“Celebrating Excellence” of Faculty and Staff

The audience learned of SEESAWS, Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey – aka MaDCoWs – “Underground” and Perio-Jeopardy:  programs and lessons that are the work of UMKC faculty and staff.

The occasion was the “Celebrating Excellence” event, UMKC’s Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony, now in its seventh year. Twenty-two awards were presented in recognition of the exceptional achievements of the celebrants. Family, friends and other well-wishers filled the room and gave each announced winner a rousing and emotional reception.

Denis Medeiros, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, presided over the program, joined on stage by other presenters:  Chancellor Leo Morton, Pat Macdonald, Pat McCown, Jill Reyes, Eric Grospitch and Lawrence Dreyfus.

Chancellor Morton took the opportunity to thank the honorees for their contributions to the students and the university community. He added that they were a source of pride and that he loved telling people about UMKC.

“You make that part of my job very easy,” he said.

Staff members were praised for the depth and breadth of their knowledge, and the unerring support and aid they provided to students, faculty and colleagues.

Members of the faculty got the attention of students and coworkers alike with their diligence, enthusiasm and open-door policy. Most of them were cited for making classes interesting – even tax law – and providing notes, simulation games, computer tools and healthy fungal genetics stock to enhance student learning.

In his closing remarks, Medeiros thanked the honorees for their inspiration, saying they remind us that “All of us can and do have an extraordinary impact on our students and our community.”