Caroline D. Eckhardt, professor of comparative literature and English and head of the Department of Comparative Literature in the College of the Liberal Arts, is the recipient of the 2010 Howard B. Palmer Faculty Mentoring Award.
The award honors and recognizes outstanding achievement by a faculty member with at least five years of service who effectively guides junior faculty. Howard Palmer was the senior associate dean of The Graduate School from 1984 to 1991.
Eckhardt, who joined the college faculty in 1971, is honored for her longtime mentoring of junior faculty. "That many of those she has mentored have gone on themselves to become mentors for new generations of scholars, nationally and internationally, points us to the generational range and scope of her influence," one nominator said.
In every aspect of Eckhardt's role as department head, her mentoring is obvious, according to one nominator; she offers guidance about publications, time management and teaching improvement, "reinforcing those on the right track and firmly setting standards and expectations for those who are not." Eckhardt's advice has often helped colleagues to place their journal articles and book manuscripts and to write successful grant proposals.
She continues her mentoring as faculty progress in their careers, assisting associate professors in refining their ideas for their second major project while visualizing and implementing their new roles. One nominator said, "I would not be half the administrator I am today without Carey, and cannot imagine a future in which I do not continue to rely on her judgment and advice, or in which she would not have time to provide it."
In going "above and beyond," one nominator said, "Carey Eckhardt is the model of how we want our senior faculty at Penn State to relate to the community of scholars, both locally and globally."