Faculty and Staff 2025 Convocation Awards
UW-Parkside is proud to present our 2025 faculty and staff convocation award winners:
- Academic Staff Distinguished Service Award - Kevin Gray
- University Staff Distinguished Service Award - Barbara Hasper and Joy Lee
- Faculty Distinguished Service Award - Adrienne Viramontes
- Community Engaged Learning and Research Award- Aubri McDonald
- Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award – Chris Noto
- Early Career Excellence in Teaching Award- Courtney Wirtz
- Early Career Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award- Nancy Ning
- Stella C. Gray Teaching Excellence Awards - Aubri McDonald and Richard Karwatka
- Supervisor of the Year - Luis Benevoglienti
*Note: You can find last year's award winners here.
Academic Staff Distinguished Service Award
Kevin Gray | Sound Manager & Instructor
Kevin has served as Sound Manager & Instructor at Parkside since 2019. He teaches classes in audio production, engineering, and sound design, while also taking on a handful of independent studies and practicum mentoring positions. Kevin also mentors student employees and volunteers while providing sound reinforcement, streaming, and recording for all of the productions in the RITA.
He played a crucial role in helping the College of Arts and Humanity shift to it’s streaming-based format during 2020, which has since evolved into Ranger Studios. In 2021 he received a national award from the Kennedy Center for Special Achievement in Sound Design for his work on a Parkside theatre production. More recently Kevin has worked to help establish the sound studio in the music wing in collaboration with the Music and Communication departments, and is working to create more sound design and engineering opportunities for students into the curriculum.
Congratulations, Kevin!
University Staff Distinguished Service Award
Barbara Hasper | Administrative Assistant
Barbara Hasper has a long history with UW-Parkside, which started when she was a student majoring in music and English. After graduation, she worked in library support roles for the Kenosha Public Library and the Kenosha Unified School District for a number of years before returning to the UW-System as an employee, first as administrative support in the English Department at UW-Milwaukee. About a year later, she was able to come “home” to Parkside, where she worked for several years each in the Registrar’s Office and the Admissions Office.
Following a year away as a school librarian, she has spent the last few years in a new role at UW-P as an administrative assistant for departments in the College of Business, Economics and Computing. She has appreciated being able to provide support and assistance to faculty, staff, and students in all of her positions. Outside of work, Barbara enjoys watching TV, taking walks, and various types of puzzles and games. She loves animals, especially her three canine companions, who keep her very busy around the house.
Congratulations, Barbara!
University Staff Distinguished Service Award
Joy Lee | Administrative Assistant
With over 20 years of experience in administrative support roles across the education system—from early childhood and elementary schools to high school and higher education—Joy Lee has consistently demonstrated dedication and excellence. Her career has included working alongside school executives and leaders in areas such as mission advancement, international student programs, marketing, tuition assistance fundraising, and student and program support.
As a retired Navy spouse, proud mother of four, and grandmother of six, Joy has always found joy in supporting others, both at home and in her professional life. At UW-Parkside, she has contributed to programs including Nursing, HKSM, PPCN, and CMHC, and has played a role in raising funds for student scholarships.
In her current role as Outreach Program Coordinator in the Teacher Education Department, Joy is passionate about helping future educators achieve their goals. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, fishing, and taking on home remodeling projects.
Congratulations, Joy!
Faculty Distinguished Service Award
Adrienne Viramontes| Professor & Chair, Communication Department
Adrienne Viramontes is a professor of Communication and the current chair of the Communication Department. She is a phenomenologist and autoethnographer who specializes in the study of lived experience. Her research includes the areas of identity constitution, intersectionality, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and Chicana/o Studies. She teaches classes in qualitative methods, Latina/o Communication, and the performance of public speaking and human communication.
Congratulations, Adrienne!
Community Engaged Learning and Research Award
And
Stella C. Gray Teaching Excellence Award
Aubri McDonald | Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Department
Dr. Aubri McDonald is an Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice Department. Her courses explore race, gender, and media in criminal justice contexts and are cross-listed with Sociology, Women and Gender Studies, and Communication. She also teaches a gangs course featuring former gang members as guest speakers. She integrates community-based learning (CBL) into her teaching which includes an ongoing partnership between her Race, Crime, Law course and Racine County’s juvenile detention facility.
Dr. McDonald’s research investigates gendered and race-based framing in media, criminal trials, and social movements. She has published on framing and the #MeToo movement, female gang involvement and sexual victimization, and recently, published an article in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, co-authored with the detention center’s Superintendent, about their CBL projects highlighting the value of academic-community collaboration for students, practitioners, and the populations they serve.
Congratulations, Aubri!
Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award
Chris Noto | Associate Professor, Biological Sciences
Chris Noto joined UW-Parkside in 2011 and is currently Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences. Dr. Noto is a paleontologist with research interests in paleoecology, functional morphology, and 3D digital imaging. He has performed field work around the United States, most notably at the Arlington Archosaur (pronounced ark-o-sawr) Site near Dallas, Texas, which he has studied with the help of dozens of students over the years. He has 24 publications to date including naming 4 new fossil species from the Cretaceous Period.
Congratulations, Chris!
Early Career Excellence in Teaching Award
Courtney Wirtz | Assistant Professor, Literature and Writing
Dr. Courtney Wirtz is an assistant professor in the Teacher Education Department. She has been at UW-Parkside since 2021 and teaches a variety of courses, including several literacy methods courses and other core teacher education classes in the undergraduate program.
She places student learning at the center of her teaching philosophy, ensuring that every aspect of instruction is designed with her students’ growth in mind. Her courses emphasize hands-on application of research-based teaching strategies, allowing students to practice with their peers in class before implementing those strategies in their field placements.
She enjoys seeing her students gain confidence and competence as they connect theory to practice and prepare to make a meaningful difference in the lives of future learners.
Congratulations, Courtney!
Early Career Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award
Nancy Ning | Assistant Professor, Management Information Systems
Nancy (Xue) Ning is an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the Business Department. She received her Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Colorado Denver. Her research interests include the business value of IT, IS for sustainability, and health IT. Her work has appeared in several premier journals, including the Journal of MIS, which is one of the Financial Times Top 50 Journals, conferences, and workshops in Information Systems. Since joining UW-Parkside in 2021, Nancy has published eight journal papers and four conference papers.
Congratulations, Nancy!
Stella C. Gray Teaching Excellence Award
Richard Karwatka | Senior Lecturer, Mathematics
Richard Karwatka is a product of the Universities of Wisconsin, having pursued undergraduate study in mathematics, French, and history here at UW-Parkside and graduate study in mathematics and mathematics education at UW-Madison.
As a proud UW-Parkside alumnus, he always hoped to return professionally to his alma mater to contribute to it in gratitude for the path on which it set him, and today as a Senior Lecturer of Mathematics marking the 25th anniversary of his UW-Parkside career, he is especially indebted to his undergraduate professors Tom Fournelle, Youn Lee, Laura Gellott, Oliver Hayward, Evelyn Zepp, and Norm Cloutier for being exemplary educators whose enthusiastic commitment to teaching and learning still inspires his own instructional practice.
Since returning to UW-Parkside as a member of the instructional academic staff, Karwatka has taught multiple courses in the introductory mathematics curriculum and has been deeply involved in continuing efforts to improve content delivery and student outcomes in mathematics competency courses. To this end, he has developed multiple 100-level mathematics curricula and has served both as Coordinator of Developmental and Proficiency-Based Mathematics at UW-Parkside and as Chair of the UW Mathematics Placement Test Development Committee at UW System.
When not engaging matters mathematical, Karwatka appreciates music, art, and history, so he is most grateful to all his UW-Parkside colleagues and students who have helped him deepen his exploration of these interests while he does the mathematics teaching he enjoys so much.
Congratulations, Richard!
Supervisor of the Year
Luis Benevoglienti | Student Affairs Manager
Luis Benevoglienti is the Student Development & Engagement Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and a proud alum. He earned his Bachelors of Science in Business Management from UW-Parkside and his Masters of Education from Iowa State University. He is currently pursuing an Ed. D. in Student Affairs Administration and Leadership from UW-La Crosse.
In his current role, Luis provides oversight to the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA), the Genders & Sexualities Advocacy Center (GSAC), and the Student Engagement & Connection (SEC) office. Previously, Luis was an Academic and Career Advisor and prior to working at Parkside, he was a Hall Director at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Luis is always there to provide support to students and colleagues alike from helping individuals find resources and opportunities, providing encouraging words, empowering individuals, or just being there to listen.
He has a strong sense of service and giving back. He looks for ways to collaborate with campus and community partners to support student success. In 2022-2023, Luis led the efforts for the 40-year anniversary celebration of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs at UW-Parkside including the launching of the OMSA Excellence Scholarship and the commissioning of the new mural in the office with the theme of “Culture. Belonging. Student Success.” Luis is also a graduate of Leadership Kenosha
Congratulations, Luis!