University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Professor and Chair Deborah Goldberg was one of seven faculty members who received the 2012 Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award from the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. The recipients were selected for their dedication to developing cultural and ethnic diversity at U-M.

“I am gratified to see these award winners honored for their contributions to diversity at the University of Michigan,” said Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs. “Our commitment to create an excellent, broad-minded, and welcoming community of scholars would be nothing if we didn’t have faculty and staff working toward that goal every day, through their research, teaching, recruitment of students and faculty, and respect for one another.”

Established in 1996, the award is given in honor of Harold Johnson, dean emeritus of the School of Social Work. The award provides $5,000 to recipients to further research and scholarship opportunities.

Goldberg, Elzada U. Clover Collegiate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and chair and professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, was recognized for sustained contributions over 30 years to promoting diversity at U-M and beyond.

Her contributions include support for EEB’s participation in BioKids with Detroit Public Schools’ fifth- and sixth-graders, and M-Bio, which provides programming, support and funding for first and second-year undergraduate students with high potential for success but are inadequately prepared to study college science.

Also cited was her support of the Enhancing Diversity, Quality and Understanding of the Ecological and Evolutionary Science for Tomorrow (ED-QUE²ST) program, in which underrepresented minority students spend summers on independent research projects under a faculty or doctorate student mentor, and her work with the Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) promoting third and fourth year undergraduate students research experiences with faculty mentors as they prepare for graduate school.

“In the end, diversity is a major issue in our department and Deborah deserves the credit for putting it there and keeping it there,” wrote John Vandermeer, Asa Gray Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, EEB.

Additionally, Goldberg established a standing departmental committee on diversity, and was instrumental in establishing the Frontiers Master’s Program in EEB, which is designed to attract students from nontraditional backgrounds into biology and prepare them for top-ranked Ph.D. programs. She served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Women’s Issues at U-M for four years, and during that time, helped promote the issue of parental leave for graduate students who are new parents. Goldberg is a current member of STRIDE, a committee that provides information and advice about practices that will maximize the likelihood that diverse, well-qualified candidates for faculty positions will be identified, and, if selected for offers, recruited, retained, and promoted at U-M.