Faculty Spotlight

Crystal Park Receives Marth Mentorship Award

It is our pleasure to announce the recipient of this year’s Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award. This award recognizes a faculty member for outstanding leadership and dedication to excellence in mentoring graduate students. It was established by the UConn AAUP to honor Edward Marth, former Executive Director of the UConn AAUP Chapter.

Crystal Park from the Clinical Psychology program in the Department of Psychological Sciences.
Crystal Park from the Clinical Psychology program in the Department of Psychological Sciences.

This year’s recipient of the Marth Award is Professor Crystal Park from the Clinical Psychology program in the Department of Psychological Sciences. Professor Park has been an outstanding mentor and contributor to graduate education at UConn. To date, she Park has mentored 12 Ph.D. students and currently has six additional students in her lab (in addition to a number of undergraduates). It is clear from testimonials that Professor Park has had a profound impact on the lives of many of her students. From the minute they arrive on campus (and sometimes before), she builds a close working and personal relationship with them that in many cases extends well beyond graduation. She encourages her students to collaborate with other scientists at UConn and in the broader research community and helps them build their networks and develop relationships with other researchers. She encourages students to identify “big questions” of interest to them and to keep those questions in mind as they develop their research ideas. She clearly makes an enormous investment in her students and works hard to facilitate their success in graduate school and in their careers.

Professor Park is also a prolific researcher. She has published over 300 articles and book chapters, many of them co-authored with current or former graduate students. She is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the American Psychological Association (Divisions 36 and 38), and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

In honor of her contributions, Professor Park will be giving an address that will be included in The Graduate School online commencement ceremonies.

Past recipients of the Marth Award include Preston Britner (2020), Sandra Chafouleas (2019), Maria-Luz Fernandez (2018), Elizabeth Jockusch (2015-2016), Shareen Hertel (2014-2015), John Mathieu (2013-2014), JC Beall (2012-2013) and Dipak Dey (2011-2012).

Marth Award 2018: Maria Luz Fernandez

Colleagues, students, family, and friends gathered recently at a reception to celebrate with Professor Maria Luz Fernandez, this year’s recipient of the Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award.  This award, established by the UConn AAUP to honor Ed Marth, former Executive Director of the UConn AAUP chapter, recognizes a faculty member for outstanding leadership and dedication to excellence in mentoring graduate students. As a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Dr. Fernandez has epitomized all of the qualities celebrated by this award.  Not only is she a world-renowned scholar, but she is also a tireless advocate for graduate students and graduate education more generally.  She has supervised over 50 graduate students (PhD and MS), regularly publishing with student co-authors, and has played a prominent role in the recruitment and retention of minority graduate students at UConn. Dean Kent Holsinger from The Graduate School presided over the ceremony conferring this award to Dr. Fernandez and led the toast honoring her many contributions.2018 Marth Award Winner

Faculty Recognition: The Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award

The UConn AAUP established the Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award to recognize the leadership and dedication of Edward Marth, former Executive Director of the UConn AAUP Chapter, and to encourage and reward outstanding mentoring of graduate students by UConn Graduate Faculty members. Recipients will have had direct and significant impact and involvement with graduate students, outstanding commitment and effectiveness as a mentor of graduate students, and have demonstrated unusual effort to provide consistent mentoring of graduate students during the course of their careers at UConn. Recipients of the Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award are UConn Graduate Faculty members who have extraordinary records of excellence and effectiveness in activities such as facilitating smooth transitions for both entering and exiting graduate students; showing sensitivity to students’ academic, personal, and professional goals and needs; being accessible to students; playing an active role in coaching graduate students through the graduate school experience and connecting them to appropriate intellectual and professional networks; and, guiding graduate students toward intellectual and professional independence.

The Dean of The Graduate School distributes a request for nominations early in the fall semester, and the award is typically announced in the final week of the semester.

Past Recipients:

Elizabeth Jockusch (2015-2016), Shareen Hertel (2014-2015), John Mathieu (2013-2014), JC Beall (2012-2013) and Dipak Dey (2011-2012).