College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Heather A. Smith’s students and colleagues have long praised her generosity and inclusivity. For the exceptional way she mentors others, the UNC Charlotte geographer has received the 2023 Susan Hardwick Excellence in Mentoring Award from the American Association of Geographers. Smith’s professional interests and mentoring strengths have guided a generation of geography students who have carried the impact into other spaces and places.

A mentoring program co-led by UNC Charlotte researcher Sandra Clinton that aims to retain undergraduate women in the geosciences is on the shortlist for the international Nature Research Awards for Inspiring and Innovating Science. The program also has received almost $3 million in new NSF funding.

UNC Charlotte Associate Professor of history Christopher Cameron has been named a 2020 fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, one of 81 fellows selected from nearly 1,200 applicants to receive support totaling $4.3 million.

UNC Charlotte’s Gerald G. Fox Master of Public Administration program and Clinical Health Psychology doctoral program in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have earned high marks in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 rankings.

James Walsh, a core faculty member in the Public Policy program and professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, is the 2020 recipient of the First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal, UNC Charlotte’s most prestigious faculty award in recognition of excellence in research.

Suzanne Leland, a core faculty member of the Public Policy Ph.D. program and professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, is the 2020 recipient of the Harshini V. de Silva Graduate Mentor Award.

A book by UNC Charlotte History Professor Christine Haynes has been chosen the best book in modern French history (post 1815) over the previous two years, receiving the inaugural Weber Book Prize from the UCLA Department of History.

Stephanie Stenglein did not know what a 501c3 was when she started the Master of Public Administration program at UNC Charlotte. Today, she is transforming lives in her role as vice president of institutional advancement for Arts+, and colleagues have yet again honored her for her work.

When the Jamil Niner Student Pantry opened on campus in 2014, professor Nicole Peterson decided to focus a research project on campus, working to determine the depths of the food insecurity problem on the UNC Charlotte campus.

A book by UNC Charlotte Africana Studies associate professor Oscar de la Torre, The People of the River: Identity and Environment in Black Amazonia, 1835-1945, has received the inaugural Outstanding First Book Award from the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora.