Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence Awards
April 4, 2017
Our faculty and tonight’s honorees embody the strategic imperatives of our campus to develop tomorrow’s leaders, lead the university forward in innovation and impact humanity through teaching, research and service.
It's a pleasure to be among you as we celebrate and honor these important awards of excellence and our faculty who personify them. A university is only as good as its faculty – and we have a world-class faculty … fully in evidence today.
When we use the term “world-class faculty,” it is not a cliché at CU-Boulder. It is a reality, and we see it daily here: in learning and teaching, discovery and innovation, in leadership, and in service to the community, the nation and the world.
Our faculty maintains the excellent national and international reputation of the university, and mentors our students to new heights of learning and discovery.
Students especially are the beneficiaries of your work. Our students are at ground zero in new discoveries, and interacting with teachers and researchers, who are transforming science, innovation, technology and the arts.
Our faculty migrate new knowledge and cutting-edge research to our students in the classroom, the labs, the hallways, and even the residence halls. You educate, inspire and challenge students, and they expect no less of you. Students are society's greatest assets and you are their teachers and mentors. I cannot think of a job more important.
It’s notable that our honorees today come from disciplines across the campus spectrum – arts, humanities, sciences, social sciences – highlighting once again that we are a great comprehensive university.
Congratulations to each of you and thank you for your service to the university, to students and to the broader society.
Introduction of keynote speaker Michele Moses
The namesake of the Hazel Barnes Prize won the Boulder Faculty Assembly Teaching Excellence Award in 1983. This evening, we are privileged to have this year’s Hazel Barnes Prize winner, Michele Moses, give the keynote address.
For 25 years, the Hazel Barnes Prize has been awarded to a CU Boulder faculty member who best exemplifies the enriching interrelationship between teaching and research, and whose work has impacted students, faculty, colleagues and the university.
Professor Moses is Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the School of Education. She is the first Hazel Barnes winner in the School of Education. The School of Education has a special place in my heart as a faculty member and proud dean emeritus.
Dr. Moses is an expert on questions of democracy, equality and race in education, and she puts her students at the center of all she does. She is a valued teacher, mentor and advisor to education students.
She found her passion for education early in life. As the first of her family to attend and graduate from college, she immersed herself in the experience by getting involved with clubs on campus, including student leadership at the University of Virginia. She was awarded a master’s degree in philosophy and a doctoral degree in education from CU Boulder. She also received a master’s degree in higher education from the University of Vermont. Dr. Moses was an assistant professor at Arizona State for six years when she joined us at CU Boulder.
Her devotion to integrating student mentorship within her research is one reason she was nominated by her peers and chosen by the Hazel Barnes Prize committee, as this year’s winner. It is my great honor to introduce Michele Moses.