Academics

ADVANCE Awards for Equitable Practices in Collaboration and Shared Decision-making

UMass ADVANCE is pleased to announce the inaugural faculty teams to win the ADVANCE Equitable Practices in Collaboration and Shared Decision-Making (EPiC-SD) Award. Research shows that when all voices are heard, including the voices of women and BIPOC faculty, decision-making is better and has more effective outcomes. The award recognizes effective and equitable shared decision-making practices in faculty-led groups of three or more. Winning teams each receive $500.

Inaugural Winners of the EPiC-SD Award are:

CNS Lecturer's Council provides a forum for Lecturers in CNS to share ideas and support one another. During the academic year, the Council meets periodically to discuss

concerns and strategize about solutions and best practices as they relate to lecturers' success and professional development. Topics addressed include promotion, issues of equity within departments, understanding personnel actions, ways to increase involvement in campus governance, service expectations and job responsibilities. The Council is committed to sharing information and exchanging ideas with all faculty and specifically with the larger workforce of CNS lecturers.

Catherine Benincasa, Mathematics and Statistics
Erika Hamilton, Microbiology
Amy Springer, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Cassandra Uricchio, Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Katie Beltaire, Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Kari Loomis, Biology
Lena Fletcher, Environmental Conservation
Lori Astheimer Best, Psychological and Brain Sciences
Shubha Tewari, Physics
Sraven Surampudi, Chemistry
Weiguo Hu, Polymer Science and Engineering
Peiyi Shen, Food Science

Holyoke Public Schools Ethnic Studies Program Research-Practice Partnership is a multiracial and mutilingual research team conducting a community engaged ethnography on implementing Ethnic Studies in K-12 settings. They provide faculty and teacher-led professional development and have supported the development of a Community Advisory Board with teachers, activists, parents, students and faculty. Their research findings contribute to improving policy and practice related to Ethnic Studies program implementation in secondary schools and provide insight about how educators, students, families and community allies can organize for justice-oriented educational change locally and beyond.

Dana Altshuler, Holyoke High School
Keisha L. Green, Teacher Education and School Improvement
Kysa Nygreen, Teacher Education and School Improvement
Laura Valdiviezo, Teacher Education and School Improvement

Library Research Services Department consists of nine MSP librarians and a department head. They are familiar faces around campus at student presentations, colleagues’ lectures, and public events. Bringing highly interdisciplinary perspectives, they are sought after and actively involved with myriad campus committees, task forces, and projects. They are passionate scholars, activists, artists, innovators, published writers, leaders, and teachers on campus and in their professional communities. Their work is centered on intentional listening and team work, allowing them to support the campus (and greater) community’s information needs in a fast-paced, changeable and dynamic environment.

Madeleine Charney, Library
Lisa DiValentino, Library
Isabel Espinal, Library
Cai Fischetto, Library
Kate Freedman, Library
Jennifer Friedman, Library
Dave Mac Court, Library
Steve McGinty, Library
Alison Messier, Library
Maria Rios, Library

MSP Bargaining Team is responsible for negotiating the collective bargaining agreement representing 1,720 faculty members and librarians at UMass Amherst. They meet with MSP members to set priorities, evaluate data, research issues, and with the help of their subcommittees, write new proposals to reflect the needs of faculty and librarians. They then meet regularly with the administration to negotiate a set of policies for the new contract and consult regularly with them. Over the past five years, their priorities have included recognizing pandemic impacts on faculty careers, racial and gender equity, fair processes, fair compensation for non-tenure-track faculty, and bargaining for the common good around climate justice and childcare. The MSP Bargaining Team is proud of their advocacy work and collaborative relationship with the UMass administration. Their work was recently featured on a panel at the National Center for Collective Bargaining in Higher Education, where Michael Eagen and Eve Weinbaum gave a joint presentation about working together through the pandemic and beyond.

Jacquie Kurland, Communication Disorders
Marc Liberatore, Computer Science
Asha Nadkarni, English
Eve Weinbaum, Sociology
K Zdepski, Library Administrative Services