NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ Peabody College professors have been named the 2003 recipients of two of Vanderbilt’s most prestigious faculty awards.
During a faculty assembly at the start of the current academic year, Chancellor Gordon Gee presented the Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research to Leonard Bickman and the Thomas Jefferson Award to Howard M. Sandler.
Of Bickman, Gee said, "He has gained a reputation for work that operates not just in theory, but with an awareness of the real world, of the political and organizational circumstances which affect the delivery of mental health services to children and their families." Bickman is professor of psychology at Peabody College, professor of psychiatry, director of the Mental Health Policy Center at VIPPS and fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development.
In presenting the Jefferson Award, Gee said Sandler, professor of psychology and human development at Peabody College, has served Vanderbilt for 34 years in a variety of roles, including chair of the Faculty Senate Affairs Committee, Senate parliamentarian and secretary. He also holds a position on the College Tenure and Promotion Advisory Committee. Gee said Sandler’s "devotion to the quality of teaching at Peabody and at Vanderbilt" is reflected by his membership in the provost’s Committee on Graduate Education, in the advisory committee for the Center for Teaching and on the Advisory Board for the Undergraduate Summer Research Program.
The Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research is presented to a member of the faculty whose scholarly research has had a significant critical reception, and has proven its influence within that researcher’s discipline at a national level. The critical significance of one’s work, its reception by the national scholarly community, and its influence on continued study and research, are the points central to determining the recipient of the Earl Sutherland Prize.
The Jefferson Award is given annually to a faculty member who exemplifies in character, work, and influence not only the principles and ideals of Thomas Jefferson, but the principles and ideals of the University.
Media Contact: Elizabeth Latt, 615-322-NEWS elizabeth.p.latt@vanderbilt.edu