Deb Nolan
Professor of Statistics
Professor Deborah Nolan joined UC Berkeley faculty in 1986 and is currently a professor in the Department of Statistics. Professor Nolan’s career exemplifies dedicated and outstanding service to the university, profession, and community, with particular emphasis on undergraduate education and increasing access to higher education for underrepresented populations.
Professor Nolan has served in myriad roles, on both faculty committees and in administrative positions, both on campus and system-wide:
- Academic Senate Committee on Teaching member (1999-2002) and Chair (2002-2003)
- Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate Divisional Council member (1999-2000)
- Campus Academic Senate Committee on Research member (2006-2008)
- UC system-wide Affirmative Action and Diversity Committee (2000–2001, Vice Chair 2001–2002, Chair 2002–2003)
- Chancellor’s Coordinating Committee on the Status of Women (1999–2002)
- Chancellor’s Task Force on Diversity (1999–2000)
- UC Berkeley Committee on the Status of Women and Ethnic Minorities (1997–1999, Chair 1999–2001)
- L&S Executive Committee (1997–1998), Chair (1998–2000)
- Chair of the Department of Statistics (2003–2006, 2017–2019)
- Associate Dean (2006–2008) and Acting Dean (2009) of the L&S Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Professor Nolan’s service during the past decade has focused on data science. She was instrumental to the development of the Data Science Major and Minor, including the core upper-division course Data 100 (Principles and Techniques of Data Science) taken by over one thousand students each semester. Despite her intention to retire in July 2020, she has served as Associate Dean or Special Advisor to the Dean in CDSS continuously since January 2020, playing a critical role in the CDSS College pre-proposal and proposal and in the transfer of the Computer Science, Data Science, and Statistics majors from L&S to CDSS. It is not clear CDSS could have become a college or the Data Science Major and its related programs been this successful without Professor Nolan’s extraordinary dedication, vision, and leadership.
As Dean Chayes of the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS) further attests, “It is hard to imagine a more deserving colleague for the FSA than Deb Nolan and we hope the Academic Senate will recognize her career-long exceptional service contributions to our campus and university as she is preparing to step down as CDSS Associate Dean for Students in June 2024…..We [are] awed at Deb Nolan’s dedicated andimpactful service to our campus and university and are grateful for all she has done for ourfaculty and students.”
Barbara Spackman
Professor Emerita of Italian Studies and Comparative Literature
Professor Barbara Spackman is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Italian Studies and Comparative Literature and former Giovanni and Ruth Elizabeth Cecchetti Chair of Italian Literature. Her service has primarily been devoted to faculty rights and welfare of the University, both at the Senate Committee level and at the Departmental level. Barbara has served the campus with distinction in many important roles, most notably as the following:
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Chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate (2018-2019)
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Vice Chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate (2017-2018)
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Campus Budget and Interdepartmental Relations (BIR) committee (2013-2015; AY 2013-14, 2014-15 as Chair)
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Campus Academic Senate Committee on Academic Planning and Resource Allocation (CAPRA) (2011-2012)
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Campus Academic Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure (PT) (2001-2010)
During her tenure on the Academic Senate, she made several significant contributions, among which were helping the campus navigate the air quality issues that followed the Paradise Fire in the Fall of 2018, championing a new ombudsperson for faculty, and leading the Senate's development of recommendations for online micro-credentials.
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education O’Reilly, who served on the Divisional Council with Spackman (including a year as chair) described how Spackman “instilled in me the importance of shared governance and the important role that the Senate Chair must play in ensuring that the senate plays its role in partnering with the administration.”
The BIR, CAPRA, and P&T committees that Professor Spackman has served on are among the most important academic Senate committees. BIR plays a critical role in the allocation of resources on campus, as does CAPRA, which is also concerned with physical planning for the campus and with long term budget allocation issues. PT plays a major role in negotiating the relationship between the faculty and the administration. Professor Spackman’s dedication to campus health evidenced by her long-running contributions to these major committees is commendable.
In addition to the above, Spackman served on
- The Regent’s search committee for the Chancellor in 2016-2017.
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UC Berkeley Representative, Systemwide Academic Advisory Committee for the Search for the UC President (2019-2020)
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Co-Chair, Chancellor’s Senate/Administration Committee on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment (2016)
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UC Berkeley representative, Systemwide Joint Committee on Sexual Harassment (2015)
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UC Berkeley representative, Systemwide University Committee on Academic Personnel (UCAP) (2015-16)
- Chair, Department of Italian Studies (2004-2010; 2015- 2018)
Taken together, the above constitutes a highly significant degree of service to the University, much of which has been at the Senate level. Spackman is truly a hugely passionate fan of Berkeley and its educational mission, and we feel she would make an outstanding recipient of the 2024 Berkeley Faculty Service Award.