Ä¢¹½tv has announced recipients of the University Senate Awards and the list of new faculty emeriti for 2025.
Since 1969, the University Senate has honored faculty and staff members who make significant contributions to the university by presenting them with Distinguished Awards in the areas of creative arts, research, faculty service, and staff service. Recipients of the awards are recognized during May Commencement.
University Senate Awards Recipients for 2025
Varinder M. Sharma
2025 Distinguished Faculty Award for Research
Varinder Sharma is a tenured professor of marketing at the Eberly College of Business. He arrived at Ä¢¹½tv in 1996 as an associate professor of marketing. Sharma holds an MSc in space science, an MTech in materials sciences, an MBA, and a PhD in international marketing. He received tenure in 2001 and was promoted to full professorship in 2002. Additionally, he served as chair of the Marketing Department from 2005 to 2008.
His diverse academic background allows him to create a unique combination of research, teaching, and service at Ä¢¹½tv, earning him the sincere appreciation of his colleagues. With expertise in developing and testing theoretical frameworks in marketing, he was able to produce high-quality publications. Recently, Sharma enhanced his skills in digital business analytics through programs at Wharton and MIT.
Before coming to the US, he worked as a quality control technologist in the Middle East. This experience gave him a global perspective. As an MBA student, he co-authored his first published research. Over time, this interest evolved into an academic research stream in marketing, publishing 40 studies in refereed journals. He has made 39 presentations at national and international conferences and continues to advance academic and applied research in business. Two manuscripts are under review, and one is progressing toward completion.
At Ä¢¹½tv, Sharma has been involved in developing and upgrading graduate and undergraduate courses to provide students with knowledge and skills to navigate marketplace changes. He has consistently demonstrated this commitment through teaching and mentorship, encouraging students and faculty participation in research. As a dedicated faculty member, he has actively provided services to Ä¢¹½tv in various committees, including the APSCUF, Eberly College, and Marketing Department committees to significantly contribute to the governance and development of Ä¢¹½tv.
Jeffrey Santicola
2025 Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching
Jeffrey M. Santicola, DEd, serves as the chairperson for the Hospitality and Employment Relations Department, which includes the Hospitality Management program, Culinary program, and the master’s degree programs in Employment Relations and Health Services Administration, housed in the Eberly College of Business.
Santicola came to Ä¢¹½tv in 2014 with his bachelor of arts from Edinboro University and his master of science in instructional leadership from Robert Morris University. He completed his doctorate degree in curriculum and instruction in 2023 at Ä¢¹½tv. Santicola spent his entire career in the food service and hospitality industry as an owner, chef, and restaurant general manager prior to beginning his teaching career in 2004 at Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh. Santicola eventually became the dean of academics at PCI and in 2008 was promoted to director of academics for the 17 Le Cordon Bleu schools in North America, operating out of Chicago.
In 2014, when Le Cordon Bleu left the United States, Santicola was fortunate to join Ä¢¹½tv’s Culinary Academy prior to joining the Hospitality Management Department in 2017 to re-open the Allenwood student-run restaurant lab in Ackerman Hall. The Allenwood has since become available to Ä¢¹½tv students, faculty, and staff and to the Indiana community at large. Santicola’s wine and wine service class field trip each spring and Homecoming farm-to-table dinner each fall are two of his favorite weeks on campus annually. Servant leadership philosophies are what Santicola attributes to any successes he has had as an educator.
Chauna Craig
2025 Distinguished Faculty Award for Creative Arts
Chauna Craig, professor of English, is the author of two short story collections. The Widow’s Guide to Edible Mushrooms (2017) earned nominations for three book awards, winning the 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Short Fiction. Her most recent book, Wings and Other Things (2022), was hailed by reviewers as full of “hard-won wisdom, sharp insights, and generous compassion” and “dexterous writing that entertains by not straying into the formulaic.”
Craig grew up in Montana, the setting of many of her stories and essays, and graduated from Montana State University. She earned an MA in American literature from Arizona State University and a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She was hired in 2000 to teach creative writing at Ä¢¹½tv, where she has also served as director of Women’s and Gender Studies and dean’s associate for the then-College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Since 2019, she has directed the Cook Honors College while teaching courses in honors, English, and the graduate Literature and Criticism program.
In addition to her books, Craig has published 43 short stories and 16 works of creative nonfiction in literary magazines and anthologies. Her work has been recognized by the annual anthologies for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, and Best American Short Stories. Craig has also been awarded competitive writing residencies at Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation, and the PLAYA Art and Science Residency Program. In 2016, she was writer-in-residence at Fort Lyon, a state-funded residential community in Colorado for unhoused people in recovery from addiction, a profound experience that affirmed her belief that creative expression is a tool for meaning-making and healing for everyone.
Lorraine Guth
2024–25 Distinguished University Professor
Lorraine J. Guth, professor of counseling, served as Ä¢¹½tv’s 2024–25 Distinguished University Professor.
Guth has been a faculty member in the Department of Counseling since 1998. She is a licensed professional counselor and licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania as well as a nationally certified counselor. In addition to her teaching responsibilities in the classroom and supervising students in clinical settings, she has been recognized nationally for her leadership in the field, which includes teaching and presenting internationally at sites around the world.
In addition to her faculty responsibilities, Guth has worked internationally to advance the counseling profession, providing direct service and training. Guth stated, “These meaningful endeavors have taken me across the globe, where I’ve acquired invaluable knowledge and skills that significantly enrich my teaching.”
In 2020, she was awarded an Erasmus+ Grant from the European Union to deliver undergraduate and graduate student workshops at Middle Eastern Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, on topics including enhancing counselor wellness as well as strategies to intentionally use group work to transform hate and enhance community building.
Guth’s 2015–16 sabbatical project included teaching, service, and research in Malawi, Africa, funded through an Ä¢¹½tv Faculty Professional Development Council Grant for International Career Enhancement. This followed her 2014 outreach project, “Counseling in the Warm Heart of Africa Institute” in Lilongwe, Malawi, when she was one of 10 counselor educators from the United States chosen for the National Board of Certified Counselors International Malawi Counselling Institute. In 2017, she was invited to lead the second Malawi Counselling Institute, facilitating a group of delegates from the United States who taught counseling courses at Africa University of Diplomacy, Counseling, and International Relations.
In 2011, she was one of 12 counselor educators from the United States chosen to be part of the NBCC-I Thunder Dragon Institute in Thimphu, Bhutan, providing direct counseling services to Bhutanese students in a local school and training to the school principal, teachers, and counselors. She then coordinated a service project in the United States where faculty and graduate students donated counseling resources to the Bhutanese school. She has also presented and connected with counseling professionals in Ireland, Italy, and Hong Kong.
She has served on various university and College of Education and Communications committees, including being a member and chair of the University Senate Research Committee, where she reviewed more than 2,000 small grant proposals and 180 fellowship grant proposals, with $1.9 million in funds awarded; the University-Wide Sabbatical Committee; and the College’s Diversity Committee. She has also been a long-time member of the University Senate and previously served on the Middle States Accreditation Committee and the University Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues.
She is the clinical coordinator for her department’s master’s degree program and coordinates the Indiana Digital Counselor Training Facility for on-campus practicum classes. She was part of the team that secured $190,000 in technology fee funding for innovative Landro technology that enhanced counselor training and supervision. She has served as a faculty advisor for the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching program at Ä¢¹½tv, which included supervising the group work inquiry project of a teacher from Botswana, Africa.
She has also provided service in local public schools and nursing homes as a certified therapy dog handler and participates in the Ä¢¹½tv Just Paws therapy dog program. She has published a journal article and two chapters in an edited book about this work.
Over the past 26 years, her scholarship has primarily focused on group work, including process observation and international counseling; multicultural and diversity issues in counseling, including social justice and sexuality issues; teaching effectiveness; and counselor wellness, with the intention of informing the counseling profession at the international, national, and local levels. Guth has contributed to 46 publications, including a guiding document on 10 tips for facilitating virtual work groups in response to the pandemic, 100 professional presentations, and numerous service projects.
In addition to the Distinguished University Professor recognition, Guth is the recipient of several awards from Ä¢¹½tv for teaching, scholarship, and service: the 2022 Distinguished Faculty Award for Research; the 2017 College of Education and Communications Faculty Scholar Award; the 2016 College of Education and Educational Technology Dean’s Outstanding Researcher Award; and the 2009 Faculty Recognition Award for Outstanding Leadership, Service, and Teaching in the Ä¢¹½tv College of Education and Educational Technology.
External to Ä¢¹½tv, she is a four-time recipient of the Association for Specialists in Group Work President’s Award for Outstanding Service. She served on the group’s executive board for six years, including as president of the organization. During her presidential tenure, the organization created an inaugural masterclass podcast-video series and held the national conference. As past president, she co-edited a special issue of the Journal for Specialists in Group Work focusing on group work innovations in a transforming world. She also participated in service projects with the organization, including community outreach to residents in Puerto Rico.
As part of the Distinguished University Professor nomination, recipients propose an academic project that they plan to complete during the year they are selected for the honor.
In June 2024, she was the keynote speaker at the first international mental health conference in Maun, Botswana. While there, she collaborated with a counselor educator and one of the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching scholars from Botswana to study the professional quality of life of mental health professionals and helpers. Guth hopes the research results will inform the development of needed wellness interventions for mental health professionals in Botswana.
She will also continue to co-coordinate the Association for Specialists in Group Work masterclass podcast and video series; engage in an international group activity to enhance her awareness, knowledge, and skills related to wellness, self-care, and cultural humility; and further the research efforts in Botswana.
She additionally plans to author a manuscript about integrating sex positivity into counselor education, present at a professional counseling conference on the topic, and participate in the supervision, training, or clinical practice needed to obtain the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapist certification. Currently, there are no counselors with this designation in Indiana, PA.
Shagufta Haque
Outgoing Student Trustee
The Council of Trustees, the university’s main governing body, has one student member. To be eligible for this position, a student must be at least a first-semester sophomore with an expected graduation date no sooner than two years from the start of his or her appointment. The student must be in good academic standing and must have significant leadership experience and strong communication skills.
Shagufta Haque was approved to begin her term as the student trustee in April 2023. An economics honors track and finance double major, Haque is a member of the Cook Honors College and the Eberly College of Business Honors Program.
She is on the Cook Honors College Executive Board and the Center for Teaching Excellence Advisory Board, working as an undergraduate student representative and providing student-centered insight and advice on activities of the Teaching Excellence Center. She is a member of the Co-op Board of Directors.
She is vice chair of the University Senate, the university’s academic governing board, responsible for delivering updates on the SGA and the GSA. She is a member of the Student Support and Community Standards Board of Directors, participating in hearings and decision-making regarding student violations of Ä¢¹½tv’s code of conduct. She has worked as a note-taker for the Department for Disability Access and Advising and volunteered with the Indiana Community Garden to harvest for the Chevy Chase Food Bank during the summer months.
She is a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success and of the Ä¢¹½tv Women in Business, and she completed a six-week-long Executive Leaders Series sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Student Leadership and Engagement focused on having leadership empathy, handling difficult conversations, and achieving organizational goals.
She is the recipient of a Cook Honors College scholarship and the Terry Serafini Legacy Fund scholarship through the Eberly College of Business Honors Program.
Syed R. Ali-Zaidi Award for Academic Excellence
Ä¢¹½tv Nominee: Olivia Gambill, College of Health Sciences
The Ali-Zaidi Award is funded through the generous donations of Syed R. Ali-Zaidi in honor of his father. Each of the 14 universities in Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education submits one nominee, an undergraduate or graduate student, to the State System chancellor. The chancellor then chooses the recipient based on outstanding academic performance, recognition of scholarship by members of the university faculty, participation in extracurricular activities, and the quality of the nominee’s essay.
Gambill is majoring in food and nutrition at Ä¢¹½tv.
Faculty Achievements in Scholarship and New Faculty Emeriti
The emeritus or emerita title is given to qualified retired faculty and academic administrators who have been recommended through a department-based process to the Academic Committee of the University Senate. The recommendation of the Academic Committee is reviewed by the University Senate as a body and then by the Ä¢¹½tv Council of Trustees.
College of Arts, Humanities, Media, and Public Affairs
Lynn Botelho
- History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religious Studies
- 28 Years of Service
Mary Logan-Hastings
- Music, Theatre, and Dance
- 24 Years of Service
Eberly College of Business
P. Michael Kosicek
- Management
- 21 Years of Service (posthumously awarded)
Stephen Osborne
- Management
- 36 Years of Service
College of Education and Human Services
J. Beth Mabry
- School Psychology, Special Education, and Sociology
- 21 Years of Service
College of Health Sciences
Krys Kaniasty
- Psychology
- 34 Years of Service
Edith West
- Nursing
- 18 Years of Service
John J. and Char Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Kenneth Coles
- Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences
- 20 Years of Service
Gregory Kenning
- Madia Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics
- 20 Years of Service
Thomas Simmons
- Biology
- 33 Years of Service
Ä¢¹½tv Libraries
Susan Drummond
- University Libraries
- 26 Years of Service
Sandra Janicki
- University Libraries
- 36 Years of Service