Academic Staff: Judith Craig Distinguished Service Award

The Judith Craig Distinguished Service Award honors an L&S academic staff member with 15 or more years of outstanding service, and is named in honor of former L&S Associate Dean Judith Craig.

2023 Recipient

Christopher Lee
Assistant Dean and Director
L&S Student Academic Affairs

When Christopher Lee, the Assistant Dean and Director of L&S Student Academic Affairs, retires this June, his absence will be felt in many realms — by students and colleagues alike. With a reputation for compassion and an encyclopedic knowledge of academic policy, many lives and careers have been influenced by Lee during his 32 years at UW.

“Christopher was one of the first people I met when I began my UW–Madison tenure in 2013, and, from that very first meeting, he was someone whose counsel and perspective I have relied upon and trusted,” said Beth Warner, the Associate Registrar at L&S. “He has challenged me and virtually anyone who he has worked with to discover and develop strengths that align with those he demonstrates: patience, negotiation, honest communication and the ability to address situations not through the lens of immediacy but through the larger lens of long-term university-wide impact.”

During his time at UW, Lee has helped thousands of students during their most critical times of need. He has continued to carry the most student appointments in the office and had noteworthy interactions with students on 933 occasions in 2022 alone. Many of the students he interacts with, however, are often affected by mental health and life circumstances that require an exception to academic policy. Lee is known for his empathy and intentional solutions in these situations.

“His support of students as they navigate the most difficult changes of college and life — death of a parent, mental health challenges, homelessness, academic misconduct –— can be life changing,” said Wren Singer, the Associate Vice Provost of the Office of Undergraduate Advising. “I always refer a student (or parent) in a difficult situation to Christopher. I know they will be listened to, supported, and challenged, as needed to address the situation.”

Along with his work with students, Lee has also served on L&S and university-wide committees that oversaw curriculum development, steered policymaking and, more recently, responded to a pandemic in unimaginable ways. When the university changed academic policy by switching to a new transcript system, Lee was instrumental in ensuring that academic policies, such as end-of- semester actions and general education requirements, would continue to be transparent to students, advisors, and deans. This, along with other leadership initiatives, demonstrates the multifaceted capabilities of Lee, which have continued to improve UW during his time here.

“To do his job requires an ability to work at the nexus of policy and practice, to shift from big-picture to more local analysis, and to see the connections between these realms,” said Susan Beth Koenig, an Assistant Dean of L&S. “Christopher is a valued resource — for students, faculty, advisors, parents and staff across campus — because of this deep skill.”

All Recipients

2022-2023: Christopher Lee, Assistant Dean and Director, L&S Student Academic Affairs

2021-22: Martha Vestling, Director of the Mass Spectrometry Facility, Department of Chemistry

2020-21: Mark Wetter, Senior Academic Curator, Wisconsin State Herbarium

2019-20: Liane Kosaki, Asst. Dean and Assoc Lecturer, Student Academic Affairs

2018-19: Charlie Fry, Distinguished Scientist, Department of Chemistry

2017-18: Nancy Westphal-Johnson, Senior Associate Dean for Administration and Undergraduate Education, College of Letters & Science Administration, and Jean Heitz, Distinguished Faculty Associate, Department of Integrative Biology

2016-17: Anthony (Tony) Jacob, Department of Chemistry

2015-16: Caton Roberts, Faculty Associate, Department of Psychology

2014-15: Michael Cullinane, Associate Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies Program.

2013-14: Sandra Arfa, Faculty Associate, Department of English

2012-13: Matt Sanders, Assistant Academic Program Director, Department of Chemistry

2011-12: Brad Hughes, Director, The Writing Center

2010-11: Bruno Browning, Director, Learning Support Services

2009-10: Richard Loveless, Distinguished Scientist, Department of Physics

2008-09: Laurey Martin-Berg, Distinguished Lecturer, Department of French and Italian

2007-08: Maggie Sullivan, Academic Staff, L&S Administration

2006-07: Ada Deer, Academic Staff, American Indian Studies Program; Read Gilgen, Academic Staff, Learning Support Services

2005-06: Catherine H. Middlecamp, Academic Staff, Department of Chemistry

2004-05: Jeffrey F. Petersen, Academic Staff, Center for Demography and Ecology, Department of Sociology

2003-2004: Mel Morgenbesser, School of Social Work

2002-2003: Taissa Hauser, Department of Sociology

2001-2002*: Judy Craig, L&S Administration

*In 2001-2001, the first year the awards were given, the top-level one was simply called the Distinguished Service Award. When he conferred it on Judy Craig, who was retiring that year, Dean Phillip Certain announced that future iterations of the award would bear her name.