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2022 Outstanding Faculty and Staff Mentor/Advocates

2022 Outstanding Faculty and Staff Mentor/Advocates

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Each year during our Annual Summit, we take time to recognize outstanding affiliates within our community at the Center of Excellence for Women & Technology. These award winners serve as mentors, sponsors, or advocates who motivate and encourage women students. The winner is chosen based on nominations submitted by students and colleagues. We especially seek nominations for mentors who nurture development of technical skills in women students, staff, and faculty.

This year we are pleased to announce faculty winners, Hannah Block and Julia Pavnik, and staff winners, Jamie Gathing and Amber Kent.

Congrats to our winners this year and thank you for all you do!

Dr. Hannah Block

Dr. Hannah Block, Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology within the School of Public Health, also holds adjunct appointments in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science programs. Numerous undergraduate students have been involved in her lab where they gain technical skills and research experiences under her supervision. Dr. Block has mentored apprentice researchers since 2014 through our CEWIT Emerging Scholars Research Experience for Undergraduates, as well as the IU Groups Program. Both undergrad and graduate students in her lab have earned authorship recognition in high quality journal publications and have presented at international, national, and campus level conferences that allow them to share their technical skills and findings.

Dr. Block also started Girls with Nerve in 2017 which is a free, week-long summer day camp aimed at empowering middle and high school girls to explore neuroscience. Underrepresented talent is targeted for this camp and post camp surveys show improved attitudes toward math, science, and 21st century learning for participants.

Dr. Julia Plavnik

Dr. Julia Plavnik, Assistant Professor in the Math Department, has made a significant impact as a mentor to students. Her mentorship work involves formal and informal work with post-docs, faculty advising to the Women in Math organization, the Math Department's Graduate Peer Mentoring program, undergraduate and graduate research mentoring, and high school student in research mentorships.

One of her nominees stated that, “as advisor to the Women in Math Club, Julia is most deserving of a faculty award. Julia is kind and compassionate, and she treats members of our organization with respect and care, which helps us cultivate a supportive, welcoming community at Women in Math. She deserves this award because of her unconditional, abounding leadership, service, hospitality, and determination to help the Women and all underrepresented students in the IU Math department, succeed and flourish." According to her Department Chair, "Professor Plavnik is a leader among our faculty here at IUB in her ability to encourage diverse young scientists to develop to their full potential."

Jamie Gathing

Jamie Gathing is the Associate Director of Diversity Initiatives for Kelly School of Business and deeply cares for her students in ways that support and uplift them. She has a profound impact on the lives of women and BIPOC students.

One of her nominees shared, "Jamie is without a doubt a critical piece to my success during my career at Indiana University. I'm a senior at the Kelley School of Business and since I met Jamie my sophomore year, she has been one of my fiercest, supportive, and intentional mentors. I am a Black woman in primarily white spaces 99% of the time at IU, so having a Black woman to look up to really makes the difference for me. Jamie could not be a better mentor. When I first met Jamie, she stopped everything she was doing so she could hear about my goals, passions, and how she could support me. This was very different from anyone I'd been around up to this point. She also invited my friends and I to dinner to show that she was genuinely here for us for anything we needed."

Amber Kent

Amber Kent is a Language Instruction Specialist in the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region. As CeLCAR’s Language Instruction Specialist, she works with the language specialists to design and develop language learning curriculums and materials, collaborates with faculty on pedagogical research, designs and leads professional development workshops, coordinates the bi-annual Conference on Central Asian Languages and Linguistics (ConCALL), and hosts the “On the Silkroad with CeLCAR” podcast. Amber supports her mentees in navigating professional challenges with pragmatic advice and thoughtful encouragement.

“Staff like Amber Kennedy Kent help IU produce strong, successful, and professional women,” said one nominee. “Amber has instilled in me that I deserve respect regardless of my age or position. I was once in a situation when an older colleague in a position of authority sent me an email thinking that I had broken a policy. The email was unprofessional, aggressive, and incorrect. Amber gave me a space to express my anger and frustration with the situation and provided possible solutions. She let me see that I did not have to simply accept this type of behavior simply because it came from someone older or in a position of power. She helped me find the courage to stand up for myself and to not allow that kind of treatment to be swept under the rug.”

2022 Outstanding Faculty and Staff Mentor/Advocates

Dr. Hannah Block

Dr. Julia Plavnik

Jamie Gathing

Amber Kent

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