The California State University (CSU) is recognizing 19 faculty members with Faculty Innovation and Leadership Awards, honoring faculty who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership to advance student success at the CSU.
The awards, including one granted to a two-person campus team, recognize faculty leaders who have implemented innovative practices in teaching, course design or support programs that significantly improve student outcomes. Award recipients have expertise in a wide range of disciplines from science education to public health to speech language pathology.
“These outstanding faculty consistently engage students with innovative practices and foster stimulating and equitable learning environments that support these students on their path to graduation," said CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White. “Their commitment to deepen and enrich learning by putting students at the center of all they do is fundamental to the mission of the CSU, and is helping to transform higher education nationwide."
A selection committee comprised of faculty, student representatives from the California State Student Association and staff members from the CSU Office of the Chancellor reviewed more than 200 nominations to identify the awardees.
Awardees receive $5,000, as well as $10,000 allocated to their academic department in support of ongoing innovation and leadership to advance student success at the CSU. Funding for the awards is provided by generous grant support from the College Futures Foundation, who sees faculty innovation and leadership as vital to improving outcomes for California's diverse students.
The recipients of the 2019 Faculty Innovation and Leadership Awards are:
| Name | Department | Campus |
| Allison Evans | Psychology | Bakersfield |
| Mary Adler | English | Channel Islands |
| Alfred Schademan | School of Education | Chico State |
| Katy Pinto | Sociology | Dominguez Hills |
| Vang Vang | Public Services – Library | Fresno |
| Sara Johnson | Anthropology | Fullerton |
| Maxwell Schnurer & Kimberly Berry | Communication and Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies | Humboldt |
| Bonnie Gasior | Romance, German, Russian Languages and Literatures | Long Beach |
| Walter Zelman | Public Health Department | Los Angeles |
| Nelson Graff | Communication Across the Disciplines | Monterey Bay |
| Steve Alas | Biological Sciences Department | Pomona |
| Ghazan Khan | Civil Engineering | Sacramento |
| Montgomery Van Wart | Public Administration | San Bernardino |
| Sonja Pruitt-Lord | School of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences | San Diego |
| Adam Burke | Recreation, Parks & Tourism (Holistic Health Studies) | San Francisco |
| Tina Korani | Journalism and Mass Communications | San José |
| James LoCascio | Mechanical Engineering | San Luis Obispo |
| Youwen Ouyang | Computer Science | San Marcos |
Read bios for each awardee on the Faculty Innovation and Leadership Awards website.
Faculty innovation is crucial to reaching the ambitious student success goals outlined in the CSU's Graduation Initiative 2025. This university-wide effort advances specific goals to eliminate equity gaps and significantly improve degree completion.
Award recipients will be formally honored in mid-October at the upcoming fourth-annual Graduation Initiative 2025 Symposium, hosted this year in Sacramento, California.
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About the California State University
The California State University is the largest system of four-year higher education in the country, with 23 campuses, 52,000 faculty and staff and 481,000 students. Half of the CSU's students transfer from California community colleges. Created in 1960, the mission of the CSU is to provide high-quality, affordable education to meet the ever-changing needs of California. With its commitment to quality, opportunity, and student success, the CSU is renowned for superb teaching, innovative research and for producing job-ready graduates. Each year, the CSU awards more than 125,000 degrees. One in every 20 Americans holding a college degree is a graduate of the CSU and our alumni are 3.7 million strong. Connect with and learn more about the CSU in the CSU NewsCenter.