Exemplary Faculty Mentoring Award
The Exemplary Faculty Mentoring Award recognizes faculty mentors who go above and beyond the normal expectations of mentoring by acknowledging the positive impact faculty mentors make in the lives and careers of other faculty. The goal in creating this annual award is to ensure that the critical work of faculty mentoring is rewarded by the faculty mentoring program and recognized by the university. The award will be a personalized commemorative plaque and a $500 honorarium.
Please complete the nomination form to recognize someone for the Exemplary Faculty Mentoring Award.
2025 Award Winner
Mark Schuller
Professor, Department of Anthropology
Eligibility
Full-time 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 a junior /or mid-career faculty over a continuous period of at least four semesters and have demonstrated success in the areas they mentor (e.g., research, teaching). Administrators (e.g., department chairs and program directors) are not eligible to be nominated.
- A faculty mentor may be nominated by previous or current mentees.
- Self-nominations are not allowed.
- A faculty mentor may nominate another faculty mentor even though they were not formally mentored by that faculty member but learned how to be an effective mentor from the faculty mentor.
- Faculty mentor nominees may be made aware by the nominator that they are being nominated for this award.
Review Criteria
The members of the Faculty Mentoring Advisory Committee will review the nomination applications and select the recipient of this award based on the strength of the narrative in describing the mentoring competency and quality of the mentoring relationship and the impact the mentor has/had on the mentor's success as a faculty member.
Information the nominator might consider in the narrative might include:
- The demonstrated strengths of the faculty mentor.
- How the faculty mentor serves as an effective role model and resource for guidance towards successful research, teaching, and service at the institution.
- How the faculty mentor assists in expanding the mentee's professional network and creates avenues of recognition for the mentee and their body of scholarship.
- How the faculty mentor has worked to clarify a balance of the mentee's roles as a member of the faculty, department, college, university and the mentee's disciplinary area.
- How the faculty mentor supports and encourages maintaining a healthy balance of work and home life.
- Details about a specific instance or exemplary practice of the faculty mentor that impacted the mentee.
Timetable/Deadlines
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| December 1, 2025 | Deadline for submission of nominations |
| Week of February 16, 2026 | Notification to the recipient |
| April 2026 | Award will be presented at the annual faculty awards ceremony |
Past Recipients
| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Holly Jones, Biological Sciences |
| 2023 | Melissa Lenczewski, Geomicrobiology, Organic Geochemistry, Contaminant Hydrogeology |
Contact Us
Division of Academic Affairs
Altgeld Hall 215
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-8387
provost@niu.edu