Two Honored at Faculty Senate Kickoff
The Faculty Senate held its annual Kickoff Dinner on Tuesday, Sept. 16.
During the dinner, David Kaplan, Ph.D., and Anne K. Sebert Kuhlmann, Ph.D., were honored at the Faculty Senate Kickoff Dinner on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. Kaplan, a professor in the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business, received the John A. Slosar Shared Governance Award. Sebert Kuhlmann, a professor in the College for Public Health and Social Justice, received the Dr. Norman A. White Award for Engaged Scholarship and Service.
John A. Slosar Shared Governance Award
The John A. Slosar Shared Governance Award honors the “leadership and stalwart commitment to the principles and practice of shared governance” of John Slosar, a member of the Saint Louis University faculty from 1971-2004, and later, Co-director of the Doerr Center for Social Justice in the School of Social Work. John chaired the Faculty Senate Planning Committee, served as the Senate’s first president, and over the years, as a Senator and member of several Senate Committees.
Slosar played important roles in governance in the School of Social Work, the University, and the AAUP—locally, regionally, and nationally.
Kaplan was chosen as the2025 winner. Letters nominating him for Slosar Award stated that he “has exemplified a commitment to and actions promoting faculty governance in abundance far beyond what might be expected of any individual faculty member. ... We see his commitment to faculty governance extending” over the last 20 years at Saint Louis University.
Multiple letters testified to Kaplan's effectiveness in promoting diversity and belonging in faculty governance and University decision-making. He has “acted frequently and actively as an advocate for the inclusion and fair treatment of individuals on campus regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability,” and has been a strong voice for diversity, equity, and inclusion in decision-making bodies at the University level and in their own school.
Kapaln was cited as someone who is known for building consensus in the face of conflict. Letters of nomination wrote that he “was a pillar of strength for many in the Chaifetz School during administrative turnover and times of tense strife among colleagues and within departments. Moreover, he displayed the same traits and tremendous conflict-resolution skills ... during turmoil and leadership challenges at the University, maintaining an ethical, practical, strategically prudent perspective that has been well-aligned with SLU’s mission stance of keeping faculty colleagues and administrators focused on the purpose and essence of our work, albeit in the face of hardship.”
This year’s Slosar winner has exercised leadership in shared governance in many roles. Kaplan is Chair of their Chaifetz School of Business Diversity Committee, organizer of implicit bias training, member of the President’s Diversity Council and other university-level committees, Department Chair, Faculty Senator, member of multiple Senate Committees, and Chair of Chaifetz School’s faculty Assembly.
Dr. Norman White Award for Engaged Scholarship and Service
Dr. White embodied Saint Louis University’s commitment to collaborative academic-community partnerships that seek to “alleviate ignorance, poverty, injustice and hunger; extend compassionate care to the ill and needy; and maintain and improve the quality of life for all persons1,” through engagement, dialogue, reflection and action. Norm White came to SLU in 2004 as an Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
A scholar-activist, White dedicated himself to helping vulnerable children and youth in the St. Louis region flourish in the face of poverty, violence and oppression. He was a principal architect of SLU’s Overground Railroad to Literacy Project and Shut it Down: Closing the School to Prison Pipeline, projects whose aims are to promote racial equity, to promote access to high-quality education as a fundamental public good, and to dismantle systemic racism.
The 2025 Dr. Norman White Award for Engaged Scholarship, Sebert Kuhlmann was selected for her extensive body of work on social justice issues and the clear impact she has had on the communities shes serves.
Sebert Kuhlmann conducts research in women’s and children’s health in general and menstrual health and hygiene in specific. That this research has occurred both in the United States and in Africa attests to the breadth and impact of Sebert Kuhlmann’s scholarly activities, nominators shared. Additionally, Kuhlmann has an exhaustive list of service engagements in both the United States and Africa.
Her research and service in both locations have focused on promoting healthy individuals, families, schools, organizations, and communities. This is demonstrated by her work on projects like VOICES (Voices in Open, Inclusive Communities & Effective Spaces) and publications in journals like the Journal of Healthcare for the Poor & Underserved and the Journal of School Health.
Another nominator shared that Sebert Kuhlmann "has consistently shown herself to be a kind, compassionate, and dedicated colleague. Her ability to engage and serve communities locally and throughout Africa and South America is both impressive and commendable. Her work addressing injustice, inequity, and poverty through advocacy and policy change further demonstrates her commitment to improving the quality of life for all through engagement, dialogue, reflection, and action." The nominator said Sebert Kuhlmann exemplifies both the mission of the College for Public Health and Social Justice and of Saint Louis University.
“The work that Dr. Sebert Kuhlmann is leading in increasing access to period products for Missouri women, in collaboration with community partners, directly promotes healthier individuals, particularly among school-aged women and women living in poverty and is an outstanding example of social justice work that begins with community-academic partnerships and ends with policy change," said Leslie McClure, Ph.D., Dean of the College for Public Health and Social Justice.
In addition to the work that Sebert Kuhlmann is doing in the US around period poverty, her team has also engaged internationally in work that addresses women’s health. In collaboration with international partners, she and her team have worked with adolescents in Malawi to examine sexual and reproductive health; her research has led her to Honduras, where she examined maternal health and intimate partner violence; she has examined prenatal and antenatal care among indigenous women in Ecuador; and her team has examined menstrual hygiene in Ethiopia.
Throughout all her work is a theme of improving the health of those marginalized because of their ethnicity, their gender, or their socioeconomic position, in collaboration with local community organizations.