CLAS Dean’s Scholar Award

The Dean's Scholar Award recognizes faculty candidates for promotion who excel in both teaching and scholarship or creative work. The two-year award carries a one-time financial award. The following faculty were selected among those promoted to associate professor with tenure:  

Melinda Jean Myers – Department of Dance

Melinda Myers is a choreographer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist whose creative research centers on the intersection of movement, storytelling, and lived experience. Myers has developed a body of evening-length works—including the bough breaks, Unfinished Business (with Kurt Chiang), and Right Here—that foreground the integration of set choreography, improvisation, and text. Her practice engages with dance as both a rigorous physical language and a vehicle for social and emotional inquiry. 

Ece Demir-Lira – Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Ece Demir-Lira is an assistant professor whose research explores how children’s brains develop and learn, with a focus on family environments, socioeconomic factors, and brain plasticity. Her work in developmental cognitive neuroscience examines parent-child interactions and differences across typical and atypical development, including prematurity and brain injury.

CLAS Collegiate Scholar Award

The Collegiate Scholar Award was inaugurated in 2008 to recognize mid-career faculty for exceptional achievement. The award carries a financial award to support the recipient's teaching and research initiatives. The following faculty were selected among those promoted to full professor:     

Elizabeth Walker – Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Elizabeth Walker is a professor of audiology whose research examines how access to sound shapes language, cognition, and learning in children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Her work uses clinical and cognitive measures to inform evidence-based care and improve outcomes for children with hearing loss.

May Guo – School of Social Work

May Guo is a professor of social work whose research explores how immigration shapes aging, with a focus on mental and cognitive health among older immigrant populations. Her work examines family dynamics, social support, and neighborhood context to better understand well-being across diverse aging communities.

CLAS Distinguished Associate Professor of Instruction Award

The Distinguished Associate Professor of Instruction Award recognizes candidates who excel in teaching and institutional service at the time of advancement. The two-year award carries a one-time financial award. 

Benjamin Swanson – School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability

Ben Swanson is a professor who focuses on river and stream systems, including sediment movement, water flow, and ecological processes. He teaches introductory courses and leads undergraduate research at the Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory, where students study the relationships among plants, soils, and water in real-world environments.

CLAS Distinguished Professor of Instruction Award

The Distinguished Professor of Instruction recognizes candidates who excel in teaching and institutional service at time of advancement. The two-year award carries a one-time financial award.  

Megan Gogerty – Department of Theatre Arts

Megan Gogerty is an associate professor of instruction in theatre arts, director of undergraduate studies, a playwright, comedian, and comedy studies scholar whose work has been produced nationally and internationally. Named Best Comedian of the CRANDIC by Little Village, her solo show Lady Macbeth and Her Pal, Megan have been widely celebrated. She brings professional experience in writing and performance into the classroom while mentoring students in playwriting and comedy.

Julie Gros-Louis – Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Julie Gros-Louis is an associate professor of instruction in psychological and brain sciences who focuses on how early social interactions shape the development of communication in infants. She has demonstrated a sustained commitment to undergraduate education and curricular innovation. She regularly teaches some of the department’s largest and most foundational courses, mentoring a large team of graduate Teaching Assistants.