Every year, the highly competitive UM System President’s Awards recognize faculty who have made exceptional contributions in advancing their university community.

The awards are presented on behalf of President Mun Choi to faculty members across the four universities of the UM System. This year, UMKC faculty members were honored with five awards:

Presidential Faculty Award for University Citizenship, Service Award

Laverne Berkel,  School of Education  

Laverne Berkel, associate professor of counseling and counseling psychology, has earned this year’s award for distinguished service. Her exceptional contributions include creating academic policy, ensuring research compliance and advising on matters related to academic leadership development. She served on the provost’s committee for excellence in teaching and worked to address diversity concerns, even as far back as establishing the campus’s first SAFE ZONE program in 2000.

“I have known and worked closely with Dr. Berkel since she joined our faculty in 1999,” said Chris Brown, chair and fellow professor of counseling and counseling psychology. “I can think of no one else who is more deserving of this award.”

Presidential Faculty Award for Innovative Teaching

Wanda Temm, School of Law

This year’s award, which recognizes faculty who are outstanding teachers and employ novel and innovated teaching methods to achieve success in student learning, was presented to Wanda Temm, professor at the School of Law. Temm developed a program to prepare students for the legal profession’s credentialing test—the bar exam. The program has increased the bar passage rate for first-time takers at UMKC from 67% to 98%.

“My role is to try as many ways as I can to engage my students,” Temm said. “If one way is not working, then I’ll try another way. Different explanations, visualizations and exercises work for different students. I strive to present the skill they are developing in diverse ways and in an individualized manner through my comments on their papers and in individual conferences.”

The Inter-Campus Collaboration Award

Janet Garcia-Hallett, College of Arts and Sciences

Janet Garcia-Hallett, assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology, was recognized for activities that foster collaboration across two or more campuses of the University of Missouri System. She worked with faculty members on the University of Missouri and University of Missouri-St. Louis campuses on the Prison Research and Innovation Network (PRIN) grant, funded by the Urban Institute in collaboration with the Missouri Department of Corrections.

“PRIN is an externally funded project that brings together not just our UM system campuses, but also our state’s Department of Corrections, government officials and policy makers in pursuit of a better, more humane and evidence-based correctional system,” said Kati Toivanen, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “The project is a major and collaborative undertaking that serves the dual purposes of helping Missouri’s corrections-involved individuals lead more functional lives, and informing the peer-reviewed literature base so other state systems can gain from the results.”

The Economic Development Award

Reza Derakhshani, School of Computing and Engineering

Recognized for distinguished activity and serving as an economic engine for the state and its citizens, this year’s Economic Development Award winner is Reza Derakhshani, professor of the School of Computing and Engineering. Derakhshani is an internationally renowned entrepreneurial academic in the fields of biometric personal identification, privacy and mobile security. He is the named inventor on nearly 140 U.S.- and international-issued patents.

“I have also been volunteering my entrepreneurial experience with other UMKC faculty members and our University System through serving on the school and system-wide tech transfer and patent committees,” Derakhshani said, “as well as infusing that know-how in my courses and sharing them with our students so that they can carry the torch.”

Presidential Faculty Award for Cross-Cultural Engagement

Andrew Stuart Bergerson, College of Arts and Sciences

Andrew Stuart Bergerson, professor of history, received this award for promoting cross-cultural engagement through education, research and service. Bergerson’s research focus is on everyday life in modern Germany, with particular interests in the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. He reaches diverse audiences with a variety of media, including blogs, curricula, digitized archival collections, eBooks, exhibitions, drama, lectures, radio, seminars, workshops and YouTube.

“In the last 10 years, Drew has become a system leader in cross-cultural engagement through his innovative education, research, and service,” said Massimiliano Vitiello, fellow professor of history. “He is essential to our public history program has been a key voice in developing this field in our department.”