CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2024 DUX ACADEMICUS AWARD RECIPIENT CATHERINE WESSINGER

The recipient of the 2024 Dux Academicus award has been at Loyola for 39 years providing globally recognized excellence in teaching, research, editing, publishing and YouTube-ing.

During her tenure, she has developed and taught 23 courses in Religious Studies in both Christian and non-Christian fields as well as several graduate-level courses prior to Hurricane Katrina.  In addition to the ten books she authored or edited including Theory of Women in Religions /  How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate, /  and The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism, she is on the founding editorial board of Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions through the University of California Press.

During her time as chair of the New Religious Movements Group of the American Academy of Religion, she offered valuable analysis and scholarly critique to the FBI and Attorney General Janet Reno following the mishandling of the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas.  She is recognized globally as a foremost scholar on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians.  Her nominator writes, “Whether one discusses David Koresh or Timothy McVeigh; Waco or Jonestown; Falun Gong or Scientology; Heaven’s Gate or Ruby Ridge; QAnon or the latest so-called ‘Bitcoin Cult’, she is consulted.  Her YouTube channel collectively has over a half a million views.”        

Over her many decades at Loyola, today’s awardee has served the university on the University Senate, University Rank and Tenure Committee, Chair of the Religious Studies Department, University Conciliation Committee and College Curriculum Committee.  She directed the Religion and Media Minor and co-founded the Women’s Studies Committee prior to it becoming an interdisciplinary minor.  She has also co-directed the Loyola Himalaya Adventure: Summer Study in Dharamsala, India.            

One of the thousands of students she has taught describes our honoree as one of the “smartest, admirable, and impactful professors here at Loyola.”  A more recent student writes, “she is a friend, a leader, and a colleague who has taught me how to have a greater sense of awareness and appreciation for cultures other than my own.”

It is my honor to join with President Cole and the entire Loyola community to present the 2024 Dux Academicus award to the Rev. H. James Yamauchi, SJ Professor of the History of Religions, DR. CATHERINE WESSINGER.

 

2025 University Senate Faculty Excellence Awards

 

Excellence in Teaching

The recipient of the University Senate Award for Teaching is Dr. Christopher Torres, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Justice. Dr. Torres’s research examines, among other things, crime prevention through environmental design and environmental justice. Over the past academic year, he has focused on designing, expanding, and refining the GIS curriculum at Loyola University. GIS--geographic information systems--is a technology that is used to create, manage, analyze, and map all types of data.  Dr. Torres’s work to equip students with robust skills in spatial analysis, data visualization, and geospatial technology began with a thorough assessment of current trends and employer demands in GIS, identifying core competencies essential to students’ success in today’s competitive job market. Based on this assessment, Dr. Torres designed a multi-tiered curriculum that moves from foundational knowledge to advanced applications. His colleagues describe him as a “a phenomenal instructor and a dedicated mentor,” reputed to be a teacher who “fosters a passion for learning, provides mentorship or helps students achieve their goals.” The student letter supporting his nomination traced a path from an Intro to GIS course to an internship opportunity with the City of New Orleans—and added that “Dr. Torres’ joy of teaching radiates during every class.” Congratulations to Dr. Torres. 

 

Excellence in Research

The recipient of the University Senate Award for Research is Nicole Tuchinda. Professor Tuchinda is an Assistant Professor and Academic Director of the Health Law Program at the College of Law. Professor Tuchinda’s scholarship focuses on preventing and healing childhood trauma; social determinants of health; education; and health justice, including racial justice. Her work shows how and why the law can become trauma-informed and trauma-responsive and how and why law that causes trauma, especially childhood trauma, must be abolished and replaced. This year she published several articles, including one on “Disproportionate School Brutality Upon Black Children” in the Kentucky Law Journal. A letter of support argues that Professor Tuchinda’s research is distinctive because it is “analytically rigorous and deeply humane. She weaves together multiple sources of data – case law and statistics, historical narrative and medical research – to support compelling analyses of complex systems and their impact on children,” and creating a framework that proves “powerful for practitioners.”  She is a frequent participant in national scholarly conferences and Professor Tuchinda has enriched intellectual life here at Loyola by resuming the scholarship workshop for law school faculty and organizing two excellent lectures in the Ainsworth Lecture Series and the the Brendan Brown Lectureship Series. Congratulations to Professor Tuchinda.

 

Excellence in Service

The recipient of the University Senate Award for Service is Dr. Craig Hood, the E. Letitia Beard Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences. Dr. Hood joined the Department of Biological Sciences in 1986 and was one of the founding faculty of what would become the Environmental Studies Program, which he currently directs. He has spent fifteen years developing the GIS and mapping capacities here at Loyola to create two fully-equipped GIS labs. Dr. Hood established the Environment Roundtable Series in 2016 and Earth Week in 2017. Earth Week is one of Loyola’s largest annual events, drawing together participants from the whole campus, NGOs in the local community, and industry partners to honor our planet. Dr. Hood is a great science communicator whose public presentations on bats and other mammals spur local citizen science to set up bat “listening” stations around town that allow educators and their students to help monitor the abundance and ecological health of local bat populations. In Summer 2023, he co-directed (with Dr. Bara Watts of the Center for Entrepreneurship) a student team of Environment, Business and other majors that won an honorable mention for their environmental sustainability plan to develop the Lake Forest Avenue region of New Orleans East through an international competition. Congratulations to Dr. Hood.

 

Excellence in Community Engagement

The recipient of the Jon T. Altschul Award for Excellence in Community Engagement is Assistant Professor Cody Melcher. Dr. Melcher’s primary interests are in the areas of labor and racial justice, and he is also a research associate at the Workplace Justice Project (WJP), housed in the Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic & Center for Social Justice, Loyola University College of Law. One outcome of his work there was the Workers’ Bill of Rights, which was on the ballot in Orleans Parish in November 2024 and which passed with over 80% of the vote. Dr. Melcher also spearheaded the annual “Labor Spring” events at Loyola, which brings local unions together to share information and educate the public. A letter of support emphasizes how Dr. Melcher’s scholarship and teaching translates into community engaged action around issues of labor justice, noting that “he brings our students along for the ride, guiding them through the history of labor movements in the US, current local labor justice initiatives, and the richness of Catholic Social Teaching that has long addressed these issues, even here at Loyola. He gets our students prepared, ignites in them a sense of agency, and shows them what they can do to have an impact.” Congratulations to Dr. Melcher.

 

Excellence in Advising

The recipient of the University Senate Award for Advising is Dr. Nathan Henne. the Rev. Guy Lemieux, S.J., SAK Distinguished Professor, LAS and Spanish. Dr. Henne has shown exceptional dedication to advisees as a capstone advisor, academic advisor, teacher, and Director of Spanish. A letter of support by a colleague who has worked with Nathan for almost twenty years characterizes the “amount of time, energy, and love that Nathan…puts into advising his students” as heroic—"not only in this academic year but in each and every academic year since I’ve known him.” Another colleague wrote that was Dr. Henne’s “passion and his commitment to students that made Latin American Studies a success, making it possible for students travel to Latin America and implementing critical thinking by providing different ways of looking at the world through Latin American culture and through Spanish.” A student wrote in their letter of support that “Dr. Henne doesn’t let you cut corners or settle for ‘good enough.’ He doesn’t let you quit on yourself, even when you’re ready to. He has this way of encouraging you to give your best, while also holding you accountable to your own goals and standards. It’s not about meeting his expectations but about helping you rise to your own. That’s something I didn’t even know I needed until I had Dr. Henne in my corner.” Congratulations to Dr. Henne.

 

 

 

2024

Excellence in Teaching:	Dr. Young Soo Kim, Political Science.
Excellence in Research:	Dr. Mark D. Gossiaux,  Philosophy Mr. Robert R.M. Verchick, College of Law
Excellence in Service:	Mr. Michael Guisti, School of Communication and Design
Jon T. Altschul Excellence in Community Engagement:	Dr. Rae Taylor, Criminology and Justice Dr. Naomi Yavneh-Klos, Languages and Cultures

 

2023
Excellence in Teaching:	Dr. Jamileh Beik Mohammadi, Physics.
Excellence in Research:	Dr. Madison Silverstein, Psychology Mr. Mitchell Crusto, College of Law
Excellence in Service:	Dr. Tracey Lamont, Institute for Ministry
Jon T. Altschul Excellence in Community Engagement:	Dr. Paul Barnes, Biological Sciences Dr. Mehmet Dicle, College of Business

2022
Research:	Kelly Frailing Young Su Kim
Service:	Susan Weishar
Teaching:	Naomi Yavnet

2021
Research:	Christian Bolden Elizabeth Kelly
Service:	Susan Brower Jason Ezell
Teaching:	Sandi Varnado Cathy Rogers
Dr. Jon Altschul Award for Community Engagement:	John Dewell Eileen Doll

2020
Advising:	Kelly Frailing Constance Mui
Research:	Elin Grissom
Service:	Donald Hauber
Teaching:	Everett Fulmer

2019
Advising:	C.J. Stephenson
Research:	Sarah Allison
Service:	Leonard Kahn
Teaching:	Ashley Howard
Dr. Jon Altschul Award for Community Engagement:	Andrea Armstrong

2018
Advising:	Christine Ebrahim
Research:	Lynn Koplitz Imre Szalai
Service:	Carol Ann MacGregor
Teaching:	Johanna Kalb Armin Kargol
Dr. Jon Altschul Award for Community Engagement:	Angel Parham

2017
Research:	Nicholas Capaldi
Teaching:	Todd Bacile
Dr. Jon Altschul Award for Community Engagement:	Laurie Anne Ferguson

2016
Research:	Kimberlee Mix Rian Thum
Service:	Joe Berendzen
Teaching:	Aimee Thomas and Andrea Armstrong
Community Engagement:	Felipe Massa

2015
Advising:	Kim Ernst, Chuck Nichols Sandi Varnado
Research:	Patricia Dorn
Service:	Cathy Rogers
Teaching:	Terri Bednarz
Community Engagement:	Jon Altschul Hiroko Kusuda Lisbeth Philip

2014
Advising:	Lawrence Lewis
Research:	Sara Butler
Service:	Don Hauber

2013
Advising:	Naomi Yavneh
Research:	Kendall Eskine
Service:	John Sebastian
Teaching:	Lawrence Lewis

2012
Advising:	Alice Clark
Research:	Patricia Dorn
Service:	Erin Dupuis
Teaching:	John Sebastian Valerie Goertzen

2011
Advising:	Isabel Medina Rosalie Anderson
Research:	Rae Taylor Markus G. Puder
Service:	Christopher Screen
Teaching:	Kim Ernst

2010
Service:	Davida Finger

2009
Advising:	John Sebastian
Research:	Frank Jordan
Service:	Frank Jordan
Teaching:	Marcus Kondkar Bob Thomas

2005
Service:	Lynn Koplitz
Teaching:	Alice Clark

2004
Teaching:	Maria Calzada

2003
Advising:	Jerry Dauterive
Research:	Patrick Bourgeois
Service:	Deborah Poole
Teaching:	Peter Burns Maureen Shuh

2002
Advising:	Kim Ernst
Research:	Frank Jordan
Service:	William Quigley
Teaching:	Jasjit Walia