Achievements: Nov. 4, 2026
K. Aurelia Ball, associate professor of chemistry and department chair, has been named one of eight recipients of the 2026 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. The award recognizes early-career faculty in the chemical sciences at primarily undergraduate institutions for outstanding independent scholarship and a strong commitment to undergraduate education. Ball will receive an unrestricted $75,000 research grant to support work investigating intrinsically disordered protein interactions through computational biophysical chemistry.
Paul Benzon, associate professor, associate chair of English, and director of media and film studies, published “BASQUIAT: The Poems” in PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. The article examines poet and art critic René Ricard’s unpublished essay describing Jean-Michel Basquiat as “the greatest poet in the world” and explores Basquiat’s place in a lineage of Black experimental poets and text-based artists.
David Howson, teaching professor and Arthur Zankel Executive Director of Arts Administration, presented “Stop Having Bad Board Meetings: Simple Ways to Make Meetings More Engaging, Productive and Worth Everyone’s Time” at the New York Council of Nonprofits’ 2026 Annual Conference. The interactive session explored strategies for improving nonprofit board meetings, strengthening board participation and governance, and making better use of trustees’ time and expertise.
Laurie Rabinowitz, associate professor of education studies, presented “Hi, I’m Your Teacher and I Have a Similar Diagnosis to You: Digital Storytelling with Neurodivergent Educators” at the annual conference of the New York State Association for Teacher Educators and the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. The digital stories were co-created with support from Jesse O’Connell, assistant director of the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCS), and are publicly available on YouTube.
Laurie Rabinowitz, associate professor of education studies; Jessica Somerville-Braun, assistant professor of education studies; Rebecca Fisher ’27; Krista Senatore ’99; and Sharon Xu ’26 presented “Critically Reading Multimodal Mohawk Stories in the Fifth-Grade Literacy Classroom” at the annual conference of the New York State Association for Teacher Educators and the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. The presentation featured “Two Trees,” a film co-directed by Adam Tinkle, associate professor of media and film studies, and Callahan Mainzer ’26. The project also received support from Kay Olan, Skidmore’s 2025-26 Indigenous Elder-in-Residence; Peter Carner, director of Camp Northwoods; and Sydney Brown ’26.
Students, staff, and faculty are encouraged to share professional, scholarly, creative, and other notable accomplishments. Visit the Achievements form for submission criteria. Questions? Email swb@skidmore.edu