Carol Connor Equity Advisor Impact Award

2021 Recipient of the Carol Connor Equity Advisor Impact Award - Dr. Zuzanna Siwy

Zuzanna Siwy is the inaugural recipient of the 2021 Carol Connor Equity Advisor Impact Award. A professor of physics and astronomy in the School of Physical Sciences, she served two terms as an equity advisor for the school, from 2013 to 2015. Her nominators  – Professors Elizabeth Jarvo and Clare Yu – cited her tireless work during her 2013 term that contributed to the prestigious Clare Boothe Luce Professorship support in the school, as well as her organization of UCI-wide programming, including workshops that were part of the UCI ADVANCE Institute for Equity and Diversity that engaged students, faculty, and postdoctoral scholars.

Professor Siwy joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCI in 2005, after conducting postdoctoral research at the University of Florida, Gainsville.  She held several fellowships, including the Fellow of the Foundation for Polish Science, and at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Institute for Heavy Ions Research (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany and at the Alfred von Sloan Foundation. In 2009, Dr. Siwy was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers as well as the Bessel Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Her current research interests focus on using synthetic nanopores as templates for biomimetic channels as well as ionic diodes and ionic transistors. She holds a Ph.D. from the Silesian University of Technology, in Gliwice, Poland.

Congratulations, Professor Siwy, for your recognition and contributions to inclusive excellence!

About the 2021 Inaugural Carol Connor Equity Advisor Impact Award

The Carol Connor Equity Advisor Impact Award memorializes former equity advisor and Chancellor's Professor of Education Carol McDonald Connor.  Professor Connor joined the UCI School of Education in 2016 and used her deep expertise in programming, researching and teaching about language and literacy development to improve the lives of those underserved. She developed a university-wide Center for Creating Opportunities through Education to focus on economic mobility for disadvantaged youth.  Her accolades for scholarship included being receiving the Richard C. Snow Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association, as well as being named a fellow of the American Educational Research Association and the American Psychological Association.

Professor Connor served as equity advisor in the School of Education from 2017 until 2020.  During that time, she was known for her leadership to engage all members in conversations about practices to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, collaborating to develop a school-wide equity climate council and identifying opportunities for systematic reviews of evidence and promotion of evidence-based practices to support students and scholars on their pathways to the professoriate.

In this spirit, the Office of Inclusive Excellence is proud to invite nominations from all UCI partners to honor current or past service for mentoring and supporting faculty by equity advisors.  The equity advisor model was originally implemented through support from the National Science Foundation, and later, institutionalized as a foundational approach faculty-peer guidance about best practices for diverse faculty recruitment and retention. UCI celebrates 20 years of having an equity advisor model and strong advocates as equity advisors to promote UCI accountability for diversity progress and positive climate.

UCI students, staff, and faculty are invited annually to review the list of former and current equity advisors with active UCI directory listings and then submit a nomination form during the Call for Nominations to describe the specific ways that a past or current equity advisor has promoted diversity efforts. Please email the Office of Inclusive Excellence with any questions about this process at inclusion@uci.edu.