Brian Baldi
Senior Lecturer and Interim Director
Center for Teaching & Learning
A new ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award category, recognizing faculty in cross-campus academic units, goes to Professor Brian Baldi, Senior Lecturer and Interim Director in the Center for Teaching & Learning. Professor Baldi is recognized for exceptional, sustained contributions to faculty mentoring far beyond role expectations, developing institutional practices that strengthen faculty development, support, and belonging. Colleagues commend his thoughtful, caring guidance. He mentors new CTL staff with clarity and rigor, helping them navigate university systems, represent their work, and engage strategically across campus. His dedication to inclusive onboarding and his grounding in universal design, accessibility, well-being, equity, and contemplative pedagogy shapes his mentoring at every level. As one colleague observed, “He has created spaces for faculty to grow as teachers and engage in mutual mentoring, and the impact of his work deeply influences many of us.”
Carey Dimmitt
Professor, Department of Student Development
Director, Fredrickson Center for School Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation
College of Education
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the College of Education goes to Dr. Carey Dimmitt, Professor in the Department of Student Development, and Director of the Fredrickson Center for School Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation. Nominators praised Dr. Dimmitt’s proactive mentoring, particularly for Women of Color, and her lasting gift of collaborative, relational, and justice-oriented mentorship. They value her long-term support of colleagues within and beyond the program, and across career stages. Professor Dimmitt “consistently centers inclusion and equity in her mentoring, accounting for social and structural inequities” and the “hidden curriculum of academia” that impact the faculty she mentors. From providing practical guidance on career, self-care, and well-being; to advocating against hostile interactions; to personally protecting junior colleagues from service overload, she “not only impacts individual faculty members but also promotes an inclusive and equitable culture within the department and college.”
Richard Chu
Professor
Department of History
College of Humanities & Fine Arts
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts goes to Professor Richard Chu of the History Department. An advocate for international faculty for over two decades, Professor Chu has served as Co-Chair of the International Faculty and Staff Network since 2019. He is passionate and persistent in building community among this diverse faculty—fostering mutual mentoring, hosting in his home, and creating events that forge connection and belonging. As his nominator observed, "I really can't overstate the warmth and ease that fills the room with Richard Chu hosting—where a hodgepodge of faculty from different parts of campus, at different junctures in their careers, with identifications from around the globe, can let loose, have some fun, ask questions freely, and feel they are not alone.” Especially in challenging times, Professor Chu's efforts are vital to our international faculty community and to our campus culture of inclusion.
Michelle DaCosta
Professor of Plant Physiology
Stockbridge School of Agriculture
College of Natural Sciences
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the College of Natural Sciences goes to Dr. Michelle DaCosta, Professor of Plant Physiology in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture. Dr. DaCosta is recognized for her exceptional commitment to mentoring women faculty, as noted by one of her nominators who wrote, “As a woman faculty in Agriculture, a man-dominated field, Michelle has been a model of success I could relate to.” Another nominator and long-term member of the college emphasized this commitment, noting “I can’t underscore enough her selfless commitment to promote women faculty members of her home department.” Prof. DaCosta is described as a practical, honest, and caring mentor, as well as a strong advocate for equity in promotion decisions.
Sancha Medwinter
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences goes to Dr. Sancha Medwinter, Associate Professor of Sociology. Professor Medwinter’s approach to individual mentorship is described as humble, gentle, honest, and inextricably linked to her steadfast work to build community amongst colleagues and within the classroom. Specifically, Professor Medwinter’s mentorship is credited with demystifying success for colleagues from underrepresented groups. Prof. Medwinter’s candor about both her mistakes and her successes reveals the structural nature of the challenges of academic life and has inspired her colleagues to persist through their own challenges. Professor Medwinter’s expertise in decolonial pedagogy, shared widely in campus workshops, has informed course design and departmental DEI practices towards building equitable and caring communities.
Celeste Surreira
DNP, FNP-BC, FNP-C, CNL, CEN
Director of Undergraduate Programs
Clinical Associate Professor
Elaine Marieb College of Nursing
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing goes to Dr. Celeste Surreira, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Programs in Nursing. Her nominators praised her “sustained, meaningful impact on faculty development, inclusion, and institutional culture” within the college and university. Dr. Surreira advocates powerfully for new faculty, and provides them with flexible, individualized guidance that “demystifies the transition into academia.” She fights the hidden curricula by clarifying expectations, sharing institutional knowledge, and ensuring that early‑career and historically marginalized faculty have equitable access to information and opportunities. Her hands‑on, practice‑based mentoring includes collaborating to develop and share inclusive pedagogical approaches for clinical instruction. Honored with the College’s inaugural Dr. Ann Sheridan Faculty Mentorship Award and currently serving as an ADVANCE Faculty Fellow, Prof. Surreira advances inclusive and equitable practices for all EMCON faculty.
Carey Baldwin
Senior Lecturer
Department of Operations & Information Management
Isenberg School of Management
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the Isenberg School of Management goes to Professor Carey Baldwin, Senior Lecturer in the Operations & Information Management Department. Widely valued for her expertise in inclusive and innovative teaching practices, Professor Baldwin’s colleagues celebrate her generous and non-judgmental support of new faculty and instructors. For those learning to navigate departmental expectations, teaching responsibilities, and institutional resources, she provides game-changing support: connecting them to outside experts and learning opportunities; inviting them to audit her highly-rated courses; and sharing syllabi, project cases, exams, recorded lectures, and instructional notes, while supporting them in adapting these examples to their own developing teaching styles. Especially for faculty early in their careers or from non-traditional backgrounds, she eases the steep learning curve they face, with curiosity and empathy for them as full human beings.
Francine Berman
Stuart Rice Honorary Chair and Research Professor
Director, Public Interest Technology Initiative
Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences goes to Professor Francine Berman, Stuart Rice Research Professor and Director of the Public Interest Technology Initiative. Professor Berman’s mentees in the CICS faculty mentoring program express deep appreciation for her remarkable ability to recognize each peer's unique needs, and to meet them where they are, helping them see their own value and potential while building confidence in their work and careers. Colleagues across career stages note her accessibility, generosity with her time, and willingness to share insight and encouragement. Her mentorship extends beyond CICS through her work building community around the Public Interest Technology program. In this interdisciplinary effort, she succeeds through excellence in collaboration and relationship-building. Professor Berman exemplifies the very best of peer mentorship that this award is meant to honor, fostering connection and trust in her academic home of CICS as well as across campus.
Jonathan Rothstein
Distinguished Professor and Interim Department Head
Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Riccio College of Engineering
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the Riccio College of Engineering goes to Distinguished Professor Jonathan Rothstein, Interim Head of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. As one nominator wrote, “Professor Rothstein exemplifies faculty mentoring in all its forms.” A very accomplished faculty member himself, Professor Rothstein is generous with his time in mentoring faculty colleagues, coaching them in all aspects of teaching, mentoring research personnel, obtaining funding, providing service and leadership, and successfully navigating collaborative research opportunities on and off campus. He is described as helping faculty to succeed not only in their professional lives, but also more widely in ways that support their work-life balance.
Richard Freyman
Professor
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
School of Public Health & Health Sciences
The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award for the School of Public Health & Health Sciences goes to Dr. Richard Freyman, Professor of Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences. From across career stages, six colleagues wrote of Professor Freyman’s “transformative effect on faculty advancement, helping to reduce structural inequities—particularly for women— by ensuring access to high-quality guidance, advocacy, and opportunity.” For more than 30 years, he has practiced many forms of mentorship, from help with starting research programs, to guidance on authoring manuscripts, to peer mentoring in grant-writing. His colleagues spoke to the “sustained, voluntary, and transformative nature of Dr. Freyman’s peer mentoring contributions,” and described him as consistently the first to offer support. They went on to say, “None of us started in this department thinking that we would one day lead it. But we all started in this department with Dr. Freyman thinking we would one day lead it. And to that end, he cultivated us as his successors: we go to work every day not only hoping to do good science, but hoping to support our students and our more junior colleagues in their career goals.”
Past Winners
Nominations for the 2026-2027 Faculty Peer Mentoring Awards will open in the fall. Learn more about this opportunity to honor faculty colleagues with this important recognition of their service.