Each year, the highly competitive UM System President’s Awards recognize faculty who have made exceptional contributions in advancing the mission of the University.
The awards are presented on behalf of President Mun Choi to faculty members across the four universities of the UM System. President’s Award recipients will be recognized at a Board of Curators meeting on their university campus, as well as at a faculty awards event hosted at their home institution. This year, two UMKC faculty, Richard Delaware and Sarah Pilgrim, were among the 13 awardees recognized across the UM System.
President’s Award for Innovative Teaching
Richard Delaware, Ph.D., Teaching Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, UMKC
In Delaware’s own words: “We must encourage our students to reason actively, not blindly master mathematical tools, and to trust to their own innate originality. Mathematics is a quintessentially human endeavor.”
Delaware teaches mathematics courses that integrate history, writing, immersion and active learning principles. His students have published dozens of expository mathematics publications and won numerous national and local writing awards. In his classes, students engage with the subject by working together on mathematical proofs and posting them on online learning platforms. He also has created YouTube-based courses that can supplement high school and college lectures. Importantly, his methods of educating middle school mathematics teaching majors inspire them to re-create empowering education experiences for their future students. Delaware’s innovative teaching encourages students to take ownership of their learning and apply creativity to all aspects of life.
President’s Award for Intercampus Collaboration
Sarah Pilgrim, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, UMKC
Ginny Ramseyer Winter, Ph.D., MU
The Inter-Campus Collaboration Award recognizes faculty who engage in activities that foster collaboration across two or more universities of the University of Missouri System. At UMKC, Sarah Pilgrim, Ph.D., focuses on the sexual health and decision-making of adolescents in foster care. At MU, Ginny Ramseyer Winter, Ph.D., investigates body image and health disparities. She created the Center for Body Image Research & Policy with the help of MU colleagues; and faculty from other universities, including Pilgrim, are affiliated.
The collaboration includes departmental affiliations with Psychology at Penn State Abington, Textile and Apparel Management at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Social Work at Washburn University, Social Work at the University of Arkansas, Public Health at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The range of collaborators and their departments speaks to both Ramseyer Winter and Pilgrim’s dedication to interdisciplinary partnerships. Their work examines body image and sexual health among Missouri foster youth and utilizes mobile technology to provide foster parents with the knowledge and skills necessary to help decrease sexual health disparities. Importantly, this study would not be possible without intercampus collaboration. Ramseyer Winter and Pilgrim’s sincere desire to better the lives of underserved youth is energizing for all those involved. This collaborative project will go a long way to assisting the most vulnerable young Missourians by disseminating critical public health information.