Every March, Faculty Excellence honors 31 women for their impact on students and UCF’s campus community. This year, as we continue to charge on during a pandemic, our women faculty have not wavered in their commitments as mentors, role models, friends, researchers and teachers.

LIFE@UCF generously sponsored this year’s award. Each woman received a Barnes & Noble gift card.

The 2021 honorees are listed below, and more detailed bios will be updated daily on the Provost’s website during the month of March to feature each woman and her accomplishments.

Congratulations to this year’s honorees:

Raheleh Ahangari
Associate Professor

Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine

Mindi Anderson
Professor and Director of Healthcare Simulation Graduate Program

Nursing Practice, College of Nursing

Reshawna Chapple
Associate Professor

School of Social Work, College of Health Professions and Sciences

Alicja Copik

Research Associate Professor and Core Scientist
Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine

Kaitlyn Crawford

Assistant Professor
Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science

Elena Flitsiyan

Senior Lecturer and Undergraduate Program Director
Physics, College of Sciences

Amanda Groff ’03 ’07MA
Associate Lecturer

Anthropology, College of Sciences

Alicia Hawthorne
Assistant Professor

Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine

Elizabeth Hoffman ’83 ’94MEd ’06PhD
Associate Lecturer and Academic Program Coordinator

School of Teacher Education, College of Community Innovation and Education

Elizabeth Horn ’10MFA
Assistant Professor

School of Performing Arts, College of Arts and Humanities

J. Richelle Joe
Assistant Professor

Counselor Education, College of Community Innovation and Education

Catherine Kaukinen
Professor and Chair

Criminal Justice, College of Community Innovation and Education

Annette Khaled
Professor and Cancer Division Head

Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine

Sherron Killingsworth Roberts
Professor and Robert N. Heintzelman Literature Scholar

School of Teacher Education, College of Community Innovation and Education

Brigitte Kovacevich
Associate Professor

Anthropology, College of Sciences

Kristy Lewis
Assistant Professor

Biology, College of Sciences

Amelia Lyons
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs

History, College of Arts and Humanities

Marisa Macy
Lecturer

School of Teacher Education, College of Community Innovation and Education

Sheila Moore
Visiting Lecturer

Educational Leadership, College of Community Innovation and Education

Karen Mottarella
Senior Lecturer

Psychology, College of Sciences

Donna Neff
Professor

Nursing Systems, College of Nursing

Bendegul Okumus ’16MS
Assistant Professor

Foodservice and Lodging Management, Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Elsie Olan
Associate Professor

School of Teacher Education, College of Community Innovation and Education

Noemi Pinilla-Alonso
Associate Scientist

Florida Space Institute and Arecibo Observatory, College of Sciences

Kerry Purmensky
Associate Professor

Modern Languages and Literatures, College of Arts and Humanities

Lisa Roney
Associate Professor

English, College of Arts and Humanities

Audra Skukauskaitė
Associate Professor

Learning Sciences and Educational Research, College of Community Innovation and Education

Trudian Trail-Constant
Associate Instructional Designer

Center for Distributed Learning

Shane Trenta ’99 ’02MA ’17EdD
Associate Lecturer

School of Teacher Education, College of Community Innovation and Education

Marcy Verduin
Associate Dean of Students and Professor of Psychiatry

College of Medicine

Pamela Wisniewski
Associate Professor

Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science