VANCOUVER, WASH. — Washington State University Vancouver will present its 2025 awards for equity, research, student achievement and teaching at this year’s Commencement ceremony on May 3. Each of the following will receive a Chancellor’s Medallion:
Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Equity—Praveen Sekhar, associate professor, School of Engineering and Computer Science
Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence—Kristin Lesseig, associate professor and academic director, College of Education, Sport, and Human Sciences
Chancellor’s Award for Student Achievement—Faith Yang, B.A., Education
Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence—Praveen Sekhar, associate professor, School of Engineering and Computer Science
Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Equity
This annual award honors a faculty or staff member for excellence in contributing to a community of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging at 91ԹϺ.
Praveen Sekhar has devoted his career and his life to ensuring that equity and diversity are recognized, celebrated and advanced. That commitment pervades everything he does as teacher, scholar, research scientist, board and committee member and mentor. Unfailingly respectful and kind, he is also persuasive and influential.
Sekhar embeds community engagement into his engineering courses, identifying organizations to partner with to give his students hands-on experience with community-driven projects and goals that match the course objectives. In his research and academic writing, Sekhar collaborates with and mentors a wide variety of scholars. He stresses the importance of outreach to make sure more students can pursue STEM degrees and create a knowledgeable workforce that can replace our currently aging workforce. He is an executive board member of iUrbanTeen, a national organization that encourages underrepresented middle and high school students to pursue STEM careers.
Sekhar has received three of 91ԹϺ’s highest honors: the Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Equity and the Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence this year and the Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence in 2024.
Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence
Each year, 91ԹϺ gives its highest research honor to recognize a faculty member’s exemplary research quality and quantity as well as positive influence on the broader community.
Kristin Lesseig has earned a national reputation in such areas as mathematical argumentation, teacher learning and access. She has published more than 30 articles in nationally and internationally recognized journals and has made presentations at nearly 50 national and international conferences, often to capacity audiences.
A key area of Lesseig’s research involves analysis of student reasoning and sense-making through argumentation practices. Her findings have a profound influence on the teaching of mathematics. Her goal, broadly, is to make math more approachable and help students not to fear it but to become more confident in using math in their everyday lives. Another key research area aims to diversify and strengthen the mathematics teacher workforce to better meet the needs of today’s students—a great need in Washington state and elsewhere.
Lesseig’s scholarship reaches beyond her research activity. In mentoring other faculty and working with the community, she is generous with her time and knowledge.
Chancellor’s Award for Student Achievement
The student achievement award annually recognizes one student’s love of learning, persistence to overcome barriers in pursuit of academic goals, leadership potential and involvement in campus life.
To her teachers, Faith Yang is a model student, an active class participant who is always prepared with incisive questions. To her mentor at Woodburn Elementary School in Camas, Wash., where she did her student teaching, she is becoming a model teacher as well.
Yang grew up in Vancouver and enrolled at 91ԹϺ in 2022, after studying at Clark College and Whatcom Community College. She felt called to become a teacher and a desire to educate and empower future generations. “School was difficult for me,” Yang said, “but I always found joy at church when working with younger children and was always passionate about helping people succeed in a safe and fun environment.”
True to her calling, Yang displays a curiosity for learning and regularly visits her professors to ask critical questions. She has maintained high grades and is seen as a leader among her peers. In short, her teachers say, Yang is the kind of student who makes classes better.
Students’ Award for Teaching Excellence
Students honor a faculty member each year with the teaching excellence award. The award recognizes exceptional dedication to students and infectious enthusiasm for the subject matter.
To many people, electrical engineering might seem like a difficult subject to make exciting and fun, but not so for Praveen Sekhar, who loves his subject as well as his students. All aspects of Sekhar’s professional life—academic research, campus activities, business relationships, community connections, volunteerism—come together in the classroom. While his standards are high, students see him as human before professorial.
“Dr. Sekhar is empathetic and understands life issues and makes reasonable accommodations without being unfair to others,” a student wrote in nominating him. He pays special attention to make sure that no one falls behind in class.
Sekhar is strongly committed to students’ career readiness. In designing one course, he reached out to local industries to ask what topics and skills they look for when hiring. He asks students whom they’d like to hear from and brings in speakers from those companies. Students benefit not only from the knowledge imparted but also from the contacts they make in their chosen field.
Commencement Details
About 91ԹϺ
As one of six campuses of the WSU system, 91ԹϺ offers big-school resources in a small-school environment. The university provides affordable, high-quality baccalaureate- and graduate-level education to benefit the people and communities it serves. As the only four-year research university in Southwest Washington, 91ԹϺ helps drive economic growth through relationships with local businesses and industries, schools and nonprofit organizations.
91ԹϺ is located on the homelands of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Peoples of the Lower Columbia Valley. We acknowledge their presence here. 91ԹϺ expresses its respect towards these original and current caretakers of the region. We pledge that these relationships will be built on mutual trust and respect.
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Media contact: Brenda Alling, Office of Marketing and Communication, 360-546-9601, brenda_alling@wsu.edu