Carolina First

Two faculty members garner mentoring awards from Carolina Women's Leadership Council

From UNC News Services

The Carolina Women’s Leadership Council on Thursday (Feb. 22) honored University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professors Janna Dieckmann and Andrew Reynolds for being great mentors. The awards were presented during the council’s annual meeting at the Carolina Inn.

Dieckmann, an assistant professor of nursing, received the council’s faculty-to-faculty mentoring award. Reynolds, an associate professor of political science, received the faculty-to-student award.

The Carolina Women’s Leadership Council Awards are funded by an endowment established by the council, a volunteer committee that is a part of the Carolina First Campaign, the university’s major fund-raising drive. Council members have raised $240,000 to endow the awards as an effort to bolster faculty support, a key goal of Carolina First.

That goal was emphasized in the wake of the university’s milestone of reaching its $2 billion campaign goal earlier this week. At a celebration of that accomplishment on Feb. 21, officials announced their intention to raise an additional $100 million for faculty support in the remaining months of the campaign, which ends Dec. 31.

The awards, which carry a stipend of $5,000 each, recognize outstanding faculty members who go the extra mile to guide, mentor and lead students or junior faculty members as they make career decisions, embark on research challenges and enrich their lives through public service, teaching and educational opportunities.

“We are deeply grateful to the Women’s Leadership Council for honoring and rewarding our faculty for their attention to nurturing the careers of students and colleagues,” said Carol J. Tresolini, associate provost for academic initiatives. “The nominations provided eloquent descriptions of the critically important role that mentoring has played in the lives of those who nominated faculty for these awards. Congratulations to professors Dieckmann and Reynolds for receiving this recognition and to the many faculty who were nominated for the award.”

Both Dieckmann and Reynolds received numerous nominations. One nominator said Dieckmann radiates a passion for teaching. “She truly believes that one of the most important missions of a university is to meet the needs and expectations of students with the most current and effective teaching methods available,” the nominator wrote. “She is curious, and she encourages others to be curious. She is imaginative and she encourages others to be imaginative. And she is a problem solver and she encourages finding real and lasting solutions to problems.”

“Janna is an excellent mentor for faculty because she truly believes in the seriousness of the academic pursuit and her enthusiasm is genuinely contagious,” this nominator continued. “… Few people actually help others to achieve their goals, Janna Dieckmann does, and that is the true value of a mentor.”

One of Reynolds’ nominators expressed appreciation for his listening skills.

“Professor Reynolds always listened to my ideas – no matter how eccentric – because he recognized that my imagination was more important to the development of this project than knowledge; that would come later through research,” the nominator wrote. “He honored brainstorming as a necessity without labeling ideas right or wrong. He gave me the freedom to think as big as I wanted to without censorship … and continued to encourage my creative endeavors throughout the year, emphasizing that at the time I would defend my thesis, I would be the teacher. He had already taken a backseat and was letting me drive from the very beginning.”

Julia Sprunt Grumbles, UNC Class of ’75 and co-chair of the Carolina Women’s Leadership Council, said the awards focus attention not only on Carolina’s excellent faculty, but also on the continuing need to support that excellence.

“Faculty support is one of the major priorities of the Carolina First Campaign,” Grumbles said. “An overwhelming number of faculty members have identified the need for more recognition programs to honor the fine work being done by our scholars. To that end, we found a way to honor those faculty members who have shared their wisdom and experience to lead, encourage and support students and colleagues in attaining academic and personal goals.”

First awarded in 2006, the mentoring awards will be an ongoing recognition program, open to tenured and tenure-track faculty, as well as fixed-term faculty who have taught at UNC for at least three years. Nominations may be submitted by anyone from the UNC community, including current and former faculty, staff and students. A selection committee appointed by the provost and on which Grumbles serves reviews and recommends the award recipients.

The leadership council is a nationwide network of women committed to supporting the university and students’ educational experiences. Along with providing financial support, members volunteer their time and share their expertise, champion UNC in their regions and serve on boards that further the university’s mission.

In addition to Grumbles, council co-chairs include Mary Anne Dickson and Barbara Hyde, Carolina graduates in 1963 and 1983 respectively. Hyde also is a member of UNC’s Board of Trustees.

Feb. 23, 2007