Each year, the Dean of the College of Letters & Science offers four awards recognizing outstanding performance, service, and contributions by staff members and professors who serve as academic advisers to undergraduate and graduate students.
Persons honored with an L&S Academic Advising award are exceptional advisors. Recipients have demonstrated exemplary performance both in terms of their positive impact on students and through distinctive contributions to their department, unit, and/or the College of Letters & Science.
We salute and offer congratulations to the winners of the 2025-26 awards:
Early Career Advising Excellence Award
Stacy Harnett, Academic Program Manager, Information School
Stacy Harnett has played a central role in shaping student success and community at UW–Madison through her collaborative leadership and commitment to advising as both a practice and a purpose. A key figure in launching the Information School’s undergraduate degree, Harnett helped design not only the program’s advising infrastructure but also the student experience itself, ensuring that the School’s first cohort felt welcomed, supported and connected from the start. Her work brought together partners across campus to build a program grounded in access and opportunity.
Harnett’s cross-campus leadership is matched by her deep investment in students as individuals. She is known for creating spaces where students feel seen and supported, particularly during moments of transition and uncertainty. As Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Information School Nikki Wiessinger writes, “What distinguishes her most, however, is the trust she builds with students and colleagues alike. She brings steadiness, integrity and empathy to her work, and she consistently elevates the practice of advising as both a profession and a calling.”
Students echo this sentiment, noting that Harnett’s guidance helped them navigate new academic pathways while building confidence and a sense of belonging. Former advisee and current graduate student Madeline Meyer writes that she traces “many of the skills, confidence and entrepreneurial spirit that brought me here back to Stacy’s advising and
mentorship.”
Through her leadership, Harnett has not only helped launch a new academic program but also fostered a strong, enduring community, one that reflects her belief in advising as a foundation for student success.
Mid-career Advising Excellence Award
Christina Matta, Career Development Manager, Department of History
For Sarah Thal, the David Kuenzi and Mary Wyman Professor of History, the most effective remedy for students overwhelmed by post-graduation anxiety is a short walk down the hall. When students find themselves overcome by stress or despairing about their job prospects, Thal’s proven intervention is a personal introduction to Christina Matta, the department's Career Development Manager.
“Without fail, I hear from the student later about how they left her office with new hope, a list of contacts and next steps, and the confidence that she would be there to help them along the way,” Thal says.
Since joining the Department of History in 2016, Matta has made several astounding accomplishments. She pioneered funded internship programs and raised departmental wages for interns by 70%, enabling students to pursue positions in their intended field. She originated and often teaches History at Work — a course dedicated towards bridging the feared gap between academic study and professional careers — which Matta personally equips with a broad lineup of guest speakers, ensuring every student can resonate with at least some of the roster. She coordinates a formal mentoring program, seeks out local and national student opportunities, and even sends out a weekly newsletter that several reports indicate as “one of the most valuable resources found at UW” — and yet, amidst an astoundingly transformative track record, it is her one-on-one connection with students that shines the brightest.
“Though it may sound hyperbolic, I credit Christina Matta for the success I had during my undergraduate career and since. It would be impossible to tell you all of the positive impacts she’s had on my life and the other history majors here at UW–Madison,” says Rae Kalscheuer (‘24), in an effort to share just a sliver of Matta’s record of going above and beyond for students, with the disclaimer that it will be “horribly incomplete.” “I’ve known her for years as an advisee and as a colleague, when I worked as a student employee in the history department. I can’t begin to estimate the hours I spent reading her advising emails or going over every plan and anxiety with her in that little office at the end of the hall in 3211 Humanities.”
Graduate Student Advising Excellence Award
Charlotte Frascona, Graduate Program Manager, Department of Sociology
The term “love” is not often used as an operating principle within universities, but Charlotte Frascona — Graduate Program Manager for the Joint Program in Sociology and Community & Environmental Sociology — is an exception.
“There is no better or more accurate way to describe the energy and attitude that she brings to every decision and action,” says Department of Sociology colleagues Eric Grodsky and Tina Hunter. “Charlotte’s dedication to our graduate students is unparalleled — she gives time, attention and emotional support to every single student, regardless of their needs, demands or challenges. From helping students in crisis find resources, to organizing meal trains for those in times of need and celebrating every win with the same level of care she gives her own family, Charlotte exudes proactive love and kindness to all.”
The “same level of care she gives her own family” is no hyperbole. Jee Jee Kim — who was a first-generation college graduate, seeing Wisconsin for the first time back in 2013 — vividly remembers meeting Frascona for the first time, “her friendly voice ringing out from the silhouette that welcomed [him], standing in the warm yellow glow of her home.” She had invited any prospective student in need of hosting to stay with her family.
“From her generous provisions the evening before to my first semester at UW–Madison a few months later, I gathered a few important truths about Charlotte: She is a professional who consistently uplifts graduate students,” says Kim. “With her office door so frequently open and inviting to all, I often interrupted her busy day with drop-in office hour meetings, emails and phone call question and answer sessions. It was years before I realized that I had taken over an hour of her time; she never rushed a meeting with me, always listening, and treated me like a future colleague.”
Generations of students are now enjoying successful post-graduate lives because of Frascona and the ethos with which she operates. Grodsky and Hunter describe her as “one of those exceedingly rare and exceptional advisors about whom students rave for decades. Charlotte’s superpower is a rare and powerful combination of knowledge, courage and love.”
Distinguished Achievement Award
Morris Young, Charles Q. Anderson Professor of English
Professor Morris Young has spent nearly two decades shaping graduate and undergraduate education at UW–Madison through mentorship defined by care, rigor and lasting impact. A scholar of composition and rhetoric and longtime director of the English 100 program, Young has mentored hundreds of graduate student instructors, advised dozens of doctoral students to completion, and served on more than 50 dissertation committees. Through his leadership of English 100 — the primary gateway for students fulfilling the Communication A requirement — he has also influenced the learning experience of thousands of undergraduates each year, ensuring they receive strong, supportive instruction in writing at a critical moment in their academic careers.
Colleagues and former students consistently point to Young’s ability to combine high expectations with deep humanity. Former dissertator and current Associate Director of the English Department Writing Program at the University of Michigan Dr. Annika Konrad writes that Young “cares deeply about graduate students as developing scholars, as future colleagues, and as human beings,” offering guidance that supports both academic and personal growth. His advising emphasizes access and transparency, ensuring that students have the tools and confidence to succeed.
Young’s mentorship is also grounded in a broader philosophy of collaboration and respect. He describes effective advising as work that “builds on a belief and practice of mutual respect, and creates spaces for scholarship and teaching…that matters.” Through this approach, he has not only guided individual students, but also helped cultivate a culture of inclusive, thoughtful mentorship that continues to shape graduate education at UW–Madison and beyond.