Nominations are now open for the 2025 President’s Awards for Leadership in International Education. This year, alongside the Distinguished Service Award, we’re excited to introduce a new award category for Rising Professionals. The deadline for nominations is February 14, 2025.
About the Award
The Office of the President welcomes nominations for the President’s Awards for Leadership in International Education. We are accepting nominations for two categories this year: the award for Distinguished Service and, new in this Year of Global Engagement, the award for Rising Professionals. These awards honor the exceptional contributions of faculty and staff who advance international education for our students. Up to three recipients will be selected this year.
The University of Michigan offers an unparalleled breadth of global learning opportunities for our students. Each year, thousands of U-M students gain international experience through study abroad programs, intensive language immersion, internships, interdisciplinary design projects, and service learning. Equally important are the international students and scholars who bring cultural and intellectual diversity to our campuses. They enrich the U-M community and its scholarship, and expand the global network of leadership and service.
Global learning for our students would not be possible without the leadership, expertise, and dedication of our faculty and staff members. The many faculty and staff leading our international education efforts create and manage complex programs that cross national borders and educational systems. They guide students’ development and exploration while demonstrating exceptional flexibility and resourcefulness in navigating time zones, languages, and diverse cultures.
These awards recognize and celebrate the extraordinary leadership and efforts of U-M faculty and staff who advance international education for our students.
Eligibility and selection criteria
Eligible for nomination are all active U-M faculty and staff members, on all three campuses, who meet the selection criteria for one of two categories: Distinguished Service or Rising Professional. Note: employees in the Office of the Vice Provost for Engaged Learning or the Office of the President are not eligible.
The Distinguished Service category honors individuals with a long-standing, sustained commitment to advancing international education. This includes those who have demonstrated significant accomplishments, leadership, and innovation over an extended period, shaping the field both at U-M and beyond:
- Sustained commitment: education abroad, international student support, global learning programs on campus, institutional partnerships, intensive language programs, etc.
- Specific accomplishments: successful program development, significant impact on U-M student participation, curricular innovation for global learning, etc.
- Leadership role in the field of international education, either on campus or beyond.
The Rising Professionals category, by contrast, is intended for early- to mid-career professionals who have made notable contributions while demonstrating exceptional potential for future growth and leadership. This award celebrates those who are still in the process of establishing themselves in the field, highlighting their emerging impact and dedication to U-M’s international education mission:
- Significant contributions: education abroad, international student support, global learning programs on campus, institutional partnerships, intensive language programs, etc.
- Specific accomplishments: successful program development, significant impact on U-M student participation, curricular innovation for global learning, etc.
- Active involvement in the field of international education, either on campus or beyond, reflecting ongoing and exceptional growth.
Nomination
All active U-M faculty, staff, and students are eligible to submit nominations. Each nomination packet should include the following items:
- A nomination cover sheet, available here. The cover sheet should include a brief paragraph summarizing the length of service of the nominee at the University of Michigan, and the different roles the nominee has held throughout their years of U-M service.
- A nomination statement, between 500 and 600 words in length, describing how the nominee has demonstrated some or all of the traits outlined in the selection criteria.
- Three letters of support from colleagues, detailing the nominee’s achievements and/or service to the field of international education.
- A current curriculum vitae.
Nominators should note that U-M is interested in the nominee pool reflecting the diversity of its faculty and staff, with respect to such factors as gender, race/ethnicity, and unit affiliation.
Each submitted nomination will be considered for two consecutive selection years.
Completed nomination packets should be submitted by email to international-education-award@umich.edu by the February 14, 2025 deadline.
Selection
Individual award nominations will be reviewed by a faculty/staff screening committee. Committee members are selected from within the memberships of the Council on Global Engagement, the International Education Network and departments across campus.
Past recipients
2023 – Jody Lori and Kathleen Lopez
Jody Lori, the Sara H. and Robert B. Rothschild Endowed Professor of Global Nursing, professor of nursing and associate dean of global affairs at the School of Nursing, and Katie Lopez, director of the Office of Global Activities and adjunct clinical assistant professor at the School of Social Work are the 2023 recipients of the President’s Award for Distinguished Service in International Education.
Record: President’s award winners focus on global health, student travel
2022 – Timothy Johnson and Judith Pennywell
Timothy Johnson, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and professor of obstetrics and gynecology and women’s and gender studies, and Judith Pennywell, director of U-M’s International Center, have greatly advanced international education and outreach for Michigan students while strengthening the university’s global presence.
They are being honored for their achievements with the 2022 U-M’s President’s Award for Distinguished Service in International Education.
Record: President’s award winners strengthen U‑M’s global presence
2021 – John Godfrey
John Godfrey, assistant dean of the Rackham Graduate School, is working to ensure foreign students can navigate this ever-changing global landscape successfully.
His commitment and advocacy for international students started almost three decades ago. Now, he is being recognized for his efforts as the 2021 recipient of U-M’s President’s Award for Distinguished Service in International Education.
Record: President’s award winner John Godfrey advances international mission
2020 – Maureen Tippen
Maureen Tippen, a University of Michigan-Flint clinical associate professor emerita of nursing, is the 2020 recipient of the President’s Award for Distinguished Service in International Education.
For the past 25 years, Professor Emerita Tippen has taken more than 250 UM-Flint nursing students on service-learning journeys to Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Her work ranges from clinical trainings in orphanages and educating nurses and laypeople about CPR in Cambodia to developing a partnership with a safe house to serve women escaping life in the sex trade and giving instructions on how to prevent Zika virus in the Dominican Republic.
She has built international partnerships in Peru, India, Kenya, Laos and elsewhere.
Record: UM-Flint professor honored for 25 years of international nursing
2019: Sandra Wiley puts her stamp on international education
2018: Volker Sick receives president’s international education award
