UCF’s annual marquee event, Founders’ Day, recognizes the accomplishments of students, faculty and staff for outstanding teaching, advising, mentoring, research, professional service and librarianship. 2025 Founders’ Day honorees from the College of Arts and Humanities are listed below.
Student Awards
Student categories feature inductees to the Order of Pegasus, UCF’s highest student honor; graduate awards for outstanding master’s thesis and outstanding dissertation; undergraduate awards for honors undergraduate thesis; and individual college awardees as chosen by the respective college deans. All honorees earned financial awards.
Order of Pegasus
- Sebastian Garcia, History
- Heidi Rivera, English
Undergraduate Award
- Chase Scholze, College Founders’ Award
Faculty Awards
Reach for the Stars Awardees
Reach for the Stars recognizes early-career professionals with highly successful research and creative activity with a national or international impact.
- Amrita Ghosh, English
Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
- Stacey DiLiberto, Philosophy
- Haidar Khezri, Modern Languages and Literatures
- Brian Reese, Philosophy
- Sandra Sousa, Modern Languages and Literatures
Excellence in Graduate Teaching
- Christine Kolaya, English
Excellence in Research
- Emily Johnson, Texts and Technology
Staff Excellence Award Nominee
- Heather Gibson, Marketing
- Amy Giroux, Texts and Technology
Faculty Emeriti
- Maria Cristina Santana-Rogers, Modern Languages and Literatures
Service Awards
35 Years of Service
- Lyman Brodie, Executive Associate Dean
- Shelley Park, Philosophy
30 Years of Service
- Hadi Abbas, Visual Arts and Design
- Dina Fabery, Modern Languages and Literatures
- Kevin Haran, Visual Arts and Design
- James Helsinger, Performing Arts Theatre
- Lisa Nalbone, Modern Languages and Literatures
- Jeffrey Rupert, Performing Arts Music
25 Years of Service
- Patricia Farless, History
- Carla Poindexter, Visual Arts and Design
- Terry Thaxton, English
- Kristina Tollefson, Performing Arts Theatre
20 Years of Service
- Amy Foster, History
- Martha Garcia, Modern Languages and Literatures
- Jeremy Hunt, Performing Arts Music
- Waheeda Illasarie, Visual Arts and Design
- Connie Lester, History
- Amelia Lyons, History
- Janki Maraj, Visual Arts and Design
- Joe Muley, Visual Arts and Design
- Thomas Potter, Performing Arts Music
- Margaret Zaho, Visual Arts and Design
15 Years of Service
- Neida Mora-Maus, Director of the UCF Public Art Collection
10 Years of Service
- Jessica Nguyen, Finance Business Center
5 Years of Service
- Karen Anderson, Finance Business Center
- Kara Gajentan, Advancement Grants
- Lindsay Kuznia, Writing and Rhetoric
- Michael Leavitt, English
- Kirk Lundblade, RICHES
Retiring Faculty
- Lynn Casmier-Paz, English
- Joo Kim, Visual Arts and Design
- Keith Koons, Professor Emeritus, Performing Arts Music
- Alice Korosy, Modern Languages and Literatures
- Robert Reedy, Visual Arts and Design
- Maria Cristina Santana-Rogers, Modern Languages and Literatures