Honors and accomplishments for CA&ES faculty, staff and students

From Academic Senate and Federation faculty awards to national and campus advising awards to superior scholarly achievements, CA&ES faculty, staff and students are in the limelight this month with a raft of recent acknowledgements for a job well done.

Academic Senate, Federation honor outstanding faculty

The UC Davis Academic Senate and Academic Federation recently honored some of their members for outstanding teaching, research and public service. Among them are four CA&ES faculty members:

• Professor John Eadie, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, is a recipient of the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in the undergraduate category.
• Cooperative Extension Specialist Richard Snyder, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, is the recipient of the Academic Federation Distinguished Service Award.
• Professor emeritus Calvin Qualset, Department of Plant Sciences, is a recipient of the Academic Senate Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.
• Cooperative Extension Specialist Tina Saitone, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, is the recipient of the Academic Federation Excellence in Research Award.

A campus reception honored award recipients on April 30. Read more about their accomplishments and the other award recipients here.

Three in CA&ES honored at a May 3 reception for outstanding student advising

The 2018 recipients of the Eleanor and Harry Walker Advising Award are Danielle Huddlestun, Ned Spang and Thalia Badger. They were honored May 3 at a reception in the Plant and Environmental Sciences building on campus.

The award supports and recognizes excellence in peer, staff and faculty advising in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES). “We have an incredible network of advisors who are really focused on one main thing—supporting our students,” said Mary Delany, CA&ES executive associate dean. “We really appreciate the level that everybody operates at in this collaborative effort.”

Danielle Huddlestun is the staff advisor for the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology (WFCB). She provides quality academic advising to undergraduate students and mentors her staff of student peer advisors. She is known for her enthusiasm, problem solving skills, and innovations such as hosting a course for incoming WFCB students and developing a guide for second-year students.

Ned Spang is an assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology. He was selected for the faculty advising award because of his strong commitment to student mentoring and his efforts to create new opportunities for multidisciplinary collaborations among students, faculty and staff. Through his encouragement, students also have been able to build networks with industry collaborators.

Thalia Badger is a peer advisor for the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. She is known for being a positive, welcoming and proactive advisor who excels in building a sense of community within the department. She implemented “Wildlife Vet Career Night” to introduce students to the wildlife veterinarian profession.

Harry O. Walker, a highly regarded professor in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources for more than 40 years, was a strong advocate for undergraduate advising and also served as a master advisor himself.  Through their generosity and commitment, Eleanor and Harry Walker created the award to celebrate excellence and innovation in academic advising because of the important role it plays in helping students succeed.

Louie Yang and Sue Ebeler honored by NACADA for outstanding advising

Professor Louie Yang and CA&ES Associate Dean Sue Ebeler have been recognized by NACADA in the organization’s 2018 Global Awards Program for Academic Advising.

Yang, of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, is a winner in the outstanding academic advising faculty category. Ebeler, a professor in the Department of Viticulture and Enology, leads Undergraduate Academic Programs for the college. She received a certificate of merit in the outstanding advising administration category. Both received similar awards in NACADA’s 2017 regional competition.

Yang is dedicated to helping students link their academic studies to research and other careers. He has developed innovative mentoring programs that help students progress as scholars and scientists, and is committed to enhancing diversity and retention in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

“Professor Yang has made exemplary contributions to student success in our college and campuswide,” said Ebeler. “It is great to see his contributions recognized at the national level.”

Ebeler is a passionate advocate for undergraduate advising and student learning. She has implemented a number of innovations to strengthen 

relationships among advisors in college departments and the CA&ES Dean’s Office. She increased faculty, staff and peer advisor participation in Decision Day so that new students and their families could get firsthand answers to their questions about the UC Davis experience. She also created opportunities for students to interact with their support network in an informal setting.

“Sue has done an incredible job of elevating and emphasizing the importance of advising by creating a community of advisors, which includes faculty, staff and peer/student advisors in CA&ES,” wrote the college’s faculty master advisors in support of her nomination. “Establishing a culture of the importance of undergraduate advising will have high rewards to our college in the future.”

NACADA is the National Academic Advising Association, an international association of more than 10,000 members in higher education who are engaged academic advising. Award recipients will be honored in Phoenix at the NACADA annual conference in fall 2018.

Anne Visser is among finalists for award from British Sociological Association

Anne Visser, a community and regional development professor in the Department of Human Ecology, is among the finalists for the British Sociological Association’s 2018 SAGE Research Prize in Excellence and Innovation.

The SAGE Prize is awarded annually to one paper in each of the association’s journals. Visser’s research article, “A Floor to Exploitation? Social Economy Organizations at the Edge of a Restructuring Society” was published in the journal Work, Employment and Society in April 2017. The article explored how the informalization of work has led to a rise of precarious working conditions in the U.S. labor market and the efficacy of social organizations in supporting workers. The article specifically analyzed the impact of U.S. day labor worker centers on employment outcomes and found these organizations improve working conditions in the labor market.

Visser is the most junior scholar to be nominated this year and one of the few non-British scholars ever to be nominated for this award. The winner will be announced in September.

Catherine Brinkley awarded NSF CAREER grant to study urban-ag interface
Catherine Brinkley, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology, will deepen her research into the form and function of cities and neighboring agricultural areas with a recently awarded National Science Foundation CAREER grant. These are one of the NSF’s most competitive and prestigious awards in support of junior faculty.

Brinkley’s research applies ecological principles of structural complexity to urban and agricultural studies. She is testing the hypothesis that farms that are more intertwined physically with urban lands will also be more intertwined socially through direct and local marketing, thereby changing diet-related health, job diversity, farm tenure and land-use patterns for urban and agricultural communities alike. Learn more about her project at the NSF website.

Jay Rosenheim, Jessica Gillung win awards from entomology society

Professor Jay Rosenheim of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, and doctoral candidate Jessica Gillung of the Lynn Kimsey lab, Bohart Museum of Entomology are recipients of two major awards from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA).

Rosenheim won the Distinction in Student Mentoring Award, and Gillung, the Student Leadership Award. They will be honored at the PBESA meeting June 10-13 in Reno. PBESA represents 11 states, seven U.S. territories, and parts of Canada and Mexico.