CINSAM Awards

Professor - School of Computing & Analytics

Dr. Maureen Doyle has long been instrumental in advancing CINSAM's mission directly and indirectly. She was a co-PI on Project FORCE, which made a real difference in recruiting and retaining STEM majors at NKU. She then helped CINSAM institutionalize FORCE programs like UR-STEM and STEM Ambassadors after the grant ended. As chair of the department of Computer Science for many years, she collaborated with CINSAM too many times to count... on pretty much all of our undergraduate efforts and many P-12 outreach efforts as well. She has long been a staunch advocate for equity in STEM and beyond, for example mentoring women in computing through National Center for Women & Information Technology and the Women in Informatics group at NKU. And she has continued mentoring students since returning to the faculty through the SOAR program and other channels.

Lecturer - Mathematics & Statistics

Dr. Marla Lemmon's collaborations with CINSAM began somewhat recently - in the winter of the last school year. But in that relatively short time, she has had a huge impact on CINSAM. She took on the half time role of CINSAM's interim director of recruitment and retention for spring semester of 2023. In that role, she applied her prodigious analytical, organizational, creative, and social skills to great effect, keeping our core recruitment and retention functions going at a time when we had just lost two full time people focused on this work at CINSAM. Then in the fall, she came back to run our STEM Peer Mentors program and teach its aligned course. Finally, she has helped tremendously in onboarding our new Director of Recruitment & Retention. And, she has done it all with positivity as well as a constructive eye for better ways serve students. It's no exaggeration to say that without you, Marla, we wouldn't have been able to serve several of our critical functions, like managing STEM scholarships offers and supporting undergraduate research and retention.

Director - Institute for Health Innovation

Carolyn Noe is Director of the Institute for Health Innovation. Since she came to NKU in 2018, she has worked with CINSAM on High School STEM+H Day, an annual outreach and recruitment event. She has also collaborated with us and other folks engaging with P-12 students through the NKU Outreach Team. Separately, she has worked with our Biology Department to help them bring more than a thousand high school students to campus to visit our Cadaver Lab for an experience those students will never forget. She also established Teen Science Cafes for students in Northern Kentucky. Carolyn, thank you for all that you do.

Associate Director - Student Union

If you have ever held an event in the student union, you know how invaluable Chris Tambling is. As Associate Director of Student Union Operations, he has been our partner in making sure the student union is set up just the way we need it, when we need it. And... you may have also had the experience of Chris knowing what you want better than you do. He keeps meticulous records of what has worked well in the past and what might work well the next time - and he always comes to meetings prepared with those records. We have had many CINSAM folks plan many, many events in the SU over the past decade, and they have all remarked on how helpful Chris has been, especially when they were new in their positions. People in roles like yours aren't always front of mind when making awards for advancing CINSAM's mission, but we can't further our mission without you.

Associate Professor, Science Education Director - College of Education

Kim teaches science methods and environmental education courses, among others. As part of her elementary science methods courses, she and her students have been partnering with CINSAM on Elementary STEM Days since she started teaching course - in fact, we just held this spring's Elementary STEM Day today and it was fantastic to see her students engage so enthusiastically with the children from Dry Ridge Elementary. Kim also shares her ideas and expertise with educators every year at the Tri-State STEM Conference that we put on. And outside her partnerships with CINSAM, she does a lot to promote environmental education in the state through student and educator outreach as director of our Center for Environmental Education. 

Assistant Professor - Physics, Geology, & Engineering Technology

Dr. Mahdi Yazdanpour is another faculty member who consistently partners with CINSAM to help advance STEM education and scholarship in our community. He has worked with CINSAM on UR-STEM as well as CINSAM Research Grants as a recipient and reviewer. He has mentored 15 students over the past three years and given them some pretty awesome experiences with engineering mind-controlled robotic arms. And he has brought those robotic arms to outreach activities like High School STEM+H Day. Finally, we also really appreciate his participation in the College of Arts & Sciences Inclusive Excellence Committee, through which he is advancing equity in more than just the STEM disciplines.