2021 Stanley Dagley-Samuel Kirkwood and John S. Anderson Leadership Award Recipients Announced

May 13, 2021

Janet Dubinsky received the 2021 Stanley Dagley-Samuel Kirkwood Undergraduate Education Award and Kit Leffler is the recipient of this year’s John S. Anderson Leadership Award. 

The Stanley-Dagley Samuel Kirkwood Undergraduate Education award goes to a faculty member who has made significant contributions to undergraduate education. As a faculty member, Janet Dubinsky has mentored more than 60 students, developed several undergraduate courses and trained fellow educators on innovative teaching methods and research areas in neuroscience. One nominator described her contributions as an educator this way:

“Over the past 26 years, Jan has been a devoted teacher to CBS undergraduate students selflessly dedicating her time and energy to create innovative and creative courses and enhance student’s experience. Through her creative teaching, sophisticated pedagogy, and kind guidance she helped many CBS undergraduate students to realize their full potential.”

The John S. Anderson Leadership Award recognizes members of the CBS community who made exceptional contributions to program development, classroom and lab teaching, student advising or contributions to co-curricular activities. Kit Leffler has served a critical role coordinating national meetings, joining departmental diversity, equity and inclusion committees, managing research programs and coordinating administrative functions in her role supporting the Center for Precision Plant Genomics and the Center for Genome Engineering. As one of her nominators put it:

“I hold Kit and John in the highest esteem for their contributions to CBS and the University of Minnesota. I have seen every one of the personal characteristics that John exemplifies in Kit’s service to the U - fairness, integrity, honesty, forthrightness, openness and inclusiveness, and always with enthusiasm and focus to accomplish the most difficult tasks.”