The University and Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts bestows annual awards recognizing faculty member's teaching and advising, research, scholarship, and creative work in addition to recognizing outstanding service by our faculty and staff.
President’s Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award:
2025 Awardee: Vandana Thadani, Professor of Psychological Science
The LMU Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The LMU Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was created by the Provost's Office in 2020 in partnership with the Intercultural Faculty Committee and in response to community demand regarding the need to foster an anti-racist/anti-bias institution. One award will be given each academic year to a tenured or tenure-track faculty member. The purpose of the award is for the community to recognize the trajectory of a member of LMU's faculty's outstanding intersectional work in diversity, equity, and inclusion that enhances the university’s mission.
2025 Awardee: Juan Mah y Busch, Professor of English and Chicana/o, Latina/o Studies
The LMU Ascending Scholar Award
2025 Awardees:
Sarah Emanuel, Assistant Professor of Theological Studies
Nathan Chan, Assistant Professor of Political Science & International Relations
Part-Time Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award
2025 Awardee: Jessica Martinez-Tebbel, Senior Lecturer of Women’s and Gender Studies
Term Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award
2025 Awardee: Michael Noltemeyer, Rhetorical Arts/CORE
Daum Professorship Award
Created from a legacy received from Harry M. Daum, Class of 1938, the Daum Professorship is given annually to a tenured professor in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts with full rank who has exhibited a record of excellence in teaching and advising, scholarship or creative work, and service and leadership in their department, college, and university. Nominees must demonstrate consistent excellence in all areas of faculty responsibility commensurate with rank.
2025-2026 Awardee: Amy Woodson-Boulton, Professor of History
Daum Mid-Career Faculty Research Award
Created from a legacy received from Harry M. Daum, Class of 1938, the Daum Mid-Career Faculty Research Award was inaugurated in 2017 to be given annually to a tenured associate professor in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts who has exhibited a record of excellence in teaching and advising, scholarship and/or creative work, and service to the department, college and university. Nominees should demonstrate consistent excellence in all areas of faculty responsibility commensurate with rank.
2025-2026 Awardee: Margarita Ochoa, Associate Professor of History
John R. Popiden Distinguished Service Award
The Popiden Distinguished Faculty Service Award was created in memory of Associate Dean and Professor of Theological Studies John Popiden. This award honors a tenured BCLA faculty member who has given outstanding service to the college, university, profession, and the community. Many of our faculty are lauded for their academic scholarship, but too rarely are they recognized for their service efforts which yield numerous positive effects and a stronger campus and community.
2025 Awardee: Jason Baehr, Professor of Philosophy
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Teaching Award
BCLA honors the work of its faculty in the classroom and in related co-curriculum learning. As a liberal arts college, we elevate teaching that engages the intersections of disciplinary & interdisciplinary learning, values high impact practices, engaged learning and recognizes the power of diversity, equity and inclusion in our classrooms.
2025 Awardee: Vanessa Díaz, Associate Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Excellence in DEIA Award
BCLA values teaching, research, and service that emphasizes the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism to a liberal arts education. The College understands DEIA as a form of restorative justice—a redressing of historic and contemporary forms of racialized institutional inequality and exclusion. Growing out of BCLA faculty efforts to integrate DEIA into the work that supports LMU’s Mission, and in response to the need to transform LMU into an anti-racist institution, the award has three objectives: 1) to make visible the DEIA work that members of the BCLA community do, 2) to acknowledge and reward the value of DEIA work, and 3) to call every member of our community into responsibility for this work.
2025 Awardee: Juan Mah y Busch, Professor of English and Chair of Chicana/o & Latina/o Studies
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award
The Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, presented by the Student Engagement and Success Committee, recognizes faculty members who have positively impacted students through academic advising.
2025 Awardees:
Constance Chen, Professor & Associate Chair of History
Elizabeth Drummond, Associate Professor of History
Jodi Finkel, Professor of Political Science & International Relations
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Staff Award
This award has been given annually to recognize a staff member with a well-deserved reputation for sustained excellence and initiative in providing administrative or technical support and service. The recipient consistently approaches responsibilities in ways that demonstrate professionalism, timely follow-through and a dedication to the welfare of faculty, students and staff.
2025 Awardees:
Marlene Duran, Jewish Studies