Outstanding Faculty Service Leadership Award for Elizabeth Stringer Keefe

The Outstanding Faculty Service Leadership Award is given to a full-time faculty member whose service and leadership have significantly advanced the mission of Stonehill College. The Faculty Academic Vision statement affirms that “a Stonehill education prepares students for meaningful lives by encouraging service to the common good, the practice of responsible citizenship, and the pursuit of professional and personal fulfillment.” As we expect this for our students, we expect the same from our faculty. Therefore, public service and service to the academic community are highly valued by the faculty at Stonehill College. This award recognizes a cumulative record of noteworthy accomplishment in service and leadership on the part of a faculty member. The recipient stands as a symbol of the entire faculty’s commitment to sustaining our community. In 2023, Stonehill College is proud to bestow the Outstanding Faculty Service Leadership Award on Professor Elizabeth Stringer Keefe. 

Your commitment to Stonehill’s mission is abundantly clear to all who work with you. While compiling an excellent teaching portfolio and a record of scholarly achievement, you also exemplify the qualities that we ask our faculty to model for our students and the broader Stonehill community as they lead lives of purpose. 

Elizabeth, you joined the Stonehill community during the 2019–2020 academic year; the year that straddles the pre- and post-pandemic periods. Over that time, you have demonstrated your commitment to excellence in the new programs and initiatives that you have worked on tirelessly and that have had a significant impact on our students and faculty. You have forged numerous partnerships between Stonehill and local schools and school districts, and your leadership and dedication has been instrumental in the design and development of our master’s degrees in inclusive education, post-baccalaureate education licensure programs, graduate education certificates, and particularly our partnership with Stonehill at Riverview.

You have established and maintain specialized school networks and teacher residency and mentoring programs specifically designed to recruit and retain diverse teacher candidates and mentors in the master’s and certificate education programs. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently recognized this work with a $164,000 grant to continue recruitment and enhancement. Additionally, you select and manage the Advancing Special Education in Urban Settings Award, bestowed to graduate students committed to working in special education in urban settings. 

This year, your first on Faculty Senate, you were elected by your colleagues to serve as Vice President. Early in the fall semester, you unexpectedly stepped into the President’s role. Throughout the year, you have skillfully navigated difficult, complex and, at times, contentious issues that included the consideration of partnering with an OPM, a change in academic leadership, and a revision to our general education program. Through it all, you diligently worked to increase avenues of communication. For example, the Faculty Senate Friday Flash has an extremely high readership level and is a message that people look forward to receiving every week…certainly not something you hear often about email! 

You continually express the notion that all voices matter and all voices will be heard. It has been through your leadership that the faculty and staff have begun to come together with a greater sense of optimism. 

Elizabeth, your service extends to your professional field as you have served as the President of the Massachusetts Council for Exceptional Children since 2016, as guest editor and editorial reviewer for several journals, member of several advisory boards that serve people with disabilities. It is clear that you are a service leader who works tirelessly to support colleagues, the larger Stonehill community, and the local community. 

And so, with deep pride, we confer the 2023 Outstanding Faculty Service Leadership Award to you, Professor Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, for your tireless service, consistent example, and exemplary contributions to Stonehill College. 

Given this 4th day of May, Two Thousand Twenty-Three 

(Rev.) John Denning, C.S.C., President

Peter Ubertaccio, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs