Plumeri Awards honor excellence

by Sara Eskridge, University Advancement | May 10, 2019

The Plumeri Awards for Faculty Excellence are back, and they are more competitive than ever before. On Friday, May 3, the university honored the 2019 recipients for their outstanding achievements in teaching, research and service to the William & 玛丽 community.

Joseph J. Plumeri ’66, D.P.S. ’11 established this eponymous award in 2009 to advance the work of exceptional faculty members and to encourage them to engage students in their scholarly endeavors. Eleven years later, 195 recipients have benefited from this generosity, enhancing their teaching, research and mentorship.

Joseph J. Plumeri '66, D.P.S. '11 Recipients of this prestigious award undergo a highly competitive formal selection process and are chosen based on their contributions and accomplishments in the areas of discovery, scholarship and teaching. This year’s awards were reimagined to maximize their benefit — the number of recipients was reduced from 20 to 10 and the award was increased from $10,000 to $20,000, to be used by the faculty member over a 3-year period. Additionally, all recipients are required to have at least 5 years of teaching experience at William & 玛丽 in order to be eligible. At Friday’s ceremony, each recipient was given a medal engraved with the three words most closely associated with Plumeri: passion, vision and leadership.

“The Plumeri Awards for Faculty Excellence are among the most competitive and generous faculty awards in the nation,” said President Katherine Rowe. “They enable our faculty to take risks, transform their respective fields and create connections with students that can last a lifetime.”

Awardees, some of whom were showcased in a video shown during the ceremony, represented the breadth of academic and athletics excellence across the university. Among those recognized: an award-winning swimming coach, an oft-cited government professor who is changing the way Americans interact with social media and a world-renowned healthcare informaticist who is helping to improve the quality of medical care for all Americans.

“When I attended William & 玛丽, the professors showed me that, with vision and a purpose, I could do anything,” said Plumeri in a speech during Friday’s ceremony. “I want to support a new generation of professors who help our students combine passion with purpose so that they can go out and change the world.”

Plumeri served as the chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings before becoming vice chairman of the First Data Board of Directors in 2014. He is also a dedicated philanthropist, giving millions to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, among many other organizations. William & 玛丽 has long been among his most cherished causes, and over the years he has created scholarships, established the W&M/Plumeri Pro-Am Golf Tournament and built the Plumeri Park baseball facility.

For 2017 Plumeri Award recipient Danielle Dallaire, the award has not only transformed her research, but also helped create a national platform for her scholarship. Dallaire utilized her Plumeri funds to work with graduate and undergraduate students, with one of the resulting student-authored papers examining standard care practices for pregnant incarcerated women in jails nationwide. She also worked with the American Psychological Association’s Office of Public Interest and Government Relations on criminal justice reform legislation. In part because of her efforts, Congress passed the First Step Act, which provides for programs that help reduce risk that prisoners will recidivate upon release from prison.

“Because of the Plumeri Award, I was able to examine the impact of parental incarceration on children's development from the prenatal period through young adulthood and contribute to improving policies for children and families impacted by incarceration,” said Dallaire.

Dallaire isn’t alone in seeing the Plumeri Awards’ scale of impact.

“Over the course of the past 11 years, recipients have invariably said that winning the Plumeri Award helped them advance their teaching and research,“ said Provost Michael R. Halleran. “Whether professors are creating new initiatives with far-flung collaborators, investing in cutting-edge research equipment or exploring new avenues of inquiry with student-collaborators, the Plumeri Awards have made a transformative impact on William & 玛丽 that will echo for years to come.”

On May 3, the William & 玛丽 community also celebrated the 20th anniversary of Plumeri Park and Plumeri was on hand to throw out the first pitch. The Tribe trounced the College of Charleston, 5-1.

This year's Plumeri Award recipients are:

Daniel A. Cristol P ’19

Chancellor Professor, Biology
Director, 1693 Scholars Program

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Mark Egner

Tribe Field Hocky Coach

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Artisia V. Green ’00

Associate Professor, Theatre and Africana Studies
Sharpe Associate Professor, Civil Renewal & Entrepreneurship
Director, Africana Studies Program

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Robert C. Hale Ph.D. ’83

Professor, Marine Science

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James M. Kaste

Associate Professor, Geology

A geochemist studying the effects of environmental contaminants, Professor James Kaste designed a renowned research lab utilized by over 30 undergraduate geology students and Ph.D. students from across the globe. His lab has produced 31 publications in well-known journals and books, including Geophysical Research Letters and Environmental Science & Technology. He and his students published the first measurements of cosmogenic ⁷Be in desert soils and vegetation and have continued to push the boundaries of discovery in their field. Kaste is also a champion of interdisciplinary research; he’s partnered with biology and history researchers to study environmental challenges in the Chesapeake Bay and mortality rates in the early Jamestown Colony. In addition to his research, Kaste has proven an essential member of the William & 玛丽 community through his teaching and mentoring. He developed a new, interdisciplinary course, Environmental Geochemistry, which covers crucial topics in geology and environmental studies using skills from the humanities and social sciences, and has mentored more than 30 undergraduate students whose thesis topics ranged from erosion in Colorado to radioactive fallout deposition. Kaste received his master’s degree from the University of Maine and his Ph.D. in earth sciences from Dartmouth College.