2022-2023 Mentorship Award Recipients
2022-2023 Award Recipients
Dr. Brian Kelley
Dr. Kelley has worked as a successful entrepreneur and business owner for over two decades. Dr. Kelley has worked in academia for over three decades as well as worked with a variety of not-for-profit organizations and medical centers to help create innovation and secure foundation, city, state, and federal funds to support biomedical (basic and applied), education (technology and pedagogy), prevention research (substance abuse, STD/HIV-AIDS, and mental illness), and workforce development (technology, healthcare, and rural). Dr. Kelley has been a Liberty University faculty member for five years serving with the School of Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Kelley currently has 28 active IRBs. These active research projects represent his mentorship of 60 student investigators (graduate and undergraduate) and faculty collaborators. Students do research with him through honors, Daniels, and thesis and dissertation work and his relationship with the drug court. He has mentored students through the entire research cycle including investigation, award-winning presentations, and publications. Their work includes substance abuse, loneliness, spiritual formation, sexual exploitation, social media use, resilience, burnout, burn victims, autism, mindfulness, anxiety, drug court, natural disasters, and more topics. The goal is to enhance/improve how research improves real-world issues and allows students to be the hands and feet of Christ.
Dr. Connie Huber
Dr. Huber’s engagement and personalized one-on-one mentorship with students has been a top priority during her two years at Liberty. She has prioritized motivating students to engage in projects that have a positive impact upon their community with a tireless effort in promoting research innovation and transforming theory into practice in public health. Dr. Huber has already mentored twenty students by engaging them in her ongoing research, curricula and product development, continuing the work she began during her time working on a government contract. This led to four of these students receiving employment in the past year. Her efforts include volunteering during the summer and weekly meetings during the academic year. Students sought out her counsel, due to her background and depth of research experience in women’s health, public policy, professional presentations, and government publications. As a result, ten students are currently involved in a global women’s health intervention project. Dr. Huber’s dedication to mentorship is shown in her commitment to numerous student presentations at the Liberty University research symposium and in professional settings. Her mentorship also included directly working with an undergraduate student in starting a 501c3 nonprofit organization an external grant, earning a $10,000 grant from Students for Life.
Dr. Benjamin Esswein
Dr. Esswein has been a faculty member for Liberty since 2014 serving with the College or Arts and Sciences. He is committed to research and scholarship. He regularly presents papers and chairs panels within the history organizations of his specialty (Society for Reformation Research; Sixteenth Century Society). Dr. Esswein’s publications (books, articles, and reviews) show him to be an engaged scholar of the Reformation, with a special focus on Eastern Europe. Dr. Esswein was a Fulbright scholar as a student, to Eastern Europe, and has successfully replicated this by mentoring 3 students to their own prestigious Fulbright Awards and 3 students for PARE grants. His students participate in Phi Alpha Theta conferences and prize competitions. Without exception, his students completed excellent papers and ultimately represented Liberty very well at these conferences. Additionally, he has mentored numerous thesis students during his nine years with Liberty. His dedication to students is exhibited through mentoring students one-on-one during the summer and organizing tutoring sessions in German for interested students in preparation for graduate school and national awards. Additionally, he has sponsored sixteen different Research Week presentations including a first-place graduate presentation this year.