Madeleine Lenski
Research Specialist
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
College of Human Medicine
For nearly three decades, Madeleine Lenski has managed large national and international research efforts to explore why children sometimes develop motor and intellectual disabilities, especially cerebral palsy, and what can be done to help them. Recognized as an outstanding researcher, she helps motivate her fellow collaborators to move research forward. Believing that health research is not useful unless it helps the people who need it, Lenski places the needs of children and families foremost. She manages a website that provides much-needed information on resources for the families of children with cerebral palsy and has organized six statewide meetings of cerebral palsy researchers in Michigan, in which people with cerebral palsy and their families have been active participants. One of our state’s leaders in providing services to children with disabilities describes these conferences as “top notch, including cutting-edge research and a human side; the most recent conference included a dance presentation with one of the dancers a young man with cerebral palsy.”
Lenski has led numerous studies focused on the outcomes of very premature babies, including coordinating a four-year, five-nation study comparing their childhood outcomes. She has arranged scientific meetings and helped create a common database for researchers to meet to compare findings, which showed similarities in some important developmental outcomes as well as ways that mortality and later morbidity patterns differed.
Whether reassuring an anxious mother on a phone call or preparing the placenta of a high-risk baby for in-depth study in a hospital delivery room, Lenski completes whatever tasks are needed to advance research and help study participants. Her work might involve designing a system for assessing a new way to treat cerebral palsy or organizing an international meeting of investigators.
Lenski plays an indispensable role in the intellectual activity of her department by serving as the coordinator of the department’s guest speaker series, ensuring that the outstanding epidemiologists and biostatisticians invited to MSU have an exceptional visit. She is also the person students, especially international students, turn to for support and encouragement, knowing she is a person they can trust.
For her commitment to children with disabilities and their families, her contributions to the science of prevention and management of these disabilities, and her tireless support of her department, Madeleine Lenski is an ideal recipient for Michigan State University’s Distinguished Academic Staff Award.
Stanley J. Moore
Extension Agriculture and
Agribusiness Institute
MSU Extension and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Serving Michigan's agricultural producers for almost 30 years, Stanley J. Moore, senior MSU Extension farm business management educator, is dedicated to fostering their viability, sustainability and profitability. Moore’s career focus has included work with dairy producers, human resource management and as a farm business management educator.
Moore has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on five grants pertaining to dairy farm employee training totaling more than $3 million. His findings, delivered in education programs, research publications and conference presentations include information on managing family labor, retaining quality employees and building a culture of learning and contributing among employees.
Noting the challenges among farmers to recruit qualified, legal farm workers, Moore led a dairy training program to help Puerto Ricans develop the skills needed to work on Michigan dairy farms. He also secured a grant to develop an online training platform for farm employees in both English and Spanish, empowering valuable team members for Michigan farms, reducing employee turnover and improving everyone’s work environments on farms.
Throughout his career, Moore has built an outstanding list of educational programs, research publications, presentations and grant funding related to human resources management. Recognized for his expertise in this area, Moore now leads an international agriculture human resource management study group and has been an invited speaker at dairy conferences across the United States, Ukraine and Israel.
Since 2019, Moore has also provided financial management expertise to fruit and crop producers, particularly financial analysis and development for improved decision-making, using the resources offered by MSU to help farmers meet their goals.
Additionally, Moore has demonstrated national leadership in Extension as president of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents and the Joint Council of Extension Professionals. Serving with integrity and courage, he has interacted with USDA and land-grant universities to strengthen Extension nationally.
Moore’s significant programming impacts, commitment to the Extension mission, leadership and innovation, and unwavering support of agricultural producers make him a most fitting recipient of the Michigan State University Distinguished Academic Staff Award.
Daniel O’Keefe
Michigan Sea Grant Extension
Community, Food and Environment Institute
Michigan State University Extension
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
As a Michigan Sea Grant senior Extension educator, Daniel O’Keefe’s initiatives help attain the best possible solutions for Lake Michigan, its fish populations and the people who rely on the lake for food, income, recreation and other less tangible benefits to quality of life. Working with stakeholders in seven coastal counties, he shares his science-based knowledge and expertise of Great Lakes ecology, recreational and charter fisheries and aquatic nuisance species to address Great Lakes and southern Lake Michigan issues. His focus on emerging technology and leveraging expanding fish marking efforts has improved the quality of Michigan Sea Grant’s projects and programs.
O’Keefe’s many strengths include understanding and explaining the complexities of inter-jurisdictional management, Great Lakes ecology and the intertwined histories of fishery dynamics and exotic invasions. He has worked with state agencies and anglers to develop a citizen-science program in which anglers track critical fishing data to assists state lake managers that paved the way for the development of a virtual reporting app, the “Great Lakes Angler Diary.” In 2019, in response to a controversial proposal to dredge the Grand River, O’Keefe gave 17 presentations explaining his research on the potential impacts of such dredging. His research was cited by local government officials as helping them decide not to support the dredging proposal.
Furthermore, O’Keefe’s work offers a portfolio of products, presentations and workshops that appeal to a wide spectrum of constituents, from K-12 students to influential leaders of sport fishing clubs. As an Ottawa County Parks employee noted, “Not every educator is a research scientist and not every scientist is a true educator. However, O’Keefe is one of a few people who does both very well.” Among his many significant scholarly contributions, O’Keefe is a co-author of “The Life of the Lakes: A Guide to the Great Lakes Fishery,” 4th edition, an extremely valuable educational resource.
For his commitment to research, outreach and education to enhance the sustainable use of Great Lakes resources, Daniel O’Keefe is a most deserving recipient of Michigan State University’s Distinguished Academic Staff Award.
Cheryl Williams-Hecksel
School of Social Work
College of Social Science
Cheryl Williams-Hecksel has been a member of the MSU School of Social Work community for almost 20 years with exemplary contributions in advising, curriculum development, outreach, engagement and teaching. Working to address the impact of trauma in the university community, Michigan and the nation, Williams-Hecksel also tackles the legacy of systemic racism in child welfare services that creates and compounds experiences of trauma by creating exemplary training experiences for current and future social workers who will carry trauma-informed, evidence-based practice forward to variety of agencies and systems.
Teaching social work practice is not for the faint of heart. Excellence in training requires field instructors who are well prepared to meet the needs of today’s students to ensure that the training they offer is based on the most up-to-date evidence. With trauma considered pervasive in U.S. society across all demographic categories, social workers must be knowledgeable about it and its treatments to be effective providers. Williams-Hecksel has been instrumental in the development and implementation of several training initiatives that have ensured that Michigan social service agencies, and the social work students who train in these agencies, are highly skilled in the treatment of trauma.
Williams-Hecksel is part of a team at the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute that supports universities and public child welfare agencies as they train social work students and improve their work with children and families. One of her recent accomplishments contributed to clinical excellence in the treatment of survivors of sexual assault. She developed the School of Social Work Evidence-Based Trauma Treatment Certificate focused on trauma in children and, in response to community need, expanded it to include treatment of adult survivors of sexual assault. Williams-Hecksel is a founding member of the MSU Trauma Services and Training Network, which addresses the impact of trauma at MSU and the broader mid-Michigan Community. In the past three years, Williams-Hecksel has presented 23 continuing education offerings for Michigan Department of Health and Human Services employees.
For her commitment to improving services for trauma survivors and the passion she brings to training future leaders in social work, Cheryl Williams-Hecksel is most deserving of the Michigan State University Distinguished Academic Specialist Award.