Kalamazoo College announced today that one faculty member and one staff member have earned two of the highest awards the College bestows on its employees.

Jeff Bartz, K’s Kurt D. Kaufman professor of chemistry, will receive the 2020 Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship for Excellence in Teaching, and Bruce Stack, an electrician in facilities management, will receive the inaugural W. Haydn Ambrose Prize for Extraordinary Service.

Bartz joined the K Chemistry Department as an assistant professor in 1997 and became a full professor in 2011. He teaches courses in physical and general chemistry, chemical composition and structure, and chemical reactivity. He also works with K students in the research laboratory in the area of chemical dynamics.

Bartz earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in mathematics from Southwest Minnesota State University in 1985. He earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992.

The Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship (for outstanding classroom teaching) and Fellowship (for outstanding achievement in creative work, research or publication) at Kalamazoo College were established in 1979, and Bartz is the 31st recipient of the lectureship. The awards were created to honor Florence J. Lucasse, a 1910 alumna, in recognition of her long and distinguished career and in response to the major unrestricted endowment gift given to the College in her will.

The W. Haydn Ambrose Prize was established to recognize a K staff member for outstanding service to the Kalamazoo College community.

The award is named after W. Haydn Ambrose, who served K for more than 20 years in a variety of roles, including assistant to the president for church relations, dean of admission and financial aid, and vice president for development. Ambrose was thoughtful in the projects that he took on, committed to the jobs that he agreed to do, and he treated people with respect.

In addition to a financial award, Stack has earned:

• A crystal award to commemorate the achievement
• An engraved brick in a section at the top of the stairs of the athletic fields complex
• An invitation to sit on the award’s selection committee for two years

Stack has worked at the College for more than 28 years. His colleagues note that his extensive experience, troubleshooting abilities, and proven analytical skills have made him invaluable in addressing physical plant needs in emergency and day-to-day maintenance.

As the academic year begins, two Kalamazoo College faculty members are celebrating accomplishments outside the classroom: Assistant Professor of English Oliver Baez Bendorf released a new collection of poetry titled Advantages of Being Evergreen, and Documentary Film Instructor Danny Kim was nominated for Best Michigan Short Film for A Day in the Life of Kik Pool at the Royal Starr Film Festival in Royal Oak.

Baez Bendorf’s book, published by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center, was launched with a poetry reading at Bookbug in Kalamazoo.

“I started this collection right after the 2016 election and it felt necessary to build a world in poems where all of my self and communities and dreams could be present,” Baez Bendorf said. “It’s such a privilege and pleasure to have the book published through Cleveland State University Poetry Center. I often tell my students to write the poems they need to read, and to trust that in doing so, there will be readers who need them also. I wrote this book because I needed to read it and it feels great to be hearing feedback from others that these poems are resonating with them.”

Advantages of Being Evergreen was the winner of Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s 2018 Open Book Poetry Competition. Baez Bendorf was previously published through a poetry collection titled The Spectral Wilderness. A chapbook, titled The Gospel According to X, is in the works. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, and elsewhere.

Kim’s film reflects how a public pool often provides a place for the community to gather, exercise, learn an important skill and simply have fun. As the film progresses, the pool evolves into more, taking on a life of its own as it shifts and changes with the people who use it.

Kim has been involved with Masters swimming, which involves a special class of competition for swimmers at least 18 years of age, offering him a chance to work on something personal through the film.

“From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to tell the story from the perspective of the pool,” Kim said. “The challenge was how to best illustrate the character of the pool for each of the groups who use it. Before dawn, when the Kalamazoo Masters practice, the pool is quiet and contemplative. When the age-group swimmers hit the water, the pool reflects their energy and youth. Swimming-lesson time is childlike and simple, while lap swim is ephemeral and other-worldly. So from the outset, each section was shot and edited in a way that would best convey these characteristics.”

Kim credited two of his former students for their assistance in making the film special to him.

“Ximena Davis ’19 filmed and assisted with production. One of my favorite shots in the film is hers,” Kim said. “Savannah Kinchen ’18 gave me some valuable notes in post-production. One of her comments in particular led me to change the opening of the film.”

Kim’s previous work includes the feature-length documentary The Stories They Tell, which was selected for the inaugural Royal Starr Film festival in 2016 and was screened at film festivals across the Midwest.

Four Kalamazoo College professors from the business and economics, psychology and biology departments have been awarded tenure.

The milestone recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarship and service to Kalamazoo College, and signifies the College’s confidence in the contributions these professors will make throughout their careers.

The following faculty members were approved by the Board of Trustees for tenure and promotion to associate professor:

Menelik Geremew, Stephen B. Monroe Assistant Professor of Money and Banking

Geremew earned a Ph.D. in economics from Texas Tech University in 2013. His professional experiences have included visiting scholar and research consultant appointments at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He teaches courses in intermediate macroeconomics, international finance, money and banking, and principles of economics.

Brittany Liu, assistant professor of psychology

Liu earned a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Irvine in 2013. Her research and classes at K include subjects such as social psychology, political and moral psychology, research methodology, and psychology and law.

Amanda Wollenberg, Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Assistant Professor of Biology

Wollenberg earned a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011. She was a post-doctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2011-2013. At K, she teaches immunology and human health, cell and molecular biology and symbiosis. She is currently the recipient of a 2018-2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. Previous awards include graduate fellowships and research exchange visits from the NSF and the NIH (National Institute of Health).

Michael Wollenberg, assistant professor of biology

Wollenberg earned a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in 2011. At K, he teaches courses in evolution and genetics, symbiosis, computer use for biologists and microbiology. Currently, he is the recipient of a 2018-2022 National Science Foundation grant. His previous grants have included NIH and NSF training fellowships.