Faculty members are recognized for their contributions to the development and implementation of university policies and programs through non-administrative roles, while continuing to teach and pursue scholarship.
Valerie B. Lee
Professor and Chair
Department of English
Valerie B. Lee is unfailing in her willingness to take initiative, working to make her vision of a successful and diverse Ohio State come to fruition. Devoted to the integral connection between diversity and excellence, her service on the President’s Council on Women’s Issues, University Advisory Council on Women, and the Office of Minority Affairs Advisory Board complement her service for racial/ethnic minorities. As the current chair of the University Diversity Council, she provides leadership to monitor the university’s recruitment and retention of women and minority students, staff and faculty. Through her work on the Institutional Research and Planning Advisory Group, the Arts and Sciences’ Faculty Leadership Council, and the selection committees for both the Distinguished Scholar Award and the University Department Teaching Excellence Award, Lee has actively contributed to the advancement of The Ohio State University. In addition, she ran the summer program, TEACH, Inc., that offers quantitative and verbal skills workshops at Ohio State’s African American and African Studies Extension Center and has been the executive director of Womanist Readers, a reading and community service group. A campus leader, she served as the chair of two university departments—Women’s Studies and English—and has delivered more than 70 lectures, keynote speeches, plenary addresses and other presentations. Lee received her Ph.D. in English from Ohio State and joined its faculty in 1998.
Ellen Mosley-Thompson
Professor
Department of Geography
Research Scientist, Byrd Polar Research Center
Ellen Mosley-Thompson has made highly valuable contributions to her department, research center, college, university and profession since her arrival at Ohio State in 1973. Hard work, high energy, a wonderful sense of humor and strong desire to effect change where needed make her an excellent teacher and advisor to students. She also has been a respected leader on a number of university committees, including the University Promotion and Tenure Committee, the Committee to Review the University Honors and Scholars Program and the Provost’s Advisory Committee for Budget Restructuring. Her service has extended to external agencies as well, such as the National Academy of Science, National Research Council and the National Science Foundation. A leader for more than 20 years in professional associations such as the Association of American Geographer and the American Geophysical Union, Mosley-Thompson also is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an inductee of the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame, and her contributions to women in science and her scientific findings have been popularized through television and film. She runs the world-class research operation at the Byrd Polar Research Center and has been honored as Ohio State’s Distinguished Scholar and Distinguished Lecturer. She received her Ph.D. in geography from Ohio State.
Lynne E. Olson
Professor
Department of Veterinary Biosciences
Since her election to the Research and Graduate Council in 1987, Lynne E. Olson has personified the highest level of faculty involvement. Her work on the Council in Research and Graduate Studies, Council on Academic Excellence for Women, University Committee on Academic Misconduct, University Senate, University Research Committee and Council on Academic Affairs, among others, has garnered much respect and admiration from her colleagues. After acquiring specialized knowledge of new federal regulations, she founded the Office of Research Risks Protection, which helps write new university policies to enable researchers to comply with federal guidelines. Her leadership was critical in the creation of a joint committee of the University Senate and the Research and Graduate Council. Ohio State’s first conflict of interest administrator, Olson was responsible for designing the university’s administrative process for reviewing disclosure forms, working with faculty and administrators to develop conflict management plans, all while developing the first graduate course in professional and ethical issues in biomedical research. Olson holds a Ph.D. in physiology from Michigan State University and a M.A. in education from Ohio State, joining its faculty in 1983.
