AAG’s Susan Hardwick Excellence in Mentoring Award acknowledges Dr. Leslie Duram’s remarkable mentorship and lasting impact on students and colleagues. Dr. Duram, Professor of Geography and Environmental Resources and Director of the Environmental Studies minor at Southern Illinois University, has advised numerous graduate students, including those from underrepresented backgrounds and helped them achieve career success. Her unparalleled dedication to mentoring students extends to undergraduate students in the Environmental Studies minor as she provides all aspects of professional development opportunities. Dr. Duram’s exceptional mentorship and unwavering support has reached many of her colleagues and contributed to fostering a vibrant and engaged community in her department, university, and the geography discipline. As the department chair, she has been a supportive and inspirational colleague and mentor to her faculty colleagues for personal and professional growth. Her remarkable mentorship was highly recognized by prestigious awards such as Teaching Excellence Award and University Women’s Professional Advancement (UWPA) Mentorship Award by her institution (SIU).   

Students and colleagues of Dr. Duram have extensively shared the deep impacts of her genuine compassion for their personal well-being and continued growth into successful scholars, educators, and professionals. With an innate understanding of each individual’s strengths and potential, Dr. Duram has skillfully provided the tools and opportunities necessary for success. Her dedication to caring for varied needs, nurturing talent, and promoting a culture of continuous learning has made an indelible impact on her students and peers. Dr. Duram’s mentorship is a shining example of dedication and excellence.

Dr. Derek Alderman is recognized for his outstanding and impactful contributions to mentorship of students and early career faculty colleagues. The committee particularly noted the caring and inclusive environment Dr. Alderman creates which supports a highly valued climate of collegiality within the University of Tennessee Department of Geography and Sustainability, the impressive number of students mentored throughout his career, his holistic “coaching up” mentorship style that centers diversity, equity, and inclusion, draws upon his own life experience, and goes far beyond a one-size-fits-all mentorship approach. The committee was moved by the testimonies and letters of support submitted by Dr. Alderman’s mentees which embody the spirit, memory, and legacy of the late Dr. Susan Hardwick.

Heather A. Smith, University of North Carolina Charlotte, is recognized for her outstanding style of mentorship that emulates, honors, and embodies the spirit, memory and legacy of the late Dr. Susan Hardwick.

Students and colleagues of Dr. Smith praise her generosity, inclusivity and focus on collaboration, service, and leadership. Dr. Smith is recognized for her commitment to providing more access, more opportunity, more attention, more care, more critical engagement, and more professional development than is typical in academia, all while exemplifying high standards for excellence and engagement. Further, she has provided students with the skills and resources they need to succeed as scholars and practitioners. She shows sustained interest in the continued growth, well-being, and success of current and former students and faculty colleagues. The far-reaching impacts of her style of mentorship are carried forward by her mentees into other spaces and places.

Dr. Smith’s professional interests and mentoring strengths have guided a generation of geography students in effective community engagement and in the ethical conduct of engaged research. Through highly impactful professional development meetings and other structured mentoring spaces and activities, Dr. Smith engages and guides students at every level, from undergraduate to Ph.D. She also sustains junior colleagues in effectively and successfully navigating academia and beyond. Her mentorship is exemplary and invaluable.

David Lopez-Carr, UC Santa Barbara, for his demonstrated outstanding leadership in creating effective, structured mentorship avenues and for his clear, intentional work to diversify the discipline.

2021 Hilda Kurtz of the University of Georgia has mentored her students with hands-on facilitation of quality research papers and proposals with a high track record of funding success. Through journal editorship, she has mentored diverse early career scholars in academic publishing. She also co-founded the Franklin College Diversity and Inclusion Graduate Fellows Program, which establishes a local community of engagement around social justice. Kurtz has also developed a workshop series focused on work-life balance, emphasizing job market preparation and tanglible skills for success in academe, which have been forally integrated into the Geography Department’s required first year graduate student seminar.

2020
Dr. Jeffery Roth of Stephen F. Austin State University is an excellent mentor, who advises students from a variety of backgrounds. He has demonstrated commitment to supporting students both professionally and personally, thus embodying the exemplary legacy of the late Susan Hardwick. Dr. Roth has served as Geography Club advisor, he continues to create lifelong learners, has received teaching awards, and actively participates, and encourages students to participate in, community activities. It is clear that Dr. Roth has shaped the lives of faculty, students, and members of the community in remarkable ways.

2019
Lorraine Dowler not only mentors at all levels, but is a strong advocate for her mentees. She is committed to the holistic development of her advisees (students or colleagues), and pays particular attention to the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of those with whom she interacts, especially new faculty learning to balance academia. Dr. Dowler’s advocacy of students and colleagues goes above and beyond the criteria listed for this AAG award. Besides her tireless advocacy for students and colleagues, she also continues to advise, research, publish, and contribute to the field of geography. For the qualities and characteristics that Dr. Dowler puts forth, and for her genuine concern for all those that work with her, she is a most deserving recipient of this award.

2018
David Kaplan of Kent State University is an exceptional mentor, serving as principal advisor to over 20 master’s thesis student committees and 11 PhD student committees, as well as serving on the committees of dozens of other student projects. Recent advisees refer to him as a “lifelong advisor” who has “enduring and genuine concern” for his students. In addition, his support of junior peers at his institution and elsewhere speaks to his commitment to offer sound counsel and valuable advice to others to advance their academic and professional paths. Kaplan’s extraordinary dedication and service to his department, institution and the AAG exemplify the many ways that he is committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion in geography.

2017
Beverly Mullings is a trailblazer in supporting mental health in academia through both her purposeful, strategic, and actionable advice to the people she supports and platforms she has built for individuals who have been afraid to speak out about mental health. Through her creation of a list serve on mental health and the academy and kickstarting the AAG’s mental health initiative she has been a persistent advocate for those most marginalized in our discipline. Dr. Mullings has also been integral in revitalizing both the Gender Studies program at Queen’s University and the Journal of Critical Race Inquiry.

2016
Kenneth E. Foote, in recognition of his career-long dedication to being a mentor, but also in helping other to be successful mentors themselves. He has worked diligently to mentor department chairs and other leaders. He has tirelessly promoted and encouraged colleagues along their career paths, and he has been particularly committed to sharing effective means of mentoring graduate students and faculty. He was co-leader of the AAG’s Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education (EDGE) programs, and for more than 10 years he has organized and hosted Graduate Faculty Development Alliance workshops and Department Leadership workshops.

2015

Susan Hardwick has, throughout her long and meritorious career, served as primary mentor or advisor to countless graduate and undergraduate students, as well as supporting K-12 geography teachers in Oregon, Texas, California and elsewhere. Through her service within the AAG and other professional organizations, she has contributed greatly to the mentoring of junior faculty members and graduate students. She has helped many young people enter into and pursue rewarding paths within our discipline, and has been an especially valuable mentor to women in geography. Besides directly mentoring women in the discipline, she has also worked to raise awareness of the experiences of women as they seek to become successful in their careers as geographers.