Inspiring and Impactful. Two words that came up early and often Tuesday evening at Marcum Conference Center.

Those words were used to describe the actions of the dedicated teachers and distinguished scholars honored during the annual University Awards Ceremony. Family, friends, and colleagues gathered in Marcum as nearly 30 awards were bestowed upon members of the Miami University community.

“We’re just so deeply appreciative of your leadership and what you’ve accomplished,” Miami University President Gregory Crawford told the honorees near the end of Tuesday’s ceremony. “You’re such virtuous people; you really do bring out the excellence in all of us.”

Awards and remarks were delivered by President Crawford, provost Elizabeth Mullenix, and Rick Page, associate vice president for research and innovation. Page honored the recipients for Excellence in Research and Innovation, the second year that award was given.

Mullenix said one of the best parts of her role as provost is getting to know such a broad range of Miami faculty and staff members.

“How much work is done with students is always so extraordinary and really speaks to the heart of what we do and who we are as Miamians,” Mullenix said.

The 2025 honorees include:

Benjamin Harrison Medallion

• Allen McConnell, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology

University Distinguished Professor

• Dominik Konkolewicz, John W. Steube Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Elizabeth Wardle, director, Roger and Joyce Howe Center for Writing Excellence and Professor, Department of English

E. Phillip Knox Distinguished Teaching Award

• Hakam Alomari, associate professor, Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering

Roger and Joyce Howe Award for Excellence in Disciplinary Writing Instruction

• Team Award: Joel Armor, visiting assistant professor, Arts, Arts Management, and Arts Entrepreneurship; Dilge Dilsiz, assistant professor, Communication Design; May Khalife, assistant professor, Architecture and Interior Design
• Team Award: Tyler Friedman, visiting assistant professor, Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship; Sam Reenan, assistant professor, Music Theory; Todd Stuart, associate teaching professor and director, Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship

University Faculty Scholar Award

• Hui Wang, associate professor, Chemical, Paper, and Biomedical Engineering
• Luis Prádanos, professor and chair, Spanish and Portuguese
• Rodney Coates, professor, Global and Intercultural Studies
  

University Junior Faculty Scholar Award

• Allison Farrell, assistant professor, Psychology
• Phillip Arceneaux, assistant professor, Media, Journalism, and Film
• Indivar Jonnalagadda, assistant professor, Global and Intercultural Studies

Excellence in Research and Innovation

• Jordan Fenton, associate professor, Art History (Art)
• Chi-Hao Cheng, professor and department chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering (Transdisciplinary)
• Brian Schultz, professor and Virginia Todd Memorial Scholar of Curriculum Studies, Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry (Pedagogy)
• Allison Farrell, assistant professor, Psychology (Social Sciences)
• Gary Lorigan, University Distinguished Professor and chair, Chemistry and Biochemistry (Natural Sciences)
• Hongmei Li, professor and coordinator of strategic communication, Media, Journalism, and Film (Humanities)
• Sarah Woodruff, director, Discovery Center for Evaluation, Research, and Professional Learning (Education)
• Randi Thomas, vice president, ASPIRE (Economic Development)
• Ande Durojaiye, vice president, strategic transformation (Economic Development)
• Hui Wang, associate professor, Chemical, Paper, and Biomedical Engineering (Engineering)
• Mark Scott, associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering (Commercialization)
• Lei Kerr, professor, Chemical, Paper, and Biomedical Engineering (Commercialization)
• Steve Large, assistant vice president for health and wellness, Student Life (Public Service)

MAC Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success

• Stephanie Danker, associate professor, Art

University Assessment Award

• Department of Languages, Literatures, and Writing

A slideshow highlighting the honorees played prior to the start of the ceremony.

More stories on several of the award winners will be featured on the Miami news site in coming weeks. 

The award winners tend to have some commonalities, President Crawford said, including their work contributing to student success. Many times, Miami undergraduates will leave with an experience that more resembles the time of a graduate student. 

“They publish their first paper. They write their first book in some cases. They’re on their first path when they start their first company. They compose their first song. They direct their first play,” President Crawford said. “They do a lot of different things, and there is always a faculty mentor and someone cheering them on. You work with them individually to make that happen, to make this amazing Miami experience.”