UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three individuals are the recipients of the 2022 Dr. William Henson Diversity Achievement Award from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, which recognizes distinctive and outstanding teaching, research, extension or creative work advancing diversity in the college.
This year’s recipients are Marjorie “Maisie” Macknight, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management; Allyson Muth, assistant research professor of private forests management and director of the James C. Finley Center for Private Forests; and Justine Lindemann, assistant professor of community development and resilience.
“I am thrilled to congratulate such deserving recipients,” said Patreese Ingram, assistant dean for multicultural affairs and chair of the college’s Diversity Coordinating Council, which sponsors the award. “Their efforts impact our college and beyond, and we applaud them for their commitment to fostering diversity.”
Marjorie “Maisie” Macknight
Macknight is a leading advocate for improving diversity within the college. She has served on diversity, equity and inclusion committees for the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management and for the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology since 2020.
She currently serves as the graduate assistant to the department’s graduate diversity, equity and inclusion committee and has served as its chair.
Macknight also was the recipient of the Harrar Fellowship, which grants advanced doctoral students the opportunity to gain teaching experience under a faculty mentor. She has chosen to develop a new diversity, equality and inclusion class for undergraduate students that focuses on the need for social justice to ensure the success of conservation efforts.
As an undergraduate at the University of Georgia, Macknight championed efforts to write an open letter to faculty in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, calling for more consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion in its curriculum.
Allyson Muth
Muth serves as the chair of the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee and has led its initial efforts to address diversity-related issues since its inception in 2017.
Due to her effort, the college’s faculty voted to form the diversity committee that same year to address and strive to implement diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in classes. From that point on, Muth has worked to advance the department’s curriculum and to create awareness through training and mentoring opportunities.
Her efforts to promote inclusion led to the start of the Women and their Woods program, in cooperation with the Delaware Highlands Conservancy. The program is one of the first of its kind in the country.
Additionally, Muth is active in the Women’s Forest Congress, a forum to develop strategies and solutions for forests looking through a female lens. She also co-developed and taught a course on equity and inclusion in the ecological profession during the spring 2020 semester.
Justine Lindemann
Lindemann has worked tirelessly to advance the conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion through her intellectual and educational leadership at Penn State.
She is the co-developer and co-leader of the Racial Action: Conversations in Extension initiative, a dialogue-based extension program and professional development opportunity for extension educators, affiliated faculty and administrators. The initiative is focused on the persistence of racism and designed to prepare participants to work in an increasingly diverse and multicultural society across urban and rural spaces.
Additionally, Lindemann played an instrumental role in developing the Anti-Racism Faculty Teaching Community, an initiative in which instructors discuss approaches and methods for effectively addressing diversity and multiculturalism in their teaching.
Lindemann established and provides leadership within Penn State Extension and the college for the Urban Resiliency Working Group and the quarterly Urban Resilience Report, aimed at highlighting and advancing extension work that reflects the values of diversity, equity, inclusion and democracy, with a particular focus on urban food systems.