The Dean of the Academic Board, Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves, recognized instructors and professors for their excellence in several different categories, two-year master teaching program graduates and the 2023 Apgar Award recipients during a Dean’s Awards ceremony May 15 at the Haig Room.
Below are the awardees:
Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence:
Maj. Hannah Smith, assistant professor, is an exemplar in the classroom and has made prolific contributions to the Department of Social Sciences in the classroom, in curriculum and course development, as well as revamping and modernizing the famous “SOSH paper”. Additionally, she developed a timely and superb elective on great power competition, with a focus on the U.S.-China-Russia relations. Hannah’s approach to this course is indicative of her more general approach to teaching. She demands a level of expertise and excellence from herself that few faculty can match. Smith has established herself as an invaluable asset and is one of the finest and most academically diverse educators at West Point.
Dean’s Mid-Career Award of Teaching Excellence:
Col. Ben Wallen, associate professor, is in his 10th year as an educator at West Point. Wallen has a proven and distinguished record of fostering cadet engagement, inspiring lifelong learning, contributing vast amounts to curricular development, and actively developing fellow faculty members at, above, and below his level. Wallen is an invaluable asset to the department of Geography and Environmental Engineering exemplifying the role as a soldier-scholar serving as a model for both military and civilian faculty at West Point and beyond.
Dean’s Award for Career Teaching Excellence:
Dr. Morten Ender, professor, is in his 31st year serving as educator, 25 of which have been at West Point. Professor Ender has a proven and distinguished record of fostering cadet engagement, inspiring lifelong learning, contributing vast amounts to curricular and interdisciplinary curricular development, and actively developing fellow faculty members. In his two and a half decades at West Point Professor Ender has written, produced, and provided vast amounts of pedagogy literature, presentations, and workshop; serving as the “go-to for all things teaching”. Professor Ender serves as a model of excellence to cadets and faculty alike.
Dr. Kenneth McDonald, professor, is in his 22nd year serving as an educator at West Point. After a distinguished military career, Professor McDonald chose to continue teaching, researching, and serving West Point because he loves working with and developing cadets. In his 22 years, McDonald has served as an educator across three departments: Geography and Environmental Engineering, Civil and Mechanical Engineering, and finally Systems Engineering educating and inspiring nearly 2,000 cadets. McDonald is among the most exceptional of educators at West Point; serving as a model of excellence for all those for which he interacts.
Dean’s Award for Scholarship Excellence:
Dr. F. Todd Davidson has served as a faculty member since 2020 and recently as the Associate Director of the Center for Innovation & Engineering. Dr. Davidson has an incredibly impressive resume of publications and presentations, many of which include junior faculty and cadets. Davidson has also spearheaded the Academy’s collaboration with the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Innovation, Energy and Environment (ASA IEE), which has yielded numerous cadet projects and over $1.2million in funding to date.
Dean’s Award for Mid-Career Distinguished Scholarship Excellence:
Col. Joseph Lindquist has served as a senior faculty member since 2014 and has held many academic and research-related leadership roles in D/Math. Lindquist has a diverse and impressive portfolio of scholarly accomplishments in the field of Operations Research. He has published a phenomenal number of publications, conference proceedings, and book chapters – almost all of which support the US Army or DOD initiatives. His integration of cadets and other faculty into his research is unparalleled.
Dean’s Award for Career Distinguished Scholarship Excellence:
Dr. Michael Matthews’ research has incredible depth and breadth. To date, he has authored or served as editor for over 40 books or book chapters and has authored over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles. In total he has over 12,300 citations and is the world’s second most cited psychology scholar. His scholarship pursuits have centered on topics such as resilience, character, and human performance, which have made significant impacts on his discipline, the U.S. Army and DOD.
Dean’s Award for Service and Cadet Development Excellence:
Maj. Kathryn Hedgecock was the committee's unanimous choice for this year's Dean's Award for Service & Cadet Development Excellence for her exemplary professional outreach and tireless cadet development. Her work in bridging the gap between the social sciences and national defense communities is exemplary and places the scope and scale of her achievements well beyond typical junior faculty. She has also impacted countless cadets, especially through her tireless work with the West Point Graduate Scholarship Program and the STAMPS scholarship program.
Dean’s Award for Career Service and Faculty Development Excellence:
Dr. Led Klosky is the committee's unanimous choice for this year's Dean's Award for Career & Faculty Development Excellence. He has an impressive service record that spans 40 years: highlights include service the Nation as a subject matter expert to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; service to the profession through his work with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ACSE); service to the Academy as the leading force behind the Cyber and Engineering Academic Center and a key leader of the Academic Building Upgrade Plan; service to his department as a co-founder of the Center for Innovation and Engineering (CIE) acting deputy department head of D/CME (the first civilian faculty to do so); and finally, service to his community as a member of the planning board for the Town of Cornwall. Led has also been a valuable mentor for faculty in his department and at West Point writ large, serving as a mentor in the USMA Master Teaching Program and as a Group Directory and Deputy Head of the Mechanics program.
Dean’s Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Excellence (junior award)
In her relatively short time at West Point, Dr. Isabella Sanders has made wide-ranging contributions to diversity and inclusion efforts across several scholarly societies. Within the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Society (INFORMS) she has served as a proposal reviewer for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Ambassador Program since its inception in 2020 and a council member of the Military and Security Society within INFORMS to build membership amongst underrepresented populations. She is also a member of Women in Operations Research and Management Science (WORMS). Within the Institute for Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE) and the Society for Women Engineers (SWE), her efforts have increased student leadership positions available and helped reduce the learning curve in creating a university chapter. She has also served as faculty Cohort Lead for the Yearling and Plebe Divisions of the EXCEL Scholars Program.
Dean’s Award for Career Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Excellence
With more sixteen years on the West Point faculty, Professor Erika Rovira’s impact in diversity, equity, and inclusion has been enormous. The greatest of her many contributions has been serving as the co-founder of the EXCEL Scholars program, whose goal has been to support the representation of African American and Hispanic cadets among the cohort of Cadet scholarship recipients so that it more closely matches U.S. demographics. The program has grown from 50 students at its inception in 2011 to over 200 now. It has produced 65 winners of graduate school fellowships – including five African American Rhodes Scholars. She served as OIC and Assistant OIC for the National Society of Black Engineers for four years, during which tenure she organized a regional society conference. Her research has spearheaded innovative approaches to Design Equity for Women, as well as Gender and Racial Equity Design.
Dean’s Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Excellence (junior honorable mention)
In her short direct-fill rotation, Maj. Maia Molina-Schaefer has been able to achieve outsized effects. As OIC of the Corbin Forum, she organized and executed more than 30 events that directly support Corbin’s four main lines of effort: empowering women through mentorship; promoting leadership opportunities for women; reducing the cultural challenges that women face; and providing a safe place for women’s fellowship. She has instituted a “physical” overhaul of the Forum’s mission by incorporating weekly Olympic lifting training to female Cadets, as well as IOCT/ACFT prep sessions and Combatives training. This dovetails perfectly with her role as OR and mentor to 150 Cadets on the Army Boxing team and Women’s Army Rugby (WAR).
Below are the two-year Master Teaching Program Graduates
Army Cyber Institute
Lt. Col. Jason C. Brown
Behavioral Sciences and Leadership
Lt. Col. Shari S. Bowen
Maj. Zachary Guyton
Character Integration and Advisory Group
Maj. Patrick Bowers
Maj. Bryan Lagasse
Lt. Col. Bob McMahon
Chemistry and Life Sciences
Lt. Col. Brooks I. Bentley
Maj. Brett Rocha
Department of Foreign languages
Maj. David G, Frye
Dr. Jennifer Irish-Mendez
Maj. Sergio Salazar Rodriguez
Department of Military Instruction
Maj. Joaquin Nunez Regodon
Department of Systems Engineering
Mrs. Hyeyon Bastian
Maj. Kyle Ditonto
Mr. Daniel Finch
Maj. James MacGibbon
Dr. Isabella T. Sanders
Maj. M. Yoo
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Maj. Jay Fisher
Maj. Timothy Graziano
Cpt. Ethan J. Shafer
Maj. Sarah J. Smith
Geography of Environmental Engineering
Maj. Aaron Korman
History
Cpt. Kara Irvin
Maj. Darren Johnson
Maj. Benjamin Lyman
Maj. Michael Matheny
Maj. Jessica Rudo
Maj. Kristofer W. Seibt
Mathematical Sciences
Maj. Thomas Mussmann
Maj. Si Park
Dr. Margaret A, Reynolds
Maj. Michael Rocha
Maj. Alexander T. Withenbury
Maj. Devon Zillmer
Office of the Dean
Maj. Adam Barshun
Dr. Lynnan Mocek
Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic
Cpt. Brian C. Gerardi
Maj. Ian Kent
Social Sciences
Maj. Justin Erwin
Dr. Charlotte J. Hulme
Cpt. Theodore MacDonald
Maj. Sean McKnight