2026 Recipients
Faculty Excellence in Teaching
Amy Preston Page
Instructional Assistant Professor, Social Work
College of Public Health
Amy Preston Page received her PhD in Clinical Social Work in 2018 and came to George Mason in 2023 as an instructional assistant professor in the Department of Social Work in the College of Public Health (CPH). She has taught a broad range of courses, including foundational courses, research courses, and clinical practice courses. She has also developed and taught specialized courses addressing behavioral health interventions and the needs of military- and veteran-connected individuals and families. She consistently receives outstanding evaluations from her students, in both her in-person and online courses. She actively seeks out professional development opportunities and routinely brings her newly acquired skills and knowledge back into the classroom. She currently serves as the Chair of the College of Public Health Curriculum Committee, which provides leadership for curriculum review and continuous improvement across the College of Public Health.
Justin Ramsdell
Instructional Associate Professor, Psychology
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Justin Ramsdell joined the Department of Psychology in 2015 as an instructional faculty member in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS). He also serves as associate chair for Undergraduate Education. He has received numerous recognitions for his teaching, including the university’s Teaching Excellence Award (2019), the International Anthology Catalyst Award for Student Success (2024), and Peter N. Stearns Provost Athlete Scholar Award (2024, 2025). He is almost singlehandedly responsible for the development and growth of the Forensic Psychology Concentration and Minor in Psychology Department, having established the program, developed the curriculum and created five new courses that form the academic core of the program. He is innovative in his pedagogy, employing interview-based case studies and a practitioner lens that help make complex material accessible, relevant, and memorable. He receives consistently excellent evaluations of his teaching from both students and peers. Beyond the classroom, he helps students find internships and career placements and has written recommendation letters for an average of over 32 students per year over the past five years.
John Toups Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Teaching
Peggy Sharleen Brouse
Instructional Professor and Assoc. Chair, Department of Cybersecurity Engineering and Instructional Professor, Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research
College of Engineering and Computing
After a career in industry, Peggy Brouse joined the George Mason faculty in 1993 and is now an instructional professor with a joint appointment in the Systems Engineering and Operations Research and the Cyber Security Engineering Departments. She also serves as associate chair for the Cyber Security Engineering Undergraduate Program. She is widely recognized as an exceptional classroom teacher. Among her recognitions at the university, college, and state levels are such high-profile awards as the George Mason University David J. King Teaching Award (2023), the College of Engineering and Computing Academic Excellence Award (2024), and the Virginia Cybersecurity Educator Award (2024). Her students offer superlative evaluations and praise her for her clarity, fairness, and her genuine interest in their success. She has a long record of curriculum development, starting with her role as the original architect of the B.S. in Cyber Security Engineering, a program that has grown into one of the largest undergraduate offerings in the College of Engineering and Computing. She also has a consistent record of designing and implementing high-impact extracurricular and off-campus learning experiences for her students, such as cybersecurity competitions, senior design projects, and industry-sponsored initiatives. Finally, she is recognized as a leader in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in cybersecurity and systems engineering education and has had significant influence on educational practice across K-12, higher education, and workforce development contexts.
Faculty Excellence in Research
Bo Han
Associate Professor, Computer Science
College of Engineering and Computing
Bo Han received his PhD in Computer Science in 2012 and joined the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) in 2020 after spending several years as a Principal Scientist at AT&T Labs Research. Currently an associate professor, his research is in the field of mobile immersive computing, a field that aims to integrate digital information with the physical world. He has led several large research projects funded by the National Science Foundation that address foundational challenges to the use of immersive computing at scale and that have important applications to areas such as education, healthcare, remote collaboration, and workforce development. A well-published and cited researcher, he has received highly competitive research awards from AT&T, Google, Meta, and Cisco, and has amassed a portfolio of over 60 patented innovations. He has taken on leadership roles in his field and is active as a mentor to both graduate and undergraduate students.
Parag V. Chitnis
Professor, Bioengineering
College of Engineering and Computing
Parag Chitnis joined the Department of Bioengineering at the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) in 2014 and is currently a full professor. He also serves as associate chair of Graduate Programs. His research focuses on two distinct but complementary fields. His research in biomedical ultrasonics has resulted in the development of wearable ultrasound sensors – lightweight patches that replaced bulky hardware, thus making possible the continuous monitoring of muscle kinematics in real-world scenarios. His innovative research in photoacoustics allows for imaging neuro-electrical activity deep within tissue, which was previously impossible using optical methods. These innovations have several important applications – for example, improving prosthetic control for amputees and enabling earlier detection and better monitoring for neurological disorders. He has secured over $30M in research awards to support his scholarly work and has an exceptional record of publication in highly competitive peer-reviewed journals. He has also been an exemplary mentor to postdoctoral fellows and students at all levels.
The Beck Family Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Research
Karina Korostelina
Professor of Peace and Conflict Resolution; Director, Sustainable Peace Lab; Director, Program on History, Memory, and Conflict
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
Karina Korostelina joined the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution in 2004 and is currently a full professor. She also serves as Director of both the Sustainable Peace Lab and the Program on History, Memory, and Conflict. A social psychologist, she has published pathbreaking scholarship in several related topics, including the dynamics of identity-based conflict, the role of history in conflict, and the process of peacebuilding in post-conflict societies. She is a seminal figure in each of these fields and an exceptionally prolific scholar, having written or edited 18 books and over a hundred book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles. What is particularly noteworthy about her scholarship is the extent to which it has influenced practitioners on the ground who are working to resolve ethnic, religious, and political conflict. In many cases, she herself has done the work to partner with people and organizations to help them deal with the challenges they face. Her work has shaped NGOs supporting women empowerment in Kyrgyzstan, organizations in Serbia and Ukraine working to facilitate the integration of immigrants and refugees into local society, and the Neighborhood Associates Corporation within the city of Washington, D.C., which works to increase resilience in underprivileged urban communities. On top of her own scholarly work, she has been an exemplary mentor to graduate students and has advised dozens of PhD students.
Faculty Excellence in Access, Inclusion, and Community
Rodman Turpin
Associate Professor of Global and Community Health
College of Public Health
Rodman Turpin joined the Department of Global and Community Health in 2022 and is currently an associate professor at the College of Public Health (CPH). He has integrated the goals of access and inclusion into every aspect of his professional life. In his teaching, he has designed classes that engage students in the challenge of providing medical care in a context shaped by numerous structural inequities. His “Social Epidemiology” course, for example, is designed to help students understand health equity as both a scholarly lens and a professional responsibility. In his research, he focuses on structural barriers, stigma, and inequities affecting racial/ethnic and sexual minority communities and has built an impressive scholarly record. He has been an active and conscientious mentor to a diverse range of graduate students and serves in numerous leadership and advisory capacities for student organizations. His mentoring is grounded in an understanding of the realities of marginalized populations. He also has a long record of engagement with community-based organizations geared toward populations historically excluded from equitable healthcare.
United Bank Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Access, Inclusion, and Community
LaNitra M. Berger
Associate Professor of Art History and Director, African and African American Studies
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
LaNitra Berger joined the faculty at George Mason in 2010 and is currently an associate professor in the Department of History and Art History at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS). She also serves as Director of the African and African American Studies program. In the Honors College, she guided hundreds of students through the process of applying for the most prestigious fellowships. She was uniquely successful in recruiting and guiding an extraordinarily diverse applicant pool for these fellowships. The impact was tangible. The percentage of students from first-generation, low income, or other underrepresented backgrounds who won fellowships increased to nearly 60 percent, far higher than at other universities. She extended her impact through her involvement with NAFSA: Association of International Educators, producing two of NAFSA’s publications that provide guidance for universities seeking to broaden access to scholarship programs and international education. Her scholarship addresses themes of access and inclusion, with a particular focus on the intersections of art and social activism in the Black and Jewish Diasporas. She has also developed numerous courses on topics ranging from African and African American art to South African history and culture. She is a recipient of George Mason’s Spirit of King Award (2015) and the Margaret C. Howell Award (2018).
Faculty Excellence in Social Impact
Melissa L. Villodas
Assistant Professor of Social Work
College of Public Health
Melissa Villodas received her PhD in 2022 and joined the Department of Social Work in the College of Public Health (CPH) that same year. Her research focuses on how to address entrenched mental health disparities among youth and young adults impacted by poverty, disability, community violence, and other inequities. She has already built an impressive scholarly record and has successfully obtained grants to extend the impact of her research into the community. She leads the Virginia Department of Social Services Child Welfare Stipend Program at George Mason, which strengthens the pipeline for social workers trained to address child and youth mental health disparities statewide. She has also led funded projects addressing youth suicidality in Northern Virginia, contributed to innovative housing initiatives for individuals with serious mental illness, and developed a long-term collaboration with LAZERA Ministries, a community support non-profit organization serving ethnically and economically diverse.
Kerri LaCharite
Associate Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies
College of Public Health
Kerri LaCharite joined the Nutrition and Food Studies Department at the College of Public Health (CPH) in 2016. Her research focuses on urban agriculture, food policy, and sustainable food systems, and her scholarly expertise has informed her significant contributions to improving our community. She has lobbied to change Fairfax County zoning ordinances so that local farmers could sell a wider range of goods at farmer’s markets, thus making them more economically viable and expanding the supply of locally sourced food in the area. She has worked with local government to reclassify community gardens from "accessory uses" to "primary uses," thus ensuring that gardens could exist legally and sustainably on land owned by churches or schools. Currently, she is working to expand small-scale agriculture in residential zones by influencing changes in local law to allow residents to sell what they grow. To shape county food policy, she became Chair of the Fairfax Food Policy Task Force and worked closely with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She is also a recipient of the George Mason Teaching Excellence Award (2025) and the CPH Master Teacher Junior Faculty Award.
Earle C. Williams Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Social Impact
Alex Tabarrok
Professor of Economics and Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics, Mercatus Center
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Alex Tabarrok joined the Department of Economics in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) as a full professor in 2002 and is Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center. He is an esteemed and prolific scholar and has a long record of bringing his scholarship to broader audiences and building connections with public officials to shape public policy. His most recent and consequential efforts were his role in advising governments and shaping public discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic. He and Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer briefed White House staff, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the FDA on strategies to accelerate vaccine development and production. At the White House’s request, they authored a report and founded the Accelerating Health Technologies (AHT) team. The AHT team recommended a novel policy approach: subsidizing “at-risk” vaccine manufacturing capacity prior to regulatory approval and guaranteeing advance purchase of successful vaccines through advance market commitments. The team also developed a method for maximizing the probability of at least one successful vaccine. These ideas were adopted by Operation Warp Speed, which saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States and millions worldwide by dramatically accelerating vaccine development and deployment. He continues to advise policymakers, making him one of the most influential voices on one of the most important policy issues in the last century.