The Office of Faculty Development (OFD) is pleased to announce the winners of this year's UMass Amherst Delphi Leadership Award, Laura Francis, Christine Hatch, and Michelle Trim, who are recognized for their innovative contributions and exceptional leadership in support of their non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty peers at UMass Amherst.
The selection committee for the 2025-26 award included Angela de Oliveira, associate provost for faculty development, Christiane Healey, senior lecturer II of biology, and Marc Liberatore, senior teaching faculty in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences.
Laura Francis is recognized for her leadership with shared governance, the BioLearn and ADVANCE mutual mentoring groups, and the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) Lecturer Promotion Review Committee. She chairs the Course Subcommittee of the Academic Matters Council in the Faculty Senate and is a member of the Massachusetts Society of Professors Executive Board. In the Department of Biology, she advocated for increasing the representation of NTT faculty on the departmental personnel committee and co-founded the BioLearn mutual mentoring group. She further serves as chair for the Undergraduate Experience Committee. In CNS, she served as chair for the Workplace Climate Committee. In the CNS Lecturer Promotion Review committee, where she served as both a member and chair, she worked across the college and units to help develop clear guidance and align expectations for promotion reviews.
Christine Hatch is recognized for her leadership with the Extension Faculty Bargaining Committee for the Massachusetts Society of Professors, ADVANCE, and mentoring of Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (CAFE) NTT faculty. The Extension Faculty Bargaining Committee’s work clarified evaluation and promotion procedures and resulted in access to the Professional Development Fellowships, Public Engagement Program Fellows, ADVANCE Faculty Fellows, and eligibility for emeritus status. With ADVANCE, she worked to help create guidance on Equity for Continuing Stream Faculty.
Michelle Trim is recognized for her leadership in shared governance and advocacy within the College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS). In the Faculty Senate, she has served as chair of the University Writing Committee, chair of the Faculty Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Revising the Diversity General Education Requirement, co-chair of the Joint Task Force on Generative AI, the first NTT faculty member to chair the Rules Committee. She further served the campus as a Chancellor’s Leadership Fellow. Within CICS, she successfully designed and proposed the hire of three new lecturer positions to support writing in computer science and co-lead the design of a new system for measuring teaching loads. She is the first NTT faculty member to serve as a Faculty Delegate to the Board of Trustees.
Angela de Oliveira shares, “We are proud to recognize the tremendous leadership and dedication of each of these three faculty members to improve our campus for their colleagues. Each of these recipients has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to inclusivity, equity, and support for NTT faculty; and I, along with my other selection committee members, are thrilled to honor their work through this award.”
Each of the award winners will receive an honorary plaque and a $1,500 award. Learn more about the UMass Amherst Delphi Leadership Award on OFD’s website.