Contact:
Dinah Winnick
Communications Manager
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
410-455-8117, @UMBCSocSci
dwinnick@umbc.edu

Leslie Morgan, professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), has been named the Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for academic year 2011-2012.

In endowing this professorship, Roger C. Lipitz and the Lipitz Family Foundation sought “to recognize and support innovative and distinguished teaching and research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.” The Lipitz Professorship has previously been held by Carlo DiClemente (psychology), John Sturgeon (visual arts), Thomas Field (modern languages, linguistics and intercultural communication) and James Grubb (history).

Dean John Jeffries of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences writes, “Professor Morgan has achieved an extraordinary record as a scholar, teacher, and citizen of the university since joining the UMBC faculty in 1979.” One of the nation’s foremost scholars of aging, Morgan is author, co-author or editor of six books, 33 peer-reviewed articles and 16 book chapters, and she has won substantial research support from the National Institute on Aging. She has served on editorial boards of the top journals in her field and has provided important leadership to the Gerontological Society of America.

As a result of her research achievements, Morgan has been named a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and charter fellow of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE). She has also received the W. Fred Cottrell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Aging.

Morgan’s extensive contributions to UMBC have included serving as co-director of the UMB/UMBC Ph.D. program in gerontology (which she helped create), chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, associate dean of Arts and Sciences and associate dean of the Erickson School. She is a talented teacher and mentor and received the Distinguished Faculty Mentor Award from the University of Maryland chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. The AGHE has also recently awarded her its Distinguished Teacher Honor for faculty “whose teaching stands out as exemplary, innovative, and of impact.”

UMBC congratulates Leslie Morgan on being named Lipitz Professor in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for 2011-2012. This honor recognizes her decades of exemplary scholarship, teaching and service to the university.