Fall Faculty Assembly 2020
At the onset of an extraordinary year unlike any other in Vanderbilt’s history, the university was proud to host a virtual Fall Faculty Assembly on Thursday, August 27. The milestone event, which can be watched in its entirety here, served to uphold the annual fall assembly tradition and celebrate Vanderbilt’s faculty members while also observing the health and safety protocols in place for this historic semester.
The assembly featured Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, who made his first official address to his faculty colleagues, as well as the 2020-21 Faculty Senate Chair Catherine McTamaney. Together, they recognized faculty achievements while also looking ahead to the many opportunities likely to emerge during this period of unprecedented innovation and adaptation.
During the assembly, many faculty members were honored for their exceptional contributions to teaching, service, research, scholarship and creative expression. In addition to presenting the fall faculty awards for research, Chancellor Diermeier also recognized those colleagues who recently reached the notable benchmark of 25 years of service, as well as recipients of spring 2020 awards, who had not yet been honored due to the asynchronous nature of the virtual Spring Faculty Assembly.
As both Chancellor Diermeier and Catherine McTamaney noted, Vanderbilt’s faculty continues to make tremendous accomplishments. And the 2020-21 academic year has the potential to be the proudest moment yet for our faculty and university at large.
Watch the full 2020 Fall Faculty Assembly
Faculty Awards
Spring 2020 Awards
Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Celia Applegate, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History
Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching
Alissa Hare, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry
The Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award
Christopher Slobogin, Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences
Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award
William Schaffner, Professor of Health Policy
Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor Award
Marybeth Shinn, Professor of Human, Organizational and Community Development and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair
The Joseph A. Johnson Jr. Distinguished Leadership Professor Award
Lucius Outlaw, Professor of Philosophy
Fall 2020 Awards
Chancellor’s Awards for Research
Jessica Clarke, Professor of Law
Nicole Creanza, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Jennifer Fay, Professor of Cinema and Media Arts and Professor of English
Jonathan Metzl, Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry and Professor of Medicine, Health and Society
Cynthia Reinhart-King, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Chancellor’s Awards for Research in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Melinda Aldrich, Assistant Professor of Medicine
Jeffrey Blume, Professor of Biostatistics
Velma McBride Murry, University Professor and Lois Autrey Betts Professor of Education and Human Development and Professor of Health Policy
Thomas Jefferson Award
Geoffrey Fleming, Professor of Pediatrics
Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research
James Crowe, Ann Scott Carell Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
25 Years of Service
The following faculty members were recognized for 25 years of Service to Vanderbilt University. For full information on the 25 years of service award winners, including biographies, please visit the Faculty Affairs website.
Mark Adams, Professor of Urology
Christopher Aiken, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Linda Ashford, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Thomas Aune, Professor of Medicine
Jo-Anne Bachorowski, Associate Professor of Psychology
Timothy Blackwell, Rudy W. Jacobson Professor of Pulmonary Medicine
Jin Chen, Professor of Medicine
James Crowe, Jr., Ann Scott Carell Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Sean Donahue, Sam and Darthea Coleman Professor of Pediatric Ophthalmology
David Gailani, Ernest W. Goodpasture Professor of Experimental Pathology for Translational Research
Harry Gwirtsman, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
John Geer, Ginny and Conner Searcy Dean of the College of Arts and Science Professor of Political Science
Richard Hock, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine
Becky Keck, Assistant Professor of Nursing
Catherine McGowan, Associate Professor of Medicine
Roger Moore, Principal Senior Lecturer in English
Amy Palmeri, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Education
Thomas Palmeri, Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Richard Peek, Jr., Mina Cobb Wallace Professor of Immunology
Richard Printz, Research Assistant Professor of Medicine
John Rafter, Principal Senior Lecturer in Mathematics
Peter Rousseau, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Economics
Seth Scholer, Professor of Pediatrics
Jin H. Shen, Research Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Gieri Simonett, Professor of Mathematics
John Sloop, Professor of Communication Studies
W. Anderson Spickard, III, Professor of Medicine
Lawrence Stack, Professor of Emergency Medicine
Richard Stein, Research Assistant Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Holly Tucker, Mellon Foundation Chair in the Humanities and Professor of French
Yao Xu, Research Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Tao Yang, Research Professor of Medicine
John Zic, Professor of Dermatology
In the time since the virtual Spring Faculty Assembly in April, Vanderbilt’s faculty have continued to make a significant on Vanderbilt and our broader community. In addition to discovering new ways to fight antibiotic-resistant infections, developing new phonetic braille systems for visually impaired classical singers, and applying Artificial Intelligence to address physical distancing in public transportation, the university’s faculty members have been actively engaged in multiple town halls and decisions regarding the Return to Campus Plan while also preparing to teach classes in-person and through virtual formats.