Omolala (Lola) Eniola-Adefeso, PhD., Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, for her efforts to create STEM pipeline programs for women and students of color in order to diversify the field of Engineering.

Professor Lola Eniola-Adefeso has been a game changer in enhancing the culture and climate of the department of Chemical Engineering. As part of the Chemical Engineering department’s graduate committee since 2008, she was instrumental in improving the quality and diversity in the PhD program. Since taking reins as graduate chair, diversity in this department’s graduate program has further improved while maintaining high standards – the current first year PhD class has 44% women and 26% underrepresented minority. As a 2015 Faculty Fellow, Eniola-Adefeso’s focus was on faculty diversity. Her work resulted in several suggestions that were implemented by the department where she currently chairs the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) faculty sub-committee for the College of Engineering. Last year, she chaired the NextProf workshop which brings graduate students and postdocs to campus to learn more about becoming a faculty member. In addition, Prof. Eniola-Adefeso created a project for College of Engineering undergradutes to interact with high school students in Ypsilanti and Detroit. According to Dean Alec Gallimore, “the creativity she (Lola) draws upon mostly comes from her reaching out to have discussions with others…and she provides a great example of what can be replicated elsewhere in CoE and across U-M – good actionable recommendations and conclusions.”

Jack Bernard, JD, Associate General Counsel, Office of the Vice President and General Counsel for his decades of work to achieve greater equity for those persons who have learning and visual difficulties.

Attorney Jack Bernard has been a leader since his days as a student here on campus. He joined the University of Michigan as a staff person in 1999 and serves as Associate General Counsel. His primary areas of responsibility include intellectual property, academic freedom and speech, privacy, security, computing and cyberlaw, media rights, student rights, affiliation agreements, and disability law. He is currently Chair of the University of Michigan’s Council for Disability Concerns (CFDC). From his earliest association with the University of Michigan, Attorney Bernard has been a campus leader in promoting accommodation and inclusion of people with disabilities. He has been instrumental in establishing the Hathitrust which provides access to resource materials to individuals with learning and visual difficulties. And his leadership of the Barrier-Free Computer Users Group (BFCUG), among other activities, won him the James T. Neubacher Award, the highest recognition for disability awareness bestowed by U-M, while he was still a student. CFDC committee member, Anna Ercoli Schnitzer, described Jack Bernard as “kind and caring, reaching out in a low-key but effective manner to do whatever he can to provide fairness to all–faculty/staff/students and even alumni.”