Reynolds, a UofL alumna, is CEO of Perception Institute, an organization of researchers, facilitators and strategists turning mind science research into solutions that apply to individual and institutional success. She previously served as CEO of the Louisville Urban League and was the first woman to hold this title in the affiliate’s 95-year history. Her career encompasses many firsts, including being the first Black woman to clerk for the Kentucky Supreme Court and the first Black inspector general for Kentucky.

Hollenbach is a managing partner of Hollenbach-Oakley, a Louisville-based commercial real estate development firm, which he co-founded in 1996. His firm has been involved with business park projects totaling over 3,500 acres and $1 billion dollars in real estate investment. A graduate of both Leadership Louisville and Bingham Fellows, he has served as a board member of the Louisville City FC Board of Directors, Louisville Sports Commission, the Building Industry Association of Louisville, Olmstead Parks Conservancy and the Old National Bank Advisory Board.

In other news …

Trustees conferred the Trustees Award to Jasmine Farrier, professor of political science and director of the UofL-Frankfort Internship Program. The Trustees Award was established in 1989 to honor faculty who have an extraordinary impact on students.

“Dr. Farrier’s commitment to student success is evident in her pedagogical approach, which balances rigor with accessibility and fosters intellectual curiosity while equipping students with practical skills,” said Trustee and Faculty Senate Chair Eugene Mueller. “Her ability to challenge students with complex constitutional and institutional topics — while simultaneously ensuring they build a solid foundation in critical thinking, research and civic engagement — is a testament to her excellence as an educator.”

The next meeting of the University of Louisville Board of Trustees will take place Thursday, May 22, at 1 p.m., in the Jefferson Room, Grawemeyer Hall. Board meeting minutes, schedules and other information are available on .

The conferred the 2024 Presidential Excellence Awards during the awards reception, which took place April 18. The awards recognize the employees whose exemplary performance impacts the entire university community.

Here are this year’s winners:

George J. Howe Distinguished Staff Award
The annual George J. Howe Distinguished Staff Award recognizes the contributions of an extraordinary UofL staff member who exemplifies the traits of its namesake George J. Howe (humility, generosity and excellence in leadership) as well as the Cardinal Principles. This staff member’s career has had an exceptional impact on the university and its vision to be a great place to learn, discover, connect and work.

• Angela Taylor, associate vice president for student affairs and assistant dean of students

Trustees Award
The Board of Trustees of the University of Louisville established The Trustees Award in 1989 to honor faculty who individually impact the future of our students. The award is intended to recognize faculty who have had, currently or in the past, an extraordinary impact on students.

• Jennifer Brueckner-Collins, professor, Department of Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology, School of Medicine

Cardinal Principles Champions
The Cardinal Principles Champions award is designed to honor our faculty and staff who have demonstrated one of the Cardinal Principles at the highest level of impact.

• Community of Care: Paige Shank, Early Learning Campus
• Accountability: Elise Franklin, Department of History, College of Arts & Sciences, 
• Respect: Lance Flint, Dean’s Office, College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development
• Diversity and Inclusion: Jennifer M. Porter, School of Medicine
• Integrity and Transparency: Jessica Belue Buckley, Department of ����ֱ��al Leadership, Evaluation and Organizational Development, College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development
• Noble Purpose: Taylor L. Pratt, LEAD, SKILLS Collaborative
• Agility: Allysse Marie Stokes, Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work and Family Science
• Leadership: Riece Hamilton, Health Promotion

Distinguished Faculty Awards
Every year, the university honors faculty who bring distinction to the university through their commitment to the areas of service, teaching and outstanding scholarship, research and creative activity.

Outstanding Scholarship, Research and Creative Activity

• Basic and Applied Sciences: Sanjay Srivastava, School of Medicine 
• Creative and Performing Arts: Emily Albrink Katz, School of Music
• Career Achievement: Steven C. Koenig, School of Medicine and Speed School of Engineering 
• Social Sciences: Cheri A. Levinson, College of Arts and Sciences 
• Humanities: Andreas Elpidorou, College of Arts and Sciences 

Distinguished Service

• Service to UofL: Peter M. Quesada, Speed School of Engineering 
• Career of Service: Ronald I. Paul, School of Medicine 
• Service to the Profession: Eli Karam, Kent School of Social Work and Family Science 
• Service to the Community, the Commonwealth and/or the Region: Michael Brandon McCormack, College of Arts & Sciences 

Distinguished Teaching Professor

• Aaron William Calhoun, School of Medicine, full-time
• Caroline C. Sheffield, College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development, full-time
• Siobhan E. Smith-Jones, College of Arts and Sciences, full-time
• Stuart J. Williams, Speed School of Engineering, full-time
• Elizabeth Gentry, Speed School of Engineering, part-time

Outstanding Performance Award Winners
The Outstanding Performance Awards recognize university staff (both exempt and nonexempt) who inspire others through their outstanding dedication and commitment to UofL.

• Debbie Aldi, Physical Plant
• Rebecca Barrett, School of Nursing
• Mary Ann Campbell, Center for Military Connected Students
• Geeta Gulati, Student Affairs
• Jetta Hall, Office of Admissions
• Paula T. Huffman, Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Sciences
• Courtney Kerr, Graduate School
• Troy Lamont Rice, Office of Admissions-Transfer and Adult Services
• Donnie Thomas, Physical Plant
• Marissa Williams, Student Success Center

Outstanding Supervisor Award Winner
Great supervisors create a culture of engagement that includes supporting the development of team members and sending a strong, consistent message of respect, compassion and trustworthiness.

• Brittany Blake, undergraduate affairs, Speed School of Engineering

Team Impact Award Winners
Behind every great accomplishment at the University of Louisville is a team of dedicated employees who worked collaboratively to realize their vision. This exceptional team has had a great impact on the university. As the saying goes, teamwork makes the dream work.

• College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development Summer Bridge Team (Elementary/Middle & Secondary and Health & Sport Sciences): Penny Howell, Kate Marin, Megan Shreffler, Katie Harman, Gin Presley, Greta Cesarz, Mike Jett

Presidential Commission Awards

Commission on the Status of Women (COSW)

• Champion of Advocacy: Olfa Nasraoui, Speed School of Engineering
• Champion of Communications: Baylee Pulliam, Office of Research and Innovation
• Climate & Equity Champion: Brian Buford, Employee Success Center
• Commissioner of the Year: Rennie Davis, Metropolitan College
• Volunteer of the Year: Cherie Dawson-Edwards, Faculty Affairs
• Catalyst: Anita R. Hall, University Libraries

Commission on Diversity and Racial Equity (CODRE)

• Presidential Exemplary Multicultural Teaching Award: Luis Marsano, School of Medicine
• Presidential Exemplary Multicultural Engagement Staff Award: Diane Whitlock, Office of Institutional Equity
• Commissioner of the Year Award: Marian R. Vasser, Office of Diversity ����ֱ�� and Inclusive Excellence

The UofL Board of Trustees established the $5,000 award in 1989 to honor faculty who individually impact the future of UofL students. Trustee Vice Chair Raymond Burse presented the award to Running at the April 21 trustees meeting. In his presentation, Burse noted several of Running’s accomplishments and qualities as a member of UofL’s faculty.

“Dr. Running joined the university in 2010 as an assistant professor, and since then has been a leader in generating new opportunities for students to engage in co-curricular learning and undergraduate research,” said Burse. “He was instrumental in creating three new Registered Student Organizations: the Tri-Beta Biology Honors Society; the Cardinal Edge Undergraduate Research Journal, which recently published its first issue; and the SALUD multicultural pre-health organization.”

Burse added that Running’s mentoring of undergraduate students in research has been exceptional, having consistently supervised large numbers of undergraduates taking research courses; welcoming students as volunteers in his lab, allowing them to experience the research environment and gain the skills they need to engage in research for credit in future semesters; and his success in recruiting undergraduates who are members of underrepresented groups to work in his lab.

“Ever since I joined the biology department at UofL, my goal has been to leverage my position to make extensive, positive impacts in students’ lives,” said Running, who has mentored more than 100 different undergraduates in his lab, either as volunteers, course credit or work-study. “This has brought me some of the greatest satisfaction I’ve had in my career.”

Learn more about Running’s work at the University of Louisville and beyond on the .

The award, in its 32nd year, is UofL’s most prestigious faculty award, recognizing faculty members who have made significant contributions to student life. The UofL Board of Trustees made the announcement at its meeting April 22.

“Thank you so much,” Gainous said. “I couldn’t be more honored. I really do owe this so much to my students. I can’t believe what I get to do.”

Gainous, who has been at UofL since 2006, is a comparative political behavioralist whose research focuses on the intersection of information technology and public opinion. He is frequently interviewed by members of local, national and international media in television, print and radio for his political science expertise. He is director UofL’s , where he has placed almost 500 students in the House and Senate in Frankfort. He also works with the Personnel Cabinet of the Kentucky Executive Branch placing students in paid summer positions.

“For most students, their dreams are bigger than one class. They want to take on the challenges of the world and the workplace. To help students, experiential learning outside the classroom is critical,” Gainous said in his teaching and learning statement. “I have seen the importance of experiential learning as the director of the Kentucky General Assembly Internship Program for 14 years. … This program has shaped lives by teaching students that they can use what they have learned to affect change.”

In letters reinforcing his nomination for the award, students and colleagues praised — over and over again — the unconditional support and infectious enthusiasm he offers students.

“Despite my dyslexia, Professor Gainous saw in me a student worth teaching,” wrote Bryce Kleinsteuber. “As a direct result, I went from someone unsure about what I wanted to do with my future when I first sat in his class on the Internet and Politics in 2013 to a PhD student in political science now.”

Gainous is a frequent conference presenter and his most recent book is “Tweeting to Power: The Social Media Revolution in American Politics,” with co-author Kevin M. Wagner. He is also co-editor of Journal of Information Technology & Politics, the American Political Science Association’s flagship journal in political communications.

In partnership with the Kentucky Commission on Military Affairs and Jeffrey Sun of UofL’s College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development, Gainous has recently been helping to develop training programs in the cybersecurity industry for service members, veterans and their dependents.

Gainous will receive the award, which includes $5,000 in prize money, during commencement exercises at Cardinal Stadium the weekend of May 7-9. 

The award, in its 31st year, is UofL’s most prestigious faculty award, recognizing faculty members who have made significant contributions to student life. The UofL Board of Trustees made the announcement Dec. 10.

“I’m so honored and I’m so humbled by this incredible award,” Fosl said. 

Fosl founded the ABI in 2006, two years after arriving at UofL, and since then has helped UofL earn classification as a Carnegie Foundation community engagement institution. 

“The ABI mission is to ‘bridge the gap between academic research and community activism for racial and social justice’,” Fosl said in her 2020 Teaching and Learning Statement. “… ABI students, staff, and I have conducted teach-ins and civil rights history tours with multiple UofL classes across several colleges and programs, as well as in dozens of (Jefferson County Public School) and other K-12 classrooms, various local civic and governmental groups, and in or with multiple universities regionally.”

Through the ABI, Fosl has created funded opportunities for UofL students to gain meaningful new research and community engagement experience, focusing on issues ranging from homelessness to increasing the visibility of Kentucky LGBTQ history. 

Fosl is the author of several books including Braden’s biography “Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South” and “Freedom on the Border: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky” with her colleague Tracy E. K’Meyer, UofL history professor.

“Perhaps one of her most interesting, and literally far-reaching, collaborations was with her 2013 and 2016 study abroad courses in South Africa,” K’Meyer said in her letter supporting Fosl’s nomination for the award. “In these classes, Fosl taught the history of white women’s anti-racist activism in the U.S. South and in South Africa.”

The late Anne Braden was a Louisvillian known as one of the most prominent white anti-racists in U.S. history. She is one of only six white southerners whom the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. named as reliable allies in his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” 

In 2019, Fosl won a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award for the “Anne Braden Institute-Kentucky LGBTQ Heritage” project, conducted from 2015-2017. That project, in association with the Fairness Campaign, held statewide “History Harvests” to collect and preserve Kentucky’s LGBTQ history, and the ABI report was published by the National Park Service as part of its effort to document minority communities.

ABI also established an annual, free Anne Braden Memorial Lecture to focus on the U.S. civil rights movement. From the 2007 inaugural talk by Julian Bond, longtime NAACP president and rights leader, to activist Angela Davis, the series has brought to UofL nationally known speakers and authors on topics ranging from mass incarceration and Black Lives Matter to racial divides and justice in present-day America.

Fosl will receive $5,000 and a plaque recognizing her achievement. She will also be recognized at the 2020 Virtual Commencement at .

In its 30^th year, the Trustees Award recognizes one faculty member annually for his or her outstanding contributions to student life. The award is the most prestigious faculty honor at UofL.

This year’s recipient is Jeffrey C. Sun, JD, PhD, chair of the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development’s Department of ����ֱ��al Leadership, Evaluation, and Organizational Development (ELEOD). He is a nationally known scholar in higher education law who five years ago arrived at UofL and began the nation’s first faculty development program for U.S. Army ROTC instructors. The course, taught at Fort Knox, is attracting attention from others who want to partner with UofL, such as the U.S. Navy and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and has made UofL the leading ACC institution for percentage of student body who are military-connected.

Students and fellow faculty members alike wholeheartedly recommended him for the award, saying Sun’s unwavering support for his students despite his full schedule makes him stand out.

“I came to the University of Louisville to work with Dr. Sun,” wrote Megan J. Pifer, PhD, associate professor of higher education and senior assistant director of the Master Educator Course (MEC). “He cultivated his vision around what students need today, what they will need tomorrow, and how we must better prepare them for their lives and careers.”

She praised Sun for never letting his large-scale projects detract from his teaching and mentorship. “He is known for recognizing students by name and remembering the details of their journeys—the institutions where they work, their recent promotions, the names of their children, their ambitions. I have personally delivered thank-you notes to him hand-written by students who want to express their appreciation for his effort to see him, sometimes among hundreds at a time, as individuals with fears, goals and talents.”

William Kyle Ingle, PhD, associate professor and assistant ELEOD department chairperson, pointed out that Sun further impacts students indirectly through his leadership as department chair. Sun led the department to adopt four goals: enhance the student experience, value research and inquiry, develop partnerships and create a culture of community building and systems development.

“Dr. Sun is tireless in his pursuit of these goals and his dedication and work ethic are an example to us all,” Ingle wrote in his nomination letter. “… When a faculty member says he or she cannot, Dr. Sun says, yes you can.”

U.S. Army Master Sgt. Raul Cantu, a former student who is senior military instructor at Stephen F. Austin State University and an 18-year active duty serve member, said thousands of cadets have benefited from what their leaders learned in the Sun’s MEC (formerly known as the Cadre and Faculty Development Course).

“Hundreds of students have completed (the course) and taken that knowledge to their host universities/programs,” he wrote. “…I can honestly say that my experience with the University of Louisville, (the MEC) and Dr. Sun has been transformative for me professionally and personally.”

Sun has a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master of Philosophy  from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and Teachers College at Columbia University; a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Moritz College of Law – The Ohio State University; and an MBA, and International Business Certificate and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University. He is a member of the bar in Ohio.

During his career, he has won more than $10.3 million in grant and contract funding. He has more than $1.7 million in external funds under review.

Sun received the news that he won after the trustees voted on the award at their April 18 meeting.

“Given the many dedicated, high-quality professors at the University of Louisville, receiving this award is surprising and humbling,” Sun said.

The award is accompanied by a $5,000 prize. Sun plans to use $500 to establish a student scholarship fund in honor of Kelly Ising, a 42-year UofL employee who retired recently as ELEOD’s administrative associate. The rest he hopes to use on well-deserved break – a family vacation that will include his siblings and 10 nieces and nephews.

When asked his reaction to winning the Trustees Award, Sun provided his personal “Statement of Teaching.” He noted that he won similar teaching awards from his previous institutions.

“While the awards are emblems of my progress,” he wrote in his statement, “I recognize that my role and professional responsibility include continuous development–especially in terms of incorporating new technologies and applying findings from new research on graduate teaching and advising.”

More history of the Trustees Award and previous Trustees Award winners can be found .

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to student life and is the highest honor given by the UofL Board of Trustees. 

Sun is a professor of higher education and chair of the Department of ����ֱ��al Leadership, Evaluation, and Organizational Development. 

Trustee Raymond Burse said of Sun: “He is one of the CEHD’s top performing administrators and faculty, having made many impressive contributions to the department in the form of securing external grants, supporting faculty in their research initiatives, helping his colleagues pursue professional development and mentoring students.”

Sun said he is “deeply honored” to receive the trustees’ “most prestigious award, adding that he was surprised to hear he had been chosen.

“I don’t know why” he was picked for the award, he said. “But I thank you.”

The trustees will recognize Sun at commencement May 11. The award also includes a $5,000 cash prize.

The award honors extraordinary impact on students, and the political science professor will receive it during the Dec. 15 commencement ceremony.

Helping students succeed is quite a motivator. “It’s my great joy,” she said.

A UofL faculty member since 1994, Bunck was named a distinguished honors professor in 2002 and now mostly teaches honors classes. Her areas of expertise include Latin American politics and international relations, but her student nominators attest to learning much more from their mentor and role model than her subject material.

They refer to her infectious enthusiasm, motivational approach, intellectual discussion, high expectations, career advice and moral support. Several cite Bunck’s generosity with her time and expertise outside the classroom time and office hours, offering advice on papers, presentations, applications and interviews.

She also supervises many honors or master’s thesis projects and serves on numerous committees to select university award recipients and entrance into programs such as the McConnell Scholars.

A three-time Fulbright scholar herself in Mexico, Japan and Central America, Bunck twice has been a visiting professor for Semester at Sea study-abroad voyages that went to a total of 24 countries. She has been a visiting lecturer for months in Vietnam and taught in Australia and Ecuador.

These international experiences encourage academic growth for professors as well as students and bring credibility to her UofL classroom discussion and approach.

“You come back and the way you think about teaching changes,” she said.

Bunck encourages students to study abroad and to apply for the scholarship programs and other funding opportunities that can make those horizon-broadening, life-changing opportunities possible. Many of those winners of prominent scholarships have been political science students and majors.

She also encourages critical thinking, integrates current events and personal experiences and draws out her students’ opinions in class discussion.

With that critical thinking comes an emphasis on writing. Bunck passes out copies of her practical student guide to writing papers, which covers grammatical issues and editorial tips. She still receives emails from former students who either still use the handy guidebook or want her to send them an updated copy to use on the job or advanced studies.

Several students mentioned that they continue to stay in touch with Bunck years after graduation and rely on her career counsel and encouragement. They also acknowledge that Bunck seemed to recognize in them potential they didn’t see in themselves.

Bunck enjoys getting to know her students and helping match them with programs she thinks might fit with their education and future careers. That can involve tapping them to brainstorm about their next steps with discussions centering on suggestions such as “Have you thought about applying for this? Have you ever considered this?”

“I just put a lot of my time and energy into teaching and working with students,” Bunck said. “Students just need so much attention, and they’re all on the cusp of becoming great and you can’t let them slip away.

“I’m so appreciative of these students.”