Chip Amoe, U-M Health’s sustainability officer, was recognized as a Notable Leader in Sustainability in Crain’s Detroit Business. Amoe was nominated for this honor because of his outstanding work at U-M Health, where he oversees the institution’s sustainability efforts in collaboration with the Medical School and campus sustainability leaders. “I am grateful for my colleagues who nominated me for this recognition, as it’s truly a reflection of the collective work our incredible sustainability team is doing on a daily basis to improve planetary and human health,” Amoe said. Amoe leads the charge in developing U-M Health’s sustainability strategy, which builds on the organization’s long history of innovative work and aligns with U-M’s Carbon Neutrality and Campus Sustainability Goals. Read more about the award.

Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention team members recently presented at the 2025 National Research Conference for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms. The fourth annual event brought together more than 560 researchers to discuss the latest trends and findings in the field of firearm injury prevention science. Institute faculty, junior faculty, staff and postdoctoral students led more than 35 presentations during the meeting, covering topic areas such as school safety, secure storage, and firearm-related suicide prevention and received three awards for their work:

• Teresa Neumann won the Multidisciplinary Science Award for her poster titled “How Humility Plays an Integral Role in Community-Academic Partnerships in Firearm Research” with co-authors Victor Medina Del Toro, Tazkira Ahad, Marc Zimmerman and Daniel Lee.
• Jessica Bishai won the Multidisciplinary Science Award for her oral presentation titled “Reclaiming Space, Reducing Violence: Vacant Lot Reuse Strategies and Community Engagement in Detroit” with co-authors Roshanak Mehdipanah, Hsing-Fang Hsieh, Jason Goldstick, Rebeccah Sokol, Jaclyn Goodrich, Shaun Bhatia, Stephen Oliphant, Kathleen Howe, Marc Zimmerman, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Xuran Meng, Alison Grodzinski and Justin Heinze.
• Eugenio Weigend Vargas won the Impact Science Award for his presentation titled “State Level Bans on Assault Weapons and Firearms Trafficking to Mexico, 2015-2024” with co-authors Jason Goldstick and Patrick Carter.

View a full list of presentations.

Poets&Quants recently named Erb Institute faculty member Andy Hoffman its 2025 MBA Professor of the Year. Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, a joint appointment in the School for Environment and Sustainability and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. He recently published the book “Business School and the Noble Purpose of the Market: Correcting the Systemic Failures of Shareholder Capitalism.” Hoffman’s teaching philosophy starts with a simple premise: Business is not just a tool for wealth creation, it’s a vehicle for purpose. “We only focus on the how of business. Now we need to bring in the why,” Hoffman said to Poets&Quants. “We should be helping students develop a functioning philosophy for living a meaningful life.” For more on the honor.

In recognition of her artistic excellence and a lifetime of leadership in the field of choral music, Gabriela Hristova, associate professor of music at UM-Flint, received the 2025 Maynard Klein Award from the Michigan chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. “I am humbled and honored beyond measure by this award because it is the highest honor given by the Michigan State Board of Directors of the American Choral Directors Association,” Hristova said. Among the list of criteria are excellence in knowledge of their field and are considered an expert by their peers, work demonstrates superior achievement and has earned respect from their colleagues, and demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities in Michigan. For more on the award.

Antonio Riggs, associate director in the Office of Student Career Advancement and Success at UM-Flint, was named the winner of the Bryant “BB” Nolden Community Champion Award at the Flint and Genesee Group’s 11th Annual Art of Achievement Awards at the Capitol Theatre. The Art of Achievement Awards are designed to recognize leading business and hospitality organizations and individuals in the region each year, according to Tim Herman, chief executive officer of Flint & Genesee Group. The Nolden award recognizes an individual or organization that works to improve Flint and Genesee County through community collaboration, advocacy and engagement. In the multiple nominations Riggs received for the award, it was noted that his “unwavering dedication to improving Flint and Genesee County through education, mentorship, advocacy and community service” was the primary consideration for his recognition. For more on the award.

The Simons Foundation recently announced Stacy Rosenbaum is a member of its 2025 class of Pivot Fellows. These leading researchers will receive support from the Simons Foundation to apply their skills and expertise to a new area of research. Rosenbaum is an associate professor of anthropology in LSA. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of sociality in primates, including humans. She answers questions about how primates develop and maintain relationships, what implications these relationships have for participants, how relationships and physiology interact with one another, and how such interactions ultimately affect health, longevity and reproduction. As a field biologist, she uses decades of data collected on wild primate populations — specifically, mountain gorillas living in Rwanda and savannah baboons in southern Kenya — to try to understand the ways in which our closest living relatives resemble us, and the ways in which Homo sapiens are unique. For more on this award.

Liz Svoboda’s efforts have garnered attention not just at UM-Flint but throughout the state. Thanks to her trailblazing work as a librarian, educator and collaborator, she was recently named Academic Librarian of the Year by the Michigan Academic Library Association. The Academic Librarian of the Year Award recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of a MiALA member and their contributions to their institution and to academic libraries within the 2024-25 academic year. “I think one of the reasons I was nominated for this award is that my work is very visible,” Svoboda said. “A lot of people reach out to me with library questions because they know my name, even though all of the library’s faculty and staff work together to ensure we are meeting student needs.” For more on Svoboda and this award.

Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, has been elected to the National Academy of Public Administration as a member of its 2025 Class of Academy Fellows. As an Academy Fellow she will be involved in advancing the field of public administration and supporting government at the local, state and federal levels. An internationally recognized sociologist, Watkins-Hayes is widely credited for her groundbreaking research at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and human service institutions, with a special focus on HIV/AIDS, poverty, and race, class and gender studies. In 2025 she was elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science, honors that underscore her impact on social science scholarship. Selection of the academy’s new fellows follows a rigorous review of the individual’s contributions to the field of public administration and policy. The 42 members of the 2025 class join more than 1,000 Academy Fellows, including former cabinet officers, members of Congress, governors, mayors and state legislators, as well as prominent scholars, executives. For more on this fellowship.

At the Michigan Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education’s 10-Year Anniversary Celebration, Provost Laurie McCauley presented the inaugural Frank Ascione Award in Recognition of Distinguished IPE Leadership to Mark Fitzgerald, former senior associate dean for community-based collaborative care and education and professor of dentistry at the School of Dentistry. The new award honors Frank Ascione, founding director of CIPE and a driving force behind U-M’s leadership in collaborative health education. In addition, CIPE honored those who have made outstanding contributions to advancing interprofessional education, practice, and scholarship through the Awards for IPE Innovation and Excellence. The awards celebrate both new, creative approaches and sustained excellence in teaching, curriculum development, and collaborative practice. The 2025 Award for IPE Innovation was presented to Michael Brenner, associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Michigan Medicine. Brenner was recognized for his Individually Arranged Rotation in Otolaryngology, a forward-thinking model that reimagines what a clinical rotation can be for medical students and beyond. Olivia Anderson, clinical associate professor of nutritional sciences in the School of Public Health, received the Award for IPE Excellence in recognition of her leadership in advancing interprofessional learning through curriculum design, scholarship, and mentorship. Anderson’s work integrates principles of teamwork, cultural humility, and collaborative practice across the core public health curriculum, ensuring that students develop the skills and mindset necessary to work effectively within diverse health teams. The team Award for IPE Excellence was presented to Adrienne Lapidos, clinical associate professor of psychiatry in the Medical School, and Jason Wolfe, program manager at the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. They led a large-scale redesign of the course “Understanding and Improving the U.S. Healthcare System,” transforming it into one of the most comprehensive and inclusive interprofessional learning experiences at U-M. Their reimagined course brings together faculty from 13 U-M schools and community partners to provide learners with an engaging, systems-level understanding of health care in the United States.

— Submit requests for faculty or staff Accolades to recordeditors@umich.edu. Please attach a photo if you wish for one to be included.