 and is currently its president for the second time.

Richard has also been an adviser to the UWSP Ski and Snowboard Club for the past 12 years and has accompanied them on every January ski trip to various resorts in the Rockies. Through it all he became the respected face of the Department of Foreign Languages, now World Languages and Literatures. Across the campus, everyone in every college, including all the deans, know Richard personally and identify him with World Languages, for whom he has been a persevering advocate. It is hardly a surprise that Richard received the University Service Award in 2011.

Sol Sepsenwol has been a faculty member at UW-Stevens Point since 1978. After receiving both his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in Physiology at the University of Chicago, he worked at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Northwestern University Medical School. He was originally hired at UW-Stevens Point as a human physiology professor, but now also teaches upper-level Biology classes that he has developed ranging from electron microscopy to human reproduction. Sol has served as an advisor to the UWSP Pre-Medical Society since 1980, as UWSP coordinator for the Goldwater Excellence in Science Scholarships since 1994, and co-directs the electron microscope lab.

His research on the sperm cell of an intestinal parasite has earned him four research grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health to support his work. Additionally, he has many nd varied publications and papers. Off campus, Sol rock climbs and has guided trips to Devil’s Lake with UWSP pre-med and other students from around campus.

John came to UW-Stevens Point in 2003 after earning his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Virginia and teaching at Baylor University.  His classroom teaching includes courses in constitutional law, civil rights, religion and politics, and European politics.  John’s book The Bible in the Park: Federal District Courts, Religious Speech and the Public Forum was nationally recognized as an in-depth study of First Amendment cases concerning religious speech and expression in public places.  His newest book, The U.S. Supreme Court and New Federalism: From the Rehnquist to the Roberts Court has been equally well received.  John’s frequent scholarly papers and presentations have earned him a considerable following among students of the courts. He has also served as department chair the past six years.

Department of History

Department of Foreign Languages

– Susan Brewer, Department of History

– Jeana Magyar-Moe, Department of Psychology

– ​Padmanabhan Sudevan, Department of Psychology

– Eric Singsaas, Department of Biology

– Marcia Parker, Department of Foreign Languages

– William Lawlor, Department of English

 

– Gary Itzkowitz Department of Sociology and Social Work

– Dennis Riley, Department of Political Science

– Jan Seiler, Department of Foreign Languages

  • Erik Wild, Department of Biology

– Valentina Peguero, Department of History

  • Robert Wolensky, Department of Sociology and Social Work

– Jim Canfield, Department of Political Science

– Steve Taft, Department of Biology

– Justus F. Paul, Dean of College of Letters and Science, Department of History

– Gail Skelton, Department of Sociology and Social Work

– Jianwei Wang, Department of Political Science

– Hamid Hekmat, Department of Psychology

– Donald L. Showwalter, Department of Chemistry

– C. Marvin Lang, Department of Chemistry

– Edward J. Miller, Department of Political Science

– Jack K. Reed, Department of Chemistry

-Lawrence Weiser, Department of Business and Economics

– C. Edward Gasque, Department of Biology

  • James Stokes, Department of English

University Award Recipients

UW-Stevens Point recognizes outstanding faculty and academic staff members across campus with the annual University Awards and the annual Classified Employee Awards. Recent faculty, academic staff and classified employee award winners from COLS are recognized below.

Excellence in Teaching Award
Jeana Magyar, Psychology
Erica Ringelspaugh, English

University Scholar Award
Adriana Durbala, Physics and Astronomy
Sarah Orlofske, Biology

University Service Award
Robert Sirabian, English

Excellence in Teaching Award
Jess Bowers, Sociology and Social Work
Joshua Horn, Philosophy
Jerry Jessee, History and International Studies

University Scholar Award
David Barry, Sociology and Social Work
Krista Slemmons, Biology

Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship and Service Award
Nathan Bowling, Chemistry

University Service Award
Mary Bowman, English

Carolyn Rolfson Sargis Award
Pat Kleman, College of Letters and Science

Excellence in Teaching Award
Maggie Bohm-Jordan, Sociology and Social Work
Krista Slemmons, Biology
University Scholar Award
Justin Rueb, Psychology
Ross Tangedal, English

University Service Award
Vera Klekovkina, World Languages and Literatures

Outstanding Work Performance Award
Jenny Wierzba, Mathematical Sciences/Computing and New Media Technologies

Carolyn Rolfson Sargis Award
Nancy Stokosa, Physics and Astronomy

Excellence in Teaching Award
David Barry, Sociology and Social Work
Sarah Scripps, History and International Studies
Justin Sipiorski, Biology
David Snyder, Chemistry

University Scholar Award
Alek Toumi, World Languages and Literatures

University Service Award
Ken Menningen, Physics and Astronomy

Outstanding Work Performance Award
Karin Hyler, Sociology and Social Work, World Languages and Literatures

Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship and Service Award
Jason D’Acchioli, Chemistry

Excellence in Teaching Award
Sarah Jane Alger, Biology
David Roloff, English

University Scholar Award
Erica Weisgram, Psychology

University Service Award
Dorothy DeBoer, Sociology and Social Work
Debbie Palmer, Psychology
Nancy Stokosa, Physics and Astronomy

Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship and Service Award
Jeana Magyar, Psychology

Classified Staff Award
Ellen Jo Holguin, Biology

University Service Award
Robin Tanke, Chemistry
Excellence in Teaching Awards
Brian Barringer, Biology
Vera Klekovkina, World Languages and Literatures
Eric Weisgram, Psychology
University Scholar Award
Karin Fry, Philosophy
Nathan Bowling, Chemistry
Academic Staff Excellence Award
Al Bond, Information Technology

 

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Jennifer Bray, Biology
Neil Prendergast, History
Dona Warren, Philosophy

University Scholar Award
Robert Rosenfield, Biology

University Service Awards
Tobias Barske, World Languages and Literatures
Randy Olson, Physics and Astronomy

Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship and Service Award
Andy Felt, Mathematical Sciences

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Karin Bodensteiner, Biology
Jason D’Acchioli, Chemistry
Christian Diehm, Philosophy
Jeana Magyar-Moe, Psychology

University Scholar Award
Elia Armacanqui-Tipacti, Foreign Languages
David Chan, Philosophy

University Service Award
Beverley David, Foreign Languages

Academic Staff Spirit of Community Service Award
Elizabeth Graham, Biology

Classified Employee Outstanding Work Performance Award
Patricia Kleman, COLS Dean’s office

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Karin Bodensteiner, Biology
Jason D’Acchioli, Chemistry
Christian Diehm, Philosophy
Jeana Magyar-Moe, Psychology

University Scholar Award
Elia Armacanqui-Tipacti, Foreign Languages
David Chan, Philosophy

University Service Award
Beverley David, Foreign Languages

Academic Staff Spirit of Community Service Award
Elizabeth Graham, Biology

Classified Employee Outstanding Work Performance Award
Patricia Kleman, COLS Dean’s office

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Paul Hladky, Chemistry
Cynthia McCabe, Mathematics
Rebecca Stephens, English
Lee Willis, History

University Scholar Award
David Williams, Philosophy & Political Science

University Service Award
Richard Ruppel, Foreign Languages

Classified Employee Outstanding Work Performance Award
Jackie Engum, Biology

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Paul Hladky, Chemistry
Cynthia McCabe, Mathematics
Rebecca Stephens, English
Lee Willis, History

University Scholar Award
David Williams, Philosophy & Political Science

University Service Award
Richard Ruppel, Foreign Languages

Classified Employee Outstanding Work Performance Award
Jackie Engum, Biology

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Jennifer Collins, Political Science
Patrick Conley, Psychology

University Scholar Award
Richard Barker, Foreign Languages
Devinder Sandhu, Biology

University Service Award
Justin Rueb, Psychology

Regents Teaching Excellence Award – UW System
Dôna Warren, Philosophy

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Tobias Barske, Foreign Languages
Diane Caporale-Hartleb, Biology

University Scholar Award
Debbie Palmer, Psychology

University Service Award
Jeana Magyar-Moe, Psychology

Classified Employee Outstanding Work Performance Award
Ellen Jo Holguin, Biology

Classified Employee Outstanding Work Performance Award
Patricia Kleman, Psychology

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Todd Huspeni, Biology
Kathleen Lamb, Sociology & Social Work
Ed Miller, Political Science
Craig Wendorf, Psychology

University Scholar Award
Emmet Judziewicz, Biology

Classified Employee Outstanding Work Performance Award
Diane Stelzer, Geography and Geology

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Lorri Nandrea, English
Justin Rueb, Psychology
Steven Wright, Chemistry

University Scholar Award
Jeana Magyar-Moe, Psychology
James Stokes, English

University Service Award
Dan Dieterich, English

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Richard Behm, English
Michelle Brophy-Baermann, Political Science
Jeana Magyar-Moe, Psychology

University Scholar Award
Valentina Peguero, History
Alek Toumi, Foreign Languages