Plenty of excitement was on display during the 2024 Spring Service Awards at Cleveland State’s Glasscock Family Foundation Ballroom. The luncheon and celebration honored 148 faculty and staff across the university, including 32 who have logged 25 or more years of service. 

“I’m very appreciative of all of your dedication and commitment to this institution,” said President Laura Bloomberg. “It is you, the people here at Cleveland State, who make us a strong institution and a strong university serving our students and our research mission.” 

The Distinguished Staff Awards are given annually in four categories to honor employees who have made a significant impact through outstanding dedication, competence, exceptional performance, excellent service to the campus community, ingenuity and leadership. They included Karah Vance (New Viking), Christina Bachman-Kirchner (Exemplary Campus Service), Robert Martel (Outstanding Achievement and Performance) and Colette Hart (President’s Leadership). 

The Distinguished Faculty Awards, which recognize the University’s faculty for their work in and out of the classroom, are awarded annually in research, service and teaching. The awards aim to honor those who have received recognition for their exceptional research or creative work in the scholarly or creative community.  

CSU recognized Richard M. Perloff as Distinguished Professor, an award that was first given in 2022 to Samantha Baskind of the College of Arts and Sciences, then in 2023 to Milena Sterio in the CSU College of Law.

Other Distinguished Faculty Awards went to Tushar Borkar and Adam Voight (Research), Shereen Naser and Anne Su (Service), Kristen Pataki and Shawn Ryan (Teaching), Melanie Gagich (Provost’s Service) and Tasha Preisler (Provost’s Teaching). Two faculty members were honored for their longevity, including Holli Goodman (College of Law) for 40 years and Jearl Walker (College of Arts and Sciences) for 50 years. 

Walker, who wrote the book The Flying Circus of Physics, was hired by CSU after earning his Ph.D. and has never looked back.

“For the next 51 years, I’m going to be here,” said Walker. “What I’m looking forward to is meeting the students, getting to know them, learning their stories, their life stories, and learning about their backgrounds, their families, their jobs, their ambitions. I really enjoy that. So, yes, I want to keep doing that; I don’t want to sit home retired. I want to keep learning.” 

“Every day, whether you are working directly with students or keeping our grounds looking great or our labs functioning or our business operations humming along, you are contributing to our mission of serving this region,” Bloomberg said. “Our students benefit because of you, our work benefits because of you.”  

Congratulations to all those who were honored!