While this past academic year saw some remarkable changes in the academic process, the continued excellence of LBJ School faculty remained constant. Below is a collection of the recognition that LBJ faculty garnered in 2019–20.
Abigail Aiken
Abigail R.A. Aiken, associate professor of public affairs and fellow of the Richter Chair in Global Health Policy, received the Plan II Honors Chad Oliver Teaching Award, chosen by a vote of the Plan II student body. She is the first LBJ School faculty member to win this award.
The LBJ Graduate Public Affairs Council (GPAC) also awarded Aiken with the 2020 GPAC Faculty Award for Most Engaging Style (MPAff).
Jacqueline Angel
Jacqueline Angel, professor of public affairs and sociology is a mentor of one of five teams of faculty and students selected to win the 2019–20 President's Award for Global Learning.
Michele Deitch
Michele Deitch, distinguished senior lecturer, was chosen as the recipient of the 2019 Flame Award from the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE). She received this prestigious award, given annually to an individual, organization or agency to recognize their significant, long-term contributions to the field of law enforcement oversight, at the organization's annual conference in Detroit in September 2019.
"Previous award recipients include civilian oversight practitioners as well as those who have made it their life's work to bring attention to injustice and support long-term and effective law enforcement reform efforts," NACOLE wrote to Deitch. "Not only have you have been instrumental in bringing light to issues that exist in jails and prisons in Texas and across the United States, you have worked to support correctional oversight professionals and advocates in the difficult work they do each day. This, along with your efforts to establish the correctional oversight track at our annual conference, makes you more than deserving of this award."
Deitch also was appointed to the advisory board for the Urban Institute's Prison Research and Innovation Initiative, a comprehensive effort to build evidence and spur innovation to make prisons more humane, safe and rehabilitative environments and to create a national movement of thought leaders on prison reform issues. With support from Arnold Ventures, this five-year project will leverage research and evidence to shine a much-needed light on prison conditions and pilot strategies to promote the well-being of people who live and work behind bars.
The Rapoport Foundation and Arnold Ventures also awarded Deitch grants to support her work on women in custody and on corrections oversight.
David Eaton
David Eaton, the Bess Harris Jones Centennial Professor in natural resource policy studies, served as the faculty lead for a multidisciplinary team of 12 students who won the 2019 CenTex ASPA James McGrew Research Award for their research on reconstruction after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, which devastated the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people, injuring nearly 22,000 and leaving many others homeless.
Eaton also won the 2020 GPAC Faculty Award for the Best Course to Challenge Your Assumptions (MGPS).
Raissa Fabregas
Raissa Fabregas, assistant professor, was awarded the CASBS Stanford Fellowship to participate in the 2019 Organizations and their Effectiveness Summer Institute.
James Galbraith
James Galbraith, the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and professor of government, won the 2020 Veblen-Commons Award of the Association for Evolutionary Economics, the highest honor given annually by the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE), in recognition of significant contributions to evolutionary institutional economics.
Named after the founders of institutional economics, Thorstein Veblen and John R. Commons, the prize has been presented since 1969 to scholars "on the basis of their contributions to a better understanding of both the economic process and the behavior of the major institutions that shape that process and society's goals and values" (Trebing, 1992, 333).
Galbraith also won three GPAC Faculty Awards in 2020: Best Taught Class (MGPS); Best Course to Challenge Your Assumptions (MGPS); and Best Transition Online for his spring "Applied Microeconomics" course.
Celeste Ward Gventer
Celeste Ward Gventer, associate professor of practice, won the 2020 GPAC Faculty Award for Most Engaging Style (MGPS).
Michael Hole
Dr. Michael Hole, assistant professor of pediatrics and population health and public policy, was named to the 2019 cohort of Presidential Leadership Scholars, and was chosen by his class to deliver the commencement speech at the ceremony honoring his PLS class.
Donald Kettl
Donald Kettl, Sid Richardson Professor, won the Chester Newland Award for the best commentary article in Public Administration Review. His award-winning piece is "From Policy to Practice: From Ideas to Results, From Results to Trust" (April 2019).
Alan Kuperman
Alan Kuperman, associate professor of public affairs, won the 2020 GPAC Faculty Award for Best Course to Challenge Your Assumptions (MGPS).
Martin Luby
Martin Luby, assistant dean for academic strategies and associate professor of public affairs, won two 2020 GPAC Faculty Awards: Highest Commitment to LBJ (MPAff) and Best Course for Professional Development (MPAff), for his public financial management class and financing state and local governments.
Adm. William McRaven
Adm. William McRaven, professor of national security, won a 2020 GPAC Faculty Award: Best Course to Challenge Your Assumptions (MGPS), for his "Policymaking and Leadership: From the Battlefield to the SITROOM" class.
Sheila Olmstead
Sheila Olmstead, professor of public affairs, serves as an editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (2017–22).
She is the co-principal investigator for "A Scoping Study on the Economic Cost of Water Pollution in Texas," funded by a $13,008 subcontract to The University of Texas at Austin from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation (2019). The other co-principal investigator is Yusuke Kuwayama of Resources for the Future.
Olmstead delivered the Mullen Lecture at the economics department of the University of Maryland at Baltimore County: "Some thoughts on the economic costs of water pollution," on Oct. 10, 2019.
She also won a 2020 GPAC Faculty Award: Best Transition Online (MPAff).
Todd Olmstead
Todd Olmstead, associate professor of public affairs, won a 2020 GPAC Faculty Award for Best Taught Class (MPAff) for his "Introduction to Empirical Methods for Policy Analysis" course.
Varun Rai
Varun Rai, associate dean for research at the LBJ School, professor of public affairs and director of the Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin, won the Young Alumni Achiever Award by the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT). The honor recognizes outstanding practitioners under 40 for their leadership, potential and contributions to their fields.
Lorinc Redei
Lorinc Redei, assistant professor of instruction and graduate adviser for the Master of Global Policy Studies program, received the Texas Leadership Award from the University of Texas Graduate Student Assembly.
Redei also won three GPAC Faculty Awards in 2020: Open Door Award (MGPS); Highest Commitment to LBJ (MGPS); and Best Course for Professional Development (MGPS) for his "Writing for GPS" class.
Paul von Hippel
Paul von Hippel, associate professor of public affairs, was honored by the American Sociological Association with its Leo Goodman Award. The honor is conferred by the organization's methodology section to recognize a scholar's contributions to the field of methodology or innovative uses of sociological methodology early in his or her career — no more than 15 years after earning a Ph.D.
Kate Weaver
Kate Weaver, associate professor of public affairs and associate dean for students, won two GPAC Faculty Awards in 2020: Biggest Advocate for Students (MPAff and MGPS); and Highest Commitment to LBJ (MPAff).
Pat Wong
Pat Wong, associate professor of public affairs and a CHASP faculty fellow, won three GPAC Faculty Awards in 2020: Highest Commitment to LBJ (MGPS); Open Door Award (MPAff); and Best Course to Challenge Your Assumptions (MPAff) for his "American Welfare State" class.