Dean Kelly Fiala announced the winners of the 2025 Dean’s Awards for Excellence during the college’s end-of-year celebration held April 29 at the Huskie Den in Holmes Student Center.
Blythe Kitner, Yujun Liu, Beth Moxley, and the Allied Health and Communicative Disorders team of Danica Billingsly, Anna Cannone, Deidre Dobbels and Sarah Greenhagen were recognized for their significant contributions and named as this year’s award winners.
“It is with great pride that we recognize this year’s recipients of the Dean’s Awards for Excellence,” Fiala said. “Their outstanding contributions in service, teaching, research and interprofessional education exemplify the highest standards of our college and advance our mission.”
Each winner was honored during the Scholarship, Research and Grants (SRG) Ahead celebration and received an award to commemorate the accomplishment.
Blythe Kitner
The Fisher Award for Excellence in Service is given each year to a regular full-time, tenured or tenure-tracked faculty member or regular full-time supportive professional staff member. The service may involve on-campus activities but also must include off-campus professional activities at the state, national or international level that contribute to the stature and growth of the profession.
Cletus Fisher, former chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders, funded the award.
The 2025 winner is Blythe Kitner, clinical associate professor in the School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders.
For more than a decade, Kitner has provided strong clinical community, university, state and national service through committee work, membership in various organizations, leadership roles and speaking engagements. The core of her philosophy for service has been steadfast, with a goal to serve those in need, improve outcomes and provide equity.
Yujun Liu
The Lankford Award for Excellence in Teaching is given each year to a full-time, tenured or tenure-tracked faculty member who has an excellent overall teaching effectiveness score. It is named for James Lankford, former dean of the college, who initiated the award
This year’s winner is Yujun Liu, assistant professor in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Liu’s teaching philosophy is built around engaging students in the process of learning by involving them in various learning activities. She uses multiple instructional strategies to involve students in the learning process by creating an interactive and dynamic learning experience, using real life examples and relating them to class materials and encouraging group work and information sharing.
Beth Moxley
The Sullivan Award for Excellence in Research is given to a regular full-time faculty tenured/tenure-track or clinical and regular full-time supportive professional staff who have at least three years of experience at NIU. Grantsmanship and collaborative efforts with students are also considered for this award that was endowed by Peggy Sullivan, former dean of the college.
The Sullivan Award winner is Beth Moxley, associate professor in the School of Nursing.
Moxley’s research is “highly interdisciplinary” and involves collaborations with colleagues from several institutions and disciplines including nursing, geography, bioengineering, psychology, mathematics, allied health and communicative disorders, and podiatry.
Danica Billingsly, Anna Cannone, Deidre Dobbels, Sarah Greenhagen
The Award for Exceptional Work in Interprofessional Education (IPE) recognizes the creation and facilitation of both curricular and co-curricular experiences.
Created in 2024, this award honors faculty, staff and/or students who work collaboratively to provide interprofessional education opportunities with positive implications for patient outcomes.
The 2025 award winners are the Allied Health and Communicative Disorders (AHCD) team: Danica Billingsly, Anna Cannone, Deidre Dobbels and Sarah Greenhagen. 
In modern medicine and education, professionals must work collaboratively with teammates across a variety of disciplines. The AHCD team, consisting of clinical education and program coordinators across the AHCD disciplines, developed a foundational education series introducing first-year students to these competencies, beginning during summer orientation and progressing through fall workshops in preparation for a spring college-wide IPE event.
Learn more about the CHHS Dean’s Awards for Excellence.
