2023 Awards Convocation

St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s Awards Convocation is a yearly event that recognizes and celebrates members of the College community who are highly accomplished and who can be considered paragons in areas that include service, leadership, teaching and academics.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Mary’s College is unable to hold its yearly Awards Convocation in person. We offer through this site our St. Mary’s College congratulations to all the recipients. We hope visitors to this page will share their pride and thank these honorees for jobs well done.

Tuajuanda C. Jordan, PhD

President of St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Dr. Tuajuanda Jordan has served as St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s (SMCM) seventh president since July 2014. During her tenure, the Board of Trustees approved A Time for Rebirth, a new three-year strategic plan that builds on the College’s charter as Maryland’s only public honors college and the first of its kind in the nation.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland has been widely recognized for its successes. Ranked among best value colleges by Princeton Review (2022) and among the top 10 best public liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report (2023), SMCM continues to build upon its solid reputation for academic excellence under Dr. Jordan’s watch. Under her leadership, the College continues to analyze and assess its programming to ensure that students are provided opportunities to be engaged, productive global citizens and leaders.

Since joining the College, President Jordan has been widely recognized for her contributions to higher education and the larger community. In 2023, she was named to the Daily Record’s Maryland Top 100 Women. In 2018, she was named a fellow in science education of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2017, she was named one of the Top 25 Women in Higher Education by the national magazine, Diverse Issues in Higher Education. In addition to serving on numerous national panels and boards, she was recognized as a Black Leader in Education by the AFRO (2017), was named one of Fisk University’s Talented Tenth (2016), Purdue University’s Distinguished Women Scholars (2015-16), and as an Influential Marylander by the Daily Record (2015). She received an Education Excellence Award (2018) from the Southern Maryland Minority Chamber of Commerce, the Torchbearer Award (2014) from the National Coalition of Black Women, Baltimore Metropolitan Chapter and was inducted (2015) into the Zeta Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society.

Prior to SMCM, Dr. Jordan served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and as a professor of chemistry at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. While there, she helped recruit an exceptional and diverse faculty, launched a center for entrepreneurship, and developed a campus-wide system to increase student persistence and graduation rates. While an associate dean and tenured faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana, she helped establish the center for undergraduate research and creativity.

Dr. Jordan gained national prominence in the realm of science education with the creation of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Alliance (SEA) program and the launch of its first initiative, the SEA Phage program, which engaged novice undergraduates in research in genomics and bioinformatics. This program has been implemented at more than 50 diverse institutions across the nation, impacted thousands of students and faculty, and resulted in numerous scientific and pedagogical publications.

Dr. Jordan holds a B.S. in chemistry from Fisk University and a PhD in biochemistry from Purdue University.

Faculty & Staff Awards

Homer L. Dodge Award for Excellence in Teaching

Established in 1985 by the late Norton T. Dodge, faculty emeritus, to recognize excellence in teaching.

Introduced by Susan Goldstine, professor of mathematics
Presented by Nancy R. Dodge

Sandy Ganzell, professor of mathematics

Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Sandy has lived in New Hampshire, Texas, California and The Gambia, but now resides happily in St. Mary's County, even farther south than the College. His mathematics specialties are knot theory and combinational game theory. When he's not doing math, you can often find him climbing at the rock wall, teaching jujutsu, playing ultimate or tuning pianos.

Norton T. Dodge Award for Scholarly and Creative Achievement by a Junior Faculty Member

Established in 2003 by Don Stabile, faculty emeritus, to recognize excellence in scholarly and creative achievement.

Presented by Nancy R. Dodge

Soon Bin Jang, assistant professor of educational studies

Soo Bin has a background is in elementary education and curriculum studies where she has focused on school knowledge and its replication in education policy. She has also written about student-teacher relationships in a classroom using post-structural theories on difference. Her current work is on curriculum-making policies and education for democracy. She earned her B.A. and M.A. in education from Ewha Womans University in Korea and got her PhD in curriculum instruction and teacher education and educational policy from Michigan State University. She teaches courses in elementary education, reading and literacy, and educational policy.

Jordan Teaching Exemplar Award

Established in 2017 to recognize members of the St. Mary's College community who exhibit exemplary teaching within or beyond the traditional classroom of the College.

Presented by Tuajuanda Jordan, president

Gili Freedman, assistant professor of psychology

Gili Freedman’s research focuses on two lines of inquiry within social psychology: the two-sided nature of social rejection and creating interventions to combat biases. Her work on rejection examines how people reject, why they do so, how they are perceived, and what the consequences are for both parties. In her research on biases and interventions, she focuses on creating game and narrative interventions to reduce interpersonal biases and their negative effects, with an emphasis on gender biases in the context of science, technology, engineering and math.

The Andy Kozak Faculty Contribution to Student Life Award

Established in 2011 by Don Stabile to recognize faculty members who are active participants in the student life of the College.

Ellen Kohl, assistant professor of environmental studies

As a researcher and a teacher, Ellen is interested in how multiple, intersecting forms of oppression impact human-environment interactions. She examines how compounding socio-spatial processes, developed and perpetuated by urban and environmental policies, contribute to places of persistent injustice in the United States. Ellen is also interested in the science-policy interface - examining how scientific knowledge is produced, how it is interpreted in different settings, what counts as knowledge, and how these processes impact the development and implementation of environmental policies.

Joe Carroll Memorial Staff Award

Established in 2012 by the Staff Senate through contributions from the College community to recognize nonexempt staff who dedicate themselves through exceptional integrity and service.

Presented by John Spinicchia

Dorothy Reed, caretaker I

Dorothy Reed, caretaker I, is from Mechanicsville, Maryland. Dorothy has worked at St. Mary’s College for 16 years and says she enjoys her work. When she’s not at work, she likes to cook and clean. The students who live in Queen Anne residence hall make her happy. “They’re so nice. They welcome me and say good morning every single day.”

St. Mary's Award

Established in 2017 by President Jordan and presented to an individual or group whose actions and deeds epitomize the St. Mary's Way.

Presented by Tuajuanda Jordan, president

Lawrence Leak '76, St. Mary's College of Maryland Trustee

Lawrence Leak ’76 started his professional career as a social studies teacher at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County. He went on to earn a master’s degree and PhD in educational administration and supervision, serving at University of Maryland College Park, Morgan State University and Towson University. He became the vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Maryland, University College in 2003 and served as acting provost and chief academic officer (2005-2006) and interim provost and chief academic officer until his retirement in 2007. He has served on the St. Mary’s College Board of Trustees since 2005.