A GIFT FROM A CELEBRATED EDUCATOR AND SCHOLAR COLSA is honored to announce that Charles (Chuck) and Wilise Walker recently established The COLSA Community of Teaching and Research Scholars Award. The award is intended to promote and preserve the unique style of teaching that can change the course of a student’s life — the kind of teaching for which Chuck Walker, professor emeritus of molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences, is known. The annual award will be given to a tenured or tenuretrack COLSA assistant, associate or full professor who demonstrates excellence in molecular and cellular life sciences, marine biology and/or biomedical sciences and a commitment to peer mentoring and community building through their teaching. The award includes stipends for outstanding students who work with the selected recipient. The first award will be announced in May 2021 during COLSA’s college awards ceremony. Walker taught and conducted research at UNH for 41 years before retiring in 2016. To many of his students, he was not just a professor; he was also a mentor, a role
Wilise and Chuck Walker in the 1970s
model and a friend. With this award, COLSA will continue to promote the level of excellence he brought to his job every single day. If you wish to contribute to this award in Chuck Walker’s honor, you may do so by making a gift online at unh.edu/give/walker or by contacting Riane Metcalfe, COLSA’s director of development, at riane.metcalfe@unh.edu.
COLSA FOOD DRIVE CHALLENGE DELIVERS In response to increased food insecurity in New Hampshire due to COVID-19, COLSA organized its first ever interdepartmental food drive challenge during the first three weeks of November. COLSA students, faculty and staff donated the equivalent of 12,685.25 meals. That translated into 3,167 pounds of food, including squash from the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, which was donated to the Waysmeet Center and the St. Thomas More Catholic Church food pantries, as well as $5,155 raised for the New Hampshire Food Bank. “As a college that seeks to advance the sustainability of communities and ecosystems, we study and inform healthy production of food and the nutritional needs of those across New Hampshire,” says Dean
5
Anthony S. Davis. “It is important to us in COLSA that we find a way to support those in the state who are unsure of where their next meal comes from. I’m truly inspired by the giving nature of our college community and look forward to growing the impact next year!” The department of natural resources and the environment, which collected food and money donations that were the equivalent of 4,931 meals, triumphed over the other college departments to win the competition and earn the coveted golden gourd.
