Ladenheim named 2017 Steve Gould Award winner
Melissa Ladenheim, associate dean of the Honors College, has been named the 2017 Steve Gould Award winner at the University of Maine.
The Steve Gould Award is presented to members of the UMaine community who have, by their conduct, demonstrated superior qualities of unselfishness and compassion in the course of serving UMaine and its ideals. The award will be presented April 25 at the Employee Recognition and Awards Luncheon.
Ladenheim was cited for her unwavering passion to serve students and the community. She is a dedicated educator, and academic mentor and adviser, and was recognized by All Maine Women with the Distinguished Mentor Award in 2014 and 2015.
As an educator and engaged community member, Ladenheim is committed to creating dialogues that empower and promote understanding, particularly for those who are marginalized and disenfranchised. Ladenheim takes an active role in advocating for social justice and equality — from her efforts as coordinator of UMaine’s Judaic Studies Program from 2014–16 to helping organize Islamic Awareness Week.
Since 2013, Ladenheim has served on the advisory committee and as a workshop presenter for the UMaine Diversity Leadership Institute.
In addition, she has been a campus leader in raising awareness of food insecurity in Maine and beyond. She has helped mobilize students and other stakeholders in meal-packing events, preparing ready-to-heat meals for low-income people in the state and needy populations elsewhere in the world. To date, Ladenheim has participated in packing nearly 100,000 meals on the Welcome Weekend Day of Service and Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. This spring, she is advising the Honors Student Advisory Board in its Hungry 100K: Maine Day Meal Pack-out, which has a goal of raising $25,000 to pack 100,000 meals to combat food insecurity statewide.
Last year for her community service leadership, she received the Dean Lucy Award from the Bodwell Center for Service and Volunteerism. And in 2012, she received the Donald Harward Faculty Award for Service-Learning Excellence given by Maine Campus Compact in recognition of valuable contributions to service learning at UMaine.
Ladenheim is a founding member of the Sustainable Food Systems Research Collaborative in the Honors College, an interdisciplinary initiative that combines academic work and community engagement to identify and address problems in the food systems. In 2016, she also launched the Servant Heart Research Collaborative, a project in which teams of faculty and students collaborate to address the needs of children in Sierra Leone.
Ladenheim joined the Honors College as an adjunct faculty member in 2005.