Gary Hodges/Provided

From left, Heather Kolakowski ’00, lecturer in food and beverage management, Barbara Kaplan ’59, Paulette Clancy, the Samuel and Diane Bodman Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Doug Kaplan ’88 at the 2017 Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship ceremony.

Two Cornell faculty members were awarded the 2017 Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship April 25.

Paulette Clancy, the Samuel and Diane Bodman Professor of Chemical Engineering and director of the Cornell Institute for Computational Science and Engineering, and Heather Kolakowski ’00, lecturer in food and beverage management in the School of Hotel Administration, were recognized for their dedication to service-learning.

Both have had a significant impact on undergraduate, graduate and professional education by engaging their students in challenging service-learning programs. They each received a $5,000 award to enable them to further develop their community-based learning courses.

“It is such an honor to receive this recognition and be part of the Kaplan family of faculty fellows,” said Clancy. The award will build on a collaboration that exposes Ithaca middle schoolers in the Sciencenter’s Future Science Leaders program to computational science and engineering. She served two terms as the William C. Hooey Director of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell, from 2002 to 2010. She was the first female director of the school and the first woman to chair a department in the College of Engineering.

Kolakowski teaches food and beverage courses including restaurant management and is faculty adviser to Hotel Ezra Cornell, the annual student-run conference at the School of Hotel Administration, her alma mater. She is a 2002 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.

The Kaplan Award will allow Kolakowski’s class to create a long-term project with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier. The class will enhance students’ skills and project management abilities while addressing the social challenges of food insecurity.

“It is a great honor for the recognition and the support to continue and enhance the hotelie tradition of service to the community through the HADM 4315: Hunger, Health and Nonprofit Social Enterprise course, which was inspired by the work of Therese O’Connor, 2004 Kaplan family faculty fellow,” Kolakowski said.

Barbara Kaplan ’59, her husband, Leslie Kaplan, son Douglas Kaplan ’88 and daughter Emily Kaplan ’91 established the Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Service-Learning Award to recognize and support greater involvement in civic engagement at Cornell. The fellowship program is coordinated through the Public Service Center.

Grace Burgin ’19 is a biological studies major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Amy K. Somchanhmavong ’02 is associate director of Community Service-Learning and Partnership in Cornell’s Public Service Center.