Recent achievements for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln community were earned by Barney McCoy, Jeffrey L. Day, Gregory Dickinson, Shana Gerdes, Melanie Griffin, Jason Griffiths, Yvonne Lai, Mackenzie Savaiano, and the College or Architecture's FACT + Plain Designbuild Studios.
Honors
The Society of Professional Journalists honored Barney McCoy’s documentary “Running Towards the Fire: A War Correspondent’s Story” with the Sigma Delta Chi Television Documentary-Small Market Station Award during a recent online ceremony. McCoy, the Gilbert and Martha Hitchcock Professor of Broadcasting at Nebraska, directed, produced and narrated the film. “Running Towards the Fire” captures the pivotal role war correspondents played during the Allied forces’ 1944 D-Day invasion of Europe and subsequent defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers in 1945.
Nebraska LEAD Program’s longtime staff member, Shana Gerdes, has been recognized by the International Association of Programs for Agricultural Leadership with its Program Support Award, honoring her exceptional dedication, organization and service to agricultural leadership education. For more than 17 years, Gerdes has provided the steady leadership and organizational expertise that serve as the foundation of the Nebraska LEAD Program. For more than 17 years, Gerdes has provided the steady leadership and organizational expertise that serve as the foundation of the Nebraska LEAD Program.
Mackenzie Savaiano, associate professor of practice in special education and communication disorders, earned the 2025 Alan Koenig Research Award by Getting in Touch with Literacy. The Alan Koenig Research Award recognizes exemplary commitment, research and advancement in the education and literacy development of individuals with visual impairments and deafblindness. Savaiano will be presented with the award at the GITWL conference Nov. 7, in Huntsville, Alabama.
FACT + Plain Designbuild Studios won an Honor Award in the 2025 AIA Central States Region Design Awards for work on the Art Chapel. These studios are mentored by professors Jeffrey L. Day and Jason Griffiths.The Chapel was turned into a studio for adults to cultivate their creativity through art and craft instruction, supporting public events in a community with few cultural outlets.
Appointments
Gregory Dickinson has been selected as a Non-Resident Bowden Fellow at the University of Texas Law School's First Amendment Center. Dickinson is an assistant professor of law at the University of Nebraska College of Law.
Melanie Griffin, associate professor and chair, Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries was selected into the 2025 cohort of the Association of Research Libraries Leadership Fellows Program. She joins 24 other fellows, chosen based on recommendations from the LFP Selection Working Group, for a 13-month hybrid experience designed to prepare the next generation of senior and executive leaders in research libraries and archives.
Yvonne Lai, Milton E. Mohr Professor and graduate chair in mathematics, was elected to be the next vice president of the Mathematical Association of America. She will take office July 1, 2026. Lai has held several leadership roles in the MAA, including chair of MAA’s Committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers and co-founder of the SIGMAA on Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching.
