Six SBS Faculty Receive 2024 University Awards of Distinction

Six SBS professors have received prestigious Awards of Distinction from the University of Arizona in 2024 in recognition of excellence in teaching, research, leadership, service and mentoring: Marcela Vásquez-León (Distinguished Outreach Faculty Award); Michelle Berry (Early Career Scholar Award); Leila Hudson (University Faculty Service Award); Hayriye Kayi-Aydar (Mentoring Future Scholars Award); Carrie Langley (Gerald J. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence); and Daniela Triadan (Distinguished Mentor Award). 

University Distinguished Outreach Faculty Award

The University Distinguished Outreach Faculty awards recognize outstanding faculty members whose scholarship-based outreach to the state, nation and world has demonstrated sustained excellence in the University's outreach mission.

Marcela Vásquez-León
Director, Center for Latin American Studies, and Professor, School of Anthropology

Marcela Vásquez-León, a professor in the School of Anthropology, specializes in grassroots rural development, environmental and maritime anthropology, political ecology, and social vulnerability to climate change. Her work is primarily based in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Northwest Mexico, Brazil, and Paraguay. She is also the director of the Center for Latin American Studies, where she has prioritized outreach as part of the mission, providing opportunities for students and faculty to engage with issues of injustice, poverty, and powerlessness. 

"She has a deep sense of commitment to the service of others, especially those who reside at the lower end of the power spectrum…those who are structurally disadvantaged in society,” wrote Timothy Finan, professor emeritus in the School of Anthropology in a nominating letter. 

Vásquez-León has developed and maintained several long-term programs focused on community outreach, both locally and internationally. Through federal funding, she obtained program support for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Latin American students to learn social and economic empowerment strategies. She secured over $10M in grants, which support research, training and community engagement, student scholarships for language training, as well as field research throughout Latin America. Since the mid-90s, Vásquez-León’s research on fishing and resource management has highlighted the displacement of local communities in the Gulf of California. 

"We cannot say enough about the ways that Dr. Vásquez-León employs creative methods and innovative approaches in outreach programs and activities,” wrote Diane Austin, director of the School of Anthropology. “Her commitment to the greater public good and the public interest are breathtaking.”

 

Early Career Scholar Award

This award recognizes early-career faculty members at the forefront of their disciplines for highly valued contributions to teaching, creative activity, and service.

Michelle Berry
Assistant Professor, Department of History 

Michelle Berry, an assistant professor in the Department of History, has a combined focus on feminist pedagogy, ecofeminism, political ecology, and environmental and labor history. In addition to teaching and research, Berry is deeply engaged in outreach, which includes activities with K-12 teachers as well as chairing the Department of History’s Public History Collaborative. 

Calling Berry a “dedicated public-facing scholar,” SBS Dean Lori Poloni-Staudinger wrote in her letter of support “Her podcasts, blogs, as well as many invitations to share her expertise across the nation, offer evidence of her reach.”

Berry’s first co-authored book, A Primer for Teaching Environmental History, earned her national and international recognition. Her first monograph, Cow Talk: Work, Ecology, and Range Cattle Ranchers in the Mountain West, was recently published by the University of Oklahoma Press. 

Poloni-Staudinger wrote, “Without a doubt, Dr. Berry is at the forefront of her discipline with valued contributions in pedagogy, public service and outreach and her important scholarship.”

 

University Faculty Service Award

This award, created in 2022, recognizes faculty members who have made exceptional contributions to the University's service mission within their department or college, across campus, or in their scholarly community.

Leila Hudson
Associate Professor, School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies

Leila Hudson is an associate professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, with a focus on the intersections of modern Middle Eastern anthropology, culture and political economy, and extremism. Hudson joined UArizona in 1999 and has held many shared governance roles, including her current (re-elected) position as chair of the faculty.

Hudson is the author or editor of three books and has published numerous articles on Syria, refugees, migration, warfare, and gender. She has been nominated for various awards for service, leadership, mentoring, and research. 

Endorsed and supported by a broad and diverse group of faculty and staff, Hudson demonstrates exceptional contributions to UArizona through her participation in service roles, multidisciplinary approaches to community building, the revitalization of graduate programs in MENAS, and adept leadership. 

In her letter of support, College of Fine Arts Regents Professor and Center for Middle East Studies affiliated faculty Sama Alshaibi praised the significant impact of Hudson’s work. 

“Leila's approach to her MENA-centered research and teaching extends far beyond the classroom and academic circles,” the letter stated. “It touches on the lived experiences in our communities and broadly impacts regional and national policy.”

Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Hudson’s sole nominator, wrote in his letter, "Throughout her career, Professor Hudson has approached her key service roles not as so many obligations to ‘get through’ but as important opportunities to be handled with dedication, curiosity, passion and compassion and in a spirit of collegial collaboration. Her steadfast commitment to building, nurturing, convening, and implementing has made her into the remarkable and courageous University leader that she is today.”
 

Mentoring Future Scholars Award

This award recognizes faculty mentors who are extraordinary in their mentoring of graduate students toward becoming future scholars.

Hayriye Kayi-Aydar
Associate Professor, Department of English

"Hayriye Kayi-Aydar’s research foci, teaching practices and values, and deliberate student collaborations, together highlight her dedication to diversity and inclusion,” wrote Cristina Ramirez, head of the Department of English. “Her dedication in these areas reverberates not only in University of Arizona programs but also her students’ future classrooms as she trains future practitioners and education researchers.”

During her eight years at UArizona, Kayi-Aydar has provided numerous and consistent opportunities to collaborate with students on research projects that offer invaluable publishing experience for early career scholars. 

Kayi-Aydar’s role as a mentor extends to students in other institutions as she supports their research efforts internationally. As a program chair for the English as an Additional Language Programme, she is currently mentoring two Fulbright scholars and has sponsored many visiting scholar invitations. 

“As an instructor of future educators, she asks us to be intentional in our inclusion of our students’ voices, perspectives, and backgrounds,” wrote Kate Shea, a global English professor, former student, and nominator. “She is acutely aware of linguistic inequities in our language classrooms and is not only an advocate for the students she teaches but also all of the future students who we, her mentees, will teach as language educators.”
 

Gerald J. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence

This award, which recognizes excellence in undergraduate teaching, was created through a gift from the Thomas R. Brown Foundation in honor of Gerald J. Swanson, professor emeritus of economics.

Carrie Langley
Assistant Professor of Practice, Department of Sociology

"Carrie Langley is the heart and soul of the successful Care, Health, and Society B.S. degree. Her design thinking on coursework to ensure the greatest impact, her trauma-informed, culturally responsive approach, and overall intellectual and experiential engagement approach offer students a world-class experience for crucial and critical work in society/societies,” wrote SBS Dean Lori Poloni-Staudinger in the nominating letter.

In sociology, Langley teaches the required course, CHS 3036 Interprofessional Care, and several popular elective courses. She has created several courses for the program, including helping to design a 400-level pre-internship course that aims to introduce students to the professional healthcare field and how to identify and secure internships. Langley’s courses are often at capacity with consistent requests for overloads, and she regularly accepts students into these full courses to accommodate their learning interests. 
 

Outside of teaching, Langley crafts a monthly newsletter, hosts a networking podcast for students, which features alumni and professional colleagues as contributors, and directs the Sociology Internship Program that places students in healthcare settings locally and throughout the world. Langley unfailingly receives outstanding student evaluations, with students volunteering to participate in the award nomination process. 

One student wrote, “Dr. Langley is extraordinary at building personal and lasting relationships with her students. Her genuine care and passion for the topic shines through in every course she teaches.”

 

Distinguished Mentor Award

This award recognizes outstanding tenured or continuing-status faculty members at the full professor rank who have mentored early-career faculty members and made highly valued contributions to the mentoring of graduate students.

Daniela Triadan
Professor, School of Anthropology

In their letter of nomination, the anthropology faculty praised Daniela Triadan, a professor in the School of Anthropology, for excelling at mentoring at all levels — from undergraduates to faculty. 

"She has accomplished international mentoring of UArizona students as well as those of her international collaborators. In all cases, she has done this with empathy and a high degree of professionalism."

Throughout her career, Triadan has committed herself to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty. In 1996, Triadan began working in Guatemala, where she has guided and trained graduate students from UArizona and the University of Florida, as well as Guatemalan students, in archaeology and archeological object conservation. 

Tridan’s commitment extends to faculty as well. For over 10 years, she has been a key organizer of the faculty women’s brunch and is best known for her pivotal role in the promotion and tenure process, serving as Executive Chair from fall 2017 to spring 2023. She is known for her eye for detail, mentoring faculty and committees through the promotion process, reviewing CVs and statements, and offering advice and support well in advance of reviews. Triadan's commitment has garnered her recognition at all administrative levels.

In her letter of recommendation, Diane Austin, director of the School of Anthropology wrote that Triadan’s efforts and commitment have “most certainly raised the standards and expectations of mentorship across the campus as she has brought excellence, innovation, high ethical standards, and status to the role of mentor.”