WWU Alumni Outstanding Faculty Legacy Award*
Each year, The Foundation for WWU & Alumni requests nominations from WWU alumni for the current or retired Western faculty member who has made an enduring impact on their lives as a student and professional.
*This award was previously called the "Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award."
Selection Criteria
- Candidates may be current or retired WWU faculty members.
- Visiting faculty are not eligible.
Award/Recognition
Award Administration
Nomination Process
If you are a WWU alumni, please look for the email or follow the link above in the award description to nominate a current or retired WWU faculty member. Nominations for the 2025 award are now CLOSED. Thank you to all our alumni that nominated a deserving faculty member!
Additional Information
2025
Spencer Anthony-Cahill - Chemistry
Spencer Anthony-Cahill is a Seattle native, a graduate of Issaquah High School, Whitman College (BA, Chemistry), University of California, Berkeley (PhD, Bio-Organic Chemistry) and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the protein design group at DuPont Central Research in Wilmington, Delaware.
After five years as a research scientist in the biotech industry in Boulder, Spencer accepted a faculty position at Western in 1997. He has mentored 74 undergraduates and 10 master's candidates in protein design research at WWU, and his lab alumni have gone on to success in graduate programs, healthcare professions and careers in the biotechnology industry. His proudest moments as a classroom instructor and/or research mentor come from seeing his students develop as independent critical thinkers.
Spencer was the 2012 recipient of the Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching award and has served as the Faculty Senate president (2014-2015) and as department chair in Chemistry (2016-2020). Outside of Western, he is an enthusiastic mountain biker, holds the rank of yondan in Aikido, and plays the electric bass (poorly) in a local blues-rock cover band. He is humbled by this recognition from alumni, and he looks forward to hearing news from former students in the future.
Past Awardees
1 awardee(s) for this year
2024 Awardees
Nicole Hoekstra - Engineering & Design
Nicole Hoekstra is a professor in the Polymer Materials Engineering Program and will be retiring this June after 26 years in the Engineering and Design Department. She started her career at WWU after finishing graduate school and working in industry as a process and design engineer. Since her arrival she has served many roles, and mentoring undergraduate students has been the most rewarding.
Even though Nicole received this award, there is a whole team in the Engineering and Design Department that contributes to the student experience, from their first term to graduation and beyond. Nicole’s favorite mentoring activities include teaching capstone senior project classes, advising industry-sponsored research projects that align with students’ career goals, organizing lab tours that showcase research and class projects, coordinating industry tours, hosting guest lectures by alums, and assisting graduates who are interviewing and negotiating offers.