Congrats Professor Emily Lesher, Donald Harward Faculty Award Recipient!

Science professor Emily Lesher earned the Maine Campus Compact’s 2022 Donald Harward Faculty Award for Service-Learning Excellence and was recognized during a virtual ceremony on April 28. According to Maine Campus Compact, the award recognizes the accomplishments of three outstanding Maine faculty members who make public service an integral part of their curriculum, create reciprocal partnerships with communities, and advocate for service-learning. Being chosen for this award, especially during these unprecedented times, is a tribute to her outstanding teaching and commitment to student engagement.

Emily was recognized for the multi-semester project called “Protecting Little Sebago: A Model College-Lake Association Sustainable Partnership”. She and Kimberly Post published a white paper of best practices for college-community partnerships in a peer-reviewed journal that is coming out soon. The work was funded by a Davis Conservation Foundation grant.

We agree with the Maine Campus Compact. Well done, Emily!

About Emily

Emily’s areas of expertise lie in analytical and environmental chemistry and the development of community-engaged curricula and programs at the intersection of chemistry, education, and the environment. Emily was introduced to service learning at Colorado School of Mines, where she completed her MS and PhD. Arriving at
Saint Joseph’s College in 2013, she quickly began to build relationships with community partners including the Portland Water District, Lakes Environmental Association, Windham Middle School, Sebago Anglers, and the Little Sebago Lake Association. These partnerships resulted in numerous projects that have been implemented in her classes, and in student research projects and internships. With support from the National Science Foundation, Emily and her colleagues developed Chemistry for the Community, a service-learning infused curriculum where students work on projects with increasing levels of complexity, building the skills of a community-engaged scientist, as they move through their chemistry coursework. She is also passionate about the development of K-12 STEM teachers
and is co-PI of the National Science Foundation funded Growing Future STEM Teachers in Maine program which provides full tuition scholarships and supports to students committed to teaching in high needs schools.

About Maine Campus Compact

Established in 1994, Maine Campus Compact is a coalition of 17 member campuses whose purpose is to catalyze and lead a movement to reinvigorate the public purposes and civic mission of higher education. They seek to transform our campuses in ways that develop better informed, active citizen problem-solvers, stronger communities, and a more just democratic society. They believe that our campuses must be vital agents and architects of a flourishing democracy.