CHSS Faculty Recognized with 2020 Presidential Medals

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is pleased to announce that two of its faculty members, Melissa Broeckelman-Post and Christy Pichichero, have been chosen to receive 2021 Presidential Faculty Excellence Awards.

Photo of Melissa Broeckelman-Post

Melissa Broekelman-Post is an associate professor in the Department of Communication, where she serves as the basic course director, and is a senior scholar in Mason's Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. She has been selected to receive the John Toups Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Teaching. This award is given to a faculty member whose teaching inspires and stimulates students in the finest traditions of higher education.

Photo of Christy Pichichero

Christy Pichichero is an associate professor of French and history, affiliated with the Departments of Modern and Classical Languages, and History and Art History, as well as the Women and Gender Studies program and the War and the Military in Society program. She serves as the college’s director of faculty diversity. Pichichero has been recognized with the United Bank Award for Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion, presented to a faculty member who has made extraordinary contributions in research, scholarship, and creative works, teaching and/or service that directly advances diversity and inclusion within and outside the Mason community.

Dean Ann Ardis shared her congratulations with Broekelman-Post and Pichichero. “I have had the pleasure of working with both of these outstanding members of our faculty community,” she said. “I have seen first-hand the degree of dedication that they bring to their work with our students and our broader community, and so I know how clearly they deserve this great honor. I thank them for continuing to make Mason an ever more inclusive, vibrant, and overall excellent institution.”

Each of the university's Presidential Medal recipients will be formally recognized in Fall 2021 as part of the Mason Vision Series, a program of the Office of the Provost.