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 include:
Student Awards
Order of Pegasus Students Inductees
Student award categories highlight new inductees of 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.
- Sebastian Garcia, History
- Heidi Rivera, English
Undergraduate Awards
- Chase Scholze, College Founders’ Awards
Faculty Awards
Reach for the Stars Awardees
The Reach for the Stars award recognizes early-career professionals with highly successful research and creative activity with a national or international impact.
- Amrita Ghosh, English
Excellence Awards
Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
College Awardees
- Stacey DiLiberto, Philosophy
- Haidar Khezri, Modern Languages and Literatures
- Brian Reese, Philosophy
- Sandra Sousa, Modern Languages and Literatures
Excellence in Graduate Teaching
College Awardees
- Christine Kolaya, English
Excellence in Research
College Awardees
- Emily Johnson, Texts and Technology
Staff Excellence Award Nominee
- Heather Gibson, Marketing
- Amy Giroux, Texts and Technology
Retired and 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
Faculty Emeritus and Emerita
- Maria Cristina Santana-Rogers, Modern Languages and Literatures
Service Awards
Faculty 35 Years of Service
- Lyman Brodie, Executive Associate Dean
- Shelley Park, Philosophy
Faculty 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
Faculty 25 Years of Service
- Patricia Farless, History
- Carla Poindexter, Visual Arts and Design
- Terry Thaxton, English
- Kristina Tollefson, Performing Arts Theatre
Faculty 20 Years of Service
- Amy Foster, History
- Martha Garcia, Modern Languages and Literatures
- Jeremy Hunt, Performing Arts Music
- Connie Lester, History
- Amelia Lyons, History
- Thomas Potter, Performing Arts Music
- Margaret Zaho, Visual Arts and Design
Staff 20 Years of Service
- Waheeda Illasarie, Visual Arts and Design
- Janki Maraj, Visual Arts and Design
- Joe Muley, Visual Arts and Design
Staff 15 Years of Service
- Neida Mora-Maus, Director of the UCF Public Art Collection
Staff 10 Years of Service
- Jessica Nguyen, Finance Business Center
Staff 5 Years of Service
- Karen Anderson, Finance Business Center
- Kara Gajentan, Advancement Grants
- Lindsay Kuznia, Writing & Rhetoric
- Michael Leavitt, English
- Kirk Lundblade, RICHES