Exemplary Faculty Mentoring Award
The Exemplary Faculty Mentoring Award recognizes faculty mentors who go above and beyond the normal expectations of mentoring in helping other faculty members acquire professional skills, networks and capacities for personal, institutional and career success. The goal in creating this annual award is to ensure that the important work of faculty mentoring is rewarded and recognized by the university. The award includes a personalized commemorative plaque and $500 supplemental salary.
Eligibility
Full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty members at the rank of full or associate are eligible to be nominated. Nominees should have served as a faculty mentor, in a formal or informal capacity, to tenured or tenure-track faculty member(s) at the assistant or associate professor rank.
- A faculty mentor may be nominated by previous or current faculty mentees.
- Both nominators and nominees must be current NIU tenured or tenure-track faculty.
- Self-nominations are not allowed.
Review Criteria
Members of the Faculty Mentoring Advisory Committee will review submissions and select the recipient based on the following criteria.
The extent to which the faculty mentor:
- Supported the attainment of department, college, university and professional milestones across mentees’ portfolio of research teaching and service.
- Assisted mentees in securing sponsors for their work and otherwise expanding the mentees’ professional network, ensuring its visibility and recognition.
- Assisted the mentees’ achievement of integration and harmony across their life and work roles, including across their work-based department, college, university and disciplinary areas.
Across criteria, nominators should be sure to include specific examples of the nominees’ exemplary mentoring.
Submission Process
To facilitate a single submission per nominee, a two-step process is used.
- Nominators first submit their intent to nominate a mentor.
- If more than one nominator expresses an intent to nominate the same mentor, they will be put in touch with each other to coordinate the second step of a single submission via Step 2: Full Submission form, including by writing a single joint letter together and identifying one person to submit the letter on their behalf.
Nominators may reach out to additional faculty mentees to offer additional examples of the mentor’s contributions to faculty mentorship at NIU. Nominators may let mentors know they are nominating them for this award. Nominators will be notified of the outcome and may resubmit a nomination the following year.
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| October 15, 2026 | Deadline for submission of intent to nominate |
| December 1, 2026 | Deadline for submission of full nominations |
| February/March 2027 | Notification to the recipient |
| April 2027 | Award presented at the annual faculty awards ceremony |
Past Recipients
| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| 2026 | E. Taylor Atkins, History |
| 2025 | Mark Schuller, Anthropology |
| 2024 | Holly Jones, Biological Sciences |
| 2023 | Melissa Lenczewski, Earth, Atmosphere and the Environment |
2025 Award Winner
Mark Schuller
Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Us
Division of Academic Affairs
Altgeld Hall 215
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-8387
provost@niu.edu