COMM Department 2025 Award Winners

Congratulations to this year's departmental award winners!

Each year, the COMM Department recognizes outstanding members of our department for their dedicated teaching, research, service, and mentorship throughout the academic year. 

The recipients of this year's Wolvin Outstanding Teaching Awards are Dr. Fielding Montgomery (professional-track faculty, PTK), Dr. Hailey Otis (tenure-track faculty, TTK), and graduate students, Rudy Kim, Jana Sabri, Tatenda Mashanda, and Kalin Schultz. 

Dr. Fielding Montgomery was recognized for his ability to foster a supportive learning environment that empowers students to become more confident speakers. He has taught numerous courses in the department, but was recognized for his exceptional contributions to COMM 107. In his recommendation letter, one student described how Montgomery “made our class really inclusive and created a great learning environment where I actually felt close with everyone in the class and comfortable working with them.” 

Dr. Hailey Otis has made major teaching contributions, including teaching undergrad courses, mentoring graduate students in a number of teaching-related roles, serving as a guest lecturer for other colleagues’ large lecture courses, and helping redesign a course. Such noteworthy contributions are in addition to their leadership roles in the Oral Communication Program and research in critical pedagogy. Her nominator described Otis' teaching as an “excellent balance between creating a comfortable, inclusive, and welcoming environment for students and holding them accountable for their engagement with class materials and ideas.” 

Rudy Kim was recognized for her “teaching excellence, innovative pedagogy, and unwavering commitment to student success” for COMM 107 and COMM 304. Her use of technology, active teaching, and dynamism showcases her ability to bridge theory and practice in ways that facilitate student learning. Kim is particularly skilled at clearly explaining challenging material through real-time demonstrations and visual aids. Beyond the classroom, she prioritizes mentorship and attends workshops to enhance her pedagogy. 

Tatenda Mashanda was honored for teaching excellence for his important contributions to developing and teaching dialogue and deliberation courses in COMM, in addition to teaching COMM 107 and COMM 330. In his living-learning course for first year students, he helped students answer “Big Questions” about political issues and unity. Mashanda also helped with community service projects that benefitted UMD’s Campus Pantry and participated in the class field trip to the U.S. Capitol. His recommendation letter praised his sense of humor, attentiveness to student needs, and extensive mentorship to undergrads. 

Jana Sabri's nominator described her as “one of our most dedicated and reflexive instructors.” Her “substantial positive impact on undergraduate learning at UMD is impressive for an educator so early in their career.” Sabri's teaching style reflects balance-- a balance between friendly and educational, creative and tangible explanations, and understanding and rigor. She has also done critical work on a collaborative autoethnographic project on instructor embodiment, which helps demonstrate why she is such an essential part of our pedagogical community. 

Kalin Schultz has taught COMM 107, including a Do Good section, COMM 324, and served as a TA for COMM 304. She views the classroom as a collaborative space where critical thinking and argument skills should be fostered. Her teaching philosophy focuses on mutual respect and care for the student’s well-being. Course evaluations described Schultz as “hands-on,” “very passionate,” “engaging and energetic,” and skilled at choosing diverse and relevant course content. COMM faculty recognized her “innovative approach” and ability to create an “engaging atmosphere,” impressively blending “creativity with pedagogy.” 

We also granted awards for outstanding service to our department and the broader University of Maryland campus. 

Those honored with Outstanding Service Awards were Merceadez Marion (staff), Alexandra Grimm (grad student), and Drs. Sun Young Lee and Briana Barner (TTK). 

Merceadez's nominator described her as a “rock for so many students, especially during this year when things have felt anything but stable.” Her ability to make students feel supported and heard is admirable on its own right, but Marion goes above and beyond to fix student scheduling issues, plan their career goals, and even finds time to advise the Undergraduate Communication Association. 

Alexandra's nomination emphasized her ethic of care to the community and commitment to mentorship. Not only is she a vital part of COMMGrads, but she has also served as a representative to the Graduate Labor Union, and somehow finds the time to also work towards a Museum Studies and Material Culture Certification, and a Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities Certificate. She also has professional certifications in mental health and Terps for Terps, which assists students in crisis. 

Dr. Briana Barner has had a profound impact on our department since her arrival on campus. She has co-chaired the department’s Colloquium Committee, served as a vital part of a working group dedicated to reimagining graduate course offerings, and worked on the Undergraduate Studies Committee. She is also a formal and informal mentor to many undergraduate and graduate students on our campus, including serving as a faculty advisor to Young Black Creatives and the Maryland Association of Black Journalists. Barner's sincere enthusiasm, engagement, and compassion makes her most deserving of this service award. 

Dr. Sun Young Lee actively seeks out and engages in service opportunities that go above and beyond her duties as co-Director of Graduate Studies. Her extensive work benefits both the Graduate Studies Program specifically and the Department of Communication as a whole. She spearheaded the initiative to update the Ph.D. handbook and helped develop the graduate program-level learning outcomes measurement. As you can imagine, both efforts were just that—extensive effort. She also planned professional development workshops, helped launch the pre-prospectus research award, and has been integral to student recruitment and admissions. Her ability to seemingly do it all while approaching her work with care, and a student-first mindset is exactly what this department values. In particular, her work with international students has helped foster a crucial sense of community. 

In addition, the faculty advisory committee grants the Raymond Ehrenberger Award, the Charles Richardson Award, and the Misti Yang Impact Award. 

The Raymond Ehrensberger Award is presented to the most outstanding student in the department currently in the first two years of graduate study beyond the bachelor's degree. According to the nominator, this student is crafting a research agenda that is “more advanced than most at this stage of his academic career,” where he already has a first authored publication forthcoming in Digital Humanities Quarterly. The student is an important part of the Black Communication and Technology lab. He is also a strong teacher and is making important contributions to our COMMunity via his leadership in Chelóna, the UMD student chapter of the Rhetoric Society of America and COMMGrads. This year's Raymond Ehrensberger award went to Andrew Lowe Mohammed. 

The Charles Richardson Award is presented to the most outstanding PhD student. This year, two amazing students were recognized with the Charles Richardson Award: Max Erdemandi and Shilin (Sophie) Xia. 

According to Max's nominator, he has “redefined what it means to be a successful doctoral student in our department by pioneering new academic pathways as a dual-degree seeking” student. He received his Master’s of Science degree in Quantitative Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics this Winter. And, his dissertation work has already been recognized through their receipt of the Wylie Fellowship and his participation in NCA Doctoral Honors. He is a seasoned and talented teacher and he teaches for two units--Communication and the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). 

According to Shilin's nominator, she “exemplifies the ideals that this award celebrates.” She has had a “remarkable” research trajectory, with eight peer-reviewed articles in important journals in her area of study, like Health Communication. Xia's research trajectory is aided by her “collaborative spirit” with “interdisciplinary breadth.” She is also an excellent teacher and serves her communities, including previously serving on the teaching and awards committee, as well as, reviewing for both Southern and ICA. 

The Misti Yang Impact Award is named for an outstanding graduate student community builder. Known for her informal mentoring, participation in shared governance, and contributions to student groups, Dr. Yang's excellence in research, service, and teaching flowed from her deep commitments to supporting colleagues and developing community because, in her words, "we all do better when everyone does better." According to this year's winner's nomination letter, she is an exemplary “activist-scholar, whose work stands as a model for engaged scholarship.” She led communication efforts to raise public awareness about lifesaving first aid when Russia invaded her home country of Ukraine in 2014. And, “She does this work with courage, intellectual rigor, humility, and an unwavering commitment to justice,” embodying our mission of communication for the public good. The winner of the 2025 Misti Yang Impact Award is Viktoriia Savchuk Kennet.

Finally, the Arête Award recognizes an outstanding faculty member whose teaching, mentorship, and leadership have left a meaningful impact on the graduate community. This year's winner demonstrates the spirit of this award through their outstanding instruction, commitment to student growth, and tireless support for student success. The graduate students chose Dr. Nick Joyce as their winner, "for leading with empathy, humor, and kindness; for being approachable, supportive, and creating a research culture where students feel safe to take risks, ask questions, and be themselves; and for being flexible and understanding when students face personal or health-related challenges, and consistently prioritizing students’ mental well-being." 

Congrats to all the award winners and thank you to the entire department for an excellent academic year!