Savage and Lokey Awards Celebrate Outstanding Faculty

By Yancee Gordon BA ’21

Both the David Savage Award and the Lorry Lokey Awards prioritize and celebrate inspirational leadership, rigorous scholarship, and creative accomplishments in the classroom and in the broader academic community. This year’s awards recognize four Lewis & Clark faculty members from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities for their excellence.

Savage Award recipient Kim BrodkinAssociate Professor with Term of Humanities Kim Brodkin is the recipient of this year’s David Savage Award. The David Savage Award is given to a deserving faculty member whose vision and sustained service to the College have advanced the general academic and intellectual welfare of our community of teacher-scholars. The work of this faculty member reflects the selfless ethic demonstrated over the years by Dr. David Savage, who provided a model of inspirational leadership, tireless support, and genuine respect for his colleagues.

Brodkin, the 2016 recipient of the Teacher of the Year award, and a fellow in the Teaching Excellence Program, works to effectively create and sustain important connections among the alumni, community members, and scholars across the country year after year. She is best known for her longtime stewardship of the Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies and the Gender Studies Symposium, which under her leadership have become indispensable opportunities for students, faculty, outside scholars, and community members to address and think through some of the most complex and challenging issues of the day.

“At the heart of her service ethos lies her ferocious commitment to the teaching and learning mission of the college,” said Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Bruce Suttmeier while presenting the award. “There is no better exemplar of the Savage Award than this colleague who sets a high bar for us all as a mentor, a teacher, an intellectual leader, and an inspiring campus and community citizen.”

The Lorry Lokey Faculty Excellence Award helps sustain Lewis & Clark’s commitment to recruiting, retaining, and rewarding outstanding faculty. Recipients are selected for their inspired teaching, rigorous scholarship, demonstrated leadership, and creative accomplishments. This year’s recipients are Associate Professor of English Karen Gross , Associate Professor of Biology Margaret Metz, and Professor of History Elliott Young.

Associate Professor of English Karen GrossThe 2019 Teacher of Year, Gross has turned her intellectual passion into considerable success in teaching and publication, while mentoring undergraduate advisees and fellowship recipients. She recently arranged to add a rare Italian book of hours to Watzek Library’s Special Collections and Archives, and has used it in her course, Working With Medieval Manuscripts.

“I would love someday to sit alongside her and hear her narrate a rare book of hours she arranged to add to our Special Collections” said Professor of Environmental Studies Jim Proctor. “I hear it has held audiences across the humanities and physical sciences on campus, and may she continue to serve such a rich, professional life among her grateful colleagues.”

Lokey Award winner Margaret MetzBiology Professor Margaret Metz has published 26 peer-reviewed papers while managing hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funds and coordinating collaborations spanning multiple institutions and countries. Her teaching pedagogy draws on data-driven practices and through them creates inclusive classrooms that foster a sense of belonging that makes her beloved by her students.

“She embodies the essence of what Lewis & Clark has to offer— a rigorous education connected to meaningful mentorship and relationships with faculty,” said Associate Professor of Sociology Sarah Warren while presenting the award. “A transformative presence on campus, her teaching and scholarship bridge academic fields, and her commitment to the school is evidenced in the inclusivity and above-and-beyond work she does both for her department and for the college.”

Lokey Award recipient Elliott YoungHistory Professor Elliott Young is the founder of the Tepoztlán Institute for Transnational History of the Americas in Mexico, and has published three major monographs and one edited volume. He has established himself as a public intellectual, writing in The Washington Post, Huffington Post, the Oregonian, and other outlets, and has served as an expert witness on dozens of asylum cases for immigrants from Mexico and Central America. He has recently received a $25,000 grant for his Migration Scholar Collaborative Project aimed to bring together scholars from the humanistic social sciences to frame immigration policy on a national level.

“Elliott’s leadership outside of our campus is deep and impactful, and there is a hands on, roll up your sleeves component to many of his courses that makes them unique,” said Associate Professor of History Maureen Healy. “His course on Immigration and Asylum Law especially is a model course for tying rigorous academic research to real world engagement.”

Biology at Lewis & Clark

English at Lewis & Clark

Gender Studies at Lewis & Clark

History at Lewis & Clark